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Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to the Iran War. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.

About 3000 B.C.E the non-Semitic Elamites, with capital at Susa in SW Iran begin a long conflict with Sumer in the S Fertile Crescent and Akkad in the N Fertile Crescent - the original Sunni-Shiite civil war? About the same time the city of Rhagae (Rhages) (Rages) (Rai) (called Europus by the Greeks) is founded by the Medes 5 mi. SE of modern-day Tehran in N Iran, becoming the capital of the Median Empire and going on to become one of the great cities of antiquity along with Nineveh and Ecbatana.

The Day of the Aryans? About 2000 B.C.E. after the invention of the chariot, the white-is-right Aryan Migration (Invasion) of Indo-Iranian Medes, Persians, Parthians, Bactrians, and Arachosians from S Russia through Afghanistan into the Iranian Plateau begins (ends -850), while more Aryan tribes invade N India, setting up a white supremacist religious civilization based on several kingdoms run by rajahs, and hierarchical social classes of priests, warriors, farmers, traders, and Dravidians (dark skinned non-Aryans).

About 1000 B.C.E. the savage tattooed horseback nomadic Persian-speaking Scythians (Ashguzai) (Sacae) (Pers. "Skudat" = archers) move into E Europe and the Caucasus (Ukraine) all the way to the N coast of the Black Sea, and according to Herodotus make ceremonial and recreational use of hemp (marijuana); they become known for making cloaks from victims' scalps and cups from their skulls - I want your intestines on a stick and to kill your dog?

On June 8, 632 illiterate polygamous Arab warlord and self-appointed final prophet of the god Allah Muhammad (570-632) died after spending 20 years conquering and converting the pagan tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, leaving no male heir, eventually causing a succession dispute that led to a permanent schism between Sunnis and Shiites, but immediately causing the Great Jihad to be launched to convert the world to his new religion of Islam, starting with religious cleansing of the Christians and Jews in the Arabian Peninsula and surprise military attacks on the Christian Byzantine Empire and Zoroastrian Persian Empire, with the goal of permanent takeover followed by conversion of the populace, a complete absorption of the land and people like the Borgs in Star Trek, it's the Religion of Peace after you surrender and accept their peace terms. The offensive caught them all by surprise, and was extremely successful, allowing the Arabs to conquer Persia and put a big dent in the Byzantine Empire, incl. conquering the Christian-Jewish Holy Land and Egypt, followed by N Africa, and Roman Catholic Spain starting in 711. The popes were initially totally ignorant of Muhammad and his strange militaristic religion that forced believers to prostrate themselves in a mosque-fort 5x a day, and thought of him as a Christian heretic, but after they absorbed the horrible Quran enough to realize that Allah considers them the heretics or infidels who don't deserve to have any political power but wants Muslims to rule the world, with all options on the table and Paradise promised to martyrs, they believed him to be the long-feared Antichrist, with Christian historians trying to twist his birth or death date to 666, as if that mattered. For the next thousand years the Great Jihad continued to pound on Christendom, killing or enslaving tens of millions until it was stopped in 1683 in Vienna, and the Muslim World put into de facto quarantine as a criminal enterprise until the mid-late 20th cent., by which time the Church was becoming irrelevant to the post-religion New World Order jet set, and ill-considered mass immigration from the backward Muslim World to the West began, who knows how much blood will flow because of high-placed history ignoramuses.

Isn't learning fun? No dark shiite alis for me, I want it sunni? On July 17, 656 after the Mushaf of Othman, the Official Text of the Quran (which was previously preserved on scraps of "date leaves, [camel] bones, stone, and the breasts of men") is established on his orders, ordering all other copies of the Quran burned, 80-y.-o. Caliph Othman (b. 574) is stoned in the streets of Medina by a mob of rebel Muslim forces from Egypt (who are pissed off by low pay and prestige despite being early converts, and by Othman's appointment of members of his own Umayya clan to top admin. posts), driven to his house, and assassinated while reading it, causing the Arab world to go into turmoil for five years, giving the Byzantines a rest; at first Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law and adopted son and closest male relative Ali ibn Abi Talib (599-61) (born in Mecca to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Fatima bint Asad, and raised in Abu Talib's house alongside Muhammad, who became the husband of Muhammad's daughter Fatima Zahra, and father of Hasan and Hussayn or Hussein) becomes cmdr. of the faithful, and last of the Four Rashidun (Rightly Guided) Caliphs, with capital in Kufa, Iraq, stressing the equality of all Muslims and the role of the caliph as imam (spiritual leader), and disapproving of the degenerate game of chess for Muslims; the Sunni-Shite Split begins with a dispute over the caliphate, with Shiites claiming that Ali was Muhammad's choice all along, and that the preceding caliphs perverted the True Faith, yadda yadda yadda, so that ever after only Ali's descendants are accepted by them as imams and caliphs, turning Islam into a family branch thang; Muawiya (Arab. "strong of arm?") I (602-80), Mecca-born former secy. of Prophet Muhammad and gen. of Abu-Bakr vies unsuccessfully for the caliphate then settles for becoming gov. of Egypt and Syria (until 661); too bad, when Ali fails to punish Othman's murderers, another split happens, the anti-Ali party being called the Joe Foreman, er, Kharijites (Kharijis) (Khawarij) ("deserters"), who end up splitting into Fifteen Sects, incl. the Azariqa, who murder Muslim women and children for imperfectly practicing the faith, while the pro-Ali party splits into the Shiites (Shi'ites) (Arab. "Shi'ah" = "followers [of Ali]"), who reject the first three caliphs, don't accept the Sunna (non-Quranic sayings and doings of Muhammad, taken as gospel) as authoritative, and claim Ali as the first true imam ("leader", "guide"), and the Sunnis, who accept all four, and love the Sunna as well as the Quran (sounds like they beat the Catholics and Protestants?), and on Nov. 7, 556 the First Muslim Civil War (Fitna) (ends 661) begins with the Battle of the Camel outside Basra, Iraq, where the forces of Fourth and Final Rightly Guided Caliph Ali defeat the triad of Muhammad's widow A'isha (Ayesha) (who leads a camel charge), and his former male companions al-Zubayr and Talha (after they split with him for failing to punish Othman's murderers), supported by the Quraysh of Medina (who feel threatened by Ali's embracing of the Ansar or Medinan converts); al-Zubayr and Talha are killed; A'isha is captured, and retires from politics.

But even more split happens in Muslimland? The Shiites later split between those who believe that caliphs must be descended through Ali's wife (Muhammad's daughter) Fatima, and those who accept any descendant, and then further split among those who believe that Ali is an incarnation of God, and even further among those who believe that he will be reincarnated as the 12th imam or Mahdi, the Muslim Messiah who will establish the Millennium (Muslim Millennium Fever); over the never several cents. the two groups diverge in their practices: Sunnis pray with their arms folded below the rib cage, Shiites with their arms straight down at the sides; Sunni mosques tend to have domes and minarets and prohibit all images, Shiite mosques tend to have portraits of Ali and/or Hussein; Sunni clerics usually wear white headgear, Shiite clerics are more elaborately attired and also have black or green headgear; Sunni homes like to display quotes from the Quran, and fly white flags after returning from Mecca; Shiite homes like to display images of Ali and fly colorful flags from their roofs during every important religious occasion; in modern times Shiites hang Aleks (strips of green cloth) from their rearview mirrors; Shiites like to wear a Turbah (disc made of clay, stone or wood from the battlefield in Karbala where Hussein was slain) under their forehead during prayers to prevent it from touching an artificial material, but Sunnis consider it idol worship and confiscate them when they go to Mecca; Sunnis like to name themselves after Abu Bakr, Omar, and Uthman, while Shiites like to name themselves after Ali, Hussein, and Fatima Zahra; Sunni tribal names incl. Bakri, Dulaimi, and Samarrai; Shiite tribal names incl. Moussawi, Rubaie and Sa'aedi; the Jaburi, Khafaji and Shammari tribes have members of both sects; in modern times the Shiite pop. is centered in Iran, with a fork jutting into the Basra area of Iraq, while the Sunnis have them totally surrounded and outnumbered, but are plagued by a number of sellouts to Satanic Western secularism - and probably a number of Zionist moles?

About 1010 Persian poet Firdawsi (Pers. "garden") (939-1020) writes The Book of Kings (Shahs) (Shahnamah) (Shahnameh), the great epic poem of Persia, containing 60K couplets (double lines) (2,804 pages) about Persia's legendary history, incl. the Zoroastrian Adam Zayamurth (who reigns 700 years), and big hero Rustam, son of Zal, who serves three kings and retires at age 400, after which when he reaches 500 his daddy gives him a brother; also his equally long-lived horse Rakhsh, his love babe Tahmineh of Turkey, and their son Sohrab, who fights his father in war and is mortally wounded before they find out each other's identities; he spends 35 years on it; after Sultan Mahmud promises him a gold dinar for each couplet, then reneges and gives him silver dirhems instead, he gives the money to a bath attendant and sherbet seller and flees to Herat, hiding for 6 mo. in a bookshop, then holes-up with Prince Shariyar of Shirzad in Tabaristan; after he writes a bitter satire against the sultan, the prince pays 100K dirhems to buy and destroy it; he then goes to Baghdad, and writes Yusuf and Zuleika (Joseph and Potiphar's Wife), and returns to his hometown of Tus, after which 10 years later the sultan is taken by one of his couplets, learns who it is, and sends a caravan with 60K gold dinars worth of indigo and an apology, but as it enters Tus the poet's funeral is being held.

In 1599 Sir Anthony Shirley (1565-1635) and his brother Sir Robert Shirley (1581-1628) travel to Persia to try and talk Shah Abbas I into attacking the Turks, and are warmly welcomed; elder bro' Anthony is made a prince (mirza) and becomes a Persian envoy, visiting Moscow, Prague, and Rome, but England won't allow him to enter, considering him a traitor (the original Dances With Wolves?), and he ends up a count of the HRE and Spanish adm.; meanwhile he leaves his brother Robert in Persia to modernize the Persian military (introducing muskets and artillery, plus English militia cavalry tactics), and he ends up marrying a Persian Circassian babe and becoming an envoy - it's the good life?

After the increasingly atheist post-Christian West passed them up in every category of civilization, WWI knocked the stuffing out of the decrepit backward Medieval-throwback turkey Ottoman Empire, which the Allies led by Britain carved up into smaller pieces that were carefully balanced to prevent them from reuniting or tearing each other up, while falsely considering Islam to be dead and the Quran to be for public display purposes only as their infidel Western civilization had clearly proven itself superior and all they had to do was educate them into denying all its clear commands to finish what it started in the 7th century, or at least convince them the time limit had elapsed. Not that they wanted to convert Muslims to Christianity, since the rise of Darwinism and Communism had made the govts. agnostic or atheist and secular, worshiping Science as their god. No surprise, a new kind of pro-Western Muslim arose, the secular kind, led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938), who helped overthrow the Ottoman sultanate and found the Republic of Turkey, on Oct. 29, 1923, becoming pres. #1 until 1938. For once a large group of Muslims tried to throw off the retro Muhammad-era crap, incl. the veil, sexism, Medieval Muslim garb, Sharia and Allah Akbar crap, along with the silly religious superstition rampant in the Quran and other Muslim literature, uttering the Aug. 30, 1925 soundbyte: "In the face of knowledge, Science, and of the whole extent of radiant civilization, I cannot accept the presence in Turkey's civilized community of people primitive enough to seek material and spiritual benefits in the guidance of sheiks. The Turkish Republic cannot be a country of sheiks, dervishes, and disciples. The best, the truest order is the order of civilization. To be a man it is enough to carry out the requirements of civilization." Then, with the soundbyte "The religion of Islam will be elevated if it will cease to be a political instrument", on Mar. 2-3, 1924 Attaboy ended the horrible blood-soaked Muslim Caliphate (line of miltary-religious rulers tracing back to Muhammad in 632 C.E. who claimed to head Sunni Islam), attaboy Mustafa, maybe there is room for Islam on Planet Earth. For your next appearance on "Jeopardy!", the last caliph was Abdul Mejid (Abdulmecid) II (1868-1944), who reigned from Nov. 19, 1922 to Mar. 3, 1924, what a turkey. Ataturk was also quoted by Harold Courtenay Armstrong in Grey Wolf: Mustafa Kemal: An Intimate Study of a Dictator (1938) as saying: "Islam, this theology of an immoral Arab is a dead thing. Possibly it might have suited tribes of nomads in the deserts. It was no good for a modern progressive state." Also: "For five hundred years these rules and theories of an Arab sheik and the interpretations of generations of lazy, good-for-nothing priests have decided the civil and the criminal law of Turkey." "To his friends he had always made it clear that he would root out religion from Turkey. When he talked of religion, he became eloquent and violent. Religion was for him the cold clogging lava that held down below its crust the flaming soul of the nation. He would tear that crust aside and release the volcanic energy of the people. It was a poison that had rotted the body politic. He would purge the State of that poison. Until religion was gone, he could not make of Turkey a vigorous modern nation." "For five hundred years these rules and theories of an Arab sheik, he said, and the interpretations of generations of lazy, good-for-nothing priests have decided the civil and the criminal law of Turkey." Let's build a smarter planet. Jacques Benoist-Mechin's Mustapha Kamal, ou La Mort d'un Empire (1954) contains the soundbyte: "Islam, this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives." Too bad, Ataturk was too smart to sign his name to statements like that, so call it a persistent rumor. Blind Egyptian scholar (disciple of Rene Descartes) Taha Hussein (1889-1973) (first Ph.D grad of secular Cairo U. in 1914) even tried flying solo by pub. the seminal 1926 work "On Pre-Islamic Poetry", questioning the authenticity of traditional Arab poetry, and by implication the Quran, causing his book to be banned, which only made it more popular, after which he advocated Pharaonism, a return to Egypt's pre-Islamic past, what a breakthrough this would be for Persia, Arabia and other Islamic countries, imagine where they could be today. In 1923 Hoda (Huda) Shaarawi (1879-1947) boldly did the full monty in public at a train station in Cairo, taking off her hooda, er, veil and shaarawing, er, showing her naked gasp, face, launching a feminist movement in Egypt.

Happy ending, case closed? Hardly. Egypt also became the home of the Muslim Brotherhood, which grew in strength and backed the 1952 coup that ousted King Farouk for Nasser, only to see him turn on them, giving them another breather, but after the assassination of Anwar Sadat they have been steadily losing ground to the MB, so that a graduation photo at Cairo U. now looks like a sick costume ball, Dove soap won't help that dryness. While it's hard to underestimate the impact of secular Islam, and the jury is still out on whether it will prevail or be swallowed up in fundamentalist Sharia, it set the hardcore blood-loving fundamentalist throwback extremists (the great majority) back, and even though they could still read what the Quran commands them to do, and didn't see any time limit set by Allah, most laid low and only grumbled, taking decades to regroup and come out in favor of a restored caliphate, like the Terminator they never ever give up, they'll be baaack, you can count on it, eat your pineapples, munch on your eggplants, your day will come, infidels. In his Oct. 7, 2001 video, the new extremist fundamentalist Wahhabi Robin Hood (emphasis on hood) Crackalackin Bad Mouthin, er, Osama ("lion") bin Laden (1957-) called the lack of a caliphate a "humiliation and disgrace", which is no wonder, because ever since 1924 no Muslim has been quite sure if they had the right to call for a yummy jihad (the #1 power of the caliph) to throw Muslim sheriffs back at the West like madass Terminators, like he already did, guess who he thinks should be the caliph? In 2007 a series of Khilafah Conferences were held in 12 countries incl. Indonesia, Malaysia, Britain, and Ukraine by the Khilafah Movement to restore the Islamic Khilafah or Caliphate and conquer da world, no, I'm not confusing this with part four of The Matrix, so do get nervous. Not just 2007, but 2008 and 2009, I guess they're not going away. By the way, the rulers of Saudi Arabia publicly condemn al-Qaida and their errant son Osama bin Laden, but what they don't tell you is the reason, namely that he took it upon himself to declare jihad on the U.S. and Israel when he isn't a caliph, and what they want is for the caliphate to be restored first, so that when the caliph does declare jihad, all 1.x billion Muslims will take up arms, not just so many thousands, at which point all the Muslims in Western countries will become enemy combatants, sweet dreams, it's forever Muslim-free 1999 in the Matrix. By the way, it's the OBLIGATION of the caliphate to declare jihad at least once a year in order to bring the infidel non-Muslim World under Islamic domination complete with Allah's Sharia, where even a mere insult or criticism of Islam is punished with death. Oh yes, since most people are now post-religion, those who are captured will be considered devil-worshiping animals, you say you're metrosexual, and it will be convert or die for them, no option to pay jizya. Oh, I almost forgot, true Muslims must still wage jihad even if there's no caliph, according to the 14th cent. Sunni Islamic law manual 'Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller), which was certified by Al-Azhar U. in Cairo, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, and in 1991 became the first standard Islamic legal reference to be translated into a Euro language (English), so maybe the real reason the Saudi royals are against bin Laden is because he wants to kill them too as sellouts to the West, we don't have to fight dragons, we can work with them, welcome to Glad TV.

Now that the Sick Man of Europe was in the morgue, the British supervised its dismemberment in hopes that it would never rise again, while stupidly leaving the source of the infection in Mecca in the hands of the Sherifians, leaving open the possibility that it could. On May 5, 1920 the Apr. 25 League of Nations British Mandate of Mesopotamia for the phony patchwork kingdom of Iraq (named after the ancient city of Uruk and/or "fertile land") was formally accepted by Britain, creating a new country from the former Ottoman provinces (vilayets) of Baghdad (mostly Sunni), Mosul (mostly Kurdish and Assyrian Christian), and Basra (mostly Shiite), with a pop. of 3M, 97% Muslim, 35%-40% (20%?) Sunni and 60%-65% Shiite; 80% are Arabic speaking and 15% Kurdish speaking; the Shiites constitute 80% of the Arab pop.; 80% are rural, with the largest city being Baghdad with 200K pop. (6.5M today); Baghdad is the center of the Sunni pop. which extends N into Anbar and W into Diyala Provinces; Basra and Kurdistan were later found to contain oil, which the Sunnis latched onto, improverishing the Shiites and creating mucho grievances. Too bad, a promise to create an independent Kurdistan was reneged on by the League, and the mainly Sunni Kurds ended up trapped between Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Persia, Saladin's descendants don't get no respect. In June 1920 British Lt.-Col. Gerard Evelyn Leachman (1880-1920) (known for his swarthy Semitic looks and camel-riding ability, allowing him to pass as a bedouin, who fought against the Ottomans in WWI then tried to stop rebel Arab tribesmen by wholesale slaughter) was assassinated in Fallujah, Iraq by Sheikh Dari (Dhari), sparking a violent uprising against British rule in N and C Iraq which lasted most of the summer and was finally crushed by RAF warplanes from the nearby base at Habaniyah (50 mi. W of Baghdad), after which Fallujah remained the capital of anti-British resistance in Iraq. Harith al-Dari (al-Dhari) (1941-), grandson of big hero Sheikh Dari, who presented his granddaddy's gun to Saddam Hussein in 2000 became secy.-gen. of the Assoc. of Sunni Muslim Scholars, formed on Apr. 14, 2003 (four days after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq), and backed the anti-U.S. insurgency in the 2003 U.S. Iraq War, and on Nov. 16, 2006 he became the most wanted man in Iraq after an arrest warrant was issued by the U.S.-backed Iraq govt., causing him to split to parts unknown, then give an interview to Time magazine in May 2007 and Al Jazeera in July 2007. In Aug. 1933 Gen. Bakr Sidqi (1890-1937), a Kurdish Arab nationalist ordered the Iraqi army to crush Assyrian separatists in Sumail (near Mosul), Iraq, killing 3K civilians and replacing the Iraqi civilian govt. with a military one, becoming the first coup d'etat in the Arab world, I wanna start a fight. On Sept. 8, 1933 Iraqi king Faisal I (b. 1883) died, and his 21-y.-o. pan-Arab nationalist son Ghazi (Arab. "warrior against infidels") I (1912-39) became king of Iraq (until Apr. 4, 1939), going on to sympathize with Nazi Germany and claim Kuwait for Iraq, a claim they seemingly never give up. On Dec. 24, 1938 former Iraqi PM (1930-2) Nuri as-Said (1888-1958), brother-in-law of Jafar Pasha al-Askari (the only Iraqi politician to seek refuge in the British embassy during the 1936 Bakr coup) returned from exile in Egypt to Iraq, was kicked back to London for being pro-British, then staged a a remote-control coup via Arab nationalist col. Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh (1889-1945), returning and becoming PM of Iraq (until 1958), going on to plot to get rid of King Ghazi I in a mysterious accident in 1939 and increase British influence in Iraq, this must be where the Bush Iraqi War got its start.

In Persia the secularists made their move also, under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi I (1878-1944), who became shah (emperor) of Iran on Dec. 15, 1925, backing the Western Allies against the Communist Bloc while running a no-frills police state that also tried to implement the Ataturk program. Too bad, he admired Herr Hitler and his Nazis too much, changing the name of Persia in 1937 to Iran in honor of the Aryan Race, and after the British and and their temporary Soviet allies invaded on Sept. 16, 1941, he abdicated in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi II (1919-80), who became the 2nd and last Pahlavi shah, until he fled to exile on Feb. 11, 1979 for trying to enact land reform and push women's emancipation on a country with 180K Muslim preachers, and even permit Baha'is to work in govt. posts.

Fled to exile in 1979? Too bad, despite the surface appearance that 7th century world-dominating Islam was dead and Muslims were becoming educated with Western values and would be good if only they were given the opportunity, and maybe even chuck Muhammad as sick and retro, well-educated Euros knew better, and said so, unfortunately to loud yawns. Sir William Muir (1819-1905) in A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira (1858-62): "The sword of Muhammad and the Qur'an are the most fatal enemies of civilization, liberty and truth which the world has ever known - an unmitigated cultural disaster parading as God's will." A country is only good as its cheese, thank God ours doesn't have a lot of holes in it. Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) in The Great Heresies (1938): "Will not perhaps the temporal power of Islam return and with it the menace of an armed Mohammedan world, which will shake off the domination of Europeans - still nominally Christian - and reappear as the prime enemy of our civilization? The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam." Also: "There is no reason why its recent inferiority in mechanical construction, whether military or civilian, should continue indefinitely. Even a slight accession of material power would make the further control of Islam by an alien culture difficult. A little more and there will cease that which our time has taken for granted, the physical domination of Islam by the disintegrated Christendom we know." U.S. pres. #19 (1877-81) Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-93) in 1880 regarding Morocco on "the necessity, in accordance with the humane and enlightened spirit of the age, of putting an end to the persecutions, which have been so prevalent in that country, of persons of a faith other than the Moslem, and especially of the Hebrew residents of Morocco." Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858-1919) in Fear God and Take Your Own Part (1916): "The civilization of Europe, America and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of civilized man over the enemies of civilization, because of victories stretching through the centuries from Charles Martel in the 8th century and those of John Sobieski in the 7th century. During the 1000 years that included the careers of the Frankish soldier and the Polish King, the Christians of Asia and Africa proved unable to wage successful war with the Moslem conquerors; and in consequence Christianity practically vanished from the two continents; and today nobody can find in them any ‘social values' whatever in the sense of which we use the words, so far as the sphere of Mohammedan influences are concerned. There are such 'social values' today in Europe, America, and Australia only because during those 1000 years the Christians of Europe possessed the warlike power to do what the Christians of Asia and Africa had failed to do – that is, to beat back the Moslem invader. If European militarism had not been able to defend itself against and to overcome the militarism of Asia and Africa, there would be no 'social values' of any kind in our world today, and no sociologists to discuss them." Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) in The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (1899): "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome." Was he right?

On Jan. 17, 1945 the U.N. Security Council holds its first meeting after Iran complains over Soviet interference in its internal affairs.

On Apr. 29, 1951 popular veteran Iranian nationalist Mohammed Mossadegh (Mossadeq) (1882-1967) becomes PM of Iran (until 1953); on May 8 after they refuse to negotiate their ongoing ripoff of the Iranian people, his govt. nationalizes the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. (British Petroleum), intending to apply oil revenues to pull the nation out of poverty, causing pissed-off Britain (Sept. 10) and the U.S. to impose sanctions, and the CIA, led by Buenos Aires-born agent Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt Jr. (1916-2000) (grandson of Teddy Roosevelt) to begin making secret plans to overthrow him after British intel agent Christopher Montague Woodhouse convinces Ike of the Communist threat to hide the oil profit motive; Mossadegh's public behavior of frequently fainting and weeping in the Majlis (parliament) doesn't help him?; "Never had so few lost so much so stupidly and so fast" (Dean Acheson on BP). On Aug. 15, 1953 the U.S., backing its puppet shah (since Sept. 16, 1941) Mohammed Reza Pahlevi (Pahlavi) (1919-80) plots to remove "Persian madman" (i.e., popular, democratically-elected) PM (since 1951) Mohammed Mossadegh, but when his chief of staff warns him of the plot and rushes troops to defend him, the shah flees to Baghdad; too bad, on Aug. 19-22 royalist forces financed by the CIA and British (a mob led by a giant thug?) stage Operation Ajax, leading to the successful bloody 1953 Iranian Coup, killing 300 and ousting Mossadegh in return for raising Iran's cut of oil revenue from 10% to 20%, and a $120M "coronation" fee to the shah for baksheesh; on Aug. 18 the shah appoints Nazi collaborator Gen. Mohammad Fazlollah Zahedi (1896-1963) as PM (until 1955), and oil begins to flow again; Gen. Nematollah Nassiri (1911-79), who personally delivers the arrest warrant to Mossadegh goes on to become the head of the secret service agency Savak in 1965, and the shah goes on to gather dictatorial powers, that later backfire with the 1979 anti-U.S. Iranian Rev.; on Dec. 21 Mossadegh is sentenced to three years in solitary; the U.S. doesn't apologize until the year 2000, by which time Iranians have taken out their hatred of the U.S. and backed Islamic terrorism, whereas if the U.S. had let them use their oil to help pull their pop. out of poverty, the roots of Islamic terrorism might have withered and died?

In Jan. 1963 the Hawkshsaw, er Shah of Iran begins the White Rev. (ends 1978), submitting six measures to a nat. referendum, incl. land reform to abolish feudalism, profit-sharing for industrial workers, nationalization of forests and pastureland, a literacy corps, and extending the vote to women, receiving a 99% yes vote; this is too much for the true blue Islamic throwbacks, and on June 5 (15 Khordad) Shiite religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-89) of Qom is arrested after an anti-shah speech on June 3, triggering three days of violent riots and a state of siege proclaimed by the govt., killing 400, later known as the Movement (Uprising) of 15 Khordad; Khomeini is kept under house arrest for 8 mo., released, then rearrested in Nov. 1964 after he gives another anti-shah speech on Oct. 26, 1964 for granting diplomatic immunity to U.S. military personnel in Iran, then held another 6 mo., and brought before PM Hassan Ali Mansur (1923-), who tries to reason with him and ends up slapping his face, causing Khomeini's followers to assassinate him two weeks later on Jan. 27, 1965, after which the shah makes his big mistake, exiling him to Turkey rather than executing him; meanwhile Savak dir. (since 1961) Gen. Hassan Pakravan (1911-79), who held weekly luncheons with Khomeini and saved his life by talking the shah into letting him be made an ayatollah is sacked for failing to prevent the assassination, and Gen. Nematollah Nassiri (1911-79) (who personally delivered the arrest warrant to PM Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953) becomes the new dir. (until 1978) - the long and winding road will bring me back to your door? On Feb. 27 Iran grants women the vote, pissing off the Muslim extremists; meanwhile anti-West Marxist students sympathetic to former PM Mohammed Mossadeq (deposed in 1953) found Mujahedin e-Kalq (the People's Mujahedin of Iran), which is driven into exile in Paris in 1981, moves to Iraq in 1986, and goes on to fight the Islamic Repub. of Iran until ?. In 1964 Ayatollah Khomeini is exiled from Iran to France - I'll be baaack?

In 1967 the U.S. agrees to give Iran its first nuclear research reactor, launching the Nuclear Program of Iran; Iran signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968, and ratifies it in 1970; too bad, by the time of the 1979 Iranian Rev., it's too late to stop the Islamists with a different playbook from launching a program to build nukes.

On May 18, 1974 India announces the successful underground test of Smiling Buddha (Pokhran-I), a 10-to-15 kiloton nuke in the Rajasthan Desert near Pokaran, becoming nation #6 to join the Big Boom Club after the U.S., Soviet Union, U.K., France, and China; Canada protests and suspends aid to India's atomic energy program; the U.S. and France think twice about supplying Iran with nuclear reactors, with the U.S. State Dept. uttering the soundbyte that if the shah is overthrown, "domestic dissidents or foreign terrorists might easily be able to seize any special nuclear material stored in Iran for use in bombs", and "an aggressive successor to the shah might consider nuclear weapons the final item needed to establish Iran's complete military dominance of the region", but in June the U.S. agrees to supply Iran with two nuclear reactors, and on July 27 France signs a $4B 10-year development pact with Iran, which incl. sale of five 1GW nuclear reactors; next Jan. the U.S. signs a $6.4B agreement with Iran to purchase eight more reactors; too bad, the Feb. 1979 Islamic Rev. ends all that; meanwhile after a referendum nuclear giant India annexes the Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of Sikkim, ending their 330-y.-o. dynasty and alarming Bhutan, whose 10-y.-o. king Jigme Singye Wangchuck (1955-) took over two years ago on July 21, 1972 after his father (king since 1952) Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (b. 1929) died of heart failure in Nairobi, Kenya, and is formally crowned as dragon king #4 on June 2 (until Dec. 14, 2006), becoming the world's youngest king; by law everyone in Bhutan must wear traditional 14th cent. clothing, and the country has no traffic lights; his daddy ended feudalism and slavery, and introduced wheeled vehicles; the annexation is completed next May 16.

On Nov. 15-16, 1977 Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visits Pres. Carter in the White House in Washington, D.C. amid protests that are quashed by police; on Dec. 31 Pres. Carter visits Iran, and gives a New Year's toast to the Shah, uttering the immortal soundbyte: "Iran, under the great leadership of the shah, is an island of stability"; after that proves false, the two countries hold no more "substantive" meetings until May 2007.

On Jan. 7, 1978 an article in the Iranian daily newspaper Ettela'at instigated by mole Gen. Fardoust criticizes exiled Shiite leader Ayatollah Khomeini, pissing-off Iran's 180K Muslim clergy, and on Jan. 8 riots rock Iran's holiest city of Qum on the 15th anniv. of the shah's land reform and women's emancipation decrees, causing the army and police to open fire, killing 162; on May 15 U. of Tehran students riot in Tabriz, causing the army to be called in; the CIA is caught by surprise because the shah had forbidden it to have contact with opposition groups; on June 9 the shah has the chief of the secret Savak police arrested on charges of corruption and torture of prisoners; too bad, Pres. Carter begins to listen to his advisors who want him to dump the shah for the ayatollah - you want it, you got it? On Sept. 8 (Black Fri.) anti-Shah demonstrations in Jaleh Square in Tehran, Iran cause police to kill 122 and wound 4K, after which the shah imposes martial law in Tehran and 11 other cities. On Sept. 16 the 7.4 Tabras Earthquake in Iran kills 25K, hastening the downfall of the U.S.-backed shah regime; the earthquake was secretly caused by the Soviet Union, using earthquake weapon technology, in this case a 10 megaton nuclear bomb whose shock wave was somehow redirected towards Iran, causing the U.S. to get even via the Apr. 15, 1979 7.0 Yugoslavian earthquake? On Nov. 4 (14th anniv. of the expelling of Khomeini from Iran) tens of thousands of students protest at Tehran U., shouting "Death to the Shah", "Death to America", and "Long Live Khomeini", then setting fire to the British embassy and other govt. bldgs.; on Nov. 5 after Muslim Shiite leader Ayatollah Khomeini calls for labor strife to topple the shah, the biggest-ever anti-shah demonstrations (100k) in Tehran, Iran see rioters sack the British embassy and troops fire in Jaleh Square, killing 121 and wounding 200, causing Shiite PM Jaffer Sharif-Emami (1911-98) to resign after 2 mo. in office; on Nov. 6 the cabinet resigns, and the shah appoints the first military govt. since 1953 to save his butt, headed by CIC Maj. Gen. Gholam Reza Azhari (1912-2001) as PM, who tries a military crackdown as the nation erupts in revolt; on Dec. 21 Azhari utters the soundbyte "The country is lost because the shah cannot make up his mind"; meanwhile the U.S. and Soviets threaten each other to stay out of it. On Dec. 29 in a frantic move to stop the fundamentalist Islamic rev., the shah of Iran asks a leader of the opposition Nat. Front to form a new civilian govt., and Dr. Shapour (Shahpur) Bakhtiar (1914-91) becomes the PM of Iran next Jan. 4 (until Feb. 11, 1979); meanwhile in Dec. U.S. nat. security advisor Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (1928-) gives the speech The Arc of Crisis, containing the soundbyte: "An Arc of Crisis stretches along the shores of the Indian Ocean, with fragile social and political structures in a region of vital importance to us threatened with fragmentation. The resulting political chaos could well be filled by elements hostile to our values and sympathetic to our adversaries"; this arc stretches from Indochina to South Africa, but focuses on "the nations that stretch across the southern flank of the Soviet Union from the Indian subcontinent to Turkey, and southward through the Arabian Peninsula to the Horn of Africa; "The center of gravity of this arc is Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer and for more than two decades a citadel of U.S. military and economic strength in the Middle East. Now it appears that the 37-year reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi is almost over, ended by months of rising civil unrest and revolution"; too bad, he decides to mobilize an Arc of Islam to contain the Soviets, with Carter advisor James Bill saying that "a religious movement brought about with the United States' assistance would be a natural friend of the United States", and new White House Task Force on Iran George Wildman Ball (1909-94) (yet another member of the Trilateral Commission, and a longtime Bilderberg Group member) told to drop support of the Shah in favor of Ayatollah Khomeini despite billions of private U.S. dollars invested in Iran, and top-level military hardware already sold to it, going on a secret visit to Iran to arrange it with U.S. ambassador to Iran (1977-9) William Healy Sullivan (1922-), while the BBC broadcasts pro-Khomeini Persian language programs daily to Iran and refuses to give the Shah equal time to respond.

On Jan. 8, 1979 amid a gen. strike of oil workers and mass calls for his death, the U.S. advises shah (since Sept. 16, 1941) Mohammed Reza Pahlavi II (1919-80) to get his butt out of Iran or lose it, and he skedaddles with his family on Jan. 16 after 38 years in power, but doesn't abdicate, claiming that when he returns he will only reign not govern, receiving asylum from Anwar Sadat in Egypt, then hiking to Morocco, the Bahamas, and Cuernavaca, Mexico, finally entering the U.S. on Oct. 22 at the urging of Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller to be treated for cancer in New York City, incl. removal of his gall bladder; on Jan. 17 Islam history ignoramus Pres. Carter pledges support for the new civilian govt. in Tehran, and urges the shah's opponents to give it a chance; behind the scenes, Peanut Pres. Carter sends a rep. to meet Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris, who returns with glowing reports about a "saint", causing Carter to undermine the new regime to put him in power, making a deal with him to remove the shah and prevent an Iranian army coup in return for ending Soviet influence and disruption of Iranian oil to the West - and he ran a lemonade stand as a kid? On Jan. 30 the civilian govt. of Iran announces that it has decided to allow Muslim Shiite ultra-fundamentalist Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (1902-89) to return from 15 years of exile in Paris, and on Feb. 1 (9:33 a.m. local time) (which becomes an annual celebration) he lands in Tehran to cheering crowds who believe him to be the Islamic hidden imam or Shiite messiah, while Commies believe he's one of them because of his cryptic statements incl. "In a truly Islamic society, there will be no landless peasants", and his claims to back the mostazafin (oppressed masses), plus the popularity of "Red Shiite" Ali Shariati (1933-77), and the U.S. govt. believes that he won't become Iran's Archbishop Makarios but will hole-up in the Shiite holy city of Qum while letting Iran have a parliamentary democracy; on Feb. 3 he creates the Council of the Islamic Rev.; on Feb. 7 his supporters take over govt. bldgs. while the final session of the nat. assembly is held; on Feb. 10 the army mutinies and joins the rev.; on Feb. 11 the Islamic Uprising of Khurdad 15 sees Khomeini's supporters route the elite Imperial Guard and cause PM (since Jan. 4) Shahpur Bakhtiar to resign, and Khomeini seizes power, ending autocratic rule after 2.5K years and erecting a theocracy with Sharia Law, with thousands killed throughout the year in rioting and mass executions, and troops sent by Khomeini to crush Kurdish guerrillas seeking autonomy; the Communists applaud the takeover at first, but by 1983 all the real rev. gains of workers and peasants are destroyed by the new regime, which also outlaws the pesky Bahai (Baha'i) Muslim sect; Khomeini sets up the Rev. Guards (Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Rev.) and the Basij-e Mostaz'afin ("Mobilization of the Oppressed") paramilitary militia; meanwhile the rev. drives U.S. gasoline prices from 63 to 86 cents per gal. On Feb. 16 Iranian gen. Nematollah Nassiri (b. 1911), head of the secret service Savak since 1965 (who delivered the arrest warrant for PM Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, and who has been imprisoned since last year) is executed by firing squad after a summary trial; his predecessor Gen. Hassan Pakravan (b. 1911) is executed on Apr. 11 despite having saved Khomeini's life in 1963. On Feb. 17 Iran announces that starting Mar. 5 it will resume oil exports at a 30% higher price than set by OPEC in Dec. 1978; production is only 3.4M barrels this year, compared to 5.4M last year, hurting the U.S., which had been importing 900K barrels from Iran a day, 6% of total imports. On Feb. 19 U.S. writer-activist Richard Anderson Falk (1930-) stinks himself up with a letter to the New York Times called "Trusting Khomeini", with the soundbyte: "The depiction of Khomeini as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false... To suppose that Ayatollah Khomeini is dissembling seems almost beyond belief... Having created a new model of popular revolution based, for the most part, on nonviolent tactics, Iran may yet provide us with a desperately-needed model of humane governance for a third-world country." On Mar. 1 Kurdish Dem. Party leader (since 1946) Mustafa Barzani (b. 1903) dies in Washington, D.C. while in exile in Iran, and his son Massoud Barzani (1946-) becomes head of the Kurdish Dem. Party (until ?). On Mar. 10 15K women march on the Palace of Justice in Tehran, Iran to protest Ayatollah Khomeini's reversal of women's equality gained under the shah's regime back to 1907, incl. mandatory wearing of the chandor heavy veil in public and removal of women from govt. jobs. On Mar. 18 Iranian authorities detain Am. feminist Kate Millett (1934-) (author of the 1970 bestseller "Sexual Politics") a day before deporting her and a companion for what they call "provocations", i.e., working for women's rights. On Mar. 18 battles between Kurds and Iranians begin in Sananday (Sanandaj), Iran. On Apr. 1 after a 98% vote, Iran proclaims itself the Islamic Repub. of Iran (until ?); the shah's program of family planning is abolished; Ayatollah Khomeini closes the shah's nuclear program closed down as "the work of the Devil", then has it reopened after Iraq invades Iran with Western backing - which proves that it was never about unneeded nuclear energy, only nukes?

On Oct. 18, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini orders mass executions in Iran to stop. On Nov. 4, 1979 enraged at the U.S. granting asylum to the Shah, and fearing a repeat of the U.S.-backed Aug. 19, 1953 coup that overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh, a crowd of 3K Iranian Basij paramilitary militia pretending to be students seize the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 90 hostages, incl. 53 Americans, beginning the Iran Hostage Crisis, holding 53 Americans hostage for 444 days until Jan. 20, 1981, demanding that the U.S. send the shah back for trial; in Nov. Iranian deputy PM Ebrahim Yazdi (1931-) resigns over the hostage crisis, going on in 1995-2011 to become leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran (founded 1961); 13 women and blacks are released on Nov. 22; Richard Queen is released in July 1980 after becoming ill, leaving 52 hostages; on Dec. 16 the shah leaves for Panama via Tex.; after he dies on July 27, 1980, it takes a regime change in the U.S. to get the hostages released - and arms for hostages? On Nov. 5, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini declares the U.S. the "Great Satan", and Israel the "Little Satan", and on Nov. 6 Satan, er, he takes power in Iran. On Nov. 8 Ted Koppel (1940-) (son of German Jewish immigrants, hired in 1963) begins his ABC News special late night broadcasts, with a brief spot on The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage, anchored by Frank Reynolds, and by Christmas he takes over the late evening staple, which features insets reading "DAY 45", etc., with a map of Iran and a blindfolded hostage next to it. On Nov. 9, 1979 amid mucho anti-Iranian sentiment, a Protest Against Iran is held in Washington, D.C., with signs reading "Deport all Iranians" and "Get the hell out of my country". On Nov. 12 Pres. Carter announces an immediate halt to all imports of Iranian oil, and on Nov. 14 he issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the U.S. On Nov. 25 U.N. secy.-gen. Kurt Waldheim calls an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to deal with the Iranian hostage situation.

On Dec. 12, 1979 the Carter admin. orders the removal of most Iranian diplomats from the U.S. On Dec. 15 the deposed shah of Iran leaves the U.S. for Panama on the same day that the Internat. Court of Justice in The Hague rules that Iran should release all its Am. hostages. On Dec. 29 the U.S. begins pub. its List of State Sponsors of Terrorism, starting with Iraq (until 1982, then 1990-2004), Libya (1979-), and South Yemen (1979-90), then Cuba (1982-), Iran (1984-), Sudan (1993-), North Korea (1988-2008), and Sudan (1993-) - guess why Saudi Arabia is always exempt, kaching? In Dec. the Nat. Christmas Tree at the White House in Washington, D.C. is kept dark except for the top light pending release of the Iranian hostages.

In 1980 U.S. prices rise 12.4%, compared to 13.3% in 1979; a 2nd quarter recession cuts real output by 9.9%; oil prices reach a peak of $68 a barrel during the Iran-Iraq War, throwing the economies of oil-dependent countries into recession; the U.S. recession lasts from June 1981 to Dec. 1982; after the North Sea fields begin producing, prices return to the $20 a barrel level by 1986; Japan oil imports cost $39.5B for the fiscal year ending Mar. 31, causing a record $14.4B trade deficit for the year (vs. $13.4B in 1979); U.S. oil avgs. $22 a barrel (vs. $8.57 in 1977), and the oil industry drills a record 59,107 wells (vs. 27.3K in 1971 and 58,160 in 1956); proven domestic U.S. petroleum reserves fall to 27B (vs. 39B in 1970); U.S. gas prices avg. $1.20-$1.23 per gal. (vs. 66% in 1978); Saudi Arabia pumps 9.5M barrels a day (vs. 8.5B in 1979); U.S. air fuel prices climb to $1 from 57 cents a gal., causing passenger mi. flown to fall 5% and major U.S. airlines to lose $200M (vs. $1.4B profits in 1978 and $215M in 1979). In 1980 Am. political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita begins using game theory to predict the outcome of "political survival" situations, causing him to be hired by the CIA; in 2009 he predicts that Iran won't build a nuke. On Jan. 16 Walter Cronkite, who ends the CBS Evening News with "And that's the way it is", begins adding the length of the Iran hostages' captivity, beginning with "Day 50", ending on Jan. 20, 1981 with "Day 444". On Jan. 25 Abolhassan Bani-Sadr (1933-) is elected as Iran's 1st pres. since the 1979 Islamic Rev.; he is sworn in on Feb. 4 (until June 21, 1981). On Jan. 27 the Canadian Caper sees six U.S. diplomats who avoided being taken hostage pose as Canadians and escape from Tehran, Iran on a flight to Zurich with the help of Canadian diplomat Kenneth Douglas "Ken" Taylor (1934-) et al. On Feb. 23 Ayatollah Khomeini announces that only the Iranian parliament can decide the fate of the U.S. hostages. On Mar. 20 the U.S. appeals to the Internat. Court in The Hague about the hostages in Iran - my perfect summer is having everyone over? On Mar. 23 deposed Iranian shah (1941-79) Reza Pahlavi II (b. 1919) arrives in Cairo, Egypt for cancer treatments; on Mar. 28 surgeons remove his enlarged speen and part of his liver. On Mar. 24 ABC-TV's popular nightly (11:30 p.m.) Iran hostage crisis program, anchored by English-born Jewish-Am. journalist Edward James "Ted" Koppel (1940-), which began last Nov. 10 is renamed Nightline; he makes his final appearance on Nov. 22, 2005 - who killed Ted Koppel?

On Apr. 7, 1980 the U.S. breaks relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions. On Apr. 24 the U.S. attempts Operation Desert One (Eagle Claw), a rescue of the 53 Iranian hostages by 90 commandos in six C-130 transport planes, which take off from S Egypt and land 300 mi. SE of Tehran; too bad, it fails when three helis are damaged in a sandstorm and a 4th heli collides on the ground with a C-130, killing eight; on Apr. 25 Pres. Carter announces the disaster on TV; Ayatollah Khomeini threatens to kill the hostages if the U.S. tries another "silly maneuver"; in Oct. the failure causes the super-elite do-it-all SEAL Team Six to be founded in Dam Neck, Va. for counterterrorist ops; by 2011 there are 300 members; the CIA and Israeli Likud begin plotting to oust Carter, leading to the October Surprise Conspiracy? On Apr. 28 Pres. Carter accepts the resignation of secy. of state (since 1977) Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the failed Iran hostage rescue mission - and is now free to bail out before the fit hits the shan? On Apr. 30 six Iranian-born Arab separatist terrorists seize the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege in London sees six Iranian-born terrorists invade the embassy and capture 26 hostages; on May 5 after five hostages are released, British commandos storm the bldg. and end the siege, killing five of them, rescuing 19 hostages; Fowzi Nejad, the only terrorist survivor, who posed as a hostage and was escorted from the embassy before being found out pleads guilty to double manslaughter next Jan. 22 and gets a life sentence, after which he is released on Nov. 2008 and allowed to stay in England. On May 24 the Internat. Court of Justice in The Hague calls on Iran to release it U.S. hostages, which it rejects.

On July 8, 1980 after Iran grants women the vote, they demonstrate at the office of the pres. against the Islamic dress code requiring veiling. On July 11 U.S. State Dept. foreign service officer Richard Ivan Queen (1951-2002) is freed by Iran after 8 mo. of captivity because of poor health, and leaves Tehran for Switzerland. On July 22 in Bethesda, Md. David Theodore Belfield (1950-), who converted to Islam and changed his name to Dawud Salahuddin disguises himself as a postal carrier and murders Ali Akbar Tabatabai (b. 1930), a former Iranian official and critic of Ayatollah Khomeini, then escapes to Iran via Canada, going on to brag about it and claim that he was paid $5K. On July 27 (Day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis) deposed Iranian shah (1941-79) Mohammed Reza Pahlavi II (b. 1919) croaks in a military hospital near Cairo of non-Hodgkin lymphoma; a state funeral is held in Cairo on July 29; the Pahlevy Dynasty in Iran (1921-79) ends; on July 20 his exiled eldest son Cyrus Reza Pahlavi (1960-) proclaims himself the rightful successor to the Peacock Throne of Iran, attempting to revive the dynasty; on Nov. 4, 2011 his youngest son Alireza Pahlavi (b. 1966) commits suicide in Boston, Mass. In Aug. Iraq and Syria break diplomatic ties after Damascus sides with Iran in their long-standing dispute over the Shatt-al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran - silted up with acres of Arab what?

On Sept. 22, 1980 after mos. of border skirmishes, the Iraqi military council orders the army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets", and planes bomb 10 Iranian airfields in Khuzistan, after which troops invade W Iran during the night, seizing the oil refinery at Abadan on Sept. 23, all without warning, beginning the 8-year Iran-Iraq (Gulf) War over the Shatt Al-Arab estuary (ends Aug. 1988); after regrouping, the Iranians drive them back to their starting positions by June 1982, turning into WWI-style trench warfare complete with chemical weapons used by Iraq; the Iranians recruit 100K children to use as minesweepers? On Sept. 22 the Battle of Khorramshahr sees the Iraqis siege Khorramshahr in a bloody 34-day battle that causes the city to become known as the City of Blood; on Nov. 10 the Iraqis capture the city after 7K Iraqis and 7K Iranians KIA. On Sept. 30 Iran rejects a truce call from Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein, and attacks and damages the Osirak (Osiraq) nuclear reactor (built 1977) 11 mi. SE of Baghdad, after which France repairs it, causing the Israelis to step up plans to finish it off. On Oct. 15 after July-Aug. secret meetings at the Ritz Hotel in Madrid between William Casey and other reps of Reagan's campaign and Iranian reps to delay the release of the Am. hostages until after the Nov. elections, with Reagan allegedly calling Ayatollah Khomeini on the phone to cinch it, the October Surprise sees high-level Iranian and Israeli reps meet with reps of both the Bush and Reagan campaigns in Paris, with William Casey as a "key participant"; on Oct. 21 Iran suddenly shifts its position in secret negotiations with the Carter admin., disclaiming further interest in receiving military equipment; on Oct. 21-23 Israel secretly ships F-4 fighter tires to Iran in violation of the U.S. arms embargo, and Iran disperses the hostages to make rescue harder; as part of the October Surprise, chief of French intelligence Count Alexandre de Marenches (1921-95) (founder of the Safari Club) sets up meetings between Repub. campaign chief William Casey and Iranian officials in Paris. Rock River flows for you, Mr. President? On Nov. 4 Repubs. Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush win the 1980 U.S. Pres. Election, defeating Dems. Jimmy Carter and Walter F. Mondale as the Iran hostage crisis and the misery index are blamed on the Dems. On Nov. 9 Iraqi Sunni Muslim Pres. Saddam Hussein declares holy war (jihad) against Shiite Muslim Iran - he plays the Allah card? On Dec. 19 Iran requests $24B in U.S. guarantees before freeing the sausages, er, hostages. On Dec. 24 Americans remember the U.S. hostages in Iran by burning candles or shining lights for 417 sec., one sec. for each day of captivity - just don't burn any flag-colored candles? In 1980 the Deobandi Sunni Muslim Sipah-e-Shaba Pakistan (SPP) is founded in Jhang, Pakistan by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi (1954-90) to fight Shiite influence after the 1979 Iranian Rev.

A new era in U.S. politics begins when an actor becomes chief executive? On Jan. 18, 1981 Iran accepts a U.S. offer of $7.9B in frozen assets; on Jan. 19 the U.S. and Iran sign the Algiers Accords, pledging no U.S. interference in Iranian affairs, paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 mo. on Jan. 20, Reagan's inauguration day, which takes place minutes after he takes the oath of office - he didn't trade arms for hostages? On Jan. 20 Tampico, Ill.-born Rock River bodyguard (saved 77 people), Eureka College (Disciples of Christ) grad., radio announcer, male model and Hollywood B-movie actor Ronald "Dutch" Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) ("the Great Communicator") becomes the Biblical Number 40th (until 1989) U.S. pres. (oldest person elected pres. so far) (first divorced pres.) in the 58th U.S. Pres. Inauguration (Secret Service codename: Rawhide); the 5th lefty U.S. pres. (last Ford, next G.H.W. Bush); 2nd to skip using his middle name in the oath (1st Jimmy Carter); George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-) becomes the 43rd U.S. vice-pres. (Secret Service codename: Tumbler); First Lady is Anne Francis "Nancy" Robbins Davis Reagan (1923-) (Secret Service codename: Rainbow); his First Inaugural Address (held for the first time on the terrace of the West Front of the Capitol) contains the soundbyte "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem"; minutes after he is sworn-in, Iran releases the U.S. hostages, and they are flown to Algiers after 444 days in captivity, in return for which the U.S. unblocks some Iranian funds and Iran agrees to repay U.S. bank loans. On Jan. 25 the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrive in the U.S.; Pres. Reagan greets them at the White House on Jan. 27; 2M New Yorkers turn out for a Jan. 30 1,262-ton ticker-tape parade honoring them. On Feb. 26 three Anglican missionaries detained in Iran since Aug. 1980 are released. On June 22 Abolhassan Bani-Sadr is dismissed as pres. of Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini, and flees to Paris; on June 28 chief justice Ayatollah Mohammed Beheshti, head of the Islamic Repub. Party is killed along with four govt. ministers in a bombing attack in Tehran; on Aug. 30 another bombing attack in Iran kills PM Hojatolislam Javad Bahonar (b. 1933) (new head of the Islamic Repub. Party) and Col. Houshang Dagsgerdi; on Sept. 1 a bomb attack in Tehran kills Khomeini's aide Ayatollah Assadolah Madani. On Aug. 15 Mohammad Javad Bahonar (b. 1933) becomes PM #3 of the Islamic Repub. of Iran (first cleric); on Aug. 30 he is assassinated by a bomb. On Sept. 4 French ambassador to Lebanon Louis Delamare (b. 1921) is assassinated in a bungled kidnap attempt by the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party in Lebanon run by Abu Nidal on the orders of Syria to punish France for trying to peacefully resolve the Lebanese civil war and/or give sanctuary to deposed Iranian pres. Abolhassan Banisadr. On Sept. 15 U.S. Sen. (R-Ariz.) (1953-65, 1969-87) Barry Morris Goldwater (1909-98), AKA Mr. Conservative (whose Jewish father owned the largest dept. store in Phoenix) speaks out on the Senate floor against Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority along with the New Right and New Conservatism, with the soundbyte "I've spent quite a number of years carrying the flag of the Old Conservatism, and I can say with conviction that the religious issues of these groups have little or nothing to do with conservative or liberal politics. The uncompromising positions of these groups is a divisive element that could tear apart the very spirit of our representative system, if they gain sufficient strength... By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars... Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage of Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland, or the bombs bursting in Lebanon, and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state?" On Oct. 31 hardline rightist (painter-architect) Mir Hussein (Hossein) Mousavi Khameneh (1942-) becomes PM of Iran (until Aug. 3, 1989). In 1981 encouraged by the Iranian Rev., Shiite fundamentalists attempt a failed coup in Bahrain in an attempt to install cleric Hujjatu I-Islam (Arab. "authority on Islam") Hadi al-Mudarrisi (al-Modarresi), who lives in exile in Iran.

On Feb. 12, 1982 the house in the Yvelines district outside Paris where Ayatollah Khomeini lived for 5 mo. before returning to Iran in 1979 is blown up and destroyed by pro-Shah Iranians. On Feb. 25 Kuwaiti Airways Flight KU561 with 150 aboard is seized after landing in Beirut en route from Libya to Kuwait by 12 Shiite gunmen led by Hamza akl Hamieh in retaliation for the 1978 disappearance on Muammar Gaddafi's orders of Iranan-born Islamic leader Imam Moussa Sadr, highest-ranking Muslim cleric in Lebanon, becoming their 7th hijacking protesting his disappearance; after a Shiite cleric promises that their case will be pressed at the U.N. and Internat. Court of Justice, they are released, disappearing into the night, after which a Lebanese official later says "They are probably sipping hot coffee with their kin", and Capt. Les Bradley flies the plane back to Kuwait, saying that they warned the airline to drop this route. On Mar. 22 Iraqi ambassador Ali Sultan is assassinated by three gunmen (working for Iran?) in East Beirut in the Christian section where he had moved with 60 others after a Dec. blast wrecked the embassy in West Beirut. In the spring the 1982 Lebanon War begins after Palestinian terrorists entrench themselves in S Lebanon, launching rockets and artillery at N Israel; on Apr. 3 Lebanese Armed Rev. Faction terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah assassinates Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in his Paris apt. with a Czech 7.65 mm pistol used to kill U.S. embassy military attache Charles Robert Ray in Jan., and escapes into the subway, causing Israel to strike PLO strongholds in Lebanon on Apr. 21 (first since the July 30, 1981 ceasefire, during which time the PLO staged 130 guerrilla attacks inside Israel); on Apr. 25 Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai per the 1978 Camp David Accords; on May 9 Israeli planes strike PLO bases S of Beirut, causing the PLO to reply with artillery fire across the border; Abdallah is convicted in Feb. 1987 of the murders of Ray and Barsimantov and sentenced to life in prison; on June 3 Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov (1929-2003) is critically wounded in front of the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London by three members of the Abu Nidal Org. (ANO), but although shot in the head and in a coma for 3 mo., he survives; on June 6 never-forgive-never-forget Israel launches Operation Peace for the Galilee to wipe out Palestinian bases and SAM sites in Lebanon, ignoring a June 6 U.N. Security Council vote to withdraw, and capturing the 12th cent. Beaufort Castle on June 6, downing dozens of Soviet-made Syrian MiGs along with Syrian SAMs in the Bekaa Valley, reaching the outskirts of Beirut on June 10, causing Arafat and his PLO loyalists to flee into Beirut, and causing Orthodox Jewish Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-94) to accuse Israel of a "Judeo-Nazi" mentality; in reaction, with Iranian (Ayatollah Khomeini) help, Islamic radicals form Hezbollah ("party of God"), a radical offshoot of the Shiite Muslim movement Amal, with the goal of making Lebanon an Islamic state and exterminating Israel, causing Yitzhak Rabin to utter the soundbyte "We let the Shia genie out of the bottle"; the Israelis withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, leaving Hezbollah dominant; by 2005 Iran is giving them $20M-$40M per mo. and they form a state within a state; Israeli soldiers Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman, and Yehuda Katz go missing near the Lebanese village of Sultan Yaqub until ?. On Apr. 14 18 Iranian terrorists ransack the Iranian consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, holding six officials hostages while putting anti-Ayatollah Khomeini graffiti on the walls in protest against the execution of Iranian political prisoners. On May 2 Renaldo Franceschi of Waco, Tex. is kidnapped by Kurdish rebels near Irbil, Iraq, and freed on Oct. 2 after intervention by the Iranian govt; his co-worker Guy Boisvert from Canada is freed on Sept. 19. On May 9 a car bomb explodes outside the empty Syrian embassy in Tehran, Iran, destroying the bldg. and wounding 16 bystanders; the Syrian ambassador to Iran blames "Iraq and elements of imperialism and Israel". On May 24 Iranian forces recover the port city of Khorramshahr (captured Oct. 26, 1980), taking 30K Iraqi POWs, being later celebrated by Iranians as a turning point in the war. In June Iran demands that Iraq pay it $150B in war reparations, and Islamic clerics vow to continue fighting until Saddam Hussein is deposed; after Iraq declares a ceasefire, Iran attacks Iraq anyway - the U.S. later gives them their wish? On July 4 Iranian Shiite diplomat Seyed Mohsen Mousavi disappears along with three aides; the Phalangists deny responsibility, and the Sunni PLO is suspected. On July 7 an Iranian is discovered with a false bottom suitcase containing 3 lbs. of plastic explosives at Orly Airport in Paris, which he explains he intended to use to assassinate exiled Iranian ex-pres. Abolhassan Bani-Sadr. On July 19 Am. U. of Beirut pres. David Dodge is kidnapped by AMAL terrorists to exchange for an Iranian envoy kidnapped on July 4; he is held for a year, released, kidnapped again, tortured, and murdered. On July 31 the office of a Saudi Arabian newspaper in London is bombed; a pro-Iranian group claims responsibility. On Aug. 23 UAE diplomat Mohammed Ibrahim al-Juwayad is wounded by a Kuwaiti terrorist posing as a journalist with a Jordanian passport; Iran and Iraq accuse each other of it until it is discovered that he is a Palestinian who arrived from Bulgaria. On Sept. 15 former Iranian foreign minister (1979-80) Sadegh Ghotbzadeh (b. 1936) is executed after being convicted of plotting against the govt. On Sept. 21 a bomb explodes at an Iraqi cultural center in Madrid, Spain a few hours before a scheduled photo exibit of the Iran-Iraq War, destroying the photos. On Oct. 22 Calif. Baha'i leader Daniel Jordan is assassinated by Iranian terrorists in Stamford, Conn. On Dec. 2 a large bomb left by an Arab destroys the Iraq consulate in Bangkok, Thailand, killing a bomb disposal expert and injuring six police and 11 civilians; the Shiite Apr. 20 Group Supporters of Iran claims responsibility. On Dec. 8 two Muslim youths on a motorcycle throw a bomb at a Kuwait Airlines office and Saudi Arabian Arlines office; one bomber goofs and kills himself, and the other is arrested, turning out to be Vaheh Kontaverdian from Iran. In 1982 after Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini calls for the overthrow of Iraqi pres. Saddam Hussein, an attempt on his life by Shiite guerrilas in Dujail, Iraq N of Baghdad fails, causing ruthless retaliation and the torture deaths of 148 Shiites, which is later (2005) used to put him on trial for his life after the 2003 U.S. invasion - Shiite happens? In 1982 the U.S. removes Iraq from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, and begins pumping up Saddam Hussein's military to counter Iran; too bad, they go too far and give them "pathogenic, toxigenic, and other biological research materials", according to a May 1994 report by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, incl. "eight strains of anthrax" in 1985, according to U.N. weapons inspector David Kelly.

In 1982 Trinidadian novelist V.S. Naipaul (1932-) pub. Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, about his travels through post-rev. Iran and his conclusion that the Islamic world can't be reconciled to the West; "In the fundamentalist scheme the world constantly decays and has constantly to be re-created. The only function of intellect is to assist that re-creation. It reinterprets the texts; it re-establishes divine precedent... The doctrine has its attractions. To a student from the University of Karachi, from perhaps a provincial or peasant background, the old faith comes more easily than anynew-fangled academic discipline. So fundamentalism takes root in the universities, and to deny education can become the approved educated act. In the days of Muslim glory Islam opened itself to the learning of the world. Now fundamentalism provides an intellectual thermostat, set low. It equalizes, comforts, shelters, and preserves."

On May 14, 1982 The Clash releases album #5 Combat Rock (#7 in the U.S., #2 in the U.K.) (sells 2M copies); original title "Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg"; it incl. Rock the Casbah, disssing the Iranian ban on Western music, with the lines "Drop your bombs between the minarets", and "Sharia don't like it".

On Dec. 12, 1983 the 1983 Kuwait Bombings see six key foreign and Kuwait installations in Kuwait City attacked in a 90-min. period by radical Shiite members of the Iraqi Islamic Dawa Party to get even for support of Iraq in its war with Iran, incl. the U.S. embassy, the main airport, and a petrochemical plant; after faulty bombs misfire, six are killed, along with one suicide bomber - I wonder who coulda done it, I think I'll check my database?

In 1984 Kuwait's oil income plummets from $18.4B in 1980 to $9B this year, due to the decline in oil prices; meanwhile Kuwait's support for Iraq in its war with Iran draws terrorist attacks by radical Shiites. On Feb. 22 the U.K. and the U.S. send warships to the Persian Gulf after Iraq uses French Exocet missiles against tankers loading at Kargh Island, and Iran attacks tankers loading oil from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states; 50K Iraqis and 100K Iranians have been killed in their Muslim-against-Muslim war. On Mar. 5 Iran accuses Iraq of using chemical weapons, causing the U.N. to condemn their use on Mar. 30. In the spring Iran and Iraq extend their ground war to attacks on Gulf shipping, Iraq attacking tankers loading at Iran's Kharg Island terminal, followed by Iran striking at tankers calling at Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries; in May the U.S. sells 400 Stinger antiaircraft missiles to Saudi Arabia, and shortly afterward Saudi fighter planes, receiving directions from a U.S. AWAC plane shoot down two Iranian planes as they approach a foreign tanker over the Gulf. On Dec. 3-8 Kuwait Airways Flight 221 (A-310 Airbus) en route from Kuwait City to Karachi carrying 161 passengers and crew is hijacked by 4-5 Arab-speaking Lebanese Hezbollah Shiite terrorists to Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, where two Am. USAID officials Charles Hegna and William Stanford are shot dead and dumped on the snowy tarmac; after all but a few dozen passengers are released, Iranian security officials dressed as custodians board and take the plane, then release the hijackers, giving away that it was all staged.

On Jan. 10, 1985 Sandanista Nat. Liberation Front (FSLN) leader Jose Daniel Ortega Saavedra (1945-) becomes pres. #79 of Nicaragua (until Apr. 25, 1990), launching a radical Socialist program of land reform and wealth distribution while promising an anti-imperialist non-aligned foreign policy, causing the U.S. to turn against it and back the various armed Contras rebel groups, incl. the Nicaraguan Dem. Force (FDN), which Pres. Reagan on Mar. 1 calls "the moral equal of our Founding Fathers"; Ortega compares Reagan to Hitler, making him more obsessed with helping the Contras, causing Congress on July 18 to vote to prevent him from supplying them anything except "non-lethal aid"; to get around Congress, this year and next the Reagan admin. and Iran hold secret meetings in which the U.S. sells weapons to Iran and gives the proceeds to Contras, becoming known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

On June 9, 1985 U.S. educator (dean of agriculture at the Am. U. of Beirut) Thomas Sutherland (1931-) is kidnapped in Lebanon, joining fellow hostage, British Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite (1939-); they are released on Nov. 18, 1991; in June 2001 the Sutherland family wins a $323M verdict against the govt. of Iran for its ties to the kidnappers, and receives $35M, with a lien for the rest going to the U.S. govt. On Aug. 17 Iraqi jets armed with French Exocet missiles bomb Iran's strategic Kharg Island oil terminal in the first of 130+ attacks - didn't I see this on Top Gun?

In Jan. 1986 independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh (1912-) begins his probe into whether money from the sale of weapons to Iraq was illegally diverted to the rebel Nicaraguan Contras; in early Nov. the Iran-Contra Affair almost gets U.S. Pres. Reagan impeached when his adm. is found to have illegally sold arms to Iran and used some of the profits to support the Contras; on Dec. 19 Walsh is appointed official independent counsel to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair, later uncovering the CIA's Project Democracy - mad money, will it be a house of pleasure? On Sept. 12 Joseph Cicippio Sr., the acting comptroller at the American U. in Beirut is kidnapped by Islamic militants tied to Hezbollah; he is released in Syria on Dec. 2, 1991, later discovering a secret surgery performed on him; on Oct. 12, 2005 his family wins a default $91M judgment against Iran for sponsoring Hezbollah. On Oct. 21 pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon announce the abduction of U.S. writer Edward Tracy; he is released in Aug. 1991. On Nov. 3 pro-Syrian Lebanese mag. Ash-Shiraa, breaks the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran - I'd like to have the story of how they broke that story? On Nov. 13 Pres. Reagan gives an Address to the Nation on Iran, denying Iran arms deals. On Nov. 21 the U.S. Justice Dept. begins an inquiry into the Nat. Security Council; Lt. Col. Oliver Laurence North (1943-) shreds important documents to thwart it; on Nov. 22 the U.S. Justice Dept. finds a memo in North's office on the transfer of $12M to Contras from Iran arms sales; on Nov. 25 Pres. Reagan and U.S. atty. gen. #75 (1985-8) Edwin "Ed" Meese III (1931-) reveal that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to the Contras; on Nov. 26 Pres. Reagan appoints a commission headed by former Sen. John Tower to investigate his NSC staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra Affair. In Nov. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia adds the title "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" (Kaaba in Mecca, the Muhammad Mosque in Medina) to his name, causing Shiite rival Iran to host a conference of Muslim scholars who call for the overthow of the Saudi royals and for the creation of an Islamic council to administer the mosques; later 300 Iranian pilgrims are killed in clashes in Mecca, which the Saudis accuse Iran of instigating. On Dec. 1 Lt. Col. Oliver North pleads the Fifth Amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra arms sale.

On Feb. 9, 1987 former U.S. nat. security advisor Robert Carl "Bud" McFarlane (1937-) attempts suicide over the Iran-Contra Affair by swallowing 30 Valium pills. On Mar. 4 U.S. Pres. Reagan worms his way out of the Iran-Contra Affair via a televised Speech on Iran and the Contras, admitting a mistake and throwing himself on the nation's mercy - he learned well from Nixon's case? On Mar. 14 (Sat.) Pres. Reagan in his Sat. radio address says he should have listened to U.S. secy. of state George P. Shultz and defense secy. Caspar Weinberger when they advised him not to sell arms to Iran. On Mar. 19 in a news conference Pres. Reagan repudiates the policy of selling arms to Iran, saying "I would not go down that road again." In Mar. Iran orders centrifuges for enriching uranium, authorized by PM (1981-9) Mir Hussein Mousavi. On Apr. 21 the Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra Affair votes to grant limited immunity to Pres. Reagan's former nat. security advisor Rear Adm. John Marian Poindexter (1936-). On May 5 the Congressional Iran-Contra hearings open with former USAF Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord (1932-) as the first witness; his Stanford Technology Trading Group Internat. AKA the Enterprise was involved with arms sales to Iran during the Reagan admin. On May 11 former National Security Adviser Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane begins testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings. On May 13 Pres. Reagan says his personal diary confirms that he'd talked with Saudi Arabia's King Fahd about Saudi help for the Nicaraguan Contras at a time when Congress banned military aid, but said he did not solicit secret contributions. On May 15 Pres. Reagan tells a gathering of out-of-town reporters at the White House that he did not consider himself "mortally wounded" by the Iran-Contra Affair. On June 4 the Congressional Iran-Contra Committee votes to grant limited immunity to former Nat. Security Council aide Oliver L. North following an appeal by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to reject immunity. On June 8-9 Fawn Hall (1959-) testifies at the Iran-Contra hearings, describing how, as secy. to nat. security aide Oliver L. North she helped shred some documents and spirit away others - a fine haul? On June 23 the Iran-Contra hearings resume with testimony from former CIA employee Glenn A. Robinette, who says he installed a $14K security system at the home of Lt. Col. Oliver North, then helped make it appear that North had paid for the work. On June 28 U.S. secy. of state George P. Shultz says he had found some of the recent revelations about the Iran-Contra Affair "sickening," but he defends the Reagan admin.'s foreign policy. Bring on the main act, Ollie the Clown? On July 7-14 Lt. Col. Oliver "Ollie" North testifies before U.S. Congressional committees investigating the Iran-Contra scandal, telling Congress that he had "never carried out a single act, not one" without authorization; on July 9 he admits he shredded evidence to coverup his role in the affair; on July 10 he fingers CIA dir. William J. Casey. On July 15 former Nat. Security Adviser John Poindexter testifies at the Iran-Contra hearings that he had never told Pres. Reagan about using Iranian arms sales money (from Iranian arms dealer Manuchar Ghorbanifar et al.) for the Contras in order to protect the pres. from possible political embarrassment - plausible deniability? On July 18 Pres. Reagan uses his weekly radio address to call on Congress to give more aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. On July 18 Molly Yard (1912-2005) is elected pres. of the Nat. Org. for Women (NOW) (until 1991), succeeding Eleanor Smeal, fighting against the Bork nomination and the Persian Gulf War, which she claims is being fought for "clan-run monarchies". On July 20 the U.N. Security Council votes unanimously to approve a U.S.-sponsored resolution demanding an end to the Persian Gulf War between Iraq and Iran, a move supported by Iraq but dismissed by Iran. On July 22 the U.S. begins its policy of escorting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers up and down the Persian Gulf to protect them from possible attack by Iran; on July 24 the reflagged Kuwaiti supertanker MV Bridgeton (launched Aug. 14, 1976) is damaged after hitting an Iranian mine near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf; on July 26 U.S. defense secy. Caspar Weinberger says that the Navy's anti-mine capabilities in the Persian Gulf will be improved, and in Sept. Iran Ajr (built 1978) is discovered laying mines and captured and scuttled by U.S forces. On July 24 the U.S. launches Operation Earnest Will to reflag Kuwaiti oil tankers going through the Persian Gulf to protect them from Iranian attacks (ends Sept. 26, 1988), becoming the first direct use of U.S. military force to protect the Persian Gulf. On July 28 U.S. atty. gen. Edwin Meese tells the congressional Iran-Contra committees that Pres. Reagan was "quite surprised" the previous Nov. when Meese told him about the diversion of Iran arms sales profits for use by the Contra rebels. On July 30 former White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan tells the Iran-Contra congressional committees that he had repeatedly urged Pres. Reagan to break off arms sales to Iran. On July 31 Iranian pilgrims and riot police clash in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and 400 die; on Aug. 1 Iranians attack the Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti embassies in Tehran as word spreads; on Aug. 2 1M people gather in Tehran, calling for the overthrow of the sheiks of Saudi Arabia. On Aug. 3 the Iran-Contra congressional hearings end, with none of the 29 witnesses tying the big target Pres. Reagan directly to the diversion of arms sales profits to Nicaraguan rebels. On Aug. 8 in the Persian Gulf a Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter fires two missiles at an Iranian jet approaching an unarmed U.S. scout plane; the missiles miss and the plane retreats. On Aug. 9 independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, vowing to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair "vigorously but fairly", tells a meeting of the Am. Bar Assoc. in San Francisco that he would not be deterred by the "popularity of persons involved". On Aug. 11 Britain and France order minesweepers to the Persian Gulf, but claim they will not be used in combined operations as U.S. ships escort reflagged Kuwaiti ships. On Aug. 12 Pres. Reagan addresses the nation on the Iran-Contra Affair, saying his former nat. security advisor John Poindexter was wrong not to have told him about the diversion of Iran arms sale money - is this a lie or is Alzheimer's already setting in? On Aug. 20 a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. rejects Lt. Col. Oliver North's argument that the independent counsel investigating the Iran-Contra Affair was operating under an invalid Justice Department regulation. On Aug. 25 Saudi Arabia denounces Iran's govt. as a "group of terrorists", and says its forces would deal firmly with any Iranian attempts to attack the Saudis' Muslim holy places or oilfields. On Sept. 22 a U.S. heli gunship disables an Iranian minelaying ship, the Iran Ajr that is caught laying mines in the Persian Gulf; four Iranian crewmen are killed, and 26 wounded and detained. On Sept. 28 Mehdi Hashemi, Iranian aide of Ayatollah Khomeini is shot for treason. On Oct. 8 U.S. heli gunships in the Persian Gulf sink three Iranian patrol boats after a U.S. observation heli is fired upon; on Oct. 13 the U.S. Navy makes the first military use of trained dolphins in the Persian Gulf; on Oct. 16 an Iranian missile hits a reflagged Kuwaiti ship in the Persian Gulf, becoming the first direct attack on the tanker fleet guarded by the U.S.; on Oct. 19 U.S. destroyers retaliate by bombarding an Iranian offshore oil rig. On Nov. 17 Ronald Reagan is sharply criticized by Congress when a report from congressional committees investigating the Iran-Contra scandal states, "If the president did not know what his nat. security advisors were doing, he should have". On Nov. 18 the congressional Iran-Contra committees issue their final report, saying that Pres. Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides, who ran an operation filled with "secrecy, deception and disdain for the law". On Nov. 27 French hostages Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque are freed by their pro-Iranian captors in West Beirut, Lebanon.

On Jan. 11, 1988 U.S. vice-pres. George H.W. Bush meets with reps. of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to answer questions about the Iran-Contra Affair. On Jan. 25 in his final State of the Union address, Pres. Reagan declares that America is "strong, prosperous, at peace"; Vice-Pres. George Bush and Dan Rather clash on the CBS Evening News as the anchorman attempts to question him about his role in the Iran-Contra Affair. On Jan. 28 U.S. vice-pres. George H.W. Bush gives an Interview with Dan Rather on CBS Evening News so that he can "fight the wimp factor" and answer questions about his role in the Iran-Contra Affair; after Rather cuts him off abruptly, Bush tells the technicians "The bastard didn't lay a glove on me... Tell your goddamned network that if they want to talk to me to raise their hands at a press conference. No more Mr. Inside stuff after that", causing Bush to project a tough guy image that helps his campaign with conservatives; Bush campaign mgr. Roger Ailes uses the conservative hostility against the Big Three networks to help launch Fox News in 1996. On Mar. 1 Iraq says it fired 16 missiles into Tehran in the first long-range rocket attack on the Iranian capital since the Iran-Iraq War began. On Mar. 16 former Nat. Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, former White House aide Oliver L. North, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, and Secord's business partner Albert Hakim are indicted on charges relating to the Iran-Contra Affair; Poindexter and North have their convictions thrown out after pleading not guilty on Mar. 24, Secord and Hakim receive probation after pleading guilty to a single count - we're the four monkeys Hear No, See No, Speak No and Cop A Plea? On Mar. 28 Iraq uses chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabja, Iran, killing 5K; on July 23 Iran publicly accuses Iraq of it. On Apr. 5 Lebanese Shiite gunmen force Kuwait Airways Flight 422 (111 passengers and crew, incl. three members of the Kuwaiti royal family) en route from Thailand to Kuwait to land in Lanarca Internat. Airport in Mashhad, Iran, demanding release of 17 fellow guerrillas held in Kuwait, then in Cyprus, where two Kuwaiti hostages are executed; on Apr. 13 it takes off for Algeria after 12 hostages are freed; on Apr. 20 they are allowed safe passage from Algeria after releasing the remaining 31 hostages, but the imprisoned guerrillas known as the Kuwait 17 are not released, but escape during the mass jailbreak during the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. On Apr. 18 after Iran mines the Persian Gulf and USS Samuel B. Roberts is hit on Apr. 14, the U.S. stages Operation Praying Mantis, setting Iranian oil platforms on fire and destroying six Iranian warships, effectively destroying its navy. On May 4 three French hostages are released in Beirut by pro-Iranian kidnappers. On June 8 the judge in the Iran-Contra conspiracy case rules that Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord, and Albert Hakim must be tried separately. On July 3 the U.S. Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 in the Persian Gulf accidentally on purpose, killing all 290 aboard, incl. 66 children; on July 8 Iran's parliamentary speaker Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934-) says that Iran won't seek revenge against the U.S. - oops? On July 20 Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini accepts a truce with Iraq, negotiated by U.N. secy.-gen. Javier Perez de Cuellar, saying that the decision was like drinking poison; on July 22 Iran and Iraq announce that they will send their foreign ministers to New York City to meet with de Cuellar. On July 26 U.N. secy.-gen. Javier Perez de Cuellar meets twice with Iran's foreign minister in the first formal talks about a ceasefire for the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq; on July 27 he holds separate talks with the foreign ministers of Iraq and Iran. On Aug. 1 Iran says it will honor an immediate ceasefire in its 8-y.-o. war with Iraq; on Aug. 6 Iraq's pres. says his country will agree to a ceasefire with Iran, provided the Iranians promise to hold direct talks immediately after the truce takes effect; on Aug. 7 Iranian foreign minister #9 (1981-97) Ali Akbar Velayati (1945-) signals his govt.'s acceptance of Iraq's modified peace proposal; on Aug. 8 U.N. secy.-gen. Javier Perez de Cuellar announces a U.N.-mandated ceasefire, and the Iran-Iraq War ends (begun Sept. 1980); estimates of the number killed incl. 700K for Iraq and 500K-1M for Iran, not incl. Iraqi attacks on Kurdish villages; at the end of the war Iran executes thousands of Iranian POWs, which Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazero later calls "the biggest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic". On Aug. 9 the U.N. Security Council votes 15-0-0 for Resolution 619, creating the U.N. Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group, led by Bangladeshi Brig. Gen. Anam Khan to monitor the ceasefire.

On Sept. 5, 1988 Iranian PM Mir Hossein Mousavi resigns in protest against pres. Ali Khamenei's interference in his duties, with the soundbyte that the "government's authority on foreign policy was taken away... Operations outside the country are taking place without the government's knowledge or orders... Only after an airplane is hijacked are we made aware of it. Only after a machine gun opens fire in one of Lebanon's streets and its noise echoes everywhere do we find out. Only after [Saudi police] find explosive material in Iranian pilgrims' baggage am I informed." On Dec. 30 both Reagan and Bush are subpoenaed to testify as defense witnesses in the pending Iran-Contra trial of Oliver North; they are subsequently quashed. In 1988 Aayatollah Ahmad Jannati Massah (1926-) becomes chmn. #2 of the Guardian Council of Iran (until ?), in charge of making sure all laws submit to Islamic Sharia. In 1988 Iran executes thousands of members of the Mujahadeen e-Khalq (MEK), causing Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri to denouce it; in 2016 his son Ahmed Montazeri is convicted by a court in Qoms of compromising state security for releasing an audio tape of the denunciation.

On Jan. 5, 1989 Lawrence E. Walsh, special prosecutor in the Iran-Contra case asks for a dismissal of two charges against Oliver North, citing Reagan admin. refusal to release material sought by North. On Jan. 31 jury selection begins in the trial of former National Security Council aide Oliver North, charged in connection with the Iran-Contra Affair; he is later convicted on three counts, but those convictions are set aside, and the case is not retried. On Feb. 12 the special prosecutor in the Iran-Contra case and the Justice Dept. reach an agreement on protecting classified materials aimed at allowing the trial of Oliver North to proceed, but the next day the judge sends the jury home as the disagreement continues. On Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day) Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa (Islamic legal-religious opinion) calling on Muslims to award him a, er, kill Ahmed Salman Rushdie (1947-) (all mad salmon rush to die?) for his 4th novel The Satanic Verses (pub. last year), condemning it as blasphemous to Big Lalala and his son Little Mo; on Feb. 17 Khomeini gives Rushdie a Muslim chance to apologize and save himself, or die, and Rushdie apologizes on Feb. 18, after which Khomeini exhorts Muslims to "send him to Hell" anyway; on Feb. 20 members of the European Economic Community decide to withdraw their top diplomats from Iran to protest Khomeini's order; on Feb. 21 Pres. George H.W. Bush calls Khomeini's death warrant "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior"; Khomeini tells Bush to stuff it on Feb. 22, saying that pub. of Rushdie's work is a sign from Allah that Iran should not reach out to the West; the Iranian govt. also sentences Rushdie to death on Feb. 24; meanwhile Sunni Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naghib Mahfouz stinks himself up by backing the fatwa on a fellow novelist; Rushdie spends the next decade in hiding rushing around not to die, and is knighted in England in 2007. On Apr. 14 testimony concludes in the Iran-Contra trial of former Nat. Security Council staff member Oliver L. North; on May 4 North is convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; all three convictions are later overturned on appeal. On June 3 Ayatollah Khomeini (b. 1902) kicks off, and on Aug. 3 moderate centrist Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934-) (elected in June) is sworn in as pres. of Iran (until Aug. 2, 1997), and on Aug. 4 he offers to help end the hostage crisis in Lebanon; since June 4 the real power is a 12-man Guardian Council overseen by rabid anti-U.S. and anti-Zionist Khomeini clone Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khamenei (Khamene'i) (1939-) (pres. of Iran since 1981), who becomes the new supreme assashola of the Islamic Repub. of Iran (until ?); the council can veto any law passed by the elected govt. - who said Islam is anything but a theocracy? On June 20 Soviet Pres. Gorbachev greets Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of Iran's parliament in Moscow. On July 5 Oliver North receives a $150K fine and a suspended prison term for his part in Iran-Contra; the convictions are later overturned. On July 28 Israeli commandos abduct pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim Hezbollah cleric Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid from his home in S Lebanon - the amazing slam dunks of Levi ben James? On July 30 in Lebanon the pro-Iranian Islamic group Org. for the Oppressed on Earth threatens to kill U.S. hostage Marine Lt. Col. William Richard "Rich" Higgins (1945-90) unless Israel releases Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid; on July 31, 1990 they release a grisly videotape showing his body hanging from a rope - man, you gotta ride it to believe it? On Nov. 4 Iran marks the 10th anniv. of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy - got any more Uncle Sam effigies to burn?

On Jan. 30, 1990 a federal judge orders former Pres. Reagan to provide excerpts of his personal diaries to former nat. security advisor John Marian Poindexter (1936-) for his Iran-Contra trial (the highest-ranking Reagan admin. member to be implicated in the scandal); he later reverses himself, deciding that the material is not essential; on Feb. 16 Reagan begins two days of videotaped depositions in Los Angeles, which is released on Feb. 22, in which he says he didn't have "any inkling" that his aides were secretly arming the Nicaraguan Contras; on Mar. 8 opening arguments are heard in the trial, and on Mar. 9 former White House aide Oliver North testifies; on Apr. 7 after claiming 184 "lapses of memory", Poindexter is convicted of five counts, and on June 11 sentenced to 6 mo. in priz for making false statements to Congress about the Iran-Contra Affair; in 1991 the convictions are overturned on a technicality. On Mar. 15 Iraq executes Iranian-born London-based journalist Farzad Bazoft (b. 1958) as a spy. On Apr. 22 pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon free U.S. hostage (Beirut U. accounting prof.) Robert B. Polhill (1934-99) after 39 mo. of captivity. On July 20 a federal appeals court sets aside Oliver North's Iran-Contra convictions, reversing one outright. On Aug. 15 in an attempt to gain support against the U.S.-led coalition, Saddam Hussein offers to make peace with longtime enemy Iran. On Sept. 10 Iran agrees to resume full diplomatic ties with former enemy Iraq.

On Mar. 1-Apr. 5, 1991 after apparent encouragement by U.S. pres. George H.W. Bush, the 1991 Iraqi Uprisings see Shiite Muslims and Kurds rise up against Saddam Hussein in an intifada, but on Mar. 26 the Americans refuse to help and they are crushed; 50K are killed, and 1M flee to Turkey and Iran, wondering what the *!*?! is wrong with Amerika; Saddam Hussein begins an extermination war against the 100K Shiite Marsh Arabs (Ma'dan), launching a massive construction program using all of Iraq's equipment to build a series of canals to divert the Tigris River around them and turn the marshes into desert, reducing their pop. by 2003 to 1.6K, after which the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq allows the dikes to be breached, so that by 2011 50% of the wetlands are restored, and 20K Ma'dan return, with 80K-120K still in refugee camps in Iran. On Apr. 1 Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei forms a new police force to replace the feared Komiteh as part of a program by Pres. Hashemi Rafsanjani to eliminate competing power centers in Iran. On Apr. 1 the U.S. Treasury Dept. announces it has identified 52 firms and 37 persons worldwide who are fronts for Saddam Hussein's war machine and the up to $10B he has embezzled from skimming Iraq's oil and arms trade, incl. Bay Industries of Santa Monica, Calif. and Matrix Churchill Corp. of Cleveland, Ohio; the U.S. firms are closed and their assets seized; meanwhile U.S. officials report that Iraqi troops have retaken Dohuk, Erbil and Zahko, the last major cities held by the Kurds as they crush the Kurdish rebellion in N Iraq, while simultaneously crushing a rebellion in S Iraq by pro-Iranian Shiites; Pres. Bush steadfastly refuses to interfere. On July 1 Japanese Arab and Persian history-lit. scholar (convert to Islam) Hitoshi Igarashi (b. 1947), Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" is knifed to death in his office at the U. of Tukuba, Ibaraki, Japan by a suspected Iranian hitman carrying out Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa. In July Iran announces a pop. explosion (4% in some areas), and announces that beginning next year families with three children will not receive any additional benefits if they have more children. Former Iranian PM Shahpour Bakhtiar is murdered in Paris; on Dec. 6, 1994 two Iranians are convicted.

In 1991 Kenneth R. Timmerman (1953-) pub. The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq, claiming it was a response to the overthrow of the shah of Iran; "The Islamic revolution in Iran upset the entire strategic equation in the region. America's principle ally in the Gulf, the Shah, was swept aside overnight, and no one else on the horizon could replace him as the guarantor of U.S. interests in the region", causing the U.S. to support Sadam Hussein as a weapon against the Islamic Repub. of Iran, removing Iraq from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1982.

On Dec. 24, 1992 Pres. Bush grants Christmas Eve pardons to Caspar Weinberger and five others accused in the Iran Contra scandal.

On Jan. 12, 1994 France frees two Iranian murder suspects who had been part of a terrorist group in a Geneva suburb, pissing-off Switzerland. On July 18 a building housing Argentina's two main Jewish orgs. is bombed, killing 100; on July 19 a bomb destroys a commuter plane in Panama, killing 21, incl. many Jews; on July 26 14 are injured by a bomb outside the Israeli Embassy in London; on July 26 a similar attack on a Jewish fundraising center in London injures five; Israeli authorities blame all the attacks on pro-Iranian groups. On Sept. 5-13 the U.N. Internat. Conference on Pop. and Development is held in Cairo despite threats of violence by Islamic extremists after many Islamic nations incl. Iran decide to come to discuss overpop.

In 1994 Freidoune Sahebjam (1933-2008) pub. The Stoning of Soraya M., about the horrible mistreatment of women in the Islamic Repub. of Iran; filmed in 2008.

On Apr. 30, 1995 Pres. Clinton announces an expanded trade embargo against Iran, suspending all U.S. trade with it, claiming that the naughty Muslims are trying to get nukes and support terrorism. On Sept. 4 (Mon.) (Labor Day) the eBay (electronic San Francisco Bay area) Web site is launched (original name Auction Web) by French-born Iranian-Am. founder (Tufts U. grad) Pierre Morad Omidyar (1967-), then renamed after Omidyar's consulting firm Echo Bay; by mid-1997 it has 150K users bidding in 794K auctions a day, and doubles every 3 mo.; it goes public in 1998, and by Oct. 1999 its stock is valued at $18B; in 2005 Omidyar donates $100M to found Omidyar Network for the purpose of making microfinance loans to poor people in developing countries.

On June 25, 1996 (9:50 p.m. local time) a 3K lb. truck bomb destroys the U.S. military residence of Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 servicemen and injuring 400 (incl. 250 Americans, plus Saudis and Bangladeshis); the complex houses Operation Southern Watch, which enforces the S Iraq no-fly zone; Iranian pres. #4 (1989-97) Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani gets a call at 10:00 p.m. saying "The package was delivered", causing the room to break into cheers?; Iranian Rev. Guards cmdr. Hadi Farhan al-Amiri later becomes transporation minister in the govt. of Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, and is allowed to visit the Obama White House on Dec. 12, 2011 to hear him announce the end of the Iraq War; the Saudi royal family senses that it is losing its hold on power to swelling forces of Islamic fundamentalism as the masses mumble that they have sold out to Western materialism - hey, can you pay for my wives' fur coats and diamond rings?

In 1996 Samuel Phillips Huntington (1927-2008) pub. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, his answer to Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" (1992), claiming that people's cultural and religious identities will be the #1 source of conflict in the post-Cold War world; "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do"; "It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation-states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future"; "Hypocrisy, double standards, and 'but nots' are the price of universalist pretensions. Democracy is promoted, but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power; nonproliferation is preached for Iran and Iraq, but not for Israel; free trade is the elixir of economic growth, but not for agriculture; human rights are an issue for China, but not with Saudi Arabia; aggression against oil-owning Kuwaitis is massively repulsed, but not against non-oil-owning Bosnians. Double standards in practice are the unavoidable price of universal standards of principle"; "In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous... Imperialism is the necessary logical consequence of universalism"; "In Eurasia the great historic fault lines between civilizations are once more aflame. This is particularly true along the boundaries of the crescent-shaped Islamic bloc of nations, from the bulge of Africa to central Asia. Violence also occurs between Muslims, on the one hand, and Orthodox Serbs in the Balkans, Jews in Israel, Hindus in India, Buddhists in Burma and Catholics in the Philippines. Islam has bloody borders"; "Islam's borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power." Oh yes, in 1992 Francis Fukuyama (1952-) pub. The End of History and the Last Man, containing the soundbytes: "In watching the flow of events over the past decade or so, it is hard to avoid the feeling that something very fundamental has happened in world history"; "The triumph of the West, of the Western idea is evident... in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism"; "What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

On May 23, 1997 moderate Islamic scholar (who reads Islamic law as rejecting coercion and oppression) Mohammad Khatami (1943-) (a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad) is elected, and on Aug. 2 he succeeds Ali Rafsanjani as pres. #5 of the Islamic Repub. of Iran (until Aug. 2, 2005), promising to legalize political parties with his limited powers; meanwhile on May 23 the CIA reneges on a 5-y.-o. promise to make its files on an attempted overthrow of the Iranian govt. in 1953 public, claiming they had been burned in the 1960s. In Oct. a $2B contract to explore Iran's South Pars offshire natural gas field is signed by oil cos. Total (French), Gazprom (Russian), and Petronas (Malaysian) in defiance of U.S. sanctions against dealing with Iran. On Dec. 1 Egyptian atty. Mohamed Mustafa ElBaradei (1942-) becomes dir.-gen. #4 of the Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (until Nov. 30, 2009), receiving the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize and going on to become a foe of the U.S., calling himself a "secular pope" and being accused of pro-Iranian bias.

On Aug. 8, 1998 nine Iranian diplomats are killed in a consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, causing Iran on Sept. 10 to announce that it holds the Taliban responsible. On Sept. 10 Iran sends 200K troops to the Afghan border. On Sept. 24 Iran announces that it has dissociated itself from Ayatollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa ordering the death of British novelist Salman Rushdie.

In 1998 the Middle East Media Research Inst. (MEMRI) is founded in Washington, D.C. by former Israeli counterterrorism advisor Yigal Carmon to translate Arabic and Persian media for Westerners and reveal the anti-Semitic anti-Western propaganda being disseminated by Yasser Arafat and Hamas, Iran, etc.; too bad, Western media balk at the info., playing ostrich until ?.

In June 1999 the Clinton admin. sends a secret letter with a peace overture to sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said of Oman at his chateau near Paris, France asking their foreign minister Yousef bin Alawi to meet with Iranian pres. #5 (since Aug. 3, 1997) Mohammad Khatami, which he does on July 20, passing it to supreme assahola Khomeini; too bad, when they find that the U.S. suspects Iranian involvement in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the Iranians send a rejection letter in early Sept.

On Dec. 31, 1999 Boris N. Yeltsin stuns the world by announcing his resignation, saying "I want to beg forgiveness for your dreams that never came true, and also I would like to beg forgiveness not to have justified your hopes"; shady KGB secret police veteran PM Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (1952-) is named acting pres., promising to restore Russia's old pride and power, pumping up the military and systematically undermining the new democracy by threatening, jailing, or murdering anybody in his way while the West looks the other way, and backing Iran in its goal of becoming a nuclear power; Pres. George W. Bush later says that he looked into Putin's soul and saw a good man - knock, knock, anybody home?

On Feb. 26, 2000 reformists win control of the Iranian parliament for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Rev., and Iranian pro-reform pres. Mohammad Khatami wins overwhelming support for his programs, even though supreme asahollah leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has kept many moderate and reform candidates from running on grounds that they are not Islamic enough; meanwhile Iranian youth rebel against the theocratic regime by going American, surfing the Net and learning how to do Western infidel sex, drugs, and rock & roll. In Feb. world oil prices reach $30 a barrel as OPEC countries restrict output, rising to $34 in early Mar., up from $11 at the end of 1998; on Mar. 27 OPEC ministers (except Iran) agree to increase production by 1.2M barrels a day, then Iran caves in also, and by May the price has fallen back to $30, double the 1999 price; too bad, on Aug. 25 it's back up to $35 per barrel, causing commercial users to force the French govt. to reduce taxes on gasoline, while PM Tony Blair refuses to lower British taxes, causing protesters to blockade refineries, bringing Britain to a near standstill by Sept.; Spanish truckdrivers join the protest in mid-Sept.

On Jan. 27, 2001 the Iran news agency reports that three intel agents were sentenced to death and 12 others to life in prison for their roles in murdering dissident writers and intellectuals. On June 8 Iranian pres. (since 1997) Mohammad Khatani is reelected in a landslide (until Aug. 2, 2005). The Bush Empire Strikes Back? On Oct. 7 (anniv. of the 1777 2nd Battle of Saratoga, the 1780 Battle of King's Mountain, and the 1918 Relief of the Lost Battalion) after the Taliban refuses to hand over Osama bin Laden, citing lack of evidence despite admitting to harboring a fugitive from justice, the first U.S. military counterattack against Osama bin Laden begins, with a massive daily bombing campaign against Taliban and al-Qaida terrorist camps in Afghanistan, aided by the CIA's elite Special Activities Div. and British forces, overthrowing Taliban control of Afghanistan with minimal U.S. force loss and no conventional military forces; the U.S. communicates with anti-Taliban Iran before and after the invasion for the 1st time since the 1985-6 Iran-Contra Affair; on Oct. 14 the Taliban offers to discuss handling bin Laden over to a neutral country, but maintains the evidence requirement, and is rejected; on Nov. 12 (night) the Taliban retreats S from Kabul, and by Nov. 13 they withdraw Jalalabad, followed by their last city stronghold of Kandahar in early Dec; on Nov. 15 they release eight Western aid workers after 3 mo. in captivity; the horrible Sharia imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan relaxes, only to begin to rebound in 2003, with police looking the other way; meanwhile Am. philosopher Noam Chomsky later calls the Afghan invasion "one of the most immoral acts in modern history". In Nov. John Howard wins a 3rd term as PM of Australia (since 1996) as a result of his tough policy against illegal immigration, imprisoning refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq in camps, and rerouting boat people to camps in Papua New Guinea and Naura ("the Pacific solution").

On Jan. 29, 2002 Pres Bush delivers his 2002 State of the Union Address, calling Iran, Iraq, and North Korea the "Axis of Evil", using the term "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD), and saying that the war on terrorism is "just beginning". In July an Iranian court gives Mohammed Khordadian a 10-year suspended prison sentence for dancing in public in Calif., and giving Iranian traditional dance lessons; the charge is "enticing and inciting the nation's youth to corruption"; TV footage had been sent to Iran, and his videos had been sold there? In Aug. an Iranian opposition group reveals the existence of an Iranian gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant at Natanz; the Iranian govt. claims that they only want to build nuclear power plants over the next 20 years to give them 6GW of electric power. On Nov. 6 the clergy-controlled Iranian govt. arrests Hashem Aghajari and sentences him to death for preaching a Muslim form of Protestantism and Humanism - too late for a Luther in that hole? In Nov. Iranian student activist Amir-Abbas Fakhravar (1975-) is sentenced to eight years in notorious Evin Prison for pub. the article "This Place Is Not A Ditch", which criticizes Ayatollah Khameini; after years of white torture he is freed and arrives in the U.S. from Dubai in Apr. 2006, meeting with Pres. Bush et al.; his friends inside and outside Iran go on to lead the 2009 Iranian demonstrations.

In 2003 Iran allegedly halts work on its nuclear weapons program; they really didn't? In Jan. 2003 Saddam Hussein stuns his top military leaders when he tells them that he has no WMDs after all, and just wanted Iran to think he did to keep them off his back; the leaders are demoralized because they had counted on using gas or germ weapons against the Americans; after he is captured, Saddam repeats this, but adds to FBI agent George L. Piro that he faked having WMDs while in power but planned on developing them incl. nukes within a year; meanwhile Iraqi defector Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi AKA Curveball, who convinced Gen. Colin Powell et al. that Saddam had mobile WMD labs later admits he lied to sucker the U.S. into toppling him. On Feb. 1 Space Shuttle Columbia, which lifted off on Jan. 16 breaks up during reentry and disintegrates 40 mi. up over Palestine, Tex. as it approaches the landing area, killing all seven aboard incl. cmdr. Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, payload cmdr. Michael Anderson, engineer Kalpana Chala, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon, all while millions watch the eerie execution on TV; Ramon is the first Israeli in space; giving conspiracy kooks hay to blame Iran, since it's the 24th anniv. of Ayatollah Khomeini's return to Iran, plus the embedded letters "Iran" in Ramon's name, and the coincidence of Palestine, Tex.; the breakup is caused by hot gases escaping through a 3-in. hole in the left wing created at liftoff by a piece of foam insulation breaking off from the external fuel tank, causing NASA to spend $200M to fix the problem before the next flight in 2005; much of the debris lands in Nacogdoches, Tex. On Apr. 9 Baghdad falls as Saddam Hussein's army proves to be what he once (1990) called the U.S. army, a paper tiger; the name of Saddam Internat. Airport is changed; too bad, Baghdad has 2M Sunnis and 4M Shiites, who hate each other's guts so bad that civil war soon brews, with the hapless U.S. troops in the middle, and Iran waiting in the wings to back the Shiites, with an obvious plan to exterminate the Sunnis and Kurds, amalgamate the two countries, get nukes, and then form the main shaft of a spear headed directly into Israel, pushing it into the sea, and leaving the U.S. in the position of picking up refugees like in the days of Dunkirk? - and the Clueless Chimp of the White House unable to face the reality that if he had just left Saddam in power it would have remained stable? On May 10 Shiite leader Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim (b. 1939) returns triumphantly to his Iraqi homeland after two decades in Iranian exile; on Aug. 29 he is killed along with 84-125 others when a car blomb explodes as he leaves Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. In May the Guldimann Fax is allegedly received by the U.S. State Dept. by Nat. Security Council officials Flynt Leverett and his wife Hillary Mann Leverett claiming that the govt. of Iran is making a historic offer of a "grand bargain" to resolve all disputes with the U.S., which disses it as inauthentic; it later turns out to be composed by Swiss ambassador to Iran Tim Buldimann. On Dec. 26 an earthquake strikes Bam, Iran, killing 31K, causing a senior Iranian cleric in 2010 to declare that uncovered women cause earthquakes - wham bam thank you maam?

On Nov. 14, 2004 Iran notifies the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it will suspend uranium enrichment and related activities to dispel suspicions that it is trying to build nukes - how soon will they forget?

Between 2005-9 the U.S. Dept. holds $880M worth of contracts with seven internat. corps. that do significant business with Iran in the oil, gas, and petrochemical sectors. On Feb. 21-22, 2005 Pres. Bush visits Brussels for a NATO summit; on Feb. 21 he scolds Russia for backsliding on democracy and urges Mideast allies to take difficult steps for peace; on Feb. 22 he tells reporters, "This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." On Feb. 23 Pres. Bush meets with European leaders, and urges them to maintain an arms embargo on China, then stops in Germany for nine hours, where he and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder demand in unison that Tehran abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, Bush saying "Iran must not have a nuclear weapon"; on Feb. 24 he meets with Pres. Putin in Bratislava, where he praises him for ditching the old totalitarianism thinking; Putin comments that it is impossible not to, since the Russian public has changed. On Feb. 27 Iran and Russia sign a nuclear fuel agreement, enabling Tehran to bring its first reactor online by mid-2006, and snubbing Pres. Bush, who attempted to persuade Pres. Putin against it at the Feb. 24th Slovakian summit. On Apr. 5 a Chinese co. stops insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil as part of world sanctions. On Apr. 12 police commandos capture a 50-y.-o. man who hijacked a bus and held four schoolgirls at knifepoint in a house in Ennepetal, Germany, identifying him as an Iranian asylum seeker. On Apr. 15 violent demonstrations erupt in Ahvaz, Iran on the Iraqi border after reports circulate of a plan to decrease the proportion of Arabs in the area, causing 20 deaths and 250 arrests; Iran's pop. is 51% Persian and 3% Arab. On June 12 four bombs in Ahvaz, Iran kill eight and injure 86, followed hours later by two bombs in Tehran, killing one and wounding four; Iran blames Saddam Hussein supporters. On June 12 the Iranian Women Movement protests in front of Tehran U. against the regime's gender discrimination, and police break it up, arresting two - the most bodacious ones, for a body cavity search? On June 28 Pres. Bush issues Executive Order 13382, titled "Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their Supporters", barring financial entities involved in nuclear proliferation from the U.S. financial and commercial system; starting in 2007 the U.S. Treasury Dept. designates 15 Iranian banks under it. The next Aryan Hitler takes the baton and carries on? On July 24 former Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956-) (Imadinnajacket, Inajacket) steamrolls former pres. Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani in a surprise to Westerners, and is sworn in on Aug. 6 as Islamic Repub. of Iran pres. #6 (until ?); on June 17 he only received 19% of the vote in a pres. runoff against former pres. Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who warned that he will run a totalitarian regime and that the 200K-man Rev. Guard (of which MA is a former cmdr.) is rigging the vote; during the campaign Imadinnajacket says that Iran "did not have a revolution in order to have democracy"; on July 27 he vows to pursue a peaceful nuclear program and says that his govt. will not be extremist, while U.S. defense secy. Donald Rumsfeld calls the election a "mock election" because more than 1K potential candidates were disqualified from running by the hard-line Guardian Council; former U.S. hostages say he was one of the Iranians who seized them in 1979 (co-founder of the student org.); as pres. he becomes known for frequently weeping; he is a puppet of Shiite #1 grand ayatollah Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani (1930-) and ayatollah Mohammad Taghi (Taqi) Mesbah Yazdi (1934-), who claims that his protege is the "chosen" of the Mahdi. On Aug. 4 a joint European-U.S. proposal to Iran is prepared, offering it a full political and economic relationship with the West if it stops trying to develop nukes. On Aug. 8 Iran resumes operations at the Uranium Conversion Facility near Isfahan (255 mi. S of Tehran), which had been suspended in Nov., causing the U.S. and Europe to seek U.N. sanctions; on Aug. 10 they remove the U.N. seals on the equipment and begin processing raw yellowcake uranium into uranium hexafluoride gas; 7.5 tons of yellowcake can make 40 lb. of weapons grade uranium, enough for one crude nuke; in July 2008 they ship 500 metric tons of yellowcake to Canada, as revealed in 2010 by WikiLeaks - you shovel 7.5 tons and whadya get, a crude little nuke and deeper in debt? On Aug. 10 smug Iran resumes full operations at its uranium conversion plant. On Sept. 18 hundreds of Palestinian troops seal off Gaza's border with Egypt to quash a week-long free-for-all along the frontier; Hamas stages a military-style victory parade in downtown Gaza City; meanwhile Hamas and Fatah begin preparing for a final all-out battle, stockpiling weapons, with Iran aiding Hamas, the arms race causing assault rifle prices to double in a year (to $2.3K for an Egyptian or Chinese model, and more for a higher quality Russian or Iraqi model, plus over $3 per bullet). On Sept. 23 Britain formally proposes that the Iranian govt. be reported to the U.N. Security Council for failure to comply with nuclear treaties, causing Iran's foreign miniter on Sept. 25 to call possible sanctions "illegal and illogical" and accuse the U.S. of behind behind them; a letter to Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by 180 of 290 lawmakers calls for cancelling of Iran's voluntary suspension of nuclear activities. On Oct. 7 tens of thousands of Iranians rally aross Iran to back its nuclear activities, causing its top envoy to announce that Iran could stop U.N. inspections. On Oct. 26 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces to thousands of students at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map", "pushed into the sea"; it takes until Nov. 13 for U.S. secy. of state Rice to publicly rebuke him, saying "No civilized nation should have a leader who wishes or hopes or desires or considers it a matter of policy to express that." On Nov. 16 Iran admits that its new Russian-made (Polyot) 375-lb. Sina-1 satellite, launched 1 mo. earlier is capable of spying on Israel (that country their pres. said should be wiped off the map?); a 2nd Iranian-built satellite is set to be launched in 2 mo. On Nov. 24 the Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.'s key nuclear watchdog agency meets in Vienna over the future of Iran's nuclear program; two weeks earlier its head, Mohamed ElBaradei traveled to Iran to offer a proposal to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia, which was declined. On Dec. 8 the 50-nation summit of Islamic nations in Mecca, Saudi Arabia issues the Mecca Declaration promising to stamp out extremist thought; meanwhile Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad tells a news conference that he doubts that the Holocaust took place and that if Europe feels guilty about it they should move Israel to Europe instead of making "the repercussions fall on the Palestinians"; Saudi spokesmen take exception, comparing his statements to those of Sodamn Insane and Moammar Daffy Duck - you look kind of lost yourself? On Dec. 14 Iran's pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls the Nazi Holocaust a "myth", used as a pretext for the Jewish state's existence, causing the White House to reply that this proves Iran must not be allowed to develop nukes. On Dec. 19 Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bans all Western music, incl. classical from Iran state radio and TV stations.

On Jan. 9, 2006 Iran breaks open internationally monitored seals on three of its nuclear facilities, reopening them in violation of a 16-mo.-old agreement with France, Germany and Britain, bringing condemnation by the U.S. and its Euro allies; on Jan. 17 Iran proposes a resumption of nuclear talks with the Europeans, which Britain rejects as "vacuous"; on Jan. 26 the Russians propose to allow Iran to operate civilian nuclear facilities with internat. inspectors in control of the fuel, and to operate its Isfahan facility, and China and the U.S. endorse it. On Jan. 31 the Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that Iran has obtained a document showing how to cast uranium metal into hemispherical forms for use as an atomic bomb; the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council advise that Iran be hauled before it over its nuclear program and face possible sanctions - better frisk them first? Allah vs. Superman, or, Maybe that pope was right who called Muhammad the Antichrist? On Feb. 3 the reprinting of 12 cartoon caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad from the Sept. 30, 2005 issue of Denmark's Jyllands-Posten, ed. by Flemming Rose (1958-) causes madass protests by Muslims in Britain, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Palestine, incl. 50K in Khartoum, Sudan, causing the Danish govt. to apologize, and U.S. State Dept. spokesperson Janelle Hironimus to criticize the papers for "inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner", which she calls "not acceptable" (never criticizes the madass Muslims?); on Feb. 4 crazed caricatures of, er, Muslim protesters in Damascus attack the Danish and Norwegian embassies, then on Feb. 5 set fire to the Danish mission in Beirut, while Iran recalls its ambassador to Denmark; on Feb. 6 400 madass Muslims running loose in Tehran attack the Danish Embassy in the name of their prince of darkness Muhammad, the prophet of Satan who preaches hate and murder, intolerance, subjection of women and non-Muslims, polygamy and pedophilia, and doesn't claim to be divine or a healer but is an admitted killer, yet can't even be portrayed, while worshippers must dance around a black meteorite idol from outer space sent by his father the Devil?; in support many other European newspapers reprint them, the headline of France Soir reading "Yes, we have the right to caricature God" (Oui, on a le droit de caricaturer Dieu); on Oct. 28, 2005 a coalition of Dutch Muslim groups try to press criminal charges against the paper, but the prosecutor drops them; on Jan. 1, 2006 Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen backs up the paper's right to freedom of speech; on Jan. 1, 2006 a Christian newspaper in Norway reprints the cartoons; on Jan. 25 Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia demand punishment of the Danish newspaper, and on Jan. 26 withdraws their ambassador from Denmark as the country begins a boycott of Danish products; on Jan. 30 the paper apologizes for offending the Morons, er, Muslims, but stands by its decision to print them; on Jan. 31 Danish Muslims demand a clearer apology; on Feb. 2 the Jordanian weekly Shihan reprints them with an editorial by former Sen. Jihad Momani, who is then fired as the publisher withdraws the issue from circulation; in 2010 WikiLeaks reveals the Syria helped orchestrate the Motoon riots; meanwhile on Feb. 6 200 more criminals attack the Austrian Embassy in Tehran, yet more crazies storm a U.S. military base outside Bagram, Afghanistan (four being put to sleep by Afghan troops like the mad dogs they are by being shot in the street), and yet more crazed mad dogs stampede in Somalia, killing a teen boy; on Feb. 6 Lebanon apologizes to Denmark about being home to deathhead moth loonies with turbans and beards who can't stand unsevered infidel heads existing on the same planet with them (how can anyone portray the real Muhammad anyway when there are no original pics of him to go by, and don't half of the lookalike loonies call themselves Muhammad, and how is the "idolatrous" behavior of non-believers in the non-Muslim world any business of theirs to punish by taking the law in their own hands?); meanwhile on Feb. 6 Iran's parliament issues a statement mentioning what happened to Salman Rushdie (1947-), with thinly veiled threats that the British author of the cartoons will soon have a death warrant out on him, and sure enough, a $1M reward is put out for the head of the cartoonist; in Nigeria the heavily Muslim north goes bananas and kills 100 Christians in the heavily Christian SE, becoming the bloodiest cartoon fighting; the Muslims then begin pressuring the U.N. to make "defamation of Islam" a world crime, with a yearly vote that starts out strong then dwindles until ? - shouldn't Islam be the world crime, with a worldwide death warrant out for each and every mental zombie suffering from this incurable mental virus for the good of the world? Are there actually any intelligent, sane people in this sick mass mind-control hypnocult ruled by a graveyard Hitler? On Feb. 5 cartoon-hating Iran ends all voluntary cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency - as it races to build A-bombs and use them with reckless abandon like in a, ahem, cartoon? My baloney has a first name? On Feb. 8 Pres. Bush weighs into the Muhammad cartoon rage crimes by saying he defends the rights of newspapers to print what they see fit, but admonishes them of their "responsibility to be thoughtful about others"; U.S. secy. of state Condoleezza Rice accuses Syria and Iran of trying to inflame the situation, which on Feb. 12 Iran denies, demanding an apology; on Feb. 8 Jordan's King Abdullah II, standing next to Pres. Bush in the White House adds that "Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is a religion of peace, tolerance, moderation"; on Feb. 12 the violence spreads to the occupied territories, plus Turkey and Indonesia; graffiti calling Muhammad a pig is scrawled on a West Bank mosque, causing a protest in which Israeli soldiers shoot three Palestinians - like pigs? On Feb. 15 U.S. secy. of state Condoleezza Rice tells a Senate panel that she is planning to ask for $75M to promote democracy in Iran - should be $75T? On Mar. 3 (noon) Iranian-born Muslim U.S. citizen Mohammed Reza Taher-azar (1983-) gets a message from Allah and runs down six people with his SUV at the U. of N.C. Chapel Hill campus to "avenge the deaths of Muslims worldwide" and "punish" the U.S. govt., adding "I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, who obtained a doctorate degree"; none are seriously injured or killed; he gets 26 years in prison. On Mar. 7 U.S. vice-pres. Dick Cheney warns Iran of "meaningful consequences" if it doesn't stop developing nukes. On Mar. 16 Iran offers for the first time to enter into talks with the U.S. aimed at stabilizing Iraq - at a slightly smaller size of course? On Mar. 31 Iran announces the test-firing of a missile undetectable by radar, the Fajr-3 ("victory") that can host MIRVs and has a range of 1.2K mi., enough to reach Israel; the missile all but announces that Iran is trying to develop nukes? On Apr. 2 Iran announces the test-firing of the new high-speed (223 mph) Hoot (Whale) Torpedo, capable of destroying warships and subs., as fast as the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995. On Apr. 9 (Sun.) Iraqi Shiite lawmakers meet on the 3rd anniv. of the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces as Iraqis observe Freedom Day; meanwhile at least 15 are killed, incl. eight suspected insurgents shot by U.S. soldiers in a pre-dawn raid N of Baghdad; meanwhile Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak says that Iraqi Shiites are more loyal to Iran than Iraq. On Apr. 11 Iran holds a celebration in Mashhad over its newly manufactured raw uranium, enriched using 164 centrifuges, with artists dancing and hoisting vials of the stuff; raw uranium is 0.7% U-235, and it must be boosted to 4% for a reactor and 90% for a warhead - to your health? On Apr. 13 Israeli chief of military intel Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin claims that Iran is within three years of having a nuclear bomb. On Apr. 14 Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls Israel a "permanent threat" that will "soon" be liberated, saying, "Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation", calling it "a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm". On Apr. 25 Iran threatens to hide its nukes if the West takes "harsh measures", and to transfer nuclear technology to Sudan. In Apr. Iranian officials claim they have trained 40K suicide bombers to be sent against the U.S. and Britain if their nuclear sites are attacked. On May 7 Iran scoffs at sanctions as "meaningless" as its parliament prepares to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, as North Korea did in 2003. On May 8 an 18-page letter from Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is received by Pres. Bush, lecturing him like a teacher, telling that Western democracy has failed and that the U.S. invasion of Iraq, treatment of POWs, and support for Israel cannot be reconciled with Christian values, becoming the first contact by an Iranian leader with a U.S. pres. since the 1979 rev., it echoes Ruhollah Khomeini's Sept. 1989 letter to Gorbachev that Communism was dead, with an invitation to study Shiite Islam? On May 9 Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia becomes the 44th through 47th members of the new U.N. Human Rights Council, which replaces the politicized Human Rights Commission known for allowing members with bad records; 64 of the 191 U.N. member states submitted candidacies, which must be approved by a majority of the states; Venezuela and Iran are rejected; the U.S. doesn't apply. On May 12 U.N. inspectors announce finding traces of near-weapons grade uranium on Iranian research equipment linked to the military. On May 12 the U.S. State Dept. sends John Hillen to visit the Persian Gulf to discuss a new defensive security strategy for the Persian Gulf against Iran. On May 31 the U.S., which has cut off diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979 offers to talk face-to-face over its nuke program if it first puts it on hold, but Iran rejects the offer, calling it a "propaganda move". On July 28 Hezbollah uses the Khaibar-1 (Iranian-made Fajr-5) missile for the first time, striking Haifa. On July 31 the U.N. Security Council passes a resolution giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment or face sanctions. On Aug. 6 Iran defies a U.N. Security Council deadline and vows to expand its urianium enrichment. On Aug. 22 Iran claims it will respond to U.S. demands regarding development of nukes; Anglo-Am. Jewish scholar (expert on Islam) Bernard Lewis (1916-) stirs concerns by noting that this is the 27th of Rajab of the Muslim year 1427, when Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back, saying that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if ncessary, of the world". On Aug. 27 Iran tests a new anti-ship sub-fired missile, raising worries of disruption of Persian Gulf oil tanker traffic. On Sept. 3-4 U.N. secy.-gen. Kofi Annan visits Tehran, Iran, meeting with Pres. Ahmadinejad, who on Sept. 4 announces that Iran will host a conference to examine "exaggerations" about the Jewish WWI Holocaust as a response against the caricatures of their Prophet in Western media; says Annan, "I think the tragedy of the Holocaust is an undeniable historical fact... We should avoid anything that incites hatred." On Sept. 10 mother of two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani is sentenced to death by stoning in Sharia-land Iran; on July 8 after internat. appeals she is spared that form of death, but other execution options remain on the table. On Sept. 12 Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki visits Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran, and is gifen a red carpet reception in his office; al-Maliki spent part of his exile from Iraq during Saddam's rule in Iran. On Sept. 19 Pres. Bush gives an Address to the U.N. Gen. Assembly, claiming that the U.S. is not in a "war against Islam", saying "This propaganda is false and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror. We respect Islam"; Iranian pres. Ahmadinejad is nearby but snubs the speech; on Sept. 20 Venezuelan pres. Hugo Chavez hams it up by calling Bush a "diablo", saying "the devil came here yesterday... as if he were the owner of the world", adding "In this very spot it smells like sulfur still", accusing the U.S. govt. of "domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world"; "We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head"; U.S. ambassador John Bolton comments "Too bad the people of Venezuela don't have free speech"; in Oct. his behavior costs Argentina a seat on the U.N. Security Council. In Sept. Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, head of the Saudi nat. security council has an unofficial meeting with an Israeli envoy over the spreading influence of Iran and its terrorist allies. On Nov. 2 Iran test-fires dozen of missiles, incl. the Shahab-3 that can reach Israel three days after U.S.-led warships finish naval exercises in the Persian Gulf and Iran brands them as "adventurist". On Nov. 29 former U.S. secy. of state Henry Kissinger says on a London TV interview that military victory in Iraq is no longer possible, and that the U.S. must enter into dialogue with Iraq's neighbors incl. Iran to make progress. On Dec. 6 the 10-member bipartisan Iraq Study Group, led by former U.S. secy. of state James A. Baker III and former Ind. Rep. Lee H. Hamilton recommends a change in course to the new "primary mission" of training Iraq security forces, and pullout of most (75K) combat troops by spring 2008, but no timetable for troop withdrawals, stressing the need for more aggressive diplomatic efforts in the Middle East; the little problem that Iraq security forces are forever split between Sunni and Shiite, so that training more would be tantamount to arming both sides of a future civil war is conveniently ignored?; on Dec. 7 Pres. Bush, backed by PM Tony Blair nix the report, refusing to endorse a major troop withdrawal and objecting to talks with Iran and Syria; meanwhile the report reveals that millions of dollars are being funneled from Saudi citizens to Iraqi Sunni insurgents, who have purchased Russian Strela shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. On Dec. 11 Iran hosts the Internat. Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust in Tehran, with 67 participants from 30 countries, incl. former U.S. KKK leader David Duke, Frederick Toben of Australia, Robert Faurisson of France et al., some of whom have been imprisoned for expressing their Holocaust-denying beliefs in Europe; on Dec. 12 pres. Mahmoud Ahmedinajad says that "The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom" while sitting next to six members of Neturei Karta AKA Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism, whose spokesman Rabbi Moshe David (Yisroel Dovid) Weiss says "We don't want to deny the killing of Jews in World War II, but Zionists have given much higher figures for how many people were killed. They have used the Holocaust as a device to justify their oppression"; David Duke adds "The Holocaust is the device used as the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder"; Toben says, "The number of victims at the Asuchwitz concentration camp could be about 2,007"; on Dec. 20 Austria suddenly releases David Irving on probation after 13 mo. in priz for denying the sacred Holy-At-Any-Cost for two 1989 speeches; on Apr. 1, 2007 the Bais Yehuda Synagogue in Monsey, N.Y. of the Neturei Karta is burned - the irony of freedom of speech on this one issue being allowed only where Zionists don't have power? On Dec. 18 "moderate conservatives" outpoll Pres. Ahmadinejad's hardliners in local council races, sending a signal that people of Iran are getting pissed at his provocation of the West and isolation of his country. In 2006 Iranian Council of Cultural Rev. head and pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad names the first cleric to head Tehran U., and begins a purge of liberal and secular teachers.

On Jan. 27, 2007 (14:30 GMT) the Doomsday Clock is set to 5 min. to midnight, the 4th forward set since 1991, prompted by nuclear standoffs with Iran and N Korea and warnings of climate change. As of 2007 nine countries have nukes: U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel (unacknowledged), India, Pakistan, North Korea; Iran is suspected of pursuing them; Indonesia is suspected of pursuing them in the 1960s after China's 1964 nuclear test; South Africa had them but gave them up in 1991; Egypt is pursuing a nuclear power program; Sweden has been a question mark since the 1950s; Japan has an official anti-nuke policy; more than 30 countries without nukes possess the materials and capabilities to make them using plutonium produced by a total of 435 operating nuclear power reactors worldwide; the U.S. and Russia possess 95% of the 27K known nukes; the original 1980s calculation of nuclear winter conditions only used 100 Hiroshima-sized 15K-ton A-bombs. On Jan. 17 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates calls for 2K-3K more GIs for Afghanistan and 21.5K for Iraq; meanwhile Lawrence B. Wilkerson (1945-), chief of staff for U.S. secy. of state Colin Powell tells the BBC that Iran offered to help stabilize Iraq after the U.S. invasion in return for lifting sanctions and helping it fight the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, but that vice-pres. Dick Cheney turned them down, despite warnings that Iran was moving to the far-right, which proved true when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power. On Jan. 20 Iraqi militants dressed as Iraqi soldiers enter a U.S. military compound in Karbala and kidnap and kill four U.S. soldiers, a 5th one being killed in the firefight; Iranian involvement is suspected, as relation for the arrest of five Iranians by U.S. troops in N Iraq. On Jan. 22 Iran bars 38 nuclear agency inspectors from entering the country. On Jan. 29 the deputy gov. in Najaf Province, Iraq announces that his intel forces had infiltrated the Shiite Soldiers of Heaven and thwarted a major attack planned for that night, the eve of chest-beating forehead-slashing Ashura, the holiest Shiite celebration; bloodletting is banned in Lebanon and Iran, but that doesn't stop them? On Feb. 3 Iran opens its Isfahan Uranian Conversion Facility to almost 100 reporters and a delegation of froeign ambassadors from the U.N. nuclear agency. On Feb. 9 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates claims that serial numbers found on bombs used by Iraqi terrorists prove they were manufactured in Iran. On Feb. 20 Iranian pres. Madman What's-His-Name tells a crowd of thousands that Iran will stop its nuclear program if the West does the same. On Feb. 22 the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency announces that Iran has ignored the Security Council ultimatum to freeze uranium enrichment and has instead expanding its program by setting up hundreds of centrifuges (total 1K), saying that new sanctions will be laid on them. On Mar. 10 Iran and Syria join the five permanent U.N. Security Council members U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China in a regional security conference in Baghdad. On Mar. 15 a roadside bomb in Shiite E Baghdad kills four U.S. soldiers and wounds two; a high tech bomb is found at the site, causing the U.S. military to blame Iran. On Mar. 23 (10:30 a.m.) Iran's Rev. Guards capture 15 British sailors and marines from the frigate HMS Cornwall at gunpoint in Iraqi waters the Persian Gulf near the Shatt al-Arab waterway, claiming they were in Iranian waters, causing a British protest; meanwhile the Iranians force the Brits to apologize on TV for being in Iranian waters; on Apr. 4 they are released suddenly Pres. Ahmadinejad, who awards medals to his own men. On Mar. 24 the U.N. Security Council votes to impose more sanctions on madass Iran for continuing with uranium enrichment after Pres. Ahmadinejad cancels a trip to address them. On Mar. 27 the U.S. Navy stages its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 Iraq invasion as a message to the pesky Iranians. On Mar. 29 the U.N. Security Council expresses "grave concern" over Iran's seizure of 15 British sailors and marines, and rejects Britain's call for a stronger statement; meanwhile Iran reneges on its promise to release the sole woman, Faye Turney. On Apr. 23 278 women and 12 men are arrested in major cities by Iranian police for improper and/or immodest dress, incl. letting too much hair peek out from under their veils; another 3,548 women are given "warnings and Islamic guidance". On May 5 conservative former 8-year Tenn. Repub. Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson (1942-) of "Law & Order" and "Hunt for Red October" acting fame gives a smooth Southern drawl speech at the Lincoln Club in Orange County, Calif., saying that he believes the U.S. should stay in Iraq as long as there is a chance of bringing in a new series, er, stability, adding that otherwise "we are going to leave an area of the world that becomes more and more nuclear" because if Iran gets a nuke other nearby countries will follow suit, and noting al-Qaida's stated intention to "put a mushroom cloud over an American city"; he also says that the 12M illegals in the U.S. don't bother him as much as the next 12M who will come; he announces his pres. candidacy on Sept. 5 on The Tonight Show. On May 6 the U.S., Egypt, Iran, the U.N. Security Council et al. hold a conference in Baghdad, Iraq. On May 25 radical Shiite Madhi Army leader Muqtada al-Sadr makes his first appearance in the pulpit of Najaf Mosque in Baghdad 14 weeks after fleeing to Iran. On May 28 the U.S. and Iran hold their first diplomatic meeting in 27 years in Baghdad, with U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iranian ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi talking about Iraqi security for four hours, and Iran agreeing to stop arming and financing militants. On June 12 U.S. undersecy. of state R. Nicholas Burns (1956-) tells reporters in Paris that Iran is funding insurgents across the Middle East, and arming the Taliban in Afghanistan, upping the ante on statements made by U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates a week earlier that Iranian weapons were falling into their hands somehow. On Sept. 24 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket makes a speech at Columbia U., where he utters the soundbyte "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country", praising capital punishment for them there, and raising howls and boos from the audience. In Oct. the Pentagon asks Congress for $88M to build the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 15-ton $5M bunker buster bomb designed to hit targets buried 200 ft. below ground, such as Iran's nuclear facilities. On Dec. 8 Pentagon chief Robert Gates calls Iran a fomenter of "chaos... everywhere you turn", demanding that it renounce nukes. On Dec. 22 David Michael Satterfield (1954-), senior adviser on Iraq to Condoleezza Rice tells reporters that the Iranian govt. has decided to rein in the violent Shiite militias it supports in Iraq "at the most senior levels", which explains the sharp decrease in roadside bomb attacks over the past several mos.

On Jan. 6, 2008 (Sun.) three U.S. Navy ships entering the Persian Gulf are chased by five Iranian Rev. Guard speedboats, who drop white boxlike objects in the water in front of them and transmit the message "I am coming at you; you will explode in a couple of minutes"; they veer off moments before an order to fire on them is carried out. Staying al-i-i-i-i-ve? On Jan. 28 U.S. Pres. Bush delivers his lame duck 2008 State of the Union Address, citing the successful surge in Iraq (30K new troops, plus the 90K-man Sons of Iraq (formed in summer 2006), former insurgents now on the U.S. payroll to protect neighborhoods and provide intel) and touting a $150B economic stimulus package of tax rebates while vowing to veto any spending bill that doesn't cut the number and cost of congressional earmarks; he pushes renewal of his No Child Left Behind Act and for permanent extension of the Anti-Terrorism Law, and claims that it's his goal to arrange a deal between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of his presidency, warning that the U.S. will confront Iran if it messes with its troops; Barack Obama snubs a handshake offer from Hillary Clinton, giving mixed explanations. On Feb. 11 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket addresses the 29th Anniv. of the Islamic Rev., vowing not to slow Iran's nuclear program and announcing plans to launch more rockets into space and eventually orbit a domestic satellite. On Mar. 11 U.S. Adm. William J. Fallon (1944-), top U.S. military cmdr. for the Middle East resigns amid speculation that his rift with Pres. Bush over Iran was a "distraction"; he had been described as single-handedly stopping an invasion, causing more rumors that now it's a green light to go balls-out to Tehran. Speaking of balls out? In Mar. the police chief of Tehran, Iran is caught in a raid of a brothel with six nude women, and arrested. On Apr. 8 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket announces a tripling of the Iranian nuke program, with 6K new centrifuges to be installed in Natanz; it takes 3K centrifuges one year to make one nuclear bomb, and they have had the joy-to-the-Islamic-world Big 3K since Nov. 7, 2007. On Apr. 12 an explosion in a mosque in Shiraz, Iran during a meeting of an Iranian Shiite religious group kills nine and wounds 66; no group takes credit - call me irresponsible? On May 13 Saudi Arabia warns Iran that its support for the Shiite Hezbollah in the "Lebanon coup" (its war with the Sunni-led Lebanese govt.) will damage its relations with other Muslim and Arab countries; meanwhile Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, causing Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad to call it inappropriate and offensive as long as Israel rules over the Palestinians. On May 19 Barack Obama responds to criticism by John McCain that he has "reckless" judgment on foreign policy for wanting to talk with Iran, saying that the Iraq War has made Iran stronger; he then goes defensive on ABC News, warning the media to lay off his wife Michelle - or I'll make her wear her veil in public? On June 5 a top Turkish gen. admits that Iran has been carrying out coordinated strikes with his troops on Kurdish rebels in N Iraq, becoming the first admission of such cooperation. On June 6 former Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz warns that Israel will attack Iran if it continues to develop nukes, calling it "unavoidable"; meanwhile Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan says that Iran has a "right to peaceful nuclear energy", and says that if the West and Israel don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons they should give theirs up first, while claiming to be against all nukes. On June 16 Pres. Bush visits London, receiving pledges of new financial sanctions against Iran and a commitment for a car bomb's worth, er, 230 new British troops for Afghanistan. On July 9-10 Iran test-fires nine missiles, incl. one capable of hitting Israel to demonstrate to the U.S. not to mess with them. On Sept. 18 a rally by mainly Jewish groups is held to protest Iranian pres. Mahmoud Imadinnajacket; too bad, an invitation to Sarah Palin is cancelled, although another one to Hillary Clinton is confirmed, causing a controversy. On Nov. 13 senior diplomats from Germany plus the five permanent U.S. security members Britain, China, France, Russia, and the U.S. hold a conclave in Paris to discuss fast-tracking new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program that have been stalled.

On Jan. 28 Pres. Obama gives a speech, admitting to the U.S. role in toppling Iranian PM Mohammad Mossadegh on Aug. 19, 1953, which doesn't satisfy Iranian pres. Immadinajacket, who calls for a full apology. In Jan. Am.-born freelance journalist Roxana Saberi (1978-) (1997 Miss North Dakota) (Iranian father, Japanese mother) is arrested in Iran for buying a bottle of wine, then accused of spying for the U.S. on Apr. 8, convicted and sentenced to eight years on Apr. 18, causing Pres. Obama to express disappointment with the medieval regime and say on Apr. 19 that he's "gravely concerned"; on May 11 after Mahmoud Ahmadeinejad writes them a letter urging the court to be fair, the appeals court rejects her sentence, allowing her to be freed - did she get wine in prison? On Mar. 5 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton proposes an internat. meeting on Afghanistan to incl. "key regional and strategic countries" incl. Iran, even though on Mar. 5 she accused its leaders of fomenting divisions in the Arab world, promoting terrorism, threatening Israel and Europe, and seeking to "intimidate as far as they think their voice can reach". On Mar. 20 Pres. Osama, er, Obama releases a Special Video Message to the People of Iran: A New Year, a New Beginning, offering a "new day" in U.S.-Iraq relations, calling it the Islamic Repub. to stroke their leaders, who brush it aside with the reply that Washington must show concrete change first, then inaugurate their first nuclear fuel manufacturing plant on Apr. 8; meanwhile a U.S. delegation led by Henry Kissinger meets with Russian pres. (since May 7) Dmitri Medvedev (1965-), calling it an attempt to "press the reset button" on U.S.-Russian relations; on Mar. 6 Hillary Clinton presents her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva with a mock reset button, but the label is misworded to read "overcharge" instead; on May 5 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates assures U.S. allies in the Middle East that their relationships with the U.S. won't be damaged by Obama's naive, er, open dialoguing efforts. In Mar. former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles "Chas" Freeman withdraws his nomination to head the Nat. Intelligence Council after financial ties to the bin Laden family are revealed, along with board membership in a Chinese-owned oil. co. making deals with Iran; in Nov. he makes a speech to a pro-Arab U.S. group claiming that Israel has long been assassinating peace-loving Palestinian leaders, that the 9/11 attack was caused by U.S. support for Israel, and that if Pres. Obama attempts to pressure Israel, its "American lobby" will use Congress to punish him. On Apr. 20 British ambassador Peter Gooderham leads dozens of diplomats in walking out of a U.N. Conference on Racism in Geneva after Iranian PM Imadinnajacket calls Israel a "cruel and oppressive racist regime", and says that the state of Israel was created "on the pretext of Jewish suffering" in WWII; protesters dressed in clown wigs disrupt Dinnajacket, shouting "racist" in French and throwing something at him; meanwhile the U.S., Israel, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands boycott the conference, which soon falls apart. On Apr. 24 two female Sunni suicide purse bombers kill 66 and injure 120+ (incl. 80 Iranian pilgrims) outside the Shiite Imam Mousa al-Kazim Tomb in Kazimiyah, Iraq. On May 18 Pres. Obama meets with new Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, hinting at a timetable to resolve differences with Iran over their nuke program, with Netanyahu saying he won't negotiate with the Palestinians unless they recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist; on May 26 Obama meets with Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak, followed on May 28 by Palestinian pres. Mahmoud Abbas. On May 20 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket slaps Pres. Obama in the face by announcing the test-firing of a solid-fuel medium range missile capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf. On May 28 a bomb in a mosque in Zahedan in SE Iran kills 25 and injures 125; the Iranian govt. blames the U.S. of putting the Sunni rebel org. Jundallah ("Soldiers of Allah") (founded 2003) up to it. In May in the midst of his feuding with Nancy Pelosi, CIA chief Leon Panetta travels to Israel to "read the riot act" to them, warning them against attacking Iran to stop them from developing nukes; meanwhile the Obama admin. quietly accepts their inevitability, stirring fears of a coming Jewish holocaust. Iran, where everybody's got dark hair finally starts to get tired of its old non-democratic dinnajacket? On June 12 (6/6+6) Iranian elections result in both pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and right-wing reformist challenger Mickey Mouse, er, Mir Hussein (Hossein) Mousavi Khameneh (1941-) (PM in 1981-9) claiming a V until the govt. ministry gets to work, declaring a 63% landslide for Imadinnajacket, causing 1.3M Mousavi supporters (who like to wear green) to cry fraud and stage violent protests, taking on the govt. in the streets, with protesters shouting "We want freedom", and "Where is my vote?", becoming the biggest demonstrations since the 1979 rev., causing the 2009 Iranian Green Movement (until ?), a mini-rev. pumped up by people using the Internet, incl. YouTube and Twitter to bypass govt. control of the media; too bad, only the urban elite have the hi-tech devices, and the rest of the country doesn't 'get' it, seeing only a Western plot, dooming the budding rev. as the Mobilization Resistance Force (Nirou-ye Moqavemat-e Basij) of hardline univ. students springs into action to kick protester butt; on June 16 the govt. offers a stalling limited recount, which fails to appease the protesters, who stage a massive rally in Tehran on June 17, with the protester death toll reaching 32, and 392-1,135 arrested; on June 17 grand asahollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (1922-2009) (#2 cleric behind supreme leader Ali Khamenei and spiritual leader of the opposition) says that "no one in their right mind can believe" the reported election results, and singles out "evil" Britain as the #1 enemy of the Iranian Islamic Repub., since it controls the BBC, while the U.S. doesn't control CNN, both of which portray the protesters as fighting for democracy, when they're really fighting to demote clerics from ruling the govt. to advising elected rulers; another Green leader is cleric Mehdi Karroubi (1937-), an alleged advocate of women's rights and participation in politics along with Montazeri; meanwhile on June 16 unexplainably passive Pres. Obama says "I have deep concerns about the election. I think that the world has deep concerns about the election", then adds "Peaceful dissent should never be subject to violence", causing him to be criticized for being a whimp that won't speak out for democracy for fear of offending some slimy govt.; too bad, Mousavi is a hardline rightist who helped start Iran's nuclear program, found Hezbollah and direct the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, but somehow attracts the 20-something pro-Western Twitter crowd, causing observers to tell Westerners to not expect any real change even if he wins; Mousavi's headscarf-wearing wife Zahra Rahnavard (1945-) has a Ph.D in political science, and has urged reforms incl. elimination of morality police and discrimination against women; on June 19 Iran's supreme assahola Ali Khamenei (1939-) (the Evil Emperor of the Shia Sith?) steps in, siding with Imadinnajacket and calling his election "an absolute and definitive victory", blaming the infidel West for the turmoil, and warning protesters to stop or else, while the govt. tries to coverup a bloody crackdown, causing the U.S. Congress on June 19 to condemn the crackdown; on June 20 (Sat.) a protest in downtown Tehran is put down by police with tear gas, water cannons and batons, along with warning shots, causing to Pres. Obama to call on the govt. to "stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people", while Moussavi says that his supporters are "facing unrighteous liars"; on June 21 (Iranian Bloody Sun.) the pigs step it up with shots into the crowd, and protester Neda (Farsi "voice") Agha-Soltan (b. 1983) is shot in the heart in the street by the pigs, and dies in her friends' arms, becoming a martyr for democracy after her death video is put on the Web; on July 9 despite the govt. intimidation, the protests resume; Rafsanjani's followers turn on the Russians for portraying the affair to Imadinnajacket as another U.S.-backed Color Rev. like in Ukraine; Islamic cleric Mehdi Karroubi (1937-) emerges as an opposition figure. On June 19 by 405-1 the U.S. House passes House Resolution 560, titled "Expressing support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law, and for other purposes"; the sole dissenting vote is Tex. Repub. Rep. Ron Paul, who opposes economic sanctions against the Iranian regime. On June 21 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appears on NBC-TV's Meet the Press, and after being asked "If the international community proves unable to stop Iran [for developing nukes], is it your view that Israel will have to?", responds that there's an "American commitment to make sure that that doesn't happen, and I think I'd leave it at that"; meanwhile a poll of Jewish Israelis by the Jerusalem Post reveals that only 6% see the Obama admin. as pro-Israel. On June 23 Pres. Obama gives a press conference, toughening up his stance on Iran and trying to explain away his earlier hesitation, saying that he's "appalled and outraged", and "strongly condemn these unjust actions", and uttering the soundbyte "Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history", but can't do much since the U.S. has no formal relations with Iran; meanwhile brave Iranian babes begin the Lipstick Rev., defying the maniacal mullahs by parading around in public sans veils wearing Western makeup incl. lipstick; on June 25 after the assaholah's men brutally crack down on protesters, Imadinnajacket warns Obama to "avoid interfering" in Iranian affairs; meanwhile on June 22 French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy makes a speech against the nasty Muslim practice of forcing women to bear head-to-toe burkas, saying that they are not welcome in France, and instead France should force them to adopt Western garb, particularly the miniskirt; in 2004 France banned the Islamic headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols in public schools; on June 2 al-Qaida in North Africa threatens France with a bloodbath over it; France groans under the weight of 5M Muslims. On June 25 Hamas chief (since 2004) Khaled Mashaal (Mashal) (1956-) delivers a speech in Damascus, Syria, saying that he likes the "new language" from Pres. Obama; he carefully refrains from mentioning his sponsor state of Iran. On June 28 Iranian pigs beat demonstrators in Tehran, while arresting nine Iranians working at the British embassy; on June 29 (Mon.) democracy in action not in Iran sees a recount begin, immediately claiming that Imadinnajacket got even more votes than before; meanwhile German chancellor Angela Merkel visits Pres. Obama at the White House, and says that the Iranian election results still need to be substantiated; meanwhile Scottish MP George Galloway stinks himself up by appearing on Iranian TV and blaming the BBC for fomenting unrest in Tehran. On July 1 three opposition leaders, incl. Mohammad Khatami, pres. candidate Mehdi Karroubi, and Mir Hossein Moussavi step it up and openly defy Iran's govt., vowing to resist the Imadinnajacket presidency. On July 4 Iranian diplomats attend 4th of July parties in the U.S. for the first time after the Obama admin. with its policy of "engagement" doesn't have the balls to rescind the invitations. On July 9 Uzi Arad, an adviser to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel must have "tremendously powerful" weapons to destroy any enemy trying to nuke it, letting the cat out of the bag about its own nuke capability; last week one of its three German-made subs sailed from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea port of Eilat to send Iran a message. On July 22 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton visits Bangkok, Thailand, saying that the U.S. will consider creating a defense umbrella over the Persian Gulf region if Iran keeps developing nukes, and signing the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, originally drawn up by the Assoc. of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1976, then signed by China and India in 2003, Russia and South Korea in 2004, and Australia in 2005, with the soundybte that it is "a very strong statement on behalf of our administration that the United States intends to be a very active presence in the region." On July 25 Iran's Rev. Guards announce that they will hit Israel's atomic sites with its missiles if attacked first by any of Israel's three German-built subs, with RG CIC Mohammad Ali Jafari uttering the soundbyte that Iran "was not scared" of Israel's nukes, adding "It's part of the pyschological war that the West has launched against Iran." On July 26 supporters of Mir Hossei Moussavi hold rallies in dozens of cities worldwide demanding release of jailed activists and an end to the crackdown. On Aug. 1 100 Iran puts 100+ political activists, incl. several prominent politicians on trial for protesting the election, where several give lengthy confessions praising Imadinnajacket and claiming that his June 12 election was legit - just take that soldering iron out of my anus? On Aug. 1 members of the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen of Iran, dedicated to the overthrow of the 1979 Islamic rev. govt. in Tehran go on a hunger strike near the White House to protest the death of at least six members (ends ?). On Aug. 5 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes his oath of office for his 2nd term despite all the protests and repression, incl. shouts of "death to the dictator". On Aug. 11 Yemen launches Operation Scorched Earth in order to end the 5-y.-o. Iranian-backed Zaydi Shiite Houthi uprising in the N province of Sa'da; on Nov. 9 fighting in N Yemen between Shiite Houthi rebels and Saudi border guards erupts when Houthis attack a Saudi border post, killing one guard and injuring 11, drawing the Saudi govt. into the fight, which spends 3 mo. to clear the border area, with 100+ Saudi casualties, causing 240 villages to be evacuated and 50 schools to be closed; the Sunni-Shiite war could eventually drag the U.S. and Russia into war? On Aug. 18 a senior Iranian official announces that Iran is ready for negotiations with the West on its nuclear program based on mutual respect and without preconditions; meanwhile RPGs and other weapons are found on an Australian cargo vessel en route from North Korea that is searched by the UAE, which Iranian officials deny are bound for them, calling it all a "Zionist plot". On Aug. 20 pres. Imadinnajacket picks Ahmad Vahidi as the new Iranian defense minister; he is suspected to be an internat. terrorist connected with the 1994 attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina; criticism of his appointment is called a "Zionist plot" - and now you get to obliterate Israel itself with our new nukes? On Aug. 27 Iranian supreme assaholla Ali Khamenei says that there is no proof that the reformists are working with the West, pulling the rug from under pres. Imadinnajacket's prosecutors, but plays both sides by adding "There is no doubt that the events were planned, no matter whether their leaders knew it or not." On Sept. 11 Iranian supreme you know what Ali Khamenei warns the reformists that they will face a "harsh response" if they don't give up. On Sept. 15 after an investigation by a 3-person committee that incl. pro-Palestinian Desmond de Silva, who on Sept. 28 utters the soundbyte "Even if Bin Laden himself was on board the Mavi Marmara, it wouldn't have made the blockade legal", the 575-page Goldstone Report, by the U.N. Human Rights Council led by Jewish South African ex-judge Richard Joseph Goldstone (1938-) is released, accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, saying that both sides had committed violations of the laws of war, and that while Israel had provocation it overreacted with disproportionate force, targeting Palestinian civilians and infrastructure, even using some as human shields, pissing off the Israelis; it is approved on Sept. 29, after which in Oct. Palestinian Nat. Authority pres. Mahmoud Abbas (a U.S. ally) is accused of colluding with both the U.S. and Israel by deliberately ignoring it; on Oct. 8 Libya asks the U.N. Security Council to consider it in an emergency session; on Oct. 16 British Col. Richard Kemp testifies before the U.N. Human Rights Council that "The Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population"; on Apr. 1, 2011 Goldstone recants the report, partly blaming israel for not cooperating with the HRC; meanwhile the Israeli govt. considers restricting travel by its officials and military personnel to Europe for fear of arrest as war criminals, and Hamas asks for postponement of a planned Oct. 24-26 ceremony in Cairo to sign a reconciliation pact with Fatah over the report, while Iranian pres. Inastraightjacket says that the West has been using psychological weapons that coverup how Palestians not Israelis are the real victims; on Oct. 12-16 Turkey pulls out of the EU, citing the Gaza atrocities, signaling the rejection of Kemal Ataturk's pro-Western secular Islam and the acceptance of radical fundamental Islam as it turns against its former allies Israel and the U.S. bigtime and openly courts Hamas, Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and al-Qaida; the B'Tselem group in Israel, which is against Israeli anti-terror actions supplies info. to use in the study; in Oct. it is revealed that the Goldstone Report was initiated by the anti-Israel Org. of the Islamic Conference (OIC) (founded 1969), known for trying to criminalize any criticism of Islam or Muslims worldwide as part of a "stealth jihad"; on Nov. 7 the U.S. Congress votes 344-36 to condemn the report, after which the Obama admin. pressures Israel to accept U.N. oversight of its military for the first time ever; on Dec. 14 a London court issues an arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, causing her to cancel a planned visit, after which the British govt. apologizes and foreign secy. David Miliband says that the govt. will change its laws to prevent any more warrants being put out on Israeli officials, causing the Muslim Council of Britain to loudly complain; in May 2010 pro-Israeli activists ban him from attending his grandson's bar mitzvah in Johannesburg. On Sept. 18 tens of thousands of opposition protesters march in Tehran, Iran, hijacking a govt.-organized anti-Israel march. On Sept. 18 Obama foreign policy adviser Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (1928-) suggests to The Daily Beast that Obama shoot down Israeli planes if they fly over Iraqi airspace to attack Iran, and complains that he is "diddling around", trying to reach an "evasive compromise" on the Israeli-Arab problem. On Sept. 20 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referring to his 2004 anti-nuke fatwa announces on TV that Iran isn't developing nukes, saying "We fundamentally reject nuclear weapons and prohibit their use and production"; the Obama admin.'s Euro shield was designed to protect against Iranian nuclear missiles. On Sept. 23 Pres. Obama makes his first address to the U.N. Gen. Assembly, saying that he intends to begin a "new era of engagement" with the world based on "mutual respect", and that the task of solving global crises "cannot be solely America's endeavor"; he meets with Russian pres. Dmitry Medvedev and gets a concession to consider tough new sanctions against Iran and support him on Sept. 24 as he chairs a historic meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council (5th time it has met at the heads-of-state level since 1946, and first chaired by a U.S. pres.), which unanimously approves a U.S.-drafted resolution calling on nations with nukes to scrap their arsenals; China, who agrees to the resolution also tells everybody that stepping up pressure on Iran isn't an effective way to persuade them to halt is nuclear program, dissing the Sept. 23 resolution of the five permanent security council members that Iran has until Oct. 1 to prepare a "serious response" to its demands to halt or face consequences, which doesn't phase them, since on Sept. 27-28 Iran tests short and long-range missiles capable of hitting Israel and Europe; luckily, on Oct. 1 after a high-level meeting in Geneva, Iran agrees to ship its enriched uranium to Russia for processing so it can be watched. On Sept. 23 Iranian pres. Imajackass gives his speech to the U.N., which bashes Israel as usual, causing 11 countries to walk out, causing Israeli pres. Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the U.N. for allowing him to speak since he also denies the Holocaust; meanwhile on Sept. 25 Obama, Sarkozy, and Brown accuse Iran of building a secret underground nuke plant, causing him to cave and announce that he will open it to inspection. On Sept. 25 after the U.S., U.K., and France expose the existence of a secret uranium enrichment site inside a mountain in Qom, Iran under control of the Rev. Guard, designed to hold 3K centrifuges, enough to make nukes, Pres. Obama appears with French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy and British PM Gordon Brown to discuss it, giving Iran two weeks to admit to its existence; actually they had been dismantled 6 mo. earlier and moved to a new secret spot, causing IAEA inspectors to later find empty tunnels. On Sept. 30 the London Financial Times calls the rulers of Iran "cheats and deceivers" who "cannot be remotely trusted" in regard to its nuclear program. On Oct. 3 the British Telegraph reveals that Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots, his family having been converted to Islam after his birth, and originally having the Jewish name Sabourjian ("cloth weaver"); his denial of the Holocaust is therefore an attempt to coverup his roots? - either that or he's a Jewish mole planted to give Israel an excuse to nuke it? On Oct. 6 Russia announces that it has struck a $4B-$7B deal to sell its advanced S-400 anti-missile shield to Saudi Arabia, silencing objections by Israel that it was going to sell the less advanced S-300 system to Iran, making it harder for Israel to hit their nuke plants. On Oct. 6 the Obama admin. unexpectedly cuts off funding for the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. On Oct. 8 Pres. Obama snubbed the Dalai Lama during his first visit in 18 years to avoid upsetting China; meanwhile Iranian Rev. Guards official Mojtaba Zolnour tells the press that "Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our country, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel"; meanwhile a Taliban suicide car bomber in Peshawar, Pakistan kills 49. On Oct. 10 Iran announces it has given death sentences to two election protesters, identified only as A.P. and N.A. On Oct. 13 Russian foreign minister Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov (1950-) tells the U.S. that further sanctions against poker chip Iran would be "counterproductive", adding "all efforts must be focused on supporting the negotiating process"; too bad, on Oct. 23 Iran rejects a U.N.-drafted deal to cut its nuclear fuel stockpile that could be (is?) used to make nukes. On Oct. 14 it is revealed that the Obama admin. cut funding for pro-democracy and human rights programs in Iran, reversing the Bush admin. program, buckling to Iran's leaders who criticized him for seeking to fund a "velvet rev." during the June pres. elections. On Oct. 18 a Sunni Jundallah suicide bomber kills 42, incl. five senior cmdrs. of the Iranian Rev. Guard in the Sistan-Balochistan Province in the Pishin District near the Pakistani border in SE Iran, pissing off Imadinnajacket, who threatens retaliation against Britain and the U.S. On Oct. 20 Saeed Jalili (1965-) becomes secy. of Iran's supreme nat. security council (until ?), in charge of pumping up their nuke program. On Oct. 25 Iran sentences five anti-govt. protesters to death; four of them are members of the Iran Monarchy Committee, who were arrested before the elections. On Oct. 26 U.N. inspectors make their first inspection of an Iranian nuclear site in a mountain S of Tehran. On Nov. 4 the 30th anniv. of the U.S. embassy takeover in Iran sees supreme assahollah Ali Khamenei diss Pres. Obama's efforts at reconciliation while the govt. fights anti-govt. protesters in Tehran, with the soundbyte "The American government is a really arrogant power and the Iranian nation will not be deceived with its apparent reconciliatory behavior." On Nov. 9 Iran strikes again, charging three American hikers, Shane Bauer (b. 1982), Sarah Shourd (b. 1979), and Josh Fattal (b. 1982) who strayed over the border with N Iraq at the end of July with espionage. On Nov. 9 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket gives a speech at a meeting of the Org. of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Turkey, calling for a NWO, claiming that capitalism is dead, and calling Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan his "friend". On Nov. 10 Iranian physician Ramin Pouranarjani (b. 1983) dies in the Kahrizak Prison near Tehran after going public with reports of torture of protesters; the govt. takes days to acknowledge his death, and denies that they did it. On Nov. 12 the U.S. govt. begins seizing $500M in assets (incl. four mosques) of the nonprofit Muslim Alavi Foundation, claiming that it's a front for the Iranian govt. On Nov. 16 (soundbyte day?) Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket utters the soundbyte that "The Iranian nation's nuclear rights are not negotiable"; meanwhile on Nov. 15 Pres. Obama visits Shanghai, uttering the soundbyte: "I continue to believe that the greatest threat to the United States security are the terrorist networks like al Qaeda", along with the soundbyte: "We do not seek to contain China's rise. On the contrary, we welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations", adding that he sees no need to change the One-China Policy of regarding Taiwan as part of Red China; he gives his consent to a plan by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Singapore to delay a binding agreement on climate change until next year; he also calls for greater Internet freedom in China, but in his Nov. 16 town hall meeting with 40 carefully-selected Beijing U. students, he refuses to discuss China's Internet censorship or meet with liberal leaders, many of whom were put under detention, which he doesn't object, then lets Chinese pres. Hu Jintao control a 30-min. news conference on Nov. 17, making the U.S. look like it's getting weak and whimpy; on Nov. 18 Obama tells the press in Beijing that the U.S. needs to contain its rising deficits (which have passed the $12T mark) in order to avoid "double-dip recession", and urges Hu Jintao to allow the yuan to rise, but is ignored; on Jan. 19 Obama visits Seoul, and says that he's willing to help North Korea with its economy and end its 50-year isolation if they finally move toward nuclear disarmament; meanwhile on Nov. 16 PLO leader Ahmed Qurei says that the Obama admin. has reached an understanding with the Palestinian Authority that won't stop efforts to unilaterally create a Palestinian state via a U.N. Security Council resolution, and on Nov. 17 Israel approves the building of 900 new homes for Jews on the West Bank, pissing the Obama admin. off. On Nov. 16 internat. inspectors pub. a report, voicing suspicions that Iran has concealed nuclear facilities. On Nov. 19 two Christian converts from Islam, Maryam Rustampoor (1982-) and Marzieh Amirizadah (1979-) are released by Iran from jail after 259 days after worldwide protests and petitions. On Nov. 22-26 Iran stages an air defense exercise to prepare against a possible Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities. On Nov. 25 Iran takes five British sailors hostage from a racing yacht owned by Sail Bahrain; it releases them on Dec. 1. On Nov. 26 Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) dir. gen. Mohamed ElBaradei says that Iran has stonewalled nuclear investigators, and that inquiry is at a "dead end"; on Nov. 30 he resigns after 12 years. On Nov. 29 Iran vows to expand its nuclear enrichment program to 10 new sites, stirring fears that they're rushing to get their hands on nukes. In Nov. Negar Azizmoradi, atheist leader of the Raelian movement in Iran flees Iranian persecution to Turkey, where she is arrested for having no passport, after which authorities discuss returning her to Iran despite facing execution for apostasy. On Dec. 7 Student Day in Iran sees anti-govt. protests despite the govt. arresting scores of students and mothers of children killed in the unrest since June 12 in advance and shutting down the Internet. On Dec. 7 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket tells Dubai TV station Al Arabiya that the U.S. is attempting to thwart the return of the Muslim Mahdi, saying "We have documented proof that they believe that a descendant of the prophet of Islam will raise in these parts and he will dry the roots of all injustice in the world." On Dec. 8 Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erodgan meets with Pres. Obama in the White House, and refuses to support further sanctions against Iran, which it's becoming increasingly friendly with. On Dec. 10 Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erodan gives an interview to Egyptian journalist Fahmi Huwaidi, saying that if Israel violates Turkish airspace to do recon on Iran, it "will receive a response equal to that of an earthquake". On Dec. 11 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton warns Latin Am. countries that getting too close to Iran is "a really bad idea" that could have consequences, saying the U.S. is well aware that Iran has stepped up diplomatic activities with Venezuela and Bolivia, and adding that Iran is "the major supporter, promoter and exporter of terrorism in the world today". On Dec. 13 Syria and Iran sign a mutual defense agreement, meaning that if Israel attacks Iran's nuclear facilities they will get in a war with Syria. On Dec. 14 the London Times pub. a secret document exposing that Iran was working on testing a nuclear bomb "neutron initiator" as far back as 2007, although Iran claimed to have suspended its nuke program in 2003; on Dec. 21 Imadinnajacket is interviewed by Diane Sawyer on "ABC World News", and he calls the document "a repetitive and tasteless joke", strongly denying that Iran wants the nuke, and saying that if the U.S. wants to impose sanctions "Then go and do it", adding "We don't welcome confrontation, but we don't surrender to bullying either"; on Dec. 28 former CIA counterterrorism official Philip Giraldi says that the document was forged, probably by the Israelis or Brits, blaming Rupert Murdoch for allowing the disinfo. to be disseminated by his chain. On Dec. 14 a confidential U.S. diplomatic cable says that Iran has assassinated 180 Iraqi pilots who flew sorties against it during the Iran-Iraq War; revealed by WikiLeaks in Nov. 2010. On Dec. 16 Iran tests the upgraded Sejil 2 missile, with a 1.2K-mi. range capable of hitting Israel and Europe, while dissing attempts to impose sanctions by cutting off gasoline supplies, since they have many more suppliers available. On Dec. 18 (dawn) Iranian forces sneak into Iraq and occupy a well in the East Maysan Oil Field; after an uproar, they withdraw. On Dec. 19 the Iranian govt. acknowledges that three protesters were beaten to death by their jailers, blaming it on low-level grunts not the brass. On Dec. 20 a plane loaded with North Korean weapons is impounded in Bangkok; it is thought to have been heading for Iran. On Dec. 23 Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Aswat reports that Osama bin Laden's 17-y.-o. daughter Eman escaped from her gaurds in Iran and fled to the Saudi embassy in Tehran about 1 mo. ago. On Dec. 24 an Iranian court sentences prominent reformist Abdollah Ramezanzadeh to six years in prison for post-election protests; meanwhile Iran simmers with disaffected people and the Imadinnajacket regime is at a crossroads? On Dec. 26 protesters in C Tehran in Imam Hossein Square et al. are attacked by police, incl. the Rev. Guard and paramilitary Basijis; protests continue until ?; meanwhile the Islamic Repub. of Iran stink it up with increasing violence, arresting 1K in massive protests on Dec. 28, the holy day of Ashura, which is also the 7th day after the death of Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, when his death is being mourned, killing some protesters, incl. Ali-Habibi Mousavi, a nephew of former PM Mir Houssein Mousavi on Dec. 27, making them more determined to bring the regime down, shouting "This is the month of blood, Yazid will fall", referring to Ayatollah Khamenei as the new Yazid, the killer of Hussein's son Ali, whose death is lamented on Ashura; meanwhile the govt. calls the protests a foreign-backed "masquerade". On Dec. 26 Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki says that Iran might be willing to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel with the West, but only on Turkish soil. On Dec. 27 the govt. of Iran begins posting photos of protesters on the Internet in the hope that informants will finger them.

On Jan. 1, 2010 Israeli officials announce support of Pres. Obama's decision to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, but criticize the measures being considered as too narrow, calling for "crippling" restrictions. On Jan. 1 Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki issues an ultimatum to the West to accept Iran's low-enriched uranium for higher-enriched uranium for their U.S.-built reactor, or they will begin enriching theirs from 3.5% to 20%. On Jan. 3 the Obama admin. still refusing to implement Muslim Ideological Profiling (MIP) as proposed by TLW et al., the Transportation Security Admin. instead issues orders that all travelers flying into the U.S. be given tightened random screening, and 100% from seven terrorism-prone countries (Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Mali, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen) to be patted down and have carry-ons searched; the list is later increased to 14, incl. Cuba, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen; no surprise, Euro airports are slow to respond, Cuba and Sudan formally protest, and France wants to add 23 more countries to the risk list; meanwhile a 2008 report by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security about a rogue aviation network run by al-Qaida across the Atlantic Ocean that was buried resurfaces. On Jan. 7 Iranian opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi is fired on by pro-govt. demonstrators in Qazvin (90 mi. W of Tehran). On Jan. 12 Iranian nuclear physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, who is linked to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is assassinated by a remote-controlled bomb; Iran blames Israel and the U.S. On Jan. 19 Iran rejects an internat. plan to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment. On Jan. 20 Pres. Barack Obama has been in office one full year and the world is still here and he still hasn't held precondition-free talks with Iran. On Jan. 28 Iran hangs two anti-govt. activists for the crime of "waging war against Allah"; meanwhile on Jan. 27 Pres. Obama warns Iran that it faces "growing consequences" over its nuclear activities, and on Jan. 29 the U.S. Senate votes to cut off Iranian oil imports after the House voted a similar bill 6 weeks earlier. On Jan. 29 Hillary Clinton warns China that it risks diplomatic isolation and disruption to its energy supplies unless it helps stop Iran from developing nukes. On Jan. 30 former Iranian pres. (1989-97) Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani tells a meeting of the Iranian Expediency Council that Iran's nuclear program is "irreversible", a "symbol of national resolve", and that Iran will not be stopped by new sanctions. On Jan. 31 the U.S. announces that it is deploying a Patriot Missile Shield in the Persian Gulf to protect its allies incl. Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait. In Jan. U.S. defense secy. Robert M. Gates sends a secret memorandum to the White House warning that the U.S. has no effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran's nukes; it is leaked in Apr.

On Feb. 2, 2010 Protestant clergyman Rev. Issavi (1944-) is arrested in Isfahan, Iran for converting Muslims, then tortured and threatened with execution. On Feb. 3 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Imadinnajacket flip-flops and says that Iran is willing to ship enriched uranium abroad "for 4-5 months" in exchange for fuel for a Tehran medical reactor. On Feb. 3 Iran announces the launch of a Kavoshgar-3 rocket capable of carrying a satellite, bragging about breaking "the global domineering system". On Feb. 7 Iranian supreme leader and CIC Ayatollah Ali Khameini utters the soundbyte "Israel is going downhill toward decline and fall and God willing its obliteration is certain" in a meeting with Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, adding that Iran will deliver a "punch" to its enemies on or before the Feb. 11 anniv. of the 1979 Islamic Rev.; meanwhile on Feb. 7 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran will raise its uranium enrichment level to 20%, taking it weeks away from weapons-grade uranium (90%), which White House spokesman Robert Gibbs discounts as unbelievable; on Feb. 11 Imadinnajacket announces that the first batch of enriched uranium has been produced, but denies any intention of building nuclear weapons. On Feb. 7 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton gives an interview to CNN, stating that she considers WMDs in the hands of Islamic terrorists to be the #1 security threat of the U.S., not a nuclear-armed Iran, calling al-Qaida "a very committed, clever, diabolical group of terrorists who are always looking for weaknesses and openings". On Feb. 11 the 31st Anniv. of the Iranian Islamic Rev. is marked by opposition protests, with Pres. Imadinnajacket telling a large trucked-in crowd in Tehran that Iran is now a nuclear nation. On Feb. 12 Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops raid suspected members of an Iranian-backed terrorist group, killing five. On Feb. 14 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton visits Doha, Qatar as part of a 3-day regional visit, and calls for Iran's religious and political leaders to rise up against the Rev. Guards, saying that they're moving it toward a military dictatorship; on Feb. 15 she visits Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and suggests that evidence points to Iran seeking nuclear weapons, saying it would create "quite dangerous" problems if they get them; meanwhile Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket says that Iran will suspend its uranium enrichment in exchange for processed fuel rods from abroad, but says that the swap must be "simultaneous"; at a town hall meeting in the all-women's Dar Al Hekma College, Clinton is asked if she'd leave the U.S. if Sarah Palin becomes U.S. pres., and she says no, but "I will be visiting as often as I can"; on Feb. 17 Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accuses the U.S. of warmongering and of turning the Persian Gulf into an "arms depot". On Feb. 15 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu meets in Moscow with Russian pres. Dmitry Medvedev, and presses for "severe sanctions" against Iran over its nuclear program. On Feb. 15 the U.N. Human Rights Council reviews Iran's human rights record, incl. mass arrests, torture, and executions, causing Western nations to line up on one side and Iran's Islamic and leftist allies incl. Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba to line up on the other as Iran tries to win a seat on the council in May elections. On Feb. 18 U.N. nuclear inspectors declare for the first time that they have extensive evidence of "past or current activities" by Iran to develop a nuclear warhead that continued "beyond 2004"; on Feb. 19 Russia issues the soundbyte that it is very alarmed that Iran might be working to develop nukes; Iranian supreme assaholla Ali Khamenei quickly trots out with his claims that Islam "is opposed to nuclear weapons" - what is this prisoner doing out of his cell? On Feb. 18 the Iranian Web site Asr-e Iran posts an editorial stating that since Israel's raison d'etre is the illusion that it can provide absolute security for the Jewish people, once Iran has nukes it will result in the end of Israeli society even if they are never used. On Feb. 21 Iran's first Iranian-made destroyer the 1.5K-ton Jamaran makes its maiden voyage. On Feb. 22 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls for an immediate embargo on Iran's energy sector, saying that the U.N. Security Council should be sidestepped if necessary. On Feb. 23 CIA-financed Sunni Jundullah (Arab. "Soldiers of Allah") rebel org. leader Abdolmalek Rigi, is captured in SE Iran in Sistan-Balochistan province by Iran (with Pakistani help?); on Feb. 26 he claims on Iranian TV that the U.S. promised him financial and military aid to overthrow the Iranian govt.; the real reason the U.S. Marjah offensive was announced in advance was to drive the Taliban into Pakistani Balochistan and wrest Chinese control of the port of Gwadar to seize it for themselves for a new supply line avoiding the Khyber Pass, and the capture of Rigi throws a monkey wrench into their plans? On Feb. 24 after the Obama admin. rules out an aerial bombing campaign in Iran in favor of measures to isolate it from the internat. financial system, Russia warns the U.S. against "crippling" sanctions on Iran, they will support only "Those that are directed at resolving non-proliferation questions linked to Iran's nuclear program"; meanwhile on Feb. 23 Imadinnajacket issues the soundbyte that "The Islamic revolution's final objective is global revolution", and that Iran will "cut the hands off" of any enemies who attack it, especially pesky Israel, whom Iran will go to war with it if it tries to do a repeat of its 1981 air raid on Iraq's Osriaq Nuclear Reactor on them, causing U.N. dir.-gen. Sergei Ordzhonikidze on Feb. 26 to say that calls for jihad by a head of state are unacceptable, and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Mar. 2 to say that there is still room for diplomacy rather than sanctions on Iran. On Feb. 24 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket visits Damascus, Syria to visit his pal Bashar al-Assad, and says that Arab nations will establish a Middle East "without Zionists and without colonialists", and that Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon will stand against Israel, causing U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton to tell the U.S. Senate that the Obama admin. is urging Syria to back off from its "deeply troubling" relationship with Iran, but will go through with its appointment of an ambassador to Syria for the first time since the 2005 assassination of Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri; al-Assad shrugs her off - I smell a coup? On Feb. 27 Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says that a dictatorial cult is ruling Iran in the name of Islam, becoming his strongest statement to date. In Feb. Iran moves its nuclear fuel to an above-ground facility, surprising Western observers because of the ease with which it could be bombed.

On Mar. 5, 2010 the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee votes 23-22 to declare the 1915 WWI murder of 1.5M Armenians by the Turks as genocide, pissing Turkey off and causing it to recall its ambassador Namik Tan, and make diplomatic overtures towards Iran. On Mar. 7 Iran unveils the new short-range Nasr-1 Cruise Missile, which can destroy warships. On Mar. 8 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden visits Israel, pledging support against a nuclear-armed Iran. On Mar. 16 U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder tells Congress that Osama bin Laden will never be captured alive, saying "The possibility of capturing him alive is infinitesimal"; he also claims that Islamic terrorists should be prosecuted in civil courts as "common criminals", comparing them to mass murderer Charles Manson; meanwhile U.S. Middle East cmdr. David Howell Petraeus (1952-) tells Congress that Iran is assisting al-Qaida by facilitating links between senior terrorist leaders and affiliate groups, and that al-Qaida has a safe haven in Iran "and the Iranian government knows it" - they look like you, they sound like you, they're not like you? On Mar. 18 Iranian-Am. businessman Hassan Nemazee, who raised campaign money for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama pleads guilty to defrauding Bank of Am. Corp., Citigroup Inc., and HSBC Holdings Plc of $292M by obtaining huge loans based on fake collateral documents; on July 15 he is sentenced to 12 years in prison. On Mar. 23 the U.S. announces that Iran is helping train Taliban fighters within its borders. On Mar. 28 former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton says on Army Radio that the Obama admin. is willing to accept a nuclear Iran, which explains their "extraordinary pressure on Israel not to attack Iran"; on Jan. 12 he warns Israel that it "has to move in the next eight days" before Iran brings its first nuclear reactor online on Aug. 21 to avoid release of radiation, saying that otherwise Iran "will achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States in the Middle East really has, and that is a functioning nuclear reactor." On Mar. 30 the 2010 CIA WINPAC Report says that Iran is poised to begin producing a nuke with a yield of a couple of kilotons of TNT despite problems with uraniuum centrifuges. On Mar. 30 the U.S. announces the Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who has been missing since June has defected to the U.S. and is helping the CIA assess Iran's nuclear program with $5M paid to him; on July 12 after claiming to be kidnapped in Saudi Arabia last summer by U.S. intel agents to question him about Iran's nuclear program, he appear appears in front of Iran's diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C. hopping mad and asking for a ticket back to Iran; he leaves on July 14, after which he is suspected of being an Iranian double agent trying to snow the U.S. about how far along the Iranian nuclear program is. On Mar. 31 Sarah Palin posts on her Facebook page that a nuclear-armed Iran would result in a "Second Holocaust" against Israel, and that "The Obama admin. has their priorities exactly backwards; we should be working with our friend and democratic ally to stop stop Iran's nuclear program, not throwing in the towel on sanctions while treating Israel like an enemy." On Mar. 31 former Israeli deputy defense minister Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh says that unless the U.S. and its allies enact "crippling sanctions that will undermine the regime in Tehran", Israel will be compelled to attack Iran's nuclear weapons facilities by Nov., adding that Iran will probably have "a nuclear bomb or two" by 2011, and that "An Israeli military campaign against Iran's nuclear installations is likely to cripple that country's nuclear probject for a number of years. The retaliation against Israel would be painful, but bearable"; he admits that "acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran during Obama's term would do him a great deal of political damage" in the Nov. elections, but that the damage to him resulting from an Israeli strike on Iran "would be devastating"; Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and Internat. Studies has already concluded that Israel would have to use small nukes (20KT) to destroy Iran's nuclear sites. In Mar. Israel ambassador to London Ron Prosor meets with exiled croen prince Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr al-Thani of Ras al-Khaimeh (RAK), the northernmost member of the UAE 40 mi. from Iran to help him stage a coup; Israel accuses RAK of "aiding trafficking in nuclear parts" to Iran.

On Apr. 4, 2010 three embassies in Iraq are bombed by suicide bombers, incl. the Iranian and German embassies and Egyptian consultate, killing 41 and wounding 237. On Apr. 4 Jewish-Am. Conn. independent Sen. Joseph "Joe" Lieberman appears on "Meet the Press", and says that the world is "at a turning point in history" because of Iran's drive to get nukes, and that the Obama admin. is "not going to do enough to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons quickly enough". On Apr. 5 Pres. Obama announces a new 5-10-year Nuclear Posture Review, substantially narrowing the conditions under which the U.S. will use nukes, even in self-defense, committing not to use them against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attack the U.S. with non-nuclear WMDs, with an exception for "outliers like Iran and North Korea"; it contains no mention of Islamic terrorism or jihad, and reverses the 2008 Bush policy document that says "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century", causing Conn. Sen. Joe Lieberman to call the move dishonest, wrong-headed and disrespectful to the majority of non-terrorist Muslims; former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani calls nuclear disarmament a "left-wing dream", and Obama an "inept" leader; conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh says that Obama wants to blame the U.S. instead of its enemies, and that his plan to build Muslim hospitals and spend $200M for security for the 9/11 terrorists awaiting trial should outrage 9/11 victims; Sarah Palin compares Obama's plan to a kid asking to be punched in the face in the playground and vowing not to hit back, causing Obama on Apr. 8 to comment "Last time I checked, Palin's not an expert on nukes. If the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are comfortable, I'll take my advice from them and not Sarah Palin"; on Apr. 7 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket calls Obama an "inexperienced amateur" who is quick to threaten to use nukes on U.S. enemies, adding "American politicians are like cowboys. Whenever they have legal shortcomings, their hands go to their guns"; on Apr. 8 Imadinnajacket adds that he won't plead with opponents of Tehran's nuclear program to avoid sanctions; instead of planning on retaliating with nukes, the Obama admin. pumps up a program to create Prompt Global Strike weapons, non-nuclear IBMs that can hit any place in the world in less than an hour; on Apr. 20 Saudi Arabia announces the building of the first nuclear power plant in the Gulf states in Riyadh; while Obama shows signs of accepting a nuclear Iran, Israel will never accept it; Obama's unilateral disarmament approach will only provoke another nuclear arms race? On Apr. 9 Iran unveils a 3rd generation of domestically-built uranium centrifuges that do it faster. On Apr. 12-13 Pres. Obama meets with 46 world leaders in Washington, D.C. (largest gathering of world leaders since the U.N. organizing meeting in San Francisco in 1945) at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit; after hearing that Middle Eastern nations are waiting to task him for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Benjamin Netanyahu of #47 Israel bugs out; on Apr. 11 Obama, who has already called a nuclear attack by terrorists "the single biggest threat to U.S. security" admits that if al-Qaida acquired nukes, it "would have no compunction at using them", and says that it "could change the security landscape in this country and around the world for years to come", but doesn't incl. Iran in that assessment; on Apr. 13 Obama presses for tightened sanctions on Iran, but Russia balks at gasoline restrictions, and obtains a voluntary agreement to secure vulnerable nuclear materials within four years; Chile becomes the first nation to agree to surrender all its highly enriched uranium, 40 lbs. obtained from Britain and France for two research reactors; meanwhile an Apr. 11 report by Jane's Defense Weekly says that Israel has 100-300 nuclear warheads; on Apr. 12 Russian pres. (since 2008) Dmitry Medvedev (1965-) warns Israel that if they attack Iran it might lead to a nuclear war; on Apr. 13 China says that any sanctions must promote a diplomatic way out of the nuclear standoff, while continuing its transfer of nuclear technology ot Pakistan and Iran; on Apr. 14 John McMain says that the U.S. keeps pointing a loaded gun at Iran, which is going to get nukes unless the U.S. hurries up and "pulls the trigger", meaning on sanctions not guns; at the close of the summit, Obama utters the soundbyte "Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them", pissing off McCain, who calls the remark a "direct contradiction to everything America believes in"; on Apr. 17-18 Iran holds its own nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran, attended by Russia; Ayatollah Ali Khameini calls the U.S. the world's "only nuclear scofflaw"; on Apr. 27 Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi calls the U.S. decision to not invite Libya a "political blunder" that will discourage Iran and North Korea from giving up their nuclear ambitions. On Apr. 13 James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation criticizes Pres. Obama, saying that his cutting of conventional military capabilities and talk of pullouts from Iraq and Afghanistan is creating a dangerous environment vis a vis Iran. On Apr. 16 (Fri.) senior Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi gives a Fri. mosque sermon claiming that women who dress immodestly cause sexual immortality that leads to earthquakes, and is backed up by Guardian Council head Ahmad Jannati, causing worldwide scorn incl. a campaign to trigger a "Boobquake" by U.S. student Jennifer "Jen" McCreight AKA the Blag Hag. On Apr. 18 U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, chmn. of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says that a U.S. strike against Iran would go a "long way" to delaying its nuclear weapons program, but that he considers it his "last option" right now; meanwhile Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket boasts of Iran's military might and says that no country would dare attack it; he also orders the U.S. and its allies to leave Afghanistan. On Apr. 19 the U.S. Defense Dept. submits a Report to Congress on Iran, claiming that it could develop and test an ICBM capable of hitting the U.S. by 2015. On Apr. 20 the Pentagon delivers its first Report to Congress on Iran's Military, saying that Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force in Venezuela (first official warning of Iranian paramilitary activities in the Western Hemisphere) while covertly supplying munitions to Taliban and other Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq. On Apr. 22 Iran's Rev. Guards hold war games in the Hormuz Strait to flex their muscles. On Apr. 26 the documentary film Feathered Cocaine debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, claiming that Osama bin Laden is hiding in Iran with help of the Iranian govt. On Apr. 27 Iranian Sharia police announce a crackdown on women who dare to display suntans in public. In Apr. the Islamic Solidarity Games (Muslim Olympics) are called off by Arab states because Iran inscribed "Persian Gulf" on the official logo and medals, and they want it called the Arab Gulf.

On May 3-28, 2010 the 189 signatories to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meet at the U.N. in New York City; on May 3 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attends, claiming that the U.S. has failed its obligations, started a global nuclear arms race, and dismissing the prospect of "nuclear terrorism", causing the U.S., Britain and France to walk out; later U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton gives a speech, dissing Iran for disregarding the treaty; U.N. secy.-gen. Ban Ki-moon utters the soundbyte that "the onus is on Iran" to prove it's not building nukes. On May 3 former CIA dir. James R. Woolsey says that the likelihood that Iran will have a nuke in a year or less is "extremely high". On May 9 Iran hangs five members of the "anti-revolutionary" Kurdish Party of Free Life for Kurdistan (PJAK) on charges incl. "waging war against God" (moharebe). On May 13 China announces a deal to sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan to compensate for a U.S.-India nuclear deal, despite Pakistan never signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, leaving the U.S. with the decision whether to come out against it or keep trying to gain Chinese help against Iran's nuclear program. On May 15 Iranian Ayatollah Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi (known for the Mar. 16, 2009 soundbyte "Whenever we develop the bomb then we will establish a relationship with the U.S. - if we shouldn't develop the bomb we shouldn't have a relationship, and if we can have a relationship we should make the bomb too") (also the soundbyte that the Quran was revealed in Arabic so that the Arabs, "the greatest infidels and hypocrites" could be reached "in the poorest of the world's languages", instead of Persian, "the most superior language of the dwellers of Paradise") calls for the creation of a Persian-speaking Greater Iran that he calls the Islamic United States, ruling the Middle East and C Asia from Afghanistan to Israel after destroying the Jewish state of Israel along with the pesky Sunni heretics incl. the Baathists in Iraq and Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia before or after the appearance of the Mahdi. On May 17 Iran signs a surprise nuclear fuel swap deal with Western nations, brokered by Brazil and Turkey (who secretly want to go nuclear along with them?), the first since 2004, alleviating concerns that they're secretly building nukes, but not really, since the deal involves only 50% of their enriched uranium stockpile, while they continue to run the centrifuges; on May 18 the U.S. submits a draft Iranian sanctions resolution to the U.N. Security Council, targeting the Rev. Guards, causing Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki to tell the press "There is no chance for a new resolution", adding "A couple of the members of the Security Council have come up with a new recipe in the kitchen. It seems that this new dish they have prepared is not being given to the guests in a timely manner, and the guests have already had their lunch"; on June 21 Brazil announces that it is partially backing out of the Iran deal; meanwhile Congress pushes for unilateral gasoline sanctions. On May 20 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei utters the soundbyte "If the Zionist regime attacks Iran, the Zionists will have no longer than a week to live." On May 24 Iran hangs Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of Pakistan-based terrorist group Jundallah's chief Abdolmalek Rigi, who is hanged on June 20. On May 26 Iran clashes with Russia over its support of draft U.N. sanctions against it, becoming one of their worst clashes since the Cold War. Tell me, friend, when did Saruman the Wise abandon reason for madness? On May 27 the misnamed Gaza Freedom Flotilla of six cargo ships (three flying Turkish flags, incl. Mavi Marmara, carrying 400 Turks who are members of the Islamic terrorist Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) (Insani Yardim Vakfi), headed by Fehmi Bülent Yildirim (1966-), carrying 10 tons of humanitarian aid incl. bldg. materials and medical supplies sets sail from Cyprus for the Gaza Strip in a symbolic attempt by 680 Muslim and non-Muslim activists from 50 countries to break the 3-year Israeli blockade by refusing to stop at an Israel port for inspection and trucking of supplies by Israel into Gaza like is done every week with 10K tons of food and other supplies; Pres. Obama's associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are closely associated with the Free Gaza Movement; Turkish activist Erdinc Tekir, who is wounded in the fighting is later found to have participated in an Islamic terrorist attack on a Russian ferry in the Black Sea in 1996; some activists chant Intifada songs, chant the Islamic battle cry "Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return", and praise martyrdom before departure; on May 31 (U.S. Memorial Day) (pre-dawn hours of June 1 in Israel) the Israeli military boards the flotilla 75 mi. from the coast, initially carrying only paintball guns, then meeting violent resistance, the Turkish jihadists taking four Israeli marines hostage before other armed commandos storm aboard, killing nine activists and wounding 53 (incl. 37 members of the IHH or other Turkish Islamic orgs.), all on the Mavi Marmara, while getting two Israeli commandos wounded while trying to board, then tows it to Ashdod, later releasing the activists accused of attacking Israeli troops after an internat. outcry; causing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to express regret and cancel a planned trip to the White House, later uttering the soundbyte "The state of Israel faces an attack of international hypocrisy... it is our right and obligation to prevent arms from reaching Gaza. This was not a Love Boat, it was a Hate Boat"; Obama calls the raid "a tragic situation", adding "You've got a loss of life that was unnecessary", calling for an "effective investigation"; on May 31 10K march in Istanbul, Turkey to denounce Israel, along with other demonstrations in London, Athens, etc.; in London 800 protesters attempt to storm BBC Manchester; a women's rally near the Qalandiya Checkpoint between Rammalah and Jerusalem sees Am. journalist Emily Henochowicz loses an eye after being shot with a tear gas canister by Israeli border guards; Turkey threatens action against Israel, putting it on alert; meanwhile on May 31 the U.N. Security Council holds an emergency meeting to discuss the Israeli raid, while Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Liberman claims that the flotilla organizers wanted blood to be shed, saying "Everything proves that it was a group of terrorists who want to promote terror and cooperate with terror"; Arab-Israeli Knesset member Hanib Zoabi, who is aboard the Mavi Marmara calls the IDF operation "criminal"; on June 2 Israeli forces find 1M Euros on one of the ships, intended for use by Hamas, along with a weapons cache; on June 2 pro-Palestinian activists send another boat, the Irish-flagged Rachel Corrie to challenge the Israeli blockade, while Egypt opens a temporary crossing into Palestinian territory, causing thousands of Gazans to flock to it hoping to escape; on June 2 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls for Israel's PM and defense minister to face trial for the raid; on June 2 two rockets are fired from Gaza Strip by the Islamic Jihad, causing a retaliatory Israeli air strike that kills five; on June 2 after warning Israel not to cause an incident, the Obama admin. sides with the flotilla, and announces that it considers the Israeli blockade of Gaza to be "untenable"; Turkish-born Furkan Dogan (b. 1990) is found among the dead activists, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, all at close range, causing the Israelis to backpeddle; on June 5 after Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead McGuire says that the activsts are prepared to be arrested, the IDF intercept the Rachel Corrie 35 mi. W of Gaza and escort it to Ashdod without incident; this time the U.S. warns the flotilla not to cause an incident; on June 5 Arab foreign ministers meet in Cairo go discuss the flotillas, and decide to "break the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza", "in any legitimate way", incl. "resistance" (violence); on June 6 Iranian supreme assashollah Ali Khamenei offers the Iranian Rev. Guards to escort future cargo ships to break the blockade; on June 7 the Israeli Navy kills six Palestinian divers, claiming they are terrorists; meanwhle on June 7 Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi warns Israel of Allah's impending warath for having "killed God's prophets"; on June 9 48 trucks with the cargo of the Freedom Flotilla is still waiting at Kerem Shalom crossing after Hamas refuses to accept it, and on June 17 the U.N. agrees to oversee the transfer; on June 11 Turkish pres. Abdullah Gul says that Israel must apologize and compensate the Turkish victims or it might sever diplomatic relations; on June 14 Israel assembles a investigative commission, which on July 12 finds no wrongdoing; on June 15 the Internat. Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) calls Israel's Gaza Strip blockade "collective punishment" and a violation of the Geneva Conventions; on June 17 Syrian pres. Bashar al-Assad says that the Israeli attack on the flotilla has increased the chances of war in the Middle East, and that the current Israeli admin. is a "pyromaniac" govt; on June 19 the Israeli cabinet bows to pressure and eases restrictions on Gaza Strip, reserving the right to inspect for military items; on June 20 Israel gives preliminary plans for razing Palestinian homes in E Jerusalem as a prelude to building Israeli homes, pissing off the Obama admin. again; on Jan. 23, 2011 the Turkel Commission finds that the blockade "was lawful and complied with the rules of international law, in view of the security circumstances and Israel's efforts to fulfill its humanitarian obligations." On May 30 Israel announces that it is deploying three German-built subs in the Persian Gulf near the Iranian coastline to intercept missiles. On May 30 U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says that Afghan insurgents are being trained and equipped inside Iran. On May 31 the Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) pub. a report claiming that Iran has enough nuclear fuel to turn into two nuclear bombs after more refining. In May Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei announces that he wants Iran to double its pop. to 150M, therefore families should have more then two children.

On June 7, 2010 the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassa reports the Osama bin Laden and six of his lts. have been hiding out for the past five years in the mountains of Sabzevar in Khorasan Province in NE Iran, guarded by Iranian troops. On June 7 Yukiya Amano, head of the Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) singles out Iran as a "special case" for monitoring teams because of suspicions that it's secretly building nukes. On June 8 Iran opens its first women-only bank branch in Mashhad. On June 9 after Turkey and Brazil try an end-run that is rejected, the 15-member U.N. Security Council adopts new sanctions against Iran; Turkey and Brazil vote against them, and Lebanon abstains; Imadinnajacket ridicules the new sanctions, calling them a "used tissue", and on June 11 saying that Israel is "doomed"; on July 7 opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi criticizes Imadinnajacket, saying "To say that this resolution is like a used hankie won't erase the hardships arising from demagogic policies, as it is clear to me that this resolution will affect our nation's security and economy"; the new sanctions incl. the power to inspect Iranian cargo, making war with Iran inevitable? On June 10 a bipartisan group in the U.S. House offers a resolution calling for the govt. of Iran to cease oppression of its people and political dissidents, with Calif. Repub. rep. Dana Rohrbacher uttering the soundbyte "Any enemy of the mullah is a friend of ours." On June 12 Iran marks the 1st anniv. of Imadinnajacket's reelection with a heavy police presence to scare potential protesters, who scrapped plans to protest on June 10; 900+ are arrested in Tehran. On June 12 the London Times reports that Saudi Arabia is preparing to stand down its air defenses to allow Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on its enemy Iran's nuclear facilities. On June 15 the U.S. claims success after 56 countries on the U.N. Human Rights Council (less than a third) support a statement critical of Iran's human rights record. On June 16 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket gives a Speech on the Jews in Shahre-Kord (near Isfahan), calling Jews "the filthiest and greatest of criminals, who only appear to be human", then adding "I hereby announce that from this point forward, one of the Iranian nation's main aspirations will be to deliver the American people from its undemocratic and bullying government." On June 17 the EU adopts new sanctions against Iran, causing it to threaten retaliation. On June 19 Egypt announces that a naval flotilla of 11 U.S. and one Israeli warships passed thrugh the Suez Canal, while an Iranian flotilla approaches Gaza; on June 24 Iran sends a letter to the U.N. saying that the presence of Iranian and Lebanese ships in the Gaza area would be considered a declaration of war on Israel, and is backing down. On June 20 ex-Mossad chief (1989-96) Shabtai Shavit tells a conference in Tel Aviv that Israel should launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran now to prevent it from getting nukes. On June 22 the U.S. Congress finalizes an Iran sanctions bill, and on June 24 votes 99-0 in the Senate and 408-8 in the House to approve them, with Dem. Mass. Sen. John Kerry uttering the soundbyte "A nuclear-armed Iran would pose an intolerable threat to our ally Israel, risk igniting an arms race in what is already one of the world's most dangerous regions, and undermine our global effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons." On June 23 Iran announces that it will send a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists to break the Gaza blockade; Iran claims that the Israeli Air Force unloaded military equipment at a Saudi Arabian base, while a large U.S. forced is massed in Azerbaijan on the NW Iranian border. On June 24 at the annual meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in New Zealand, China announces that it will provide Pakistan with more nuclear reactors, with the U.S. not opposing it because it wants China to help it impose harsher sanctions on Iran; this will give Pakistan reactors Chasma I through IV. On June 26-27 the 4th G20 Summit is held in Toronto, Ont., Canada; over 400 protesters are arrested; despite opposition by Pres. Obama, the G-20 nations reach a compromise and agree to cut budget deficits in half by 2013, with each country setting its own pace; Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi says that world leaders "believe absolutely" that Israel may take military action against Iran to prevent it from getting nukes, and urges Iran to "respect rule of law" and "hold a transparent dialogue" over its nuclear program. On June 27 CIA dir. Leon Panetta says that the last time the CIA had good intel on the location of Osama bin Laden was in "the early 2000s", and that there are less than 100 al-Qaida still in Afghanistan after they moved to the tribal areas of Pakistan; he also admits that sanctions won't dissuade Iran from trying to get nukes. On June 30 the French daily Le Figaro reports that Saudi King Abdallah told French defense minister Herve Morin: "There are two countries in the world that do not deserve to exist: Iran and Israel", which the Saudis deny; on July 3 the online daily Elaph reports that King Abdallah has postponed a scheduled July 11 visit to Paris to meet with pres. Nicolas Sarkozy to plan a Saudi exhibition at the Louvre, which had been planned during a 2006 Saudi visit by former French pres. Jacques Chirac. In June the Stuxnet cyberworm is detected, becoming the first known cyber superweapon designed to destroy a real-world target incl. factory or nuclear power plant, causing speculation that it is aimed at Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant; top German computer expert Ralf Langer claims that it set Iran's nuclear program back two years, making it nearly as effective as a military strike.

On July 1, 2010 Pres. Obama signs tough new U.S. sanctions on Iran, saying "With these sanctions, along with others, we are striking at the heart of the Iranian government's ability to fund and develop its nuclear programs"; "We are showing the Iranian government that its actions have consequences, and if it persists, the pressure will continue to mount, and its isolation will continue to deepen"; "There should be no doubt, the United States and the international community are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons"; too bad, China and Turkey soon take up the slack with fuel supplies to Iran. On July 3 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton utters the soundbyte that intolerant govts. across the world are "slowly crushing" activist and advocacy groups, singling out Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, Egypt, Ethopia, Zimbabwe, and Congo. On July 4 26-y.-o. Elnaz Babazadeh (b. 1984) is raped and murdered by Basij forces in Tabriz, Iran for not following the Sharia dress code - she asked for it? On July 5 Iran complains that Britain, Germany, and UAE are refusing to fuel its passenger planes as per the sanctions they said would be nothing. On July 7 UAE ambassador to the U.S. Yousef al-Otaiba states that he endorses a military attacks on Iran's nuclear sites as preferable to the long-term risks, calling it a "cost-benefit analysis". On July 7 Pres. Obama gives an interview to Israeli TV, and utters the soundbyte that Israel is suspicious of him because his middle name is Hussein; he finally reveals the truth about his reaching-out to the Muslims, saying that it is designed to reduce hostility toward Israel and the West, adding "The United States under my administration has provided more security assistance to Israel than any administration in history. And we've got greater security cooperation between our two countries than at any time in our history. And the single most important threat to Israel, Iran and its potential possession of a nuclear weapon has been my number one foreign policy priority over the course of the last 18 months"; he also mentions that his middle name Hussein "creates suspicion" among Israelis, countering that Rahm Emanuel's middle name is Israel, and adding "My closeness to the Jewish American community was probably what propelled me to the U.S. Senate." On July 9 Iranian woman Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani is temporarily spared death by stoning for alleged adultery via an announcement by the Iranian embassy in London, but the option of executing her remains on the table in the horrible Islamic Repub. of Iran as Iranian human rights judge Mohammad Javad Larijani, says that Iran's Sharia judicial system and the "sacred sentences of Islam" won't change under "Western attacks" and "media pressure"; on July 30 she is sentenced to hanging, and Brazilian pres. Lula offers her asylum; on Aug. 8 her Iranian atty. Mohammad Mostafaei seeks asylum in Norway; on Aug. 30 a state-run newspaper in Iran calls French First Lady Carla Bruni a prostitute for speaking out and signing a petition for Sakineh's release, and also calls for her death; on Sept. 5 the Vatican calls stoning "brutal" and raises the possibility of secret diplomacy; meanwhile on Sept. 5 she is sentenced to 90 lashes for posing in a photo without a headscarf - send in James Bond 007? On July 12 Russian pres. Dmitry Medvedev says that "Iran is nearing the possession of the potential which in principle could be used for the creation of a nuclear weapon"; on June 11 Iranian atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi announces that Iran has produced 20kg of 20% enriched uranium. On July 13 news surfaces from Iraqi civilians that Iranian trucks filled with missiles have recently passed through Iraq en route to Syria. On July 13 U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno warns reporters that Iranian-supported militants might try to attack U.S. soldiers as they try to leave Iraq this summer. On July 15 Sunni Baluchi Jundullah insurgents stage a double suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque in Zahedan in SE Iran to avenge the execution of their leader, killing 27, incl. members of the Rev. Guard, and wounding 169; Iranian cleric Hujjat al-Islam Kazem Sadiqi charges the U.S. with putting them up to it. On July 16 Russia and Iran sign a "roadmap" to future economic cooperation in oil, gas, and petrochemicals. On July 20 Russia announces that it won't sell "large missile systems" to Iran. On July 21 Kurdish PKK rebels blow up an Iranian-Turkish natural gas pipeline in N Kurdistan. On July 25 a cache of 90K secret records of U.S. screwups in the Afghan War from Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2009 from WikiLeaks is announced after they gave them to several major newspapers incl. the New York Times, the U.K. Guardian, and Der Spiegel; the records reveal that the Pakistani govt. helps the Taliban, that an incident in 2007 shows they might have acquired SAMs, that the U.S. set up a secret black unit to hunt down and "kill or capture" sans trial Taliban leaders, and that Iran helps smuggle arms to the Taliban; on July 26 White House press secy. Robert Gibbs says that the leaked documents pose a security threat to the U.S.; despite the fallout; on July 29 Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says that his men are studying the leaked reports so they can hunt down informants; on July 27 Jon Stewart expresses outrage that the U.S. gave Pakistan $6.6B in aid in 2002-8, and pledged another $7.5B over the next five years, even as it financed, trained, and colluded with the Taliban against the U.S. On July 26 the EU tightens its sanctions on Iran, with new steps to block oil and gas investment and curtail its refining and natural gas capability. On July 26 Iranian pres. Madmaninastraightjacket announces that he expects the Great Satan U.S. to launch a military strike in the next 3 mo. on "at least two countries" in the Middle East, without specifying which; meanwhile Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls Iran "the ultimate terrorist threat". On July 26 an Israeli AF heli (Sikorsky Yasour CH-53) crashes over the Carpathian Mts. in Romania, killing six; it had been doing high-risk drill attacks on mountain tunnels like are found with Iran's nuclear facilities. On July 28 47 (nearly one-third) of House Repubs. led by Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) introduce a resolution backing an Israeli strike on Iran. In July the U.S. reestablishes the U.S. Navy's 10th Fleet, and stations four upgraded Ticonderoga class cruisers equipped with Aegis ballistic missile systems in the Persian Gulf?

On Aug. 1, 2010 Pres. Obama says that his goal for the Afghanistan War is not to turn it into a "model of Jeffersonian democracy" but to keep it from returning to being a terrorist haven, calling it "difficult, very difficult, but it's a fairly modest goal"; meanwhile Netherlands becomes the first NATO to country pull its troops out of Afghanistan; U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff adm. Mike Mullen says that the U.S. has a plan to attack Iran, but thinks it's a bad idea, although their getting nukes is unacceptable, causing Rev. Guard deputy chief Yadollah Javani to say that "if Americans commit the slightest mistake" security in the Persian Gulf will be jeopardized, not mentioning prior threats to target Tel Aviv. On Aug. 2 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket calls on Pres. Obama for a televised debate to see who's got the best solution to the world's problems. On Aug. 4 an explosion near the convoy of Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Hamadan (280km SW of Tehran) is later claimed to be a firecracker. On Aug. 6 a new poll of Arab opinion finds that a majority now believe that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a positive development in the Middle East. On Aug. 11 Iran and Russia issue a surprise joint announcement that Russia will load the nuclear fuel to activate Iran's first nuclear reactor on Aug. 21, causing speculation of an Israeli airstrike; meanwhile AP reports that Arab nations are urging the U.S. to end its support of Israel's nuclear secrecy and push for an internat. inspection program. On Aug. 16 Iran announces that it will build 10 new uranium enrichment plants inside mountain strongholds starting in Mar. - I can give you what you want? On Aug. 18 Newsweek pub. a list of the world's most respected leaders, which incl. Saudi king Abdullah, causing Iranian Rev. Guards pub. Sobh-e Sadeq on Aug. 30 to call it a joke, since the Saudi regime is the most tyrannical in the world. On Aug. 19 the Obama admin. convinces ' Israel that Iran's ability to make a "dash" for a nuke will take at least another year. On Aug. 21 Russia helps fuel-up the Bushehr Reactor, Iran's first nuclear reactor, promising to monitor and remove spent fuel that could be used to build nukes; meanwhile Israel announces that reactor is "totally unacceptable", and that a country that "so blatantly violates U.N. resolutions, IAEA decisions should not enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy"; meanwhile former top U.N. nuclear official Olli Heinonen admits that Iran has enough uranium for 1-2 bombs, but claims that they wouldn't try it with only this amount. On Aug. 22 Iranian pres. Myishouldbe Inastraightjacket inaugurates Iran's first domestically-built unmanned drone aircraft bomber, calling it an "ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity", with "a main message of peace and friendship"; it can carry four cruise missiles and has a 1K km (600 mi.) range; on Aug. 23 Iran announces that it will also step up production of the new Zolfaghar and Seraj (Light) assault boats carrying cruise missles. On Aug. 23 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden addresses the Ind. VFW, and makes the statement "Iranian influence in Iraq is minimal. It's been greatly exaggerated." On Aug. 25 a day after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah asks Lebanon to seek their assistance, Iran announces that it's ready to sell arms to Lebanon. On Aug. 28 Israel places its largest-ever order for military fuel with the U.S., increasing speculation of a planned attack on Iran; on Oct. 7 it signs a $2.75B deal with the U.S. for 20 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet. In Aug. 2010 aging Fidel Castro gives an interview to Jeffrey Goldberg, in which he criticizes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran for always slamming the Jews, with the soundbyte that the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism, saying "This went on for maybe two thousand years. I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything." He adds that the Iranian govt. should understand that the Jews "were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world", adding "The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust."

On Sept. 1, 2010 former British Labour PM (1997-2007) Tony Blair (1953-) releases his new memoir "A Journey"; on Sept. 3 he gives an interview on it, calling radical Islam the greatest threat facing the world, saying that after 9/11 he didn't understand it yet, but that its roots go far deeper than he thought, and "If they could, they would use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons" and kill 300K not just 3K, saying "This is actually more like the phenomenon of revolutionary Communism", and "It's the religious or cultural equivalent of it, and its roots are deep, its tentacles are long, and its narrative about Islam stretches far further than we think into even parts of mainstream opinion who abhor the extremism, but sort of buy some of the rhetoric that goes with it"; on Sept. 4 he holds the first public signing of his memoir in Dublin, Ireland, where protesters hurl shoes and eggs at him; on Sept. 5 he warns that Iran's nuclear program must be stopped by tougher sanctions followed by a military action. On Sept. 1 Iranian consul Hossein Alizadeh resigns in Oslo, and requests asylum in Finland. On Sept. 1 the Pentecostal Dove World Outreach Center in Gainsville, Fla., led by pastor Terry Jones (who posted a sign outside his church in 2009 reading "Islam is of the Devil") gains mass media attention for his July announcement of a public burning of 200 Qurans on 9/11, calling it Internat. Burn a Koran Day, complete with a Facebook page, causing Pope Benedict VI, Hillary Clinton, U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, Sarah Palin, Franklin Graham, and Pat Robertson, and Pres. Obama (who calls it a "stunt" that is "contrary to American values") to ask them not to do it; on Sept. 6 hundreds of Afghans protest the planned action outside Kabul, shouting "Death to America"; the FBI announces that an Islamic extremist relatiatory attack is likely; Terry Jones is revealed to have led a 1K-member congregation in Cologne, Germany, where he preached hatred of Islam, and got a 3K Euro fine in 2002 for claiming a fake doctorate before he was kicked out by the church in 2008 for financial irregularities; Sept. 9 after FBI agents visit him and tells him about a blizzard of death threats, Terry Jones cancels the planned Quran BBQ after being told that the Ground Zero Mosque will moved, calling it "a sign from God", which Imam Rauf denies, saying "We're not here to barter", after which Fla. imam Muhammad Musri claims he only told him he'd go to New York with him and discuss moving it, pissing Jones off, causing him to say "I've been lied to", and that the event is only suspended not cancelled; meanwhile Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. vows to hold a Quran BBQ if they don't, then flops and vows never to do it; on Sept. 12 two Iranian grand ayatollahs issue fatwas calling for death for all who insult the Quran or burn it; on Sept. 9 the Council on Am.-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announces it will distribute 200K Korans, and on Sept. 10 Iraqi Muslim al-Qaida leader Abu Suleiman Al-Naser (al-Nassir) posts a call on the Web for Am. Muslims to murder Terry Jones; Jones' 225 Qurans are given to the Christian Defense Coalition, who distributes them to Christian churches as a reminder to pray for Muslims and share the love of Christ with them; meanwhile reports that authorities in Iran have have intercepted and burned hundreds of Bibles are ignored by the PC media; in Oct. it is announced that Jones received a free $13K 2011 Hyundai for calling the Quranicue off; on Jan. 20, 2011 Jones is banned from Britain by babyproof home secy. Theresa May; on Mar. 21, 2011 Jones burns a Quran anyway, by which time his 15 min. of fame is up and nobody cares, which doesn't stop irate Muslims from issuing a $2.3M fatwa on his head. On Sept. 2 Middle East expert Arnaud de Borgegrave tells Newsmax.TV that the odds of an Israeli strike on Iran is "a 50-50 proposition", adding "It seems to be moving up the ladder." On Sept. 3 Iranian armed forces chief of staff Hassan Firouzabadi announces that if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities it will retaliate by attacking theirs. On Sept. 3 World Qods (Jerusalem) Day sees massive rallies in Iran calling for the "ignominious annihilation" of the "usurper Zionist regime" in Israel; meanwhile on Aug. 29 Arab League head Amr Moussa, who earlier had doubted that the Israeli-Palestinian talks would be successful says that they will be the last round of negotiations because Arabs are ready for full peace with Israel in exchange for a pullout of the lands occupied in 1967 incl. East Jerusalem; on Sept. 5 foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman warns Israelis to remember what happened after the Oslo peace talks with the 2nd Intifada, and says that there will be no peace in our time; meanwhile U.S. envoy Michael Oren warns that Hezbolllah has 15K rockets on the Lebanese border hidden under homes, hospitals and schools with enough range to hit Eilat, Israel. On Sept. 4 top Iranian grand ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi calls the Holocaust a "superstition", and says that "Zionists say that people of the world should be forced to accept this." On Sept. 5 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Qatar, and utters the soundbyte "The U.S. and the Zionist entity will not be able to hit Iran right now. This is a wish... Any Israeli attack against Iran means the elimination of the Zionist entity from the world map"; meanwhile it is revealed that at least five Iranian cos. in Afghanistan have a $1K bounty on the head of any U.S. soldier killed by a Taliban member, also paying them monthly salaries of $233 and offering them $6K to blow up a U.S. military vehicle, and that Hezbollah is hitting U.S. targets in Iraq as a subcontractor for Iran and Syria. On Sept. 6 the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency IAEA releases a report saying that Iran is "hampering" their work, and possesses 2.8 tons of enriched uranium; the White House calls it "troubling". On Sept. 8 the U.S. blacklists the German-based European-Iranian Trade Bank AG, claiming that it finances weapons proliferation. On Sept. 9 an Iranian dissent group claims that Iran is developing a secret nuclear site called Behjatad-Abyek (Code Name 311) near Qazvin, 120 mi. W of Tehran. On Sept. 10 Pres. Obama holds a news conference (first since May), fielding questions on the dismal chances for Dems. in the Nov. election, dissing Repubs. for "holding middle class tax relief hostage because they're insisting we've got to give tax relief to millionaires and billionaires, which would cost, over the course of 10 years, $700 billion and economists say is probably the worst way to stimulate the economy. That's an example of what this election is all about"; he also pontificates about Pastor Terry Jones' "stunt" and how it threatens American lives abroad, reminding us that he's commander in chief and seeming to regret not ordering U.S. marshals to arrest him for endangering troops, saying "You don't play games with that", and repeating his support of Muslims' right to build a mosque anywhere they can get away with, esp. Ground Zero, never mentioning that he could work with the Muslims to move it in a compromise, cautioning Americans not to "turn on each other", and uttering the soundbyte: "We are not at war against Islam, we're at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts - we've got to be clear about that"; he also announces the appointment of Austan Dean Goolsbee (1969-) chmn. of the Council of Economic Advisers (until ?); meanwhile thousands protest the Pastor Terry Jones Koran Burning media stunt in Afghanistan, burning effigies of Terry Jones, and resulting in at least one death as German troops shoot a protester outside a NATO base; meanwhile Iranian pres. Imanutjob says that Quran burning is a "Zionist plot" that will hasten Israel's annhilation, and Newt Gingrich calls on Obama to come out against the Ground Zero Mosque to show the Am. people some "even-handedness"; meanwhile CIA dir. Leon Panetta tells his employees in a 9/11 memorial message that "The enemy is defined not by any religion, but by their actions, their atrocities", saying "We are united by our shared belief in liberty, equality, tolerance, fairness, and better lives for our children" (so we are at war with Islam?); meanwhile a new U.S. Terror Report from the former heads of the 9/11 Commission says that the U.S. has been slow to take seriously threats posed by homegrown Islamic radicals and failed to put systems into place - duh, no brainer with a president like Obama? On Sept. 14 Sarah Shourd of the U.S. is released after 400 days in solitary confinement in Iran (July 2009) for alleged spying after paying £500K bail. On Sept. 15 Western govts. accuse Iran of trying to intimidate the IAEA by barring some nuclear inspectors; the U.S. warns them of possible diplomatic consequences. On Sept. 15 Iranian pres. Madmaninastraightjacket interviews head-covered Andrea Mitchel on NBC Nightly News, saying that "Muslims do not hate America" - just the non-Muslims in it? On Sept. 20 Turkish pres. Abdullah Gul abruptly cancels a planned meeting with Israeli pres. Shimon Peres at Bill Clinton's Millennium Challenge after Peres won't apologize for the Gaza Flotilla incident, but meets with Israel-hating Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket, who on Sept. 21 addresses the U.N. Gen. Assembly, saying that Capitalism is failing, and that a "pure, righteous and glorious" NWO should be created, and warning the U.S. that if its nuclear facilities are attacked, it will start a war "without boundaries", and that "war is not just bombs", also calling Hillary Clinton "an enemy of Iran", and saying that "the Zionist regime is finished" and can't attack Iran, so they're not even planning for an attack; meanwhile French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy vows a fight on world poverty, pledging to boost aid to the world's poorest by 20% over three years and inviting other nations to join. On Sept. 21 a bomb explodes in a crowd watching a military parade in Mahabad in NW Iran in a Kurdish area near the Iraq-Turkey border, killing 12 and injuring dozens. On Sept. 21 Russia officially bans the sale of S-300 missile systems to Iran 3 mo. after U.N. sanctions were imposed. On Sept. 22 Iranian pres. Madmaninastraightjacket gives an interview with CNN's Lary King, calling Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu "a skilled killer" who "should be put on trial for killing women and children", and saying that Iran has "no interest" in nukes and that nobody is concerned about the issue other than "the Zionist regime and some American authorities"; he gives another interview to Christane Amanpour, saying that he's open to working with the U.S. against the Taliban. On Sept. 23 Iranian pres. Madman Inadinnajacket gives a speech at the U.N., where he backs the 911 Truther Movement that claims that the U.S. not Islam did 9/11 in order "to reverse the declining American economy and its grip on the Middle East, and in order to save the Zionist regime" (he won't admit the existence of Israel), causing the U.S. and 31 other nations to walk out, incl. all 27 EU nations, Australia, New Zealand, and Costa Rica, while the rest of the 192 nations applaud, after which Pres. Obama calls his claims about 9/11 ""offensive" and "hateful", adding "Particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan,just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost theirloved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable"; Ahmadinejad asks the U.N. to proclaim 2011 as the Year of Nuclear Disarment, with the slogan "Nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none"; too bad, Obama also says "We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger", causing some to claim that not only did the U.S. govt. do 9/11 but that it's planning a nuclear followup; the U.S. org. Muslims of the Americas supports Dinnerjacket's speech. On Sept. 29 the Obama admin. slaps financial and travel sanctions on eight Iranian officials accused of human rights abuses. On Sept. 29 Hossein Derakhshan, "the Father of Blogging in Iran" is sentenced to 19 years in jail.

On Oct. 3, 2010 Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket calls for U.S. leaders to be "buried" for threatening its nuke program militarily, with the classic Iranian insult "May the undertaker bury you, your table and your body, which has soiled the world." On Oct. 9 Iran acknowledges espionage for the West occurred at their nuclear facilities. On Oct. 10 the World Day Against the Death Penalty is sponsored by Amnesty Internat., who claims there are 137 countries with capital punishment, only 60 of them implementing the sentence; the top bad guys are China and Iran. On Oct. 13 an explosion at an Iranian Rev. Guard base in Lorestan kills 18 and injures 14 - Bond, James Bond? On Oct. 14 Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket visits S Lebanon, calling the village of Bint Jbeil the "capital of freedom, resistance and victory", and saying "The Zionists will not last long", calling for Palestine to be "forcefully freed" and the Zionists to "go back where they came from", adding "Lebanon is an example... for the unwavering resistance to the world's tyrants and a university for jihad", and "Our world today stands on the verge of change, a change that is starting from our region", and predicting that "the Mahdi will come here, accompanied by Jesus Christ" to help his side; he receives a warm reception from Lebanese pres. Michel Suleiman and other Lebanese leaders; on Oct. 17 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says that Lebanon is increasingly becoming a satellite of Iran, with the soundbyte "This is a tragedy for Lebanon, but we in Israel will know how to defend ourselves and continue to build our country"; meanwhile the European Jewish Congress warns that some Jewish communities in Europe are "teetering on the brink" due to nat. endorsement and/or neglect of anti-Semitism, with pres. Moshe Kantor uttering the soundbyte "We are entering a very dark period for Jews in Europe." On Oct. 18 the Obama admin. announces that it has asked China to quit helping Iran improve its missile technology and develop nukes. On Oct. 18 Hassan Karami, police chief of Esfahan, Iran announces that it is a crime for women to cycle or roller-skate in public. On Oct. 19 Iranian pres. Madman Inadinnajacket greets Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki in Tehran, congratulating him on his 2nd term, and telling him to "get rid of America". On Oct. 22 WikiLeaks releases 400K U.S. intel reports on the Iraq War, becoming the largest intel leak in U.S. history, with Daniel Ellsberg uttering the soundbyte "I've waited 40 years for this"; the reports expose a longstanding Iranian war on the U.S., and that Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki ran his own private army. On Oct. 22 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu addresses world Jewish leaders at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem, saying "Israel must do all in its power to ward off the goals of radical Islam while doing all it can to reach true peace. Iran continues to deny the Holocaust and call for Israel's destruction. Today, its influence is apparent in Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, South America and Africa. This is what they are doing without a nuclear weapon – imagine what they would do with a nuclear weapon." On Oct. 23 the New York Times reveals that Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai has been receiving bagfuls of cash from Iranian ambassador Feda Hussein Maliki via Karzai's chief of staff Umar Daudzai. On Oct. 24 Tony Blair's journalist sister-in-law Lauren Booth (1967-) announces her conversion to Islam six weeks earlier after after a "spiritual experience" in the Fatima a-Masumeh Shrine in Qom, Iran, saying that she's all the way up to page 60 in the Quran; meanwhile Iranian authorities publicly cut the hand off a thief to signal a new era of Islamic law and order. On Oct. 28 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) chief John Sawers delivers the first public speech by a U.K. espionage chief, saying that terrorists might hit the West again "at huge human cost", but that nuclear proliferation is a more far-reaching danger, singling-out Iran. On Oct. 28 Israel-hating Iran bans weightlifter Hossein Khodadadi for life for daring to stand next to an Israeli weightlifter on the platform in Poland. In Oct. Nigerian authorities discover weapons hidden in shipping contains, and trace them to the Iranian Rev. Guards; next Feb. 16 they begin prosecuting guard member Azim Aghajani and his Nigerian associate Usman Abbas Jega.

On Nov. 10, 2010 after fierce opposition from the U.S. and human rights groups, the U.N. rejects a bid by misogynistic Iran for a seat on the new U.N. Women's Rights Panel, but accepts far worse Saudi Arabia - how much did that cost them? On Nov. 14 French embassy in Tehran is blocked, causing France to accuse Iran of "unacceptable acts of violence". On Nov. 16 U.S. defense secy. Robert M. Gates says that the internat. sanctions on Iran has caused a rift between Pres. Imadinnajacket and Supreme Leader Assahola Khameini. On Nov. 20 a poll by the Israeli Project finds that 55% of Palestinians want a 2-state solution only as a stepping-stone to a 1-state solution under Islamic Sharia; meanwhile Hezbollah announces that Iran has provided them with Fatah-110 rockets, which have a range of 300km and come with guidance systems, turning Hezbollah into a military not just terrorist threat. On Nov. 27 Amir Hossein Shirana, an abducted employee from a secret Iranian nuclear plant claims they were enriching uranium to build a nuclear weapon. There are no bathrooms out there, you know? On Nov. 28 250K embassy cables, some as recently as this Feb. are released by Julian Assange's WikiLeaks revealing a long list of U.S. foreign strategies and secrets, incl. spying on allies, messages from Saudi King Abdullah calling on the U.S. to "cut off the head of the snake" with an air strike on Iran, and warnings from Israel that Iran is close to getting nukes; it also reveals that Iran had used Red Crescent to smuggle weapons and agents into Lebanon, and reveals that "Saudi donors remains the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like al-Qaida"; Iranian officials lied to the IAEA about their nuclear plants; the Saudi king urged the U.S. to implant chips in Gitmo inmates to track them "like horses, falcons"; Arab leaders called Iranian pres. Madmaninastraightjacket "evil" and an "existential threat"; Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai pardoned cops caught dealing drugs incl. heroin, repeatedly threatened to join the Taliban; Armenia sent arms to Iran that were used to kill U.S. troops; future pope Benedict XVI wanted Muslim Turkey kept out of the EU; the U.S. set up an intel unit in Barcelona, Spain after calling Catalonia "the greatest center of radical Islamist activity in the Mediterranean"; U.S. diplomats conclude that Britain made "little progress" in fighting Islamists after the 7/7/2005 London Bombings despite investing considerable time and resources; Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi told U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates in Feb. that no one could stop Israel from attacking Iran if it feels an existential threat; Sudanese pres. Omar al-Bashir has stuffed up to $9B in U.K. banks; a survey of 30 univs. in Britain found that 32% of Muslim students support killing for Islam, and 40% want Sharia law; Israeli Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told a U.S. Congressional delegation in late 2009 that Israel was preparing for a large war against Hamas or Hezbollah; the U.S. fears that Saudi Arabia has overstated its oil reserves by 40% (300B barrels); Turkey allowed the U.S. to use its Incirlik airbase as a refueling stop despite official denials; U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder promises to prosecute anybody who broke U.S. law by leaking secret diplomatic cases, and U.S. Rep. Peter King (in line to be the next House Homeland Security Committee chmn.) calls for Assange to be prosecuted under the U.S. Espionage Act and for WikiLeaks to be designed as a foreign terrorist org.; Sarah Palin disses the Obama admin.'s handling of the documents release as "incompetent"; Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy calls for Assange to be put on the U.S. kill list like Anwar al-Awlaki; after Amazon shuts down their site, they get new hosting from Banhof, which is located inside a Cold War bunker in a Swedish mountain; on Dec. 9 Russia chimes in, suggesting that Assange be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize; the leaked cables spark the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen?

On Dec. 1, 2010 the U.S. Treasury Dept. cites five Iranian corporate officials and 10 businesses serving as fronts for Iran's shipping co. Iran Shipping Lines. On Dec. 5 Iran announces that it can produce yellow cake, allowing it to freely convert local or African uranium ore into nuclear fuel. On Dec. 6-7 the U.S. and Iran hold their first direct talks on Iran's nuclear program in over a year in Geneva, and they agree to meet again next Jan. after no substantive progress - did they serve yellow cake? On Dec. 12 Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel is released from prison after serving a 5-mo. sentence for spitting at an Israeli police officer during a 2007 demonstration at Al-Aqsa Mosque; on Dec. 12 Iranian Muslims demonstrate at the tomb of Jewish Biblical queen Esther in W Iran and threaten to destroy it if Israel damages Al-Aqsa. On Dec. 13 Iranian pres. Imadinnacket fires foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki after five years. On Dec. 15 two Sunni suicide bombers outside the Imam Hussein Mosque in Chabahar, Iran kill 39+, incl. a newborn baby during a Shiite mourning ceremony; an Iranian parliamentarian blames Zionists and the U.S.; on Dec. 20 11 members of the Sunni Jundallah (Arab. "soldiers of Allah") group are hanged. On Dec. 16 ABC News reports that Houston-based Iranian-Am. Muslim businessman Farid Seif left a loaded Glock pistol in his computer case and it sailed through security untouched. On Dec. 19 the Iranian parliament cuts ties with Britain after statements by British ambassador Simon Grass criticizing Iran's human rights record. On Dec. 24 Iran bans opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mahdi Karroubi, and Mohammad Khatami from leaving the country.

On Jan. 4, 2011 Iran announces the arrest of several suspected Christian missionaries in Tehran. On Jan. 6 Iranian nuclear chief vice-pres. Ali Akbar Salehi announces that Iran has 40kg of 20%-enriched uranium, up from 30kg in Oct. On Jan. 7 hundreds of protesters in Kabul accuse Iran of stopping fuel tanks from crossing the border into Afghanistan. On Jan. 7 Israeli intel chief Meir Dagan revises previous estimates and says that Iran can't acquire a nuke before 2015. On Jan. 8 Shiite Iraqi cleric Moktada al-Sadr celebrates his return after three years of voluntary exile in Iran with a speech in Najaf in support of the U.S.-supported Iraq govt. while calling for U.S. troops to leave; too bad, he makes his support of the govt. conditional on its effectiveness. On Jan. 11 prominent Iranian human rights atty. Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was arrested Sept. 4 is convicted of security crimes and sentenced to 11 years in prison. On Jan. 11 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls for a "credible military option against Iran" to force it to end its nuclear energy program, saying it should be an internat. effort headed by the U.S. On Jan. 29 Dutch-Iranian protester Zahra Bahrami (b. 1965) is executed in Tehran on ambiguous charges, causing the Dutch govt. to cut off diplomatic contact with Iran.

On Feb. 1, 2011 Iran human rights activist (Baha'i member) Navid Khanjani is sentenced to 12 years, their heaviest sentence to a human rights activist so far; it also issues five death sentences for others for obscene Web sites and other Islamic offenses; Iran also announces that it will segregate male and female students at Allameh Tabatabai U. On Feb. 5 British Special Forces seize a shipment of 48 Iranian rockets in Nimruz Province, S Afghanistan en route to the Taliban. On Feb. 11 the Iran-Balkan News Agency IRBA pub. a list of 24 NATO bases in Turkey. On Feb. 15 opposition protests in Tehran anger Iranian lawmakers, who shout and chant for them to be executed, causing the Rev. Guard to issue a letter on Feb. 18 promising not to shoot at protesters. On Feb. 16 after visiting the Saudi port of Jeddah in the Red Sea, two Iranian warships, the frigate Alvand and the supply ship Kharq head for Syria via the Suez Canal for the first time since 1979 en route to their ally Syria, causing Israel to declare a high alert, suspecting them of carrying weapons for Hezbollah, and Iranian supreme assaholah Ali Khamenei to issue the soundbyte "The fake Zionist government is a cancerous tumor and the cause of different diseases and political, economic calamity in the region"; he also issues the soundbyte: "The main problem in the Muslim World is the presence of the United States. It is the biggest problem... We need to remove the United States from the Islamic world." On Feb. 19 George Soros tells CNN that he doesn't expect the regime in Iran to survive the year. On Feb. 23 Amir Kabir U. and the Industrial U. of Isfahan in Iran open two supercomputer centers in a ceremony led by Imadinnajacket. On Feb. 25 the U.N. Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announces that it has received info. indicating that Iran is "not engaging with the agency in substance on issues concerning the allegation that Iran is developing a nuclear payload for its missile program." On Feb. 28 Iran arrests opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi.

On Mar. 9, 2011 responding to an Iranian call for protest marches there, Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal says that Saudi Arabia won't permit foreign intervention in its internal affairs. On Mar. 9 three Shiite opposition groups call for an end to the monarchy in Bahrain, and replacement by a "democracy". On Mar. 15 the Israeli navy seizes the Liberian flagship Liberia 320 km off the Israeli coast, claiming that it carries Iranian weapons destined for Hamas et al. in Gaza Strip. On Mar. 24 by 22-7-14 U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva adopts a resolution on combating intolerance based on religion, finally dropping all reference to Islam in revulsion against Pakistan's infamous blasphemy laws, dropping restrictions on peaceful free expression and calling on member nations to adopt "measures to criminalize the incitement to imminent violance based on religion or belief"; after Iran fails to heed a Gen. Assembly call to improve their record, it also creates its first-ever special rapporteur for human rights in Iran after the Org. of the Islamic Conference bloc splits ranks; on June 17 ex-foreign affairs minister of Maldives (Muslim) Ahmed Shaheed (1964-) is appointed (until ?).

On Apr. 4, 2011 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket utters the soundbyte "A Mideast without Israel and America is now possible"; on Apr. 7 he adds "You should know that the Zionist regime has reached the end of the line and no one can save this regime." On Apr. 7 the Iraqi army clashes with the People's Mujahedeen, an Iranian exile group at Camp Ashraf N of Baghdad, killing 33, then blocks humanitarian aid. On Apr. 8 1K non-Iranian Shiite clerics and students from Qum, Iran demonstrate outside the U.N. HQ and Saudi embassy in an attempt to get the Iranian govt. to support the protesters in Bahrain, shouting Death to America and Death to the Saud Family; meanwhile demonstrations are held in several Iraqi cities calling for the departure of PM Nouri Al-Maliki, and an end to corruption. In Apr. the Iranian Rev. Guards Web site pub. an article about the day after Iran tests its first nuclear bomb, saying it "will be an ordinary day for us Iranians but in the eyes of some of us there will be a new sparkle"; it turns out to be a hoax.

On May 7, 2011 after an 11-stay strike ends with 25 associates of Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket being arrested for sorcery, the growing rift with Ayatollah Khamanei results in street fights between their supporters. On May 16 Iran sends an aid flotilla from the S port city of Bushehr to Bahrain to express solidarity with the Shiite pop.; after opposition by the Gulf Cooperation Council, it turns back. On May 17 a U.N. Report on China claims that for more than a decade China has been aiding Iran and North Korea in developing ballistic missiles and nukes and getting around sanctions. On May 21 Iranian authorities raid 30 homes of members of the Baha'i sect in a crackdown. On May 23 Switzerland stops refueling Iran Air jets. On May 24 a massive refinery blast in Abadan, Iran during a visit by pres. Imadinnajacket kills two - shaken not stirred? On May 29 the MV First Ocean bulk carrier ship is attacked by Muslim pirates in the Gulf of Aden, and is saved by the Iranian navy, its 12th confrontation since late Mar. On May 31 Israeli strategic affairs minister Mose Ya'alon calls on the "entire civilized world... to take joint action to avert the nuclear threat posed by Iran", with a military strike being on the table.

On June 1, 2011 former Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan says that Israel only has the capability to delay Iran's nuclear ambitions, not stop them, and that "Israel would not withstand a regional conflict ignited by an Israeli strike of Iran's nuclear facilities". On June 5 the IAEA warns Iran that its nuclear program has "possible military dimensions", with new info. revealing secret activity since 2004 and as recently as 2010; it also calls out Syria for ditto. On June 9 the U.S. issues sanctions on Iran for attacking 2009 election protesters. On June 9 Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani utters the soundbyte that Iran will use its missiles to defend other Muslim nations if threatened. On June 14 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton issues a statement comparing the unrest in Syria to the 2009 Iranian protests, claiming that "Iran is supporting Syrian assaults on protesters". On June 27 Iran tests the long-range Sajiil missile, which has a range of 2K km, allowing it to strike Israel; on June 29 British foreign secy. William Hague says that Iran has been secretly testing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nukes, violating U.N. Resolution 1929, causing Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal to say that if Iran comes close to developing nukes it will follow suit and "pursue policies which could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences". On June 29 the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security pub. a new list of specially designated countries that support terrorism, adding Israel for the first time while dropping North Korea; meanwhile the Obama admin. resumes formal contact with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose avowed goal is Islamist takeover of the U.S., while U.S. deputy nat. security advisor John Brennan says that the new Obama admin. counterterrorism strategy will be to focus on would-be terrorists in the U.S. who are inspired by al-Qaeda's "hateful ideology", and adds that this is the first strategy to "designate the homeland as a primary area of emphasis in our counterterrorism efforts"; on June 30 Hillary Clinton in Budapest says that the Obama admin. is loosening criteria for interaction with the Brotherhood, permitting diplomats to deal directly with low-level officials; on July 2 Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan says that they are "ready for dialogue", but only "within a framework of mutual respect", calling for the Obama admin. to "side with the rights of the people and their demands and to stop supporting the corrupt and tyrannical regimes, backing the Zionist occupation and using double standards"; meanwhile the Obama admin. imposes financial sanctions on Syrian and Iranian domestic security forces for killing of peaceful anti-govt. protesters in Syria. On June 30 Iranian supreme assatolah Ali Khamenei holds a meeting with Iranian officials where he warns that the U.S. is in a Zionist plot to stir up trouble with Syria, after which he sends a letter to the Obama admin. warning them not to pressure the Syrian leadership or Iran will retaliate against U.S. troops in Iraq.

On July 3, 2011 U.S. Sen. (I-Conn.) Joe Lieberman tells Fox News Sunday that Iran has a "day of reckoning coming", and that the U.S. "retire our ambiguous mantra about all options remaining on the table" and make sure that defense secy. nominee Leon Panetta has a plan for attacking them. On July 6 after his enemies seek to arrest his closet aides, Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket issues a warning that if they try it he will expose corruption in the Rev. Guards, incl. smuggling of cigarettes. On July 9 a senior Iranian Rev. Guard cmdr. threatens the U.S. with attack on its aircraft carriers if Iran is attacked over its nuke program. On July 9 Iranian Rev. Guards brig. gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh announces that they have tested long-range nuke-capable ballistic missiles during the month of Bahman (Jan. 21 - Feb. 20). On July 10 U.S. defense secy. Leon Panetta says that weapons supplied by Iran have become a "tremendous concern" for the U.S. in Iraq, which saw more combat deaths of U.S. troops in June than in any mo. since June 2008. On July 12 the U.N. stinks itself up by making North Korea the pres. of its Conference on Disarmament, joining China, Iran, and Pakistan to stop the arms race. On July 13 diplomatic sources reveal that Iran is planning to install centrifuges for higher-grade uranium enrichment in an underground bunker. On July 16 Iranian forces begin shelling the self-ruled Kurdish region of N Iraq, displacing 200+ families. On July 18 Iranian weightlifter (Iran's strongest man) Ruhollah Dadashi is stabbed to death in Tehran after taking sides in the power struggle between pres. Imadinnajacket and supreme leader Asahollah Ali Khameinei on the side of Imadinnajacket. On July 20 Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket threatens to destroy the U.S. and Israel if attacked, saying "Resistance will continue until Iran sends its enemies to the morgue", calling the U.S. and Israel "on the verge of collapse and gasping for their last breaths." On July 23 gunmen on motorcyles kill Iranian physicist Darioush Rezaei (b. 1976) in front of his home in NE Tehran, causing Iranian brig. gen. Mohammed-Reza Naghdi to blame Israel and the U.S., and utter the soundbyte "In order to protect the security of our country, we have no option but to have the Zionist regime wiped off the map"; on Aug. 2 Der Spiegel blames the Israeli Mossad, caliming that in recent months it has engineered "the virtual decimation of the Islamic republic's elite physicists". On July 23 former Peruvian armed forces chief of staff gen. Francisco Contreras warns that Iran is supporting terrorist orgs. throughout South Am. On July 28 the Obama admin. accuses Iran of a "secret deal" with al-Qaida to provide money, recruits, and transit for attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying "This network serves as the core pipeline through which al-Qaida moves money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East to South Asia"; the U.S. Treasury Dept. indicts six members incl. Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, Atiya Abd al-Rahman, Salim Hasan Khalifa Rashid al-Kuwari, Abdallah Ghanim Mafuz Muslim al-Khaar, and Ali Hassan Ali al-Ajmi; Treasury spokesman David S. Cohen says "Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world today."

On Aug. 4, 2011 former Iranian Rev. Guard cmdr. (2007-11) Rostam Ghasemi (1950-) becomes head of OPEC (until ?). On Aug. 21 Iran sentences the three Am. hikers Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Joshua Fattal (captured near the N Iraq border on July 31, 2009) to eight years in priz for espionage, causing singer Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) of England to call for their release; Sarah Shourd was freed on $500K bail in Sept. 2010.

On Sept. 3, 2011 Iranian pres. Madman Imadinnajacket meets with Qatari emir Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, during which the emir gives him a request by Pres. Obama to obtain his consent to maintaining 15K troops in Iraq for another two years, along with a request to stop hostile operations against U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, to which Madman replies that if Syria is attacked, "the first missile will fall on you." On Sept. 8 Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket finally joins the chorus and calls for an end to the Syrian crackdown. On Sept. 12 Yukiya Amano, head of the U.N. IAEA nuclear agency announces plans to pub. new info proving that Iran is building nukes. On Sept. 21 Iran finally releases convicted U.S. spies Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal on bail. On Sept. 22 Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket gives a U.N. speech, taking on 9/11 ("mysterious"), the Holocaust ("excuse to pay ransom... to Zionists"), etc., causing 30 nations, incl. the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany to walk out; Israel boycotts his speech entirely; meanwhile former U.S. pres. Bill "Bubba" Clinton blames Benjamin Netanyahu for sabotaging the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. On Sept. 23 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu gives a speech to the U.N., noting the "malignancy [that] is growing between East and West" of militant Islam, and bemoaning a future where Iran gets nukes, and uttering the soundbyte "Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the U.N. Security Council"; meanwhile just before Netanyahu's speech, after rebuffing last-minute U.S. pressure, Mahmoud Abbas gives a speech to the U.N. Gen. Assembly asking for it to accept Palestine as a member state, with the soundbyte "It is a moment of truth, and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world"; meanwhile top Hamas official Ghazi Hamad says that Hamas wasn't consulted about the bid, and is ill-prepared for it. On Sept. 29 the White House calls for the release of Muslim convert Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who is scheduled for execution in Iran for not reconverting to Islam. In Sept. Iran announces the launch of its first Spanish language TV channel HispanTV, which debuts on the Web then goes broadcast by the end of the year.

On Oct. 1, 2011 the U.S. Congress blocks $200M in aid to the Palestinians over their statehood bid; meanwhile Iranian supreme assasholla Ali Khamanei rejects the Palestinian U.N. statehood bid, saying that any deal that accepts the existence of Israel would leave a "cancerous tumor" threatening the security of the Muslim Middle East. On Oct. 2 the Unknown Soldiers of the Hidden Imam in Iran sends emails to 11 Iranian ex-Muslim Christians who left the country, threatening them to return to Islam or be killed. On Oct. 11 U.S. officials claim to have disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabian ambassador (since 2007) Abdel Al-Jubeir (1962-) along with bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C., and arrest Am. Muslim Manssor Arbabsiar; on Oct. 13 Pres. Obama says that there is no doubt that members of the Iranian govt. knew of the plot, and warns that they will be held accountable for their "reckless behavior"; the Obama admin. also accuses Iran of trying to recruit a Mexican drug cartel member into the plot, and ramps up its internat. sanctions on Iran, with vice-pres. Joe Biden saying that "Nothing has been taken off the table"; Iranian foreign minister Ramin Mehmanparast calls the claims "ludicrous", and blames Zionists; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich shows that this plot is a "very embarrassing and difficult moment" for the Obama admin., and shows that Obama is clueless about Iran; did the Obama admin. break the news to divert attention from the Fast and Furious scandal that's putting heat on U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder? On Oct. 21 Pres. Obama triumphantly announces the Iraq pullout by the end of the year, with the soundbyte "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over"; on Oct. 23 retired Army gen. John M. Keane (author of the 2007 troop surge) calls the plan an "absolute disaster" that puts Iraq at risk of an Iranian "strangling"; meanwhile the Obama admin. begins planning for a military buildup in the Persian Gulf - you can be my wing man anytime? On Oct. 23 the Aria state trading scandal sees Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket accused of being involved in the emblezzelement of $3B from seven banks via his aide Amir Khosravi, causing Imadinnajacket to threaten to resign; 341 Shiite scholars are accused, making it the largest fraud in Iranian history. On Oct. 27 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton gives an interview to BBC Persia, saying that the State Dept. is planning to set up a "virtual embassy" in Tehran to facilitate Iranian student visas. On Oct. 28 Iran sends a diplomatic note to the U.S. complaining about its claims that it was involved in a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., and demanding an apology. On Oct. 30 Iranian pres. Madman Imadinnastraightjacket hails the U.S. troop exit from Iraq as a "golden" victory. On Oct. 30 the Iran-sponsored Press Union of the Islamic World is launched by 38 countries.

On Nov. 1, 2011 Israeli strategic affairs minister Moshe Ya'alon says that Israel must confront Iran's attempts to get nukes, and not depend on others to do it, testing its new Jericho ICBM in a show of strength against Iran. On Nov. 2 as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu lobbies the Knesset to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran's top military official maj.-gen. Hassan Fayrouz Abadi says that if this happens Iran will cause serious damage to Israel and the U.S. On Nov. 2 a jury awards $7.5M in damages to Iranian-born Am. Muslim Shawn Esfahani, owner of Eastern Shore Toyota after a competitor calls his business "Taliban Toyota" and accuses him of being a terrorist. On Nov. 3 Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu orders in investigation into an info. leak about Israel's plans to attack Iran, blaming the heads of Mossad and Shin Bet, Meir Dagan and Yuval Diskin, as well as opposition Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni; meanwhile Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announces that his forces have 10K rockets ready to fire at Tel Aviv, and can handle the Israeli military without aid from Iran or Syria. On Nov. 4 former Mossad dir. Ephraim Halevy says that Iran poses no "existential threat" to Israel, thus attack it must be a last resort, and that an attack "will impact the region for 100 years". On Nov. 5 Iranian supreme assaholah Ali Khamenei calls on the Muslim nations of the world to form an "internat. Islamic power bloc". On Nov. 6 Israeli pres. Shimon Peres warns that an Israeli strike is "now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option"; causing Libertarian Tex. Rep. Sen. and pres. candidate Ron Paul to call concern over Iran's nuke program "blown out of proportion", and that instead the U.S. should be "offering friendship" to Death to America Iran. On Nov. 7 the IAEA releases a Report on Iran's Nuclear Capability, saying that Iran has mastered the critical steps for building nukes after receiving help from foreign scientists, and is on the brink of getting nukes; no surprise, the Obama admin. only seeks to impose more sanctions; U.N. sanctions are also unlikely because of Russian and Chinese opposition, the Russian foreign ministry saying that the IAEA presented no new facts, and deliberately politicized existing ones, ignoring Iran'a willingness to cooperate, with the soundbyte that the IAEA "had a set goal to deliver a guilty verdict"; meanwhile the Israelis ex-IAEA chmn. Mohamed ElBaradei of being an Iranian agent who covered-up their nuke program during his term; he denies it; on Nov. 10 Imadinnajacket utters the soundbyte "This nation won't retreat one iota from the path it is going... Why are you ruining the prestige of the (U.N. nuclear) agency for absurd U.S. claims?", and Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini warns the U.S. and Israel that "Anybody who takes up the idea of an attack on Iran should get ready to receive a strong slap and an iron fist"; on Nov. 11 Hillary Clinton demands that Iran respond within days to the IAEA report, and says that the U.S. is seeking to marshal internat. support for more sanctions; on Nov. 13 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu claims that the full extent of Iran's nuclear program isn't reflected in the IAEA report. On Nov. 7 the former office of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is invaded by security forces, who confiscate equipment. On Nov. 10 Repub. pres. candidate Mitt Romney pub. an op-ed in the New York Times saying that if elected he'd "prepare for war" with Iran, starting by deploying more warships in the Persian Gulf. On Nov. 12 an explosion at a weapons factory near Tehran, Iran kills 17 and wounds 16, incl. senior weapons industry officer Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam. On Nov. 12 the govt. of Bahrain claims that Iranian-linked terror cells linked with the Rev. Guard planned attacks against the Saudi embassy and a Gulf causeway linking Bahrain with Saudi Arabia. On Nov. 12 Ahmed Rezaie (b. 1980), son of high-ranking Iranian official Mohsen Rezaie is found dead in Gloria Hotel in Dubai. On Nov. 12-21 Pres. Obama goes on an Asian Tour, starting with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu, where he pokes fun at Birthers, and announces that China and Russia are united with the U.S. on the need to prevent Iran from getting nukes. On Nov. 15 the Iranian govt. disses a claim by the Iranian Christian news agency Mohabat News that young Iranians are converting to Christianity, with the soundbyte "While Western media keep reporting that people in Europe and America are converting to Islam, the agents of Western political cliques claim that Iranian youth show a sincere interest in Christianity. These claims are being made to cover up the fact that Western people are coming towards Islam." On Nov. 19 Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak announces that Iran is less than a year away from being unstoppable in its quest for nukes. On Nov. 21 the U.S. reveals that poor field operations have allowed Hezbollah to expose and capture more than a dozen CIA agents in Lebanon and Iran, crippling its intel capability. On Nov. 22 Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski says that Israel must learn to live with a nuclear Iran. On Nov. 28 in retaliation for supporting sanctions, Iranian MPs chanting "Death to England" vote to expel British ambassador to Tehran Dominic Chilcott, and threaten a repeat of the 1979 embassy hostage crisis; on Nov. 29 Basij paramilitary volunteers posing as students like in 1979 storm the British embassy.

On Dec. 2, 2011 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden calls on Turkey to impose new sanctions on Iran, and praises it for pressuring Syria to stop its crackdown on protesters. On Dec. 5 Iran downs a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone in E Iran after it crosses the Afghanistan border; the Iranians work to reverse engineer it while Pres. Obama asks for it back. On Dec. 10 a U.S. federal judge enters a $10B default judgment against Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket on behalf of torture victims of his regime. On Dec. 12 Iranian intel minister Haydar Moslehi meets in Riyad with Saudi prince Nayef; on Dec. 14 the Iranians reveal that the Saudis agreed not to "replace Iranian crude if Iran faces any sanctions". On Dec. 15 Israel bombs a 6-jeep convoy in Abu Thabaq, Sudan carrying weapons to Hamas from Iran as it nears Egypt, killing four. On Dec. 15 U.S. District Court judge George Daniels announces that Iran shares responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. On Dec. 21 the U.N. votes 89-30-64 to pass a Resolution Condemning Human Rights Abuses in Iran. On Dec. 24 Iran begins a 10-day series of military maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz, putting the U.S., U.K., and Israel on red alert. On Dec. 26 Iran signs an oil deal with Afghanistan to provide 1M tons beginning in 2012. On Dec. 27 Iran threatens to stop the flow of oil shipments thrugh the Strait of Hormuz if foreign sanctions are imposed on its crude exports. On Dec. 31 Pres. Obama signs the 2011 U.S. Nat. Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) despite "serious reservations" regarding provisions regarding interrogations of terrorist suspects, who can be indefinitely detained, a reqt. for Obama to submit a report to Congress before sharing any info. on U.S. ballistic missiles with Russia, and sanctions on financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, which allow exemptions to avoid upsetting energy markets; Obama pledges to exempt U.S. citizens from the indefinite detention law. On Dec. 31 Iran proposes new nuclear talks with the six powers, the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia, and China.

On Jan. 3, 2012 Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molcho and and Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat meet in Amman, Jordan for the two parties' first direct talks in over a year; the Palestinians start out by handing their borders and security positions to the Israelis; meanwhile Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket utters the soundbyte that "Israeli attempts to Judaize Jerusalem will bring about its end", calling their occupation of "Palestinian land" "the most important topic in the world". On Jan. 7 U.S. forces rescue 13 Iranian fishermen kidnapped by pirates; on Jan. 10 they rescue six more off Iraq. On Jan. 8 Iran announces its 2nd uranium enrichment site, the Fordo Plant near Qum, buried deep underground; U.S. defense secy. Leon Panetta says that Iran hasn't decided to build a nuclear bomb yet, and calls for continuing pressure to make sure they don't, warning against a strike by Israel, which could trigger Iranian retaliation against the U.S. On Jan. 9-14 Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket visits Latin Am., incl. leftist Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, and Guatemala; on Jan. 10 he jokes with Hugo Chavez "That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out"; on Jan. 12 he attends the inaguration of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. On Jan. 10 Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan is killed in a car bomb attack in Tehran, becoming the 4th in the last two years; the Iranians send a letter to the U.S. and U.K. claiming to have evidence that it was done by the Mossad in league with the CIA and MI6. On Jan. 10 former U.S. Marine Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, who worked on the reality-based war game "Assault on Iran" by Kuma Games and was arrested last Aug. is convicted of spying in Iran, and sentenced to death. On Jan. 14-19 Chinese PM Wen Jiabao visits Saudi Arabia (first trip by a Chinese PM in two decades), Qatar (first-ever), and the UAE (first-ever); on Jan. 15 Jiabao meets with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secy.-gen. of the Org. of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), announcing an agreement on strategic relations between China and the Muslim World; China is thinking of ending its long relationship with Iran and getting a new oil source? On Jan. 15 the Austere Challenge 12 joint U.S.-Israeli war games are called off by Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak for 6 mo., causing speculation of an imminent attack on Iran. On Jan. 16 Saudi Arabia announces that if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz it will make up any oil shortfall by increasing production, causing Iran to reply that they will face "consequences". On Jan. 18 Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov warns that a military attack on Iran would cause "extremely grave" consequences and trigger a "chain reaction" that would destabilize the world, while the new sanctions will "stifle" Iran's economy and hurt its people; on Jan. 17 British PM David Cameron accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Syria, saying that intel reports confirm that Hezbollah is involved, with the soundbyte that Iran and Hezbollah are propping up that "wretched tyrant"; meanwhile Russia announces that it is planning Iran war games for Sept. in case of a spillover into the Caucasus. On Jan. 18 Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak utters the soundbyte that Israel is "very far off" from a decision about attacking Iran over its nukes, saying that he believes that Iran hasn't decided whether to make them yet; on Jan. 18 Iranian MP Ali Motahhari announces that Pres. Obama sent a secret letter to the Iranian govt. saying that any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz is a red line, meaning war, but that his willingness to negotiate shows that he is afraid of Iran; meanwhile the U.S. disputes a statement by PM Benjamin Netanyahu that current sanctions on Iran are ineffective, saying that they must be imposed gradually, and U.S. defense secy. Leon Panetta says that the U.S. military is fully prepared to deal with the Iranian threat. On Jan. 18 Iran arrests prominent woman reformist journalists Marzieh Rasouli, Parastoo Dokouhaki, and Samahoddin Bourghani. On Jan. 19 U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chm. Gen. Martin Demsey visits Israel to discuss concerns over an Israeli attack on Iran. On Jan. 20 French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy warns that a military strike on iran could "trigger war and chaos in the Middle East". On Jan. 23 the 27-member EU imposes an embargo on Iran, effective in July; on Jan. 25 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket increases bank rates in an attempt to halt inflation caused by the new Western sanctions; on Jan. 26 he announces that he's ready to resume nuclear talks but refuses to drop the uranium enrichment program. On Jan. 24 Pres. Obama delivers his 2012 State of the Union Speech, uttering the soundbyte "Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30% in taxes" (an attempt to defeat Repub. pres. candidate Mitt Romney, who revealed he only pays 14%, in advance?); also the soundbytes "We will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phony financial profits"; "America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal." On Jan. 30 the EU adopts a ban on Iranian oil, ignoring their threat to close the Strait of Hormuz; the U.S. has banned it since 1979. In Jan. Iran closes down all toy shops selling infidel Barbie Dolls as "symbols of immoral Western culture". On Aug. 4 47 Shiite Iranian pilgrims are massacred in Sayeda Zeinab 10 mi. S of Damascus.

On Jan. 12, 2014 Iran and six major powers (U.S., U.K., Russia, France, Germany, China) reach an agreement to implement a Nov. 24 nuclear agreement, curtailing Iran's nuclear activities for a 6-mo. period starting on Jan. 20 in exchange for sanctions relief; meanwhile U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid blocks a sanction bill from being voted on; on Jan. 13 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden assures Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. is committed to enforcing its "sanctions architecture"; on Jan. 14 Iranian pres. Hassan Rouhani tweets the soundbyte that "world powers" incl. the U.S. have "surrendered" to the "Iranian nation's will"; a secret 30-page document attached to the deal that the West won't acknowledge the existence of stirs concerns that Pres. Obama has allowed Iran to proceed with nuke production. On Jan. 14 Israeli ambassador Yoram Ettinger utters the soundbyte: "Iran is now at the last lap of the nuclear marathon." On Jan. 20 the implementation of the Geneva Accord by Iran begins with them dismantling its most sensitive (20%) uranium enrichment devices, er, just not operating them, with foreign minister Javad Zarif on Jan. 22 uttering the soundbyte "We're not dismantling anything", causing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Jan. 26 to utter the soundbyte that there is "no chance" of a final deal; "If Iran will stand by that statement, that means that a permanent agreement "which is the goal of the entire diplomatic process with Iran cannot succeed." On May 6 China and Iran announce that they're "strategic partners", pissing-off the U.S. On May 8 former head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission Uzi Eilam utters the soundbyte: "The Iranian nuclear program will only be operational in another 10 years... Even so, I am not sure that Iran wants the bomb", contradicting PM Benjamin Netanyahu. On May 17 members of the Afghan parliament accuse Iran of "forcibly sending Afghan refugees to Syria" to fight for Pres. Bashar al-Assad. On May 20 a group of young Iranians are arrested for uploading their "Happy in Tehran" video based on the Pharrell Williams hit song, the govt. calling it "A vulgar clip which hurt public chastity." On July 22 Iranian-Am. journalist Jason Rezaian and his wife Salehi are arrested in Iran on unknown charges, and imprisoned (until ?); in Oct. Salehi is released on bail; in Mar. 2015 boxing legend Muhammad Ali asks Iran to free him. On Aug. 24 Iran claims to shoot down an Israeli drone over Iran, causing Iranian Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami to utter the soundbyte: "Our response to this aggression will not be diplomatic. We will retaliate in the battlefield, but will not necessarily announce it."

On Sept. 13, 2014 Iranian Peshmerga forces clash with Iranian forces; the Peshmergas claim that they acted in self-defense.

On Sept. 22, 2014 China and Iran begin their first-ever joint naval exercises in the Persian Gulf.

On June 4, 2015 Iranian supreme assaholah Ali Khameinei gives a televised speech, declaring that the U.S. and Israel support al-Qaida and ISIS, with the soundbyte: "Today, we are as much opposed to the savage and oppressive behavior of DAESH in Iraq and Syria as we are to the oppressive behavior of America's federal police inside their own country. Both of them are the same", while the audience chants: "Allah Akbar [3x], Khameinei is our leader! Death to America, death to England... death to Israel".

On June 4, 2015 Iran Rev. Guards cmdr. Akil Bakhtiyari is KIA in Qalamoun, Syria fighting for Bashar al-Assad.

On June 7, 2015 U.S. treasury secy. Jacob Lew is booed at the annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York City when he utters the soundbyte that Pres. Obama and his admin. have done more than any of his predecessors to advance the security of Israel, citing $20B in military support, heckling him for trying to portray a nuclear agreement with Iran as the only way to prevent Iran from getting nukes.

On June 16, 2015 after Senate Foreign Relations Committee chmn. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) writes him a letter on June 15 expression alarm about reports in erosion in Obama admin. positions in the negotiations, U.S. suck, er, secy. of state John Kerry announces that the U.S. is dropping its longstanding reqt. for Iran to come clean on its history of nuke development in order to reach a final deal, while acknowledging that "we have absolute knowledge with respect to certain military activities they were engaged in"; on Feb. 2, 2014 Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Iran will be required to "come clean on its past actions as part of any comprehensive agreement."

On June 19, 2015 the U.S. State Dept. releases its 2015 Report on Global Terrorism, admitting that "Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism worldwide remained undiminished", claiming to be "very, very concerned" while staying committed to a nuclear deal with the loonies; "We think it's essential that we pursue these negotiations."

On June 21, 2015 the Iranian parliament passes a Nuclear Rights Bill banning internat. access to its military sites while permitting the IAEA to inspect nuclear sites.

On June 23, 2015 Iranian supreme assahollah Ali Khamenei gives a speech ruling out any lengthy freezing of nuclear work.

On June 30, 2015 the deadline for the Iranian nuclear deal passes, causing the P+5 to give Iran another week; meanwhile Pres. Obama threatens to "walk away" if Iran reneges on the Apr. interim agreement in Lausanne.

It's just like a bad dream and I can't wake up? On July 14, 2015 after 12 years of talks incl. 18 days of intensive sessions in Vienna, Iran reaches a landmark deal on nukes with the U.S. and other world powers after the Obama admin. folds and allows them the right to object to internat. inspections of military sites, with a 24-day notice, allowing them 5,060 centrifugues at one location (vs. 164 in 2005 and 19K today), freaking-out Republicans because in return Iran gets relief from billions of dollars in internat. sanctions and access to $100B in frozen assets, and its ominous ICBM program remains untouched, along with its support for Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist orgs., its repression of human rights, and its repeated calls for death to America and Israel; the U.S. promises to train Iranians to defend their nuclear facilities, esp. from Israeli attack?; Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls the deal "an historic mistake for the world"; former Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman utters the soundbyte: "History will remember the Iran deal just like the Munich Agreement and the agreement with North Korea"; U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (co-sponsor of the Senate-approved sanctions against Iran) calls the deal "unremitted garbage", "the greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler", saying: "Tens of thousands of people in the Middle East are gonna lose their lives because of this decision by Barack Hussein Obama.. This agreement condemns the next generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf. It condemns our Israeli allies to further conflict with Iran"; Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan pub. an article blasting the deal, saying "It will wreak havoc in the Middle East which is already living in a disastrous environment in which Iran is a major player in the destabilization of the region", comparing it to Pres. Clinton's mistake with North Korea, only this time Obama "knows what President Clinton didn't know when he made his deal";on July 14 Iranian pres. Hassan Rouhani delivers an address to the Iranian people, with the soundbyte: "The superpowers officially recognized Iran's nuclear activity"; on July 14 (night) Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer gives an interview to Megyn Kelly of Fox Mews, with the soundbyte: "I think you have given up everything. Yesterday Iran had an illegal nuclear program and was facing a headwind of sanctions. This deal gives them a legal nuclear program and gives them a tail wind of sanctions relief that they're going to use to continue their march of conquest and terrorism throughout the Middle East... in Syria, in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Yemen. And during this deal, Iran will be able to continue to do research and development on advanced centrifuges and to develop their intercontinental ballistic missiles. Those ICBMs are for you" - want a blowjob, then visit Obama's List dot com today?

On July 14, 2015 IAEA secy.-gen. Yukio Amano and Atomic Energy Org. of Iran chief Ali Akbar Salehi sign a roadmap agreement to provide the IAEA with clarifications and explanations of PMD (Possible Military Dimensions) of their nuclear program.

On July 15, 2015 Pres. Obama gives a Speech on His Iran Nuke Deal, defending the proposed deal while playing safe with soundbytes like "It's not the job of the president to solve every problem in the Middle East... But I think I can provide that next president at least a foundation for continued progress"; meanwhile despite lobbying by vice-pres. Joe Biden et al., the opposition builds, while Saudi Arabia warns Iran that any economic gains from the lifting of sanctions must be used to improve the lives of Iranians "rather than using them to cause turmoil in the region."; when CBS reporter Major Garrett suggests that Pres. Obama doesn't care about Americans held hostage by Iran, he utters the immortal soundbyte: "That's nonsense and you should know better"; meanwhile Obama pisses-off Congress by obtaining quick approval from the U.N.; too bad, he first has to get the U.N. Security Council to rescind six resolutions against Iran (2006-10), but he pulls it off easily on July 20 with a unanimous 15-0-0 vote for U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 endorsing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with the statement "The country's ballistic missile program and capability... fall outside the scope and the jurisdiction of the UNSC resolution and its annexes", which causes the Iranian govt. to issue the soundbyte: "The Islamic Republic of Iran considers science and technology, including peaceful nuclear technology, as the common heritage of mankind. At the same time, on the basis of solid ideological, strategic and international principles, Iran categorically rejects weapons of mass destruction and particularly nuclear weapons as obsolete and inhuman, and detrimental to international peace and security. Inspired by the sublime Islamic teachings, and based on the views and practice of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, and the historic Fatwa of the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, who has declared all weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, to be Haram (strictly forbidden) in Islamic jurisprudence, the Islamic Republic of Iran declares that it has always been the policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to prohibit the acquisition, production, stockpiling or use of nuclear weapons." On July 15 (night) after escaped Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo threatens to make him "swallow" his words about Mexico dumping its worst citizens on the U.S., Donald Trump gives an interview to Sean Hannity, uttering the soundbyte: "You know, what I'm bringing up is much more important than Donald Trump. My life, you know, frankly, what I'm doing is so important for the country", adding "First of all, I appreciate your question, the way you worded it, because the truth is, we wouldn't be talking about illegal immigration if it weren't for me. I brought it up. They hammered me, and then they found out they were wrong. And so many people have apologized to me over the last week because, you know, when I made my statement, they didn't read my statement. They read little pieces of my statement and tried to make me look bad."

On July 22, 2015 (5:30 p.m.) a Stop Iran Now Rally is held in Times Square, New York City, becoming the biggest in the history of the Big Apple (until ?).

On July 23, 2015 U.S. secy. of state John Kerry appears before the U.S. Senate, uttering the soundbyte that the proposed Iranian nuclear deal will require the U.S. to defend Iran from Israel; GOP senators blast him for getting "fleeced" by Iran: on July 24 during an interview on NBC-TV's "Today Show" he warns Israel that trying it would be a "huge mistake", then gets into an "intense exchange" with skeptical Jewish leaders at the Conference of Presidents of Major Am. Jewish Orgs.; he also meets with the Council on Foreign Relations, saying that if Congress votes the deal down it would be Israel's fault and "could actually wind up being more isolated and more blamed"; "We've seen the prime minister draw a cartoon of a bomb at the U.N. and so on and so forth. But what's happened? What has anyone done about it? Anybody got a plan to roll it back?"

On July 24, 2015 Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif warns U.S. secy. of state John Kerry of threatening military action if the nuke deal falls through, calling U.S. military capability a "rotten rope", saying that such "empty threats" should be consigned "to the last century".

On July 25, 2015 Bahrain recalls its ambassador from Tehran after claiming to boil an attempt to smuggle in high-grade explosives plus hostile statements by Iranian officials.

On July 27, 2015 Repub. pres. candidate Mike Huckabee utters the soundbyte that the proposed Iran nuke agreement will "take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven".

On July 30, 2015 Iranian state TV announces that U.S. and Canadian inspectors will be banned from inspecting its nuclear facilities because they don't have diplomatic relations with Iran - they should open up the facilities for inspection - with nukes?

On Aug. 3, 2015 U.S. secy. of state John Kerry meets with the Gulf Cooperation Council in Abu Dhabi, gaining their support for the Obama admin. nuclear deal with Iran, with Qatari foreign minister Khalid Al Attiya uttering the soundbyte: "We are confident that what they undertook makes this region safer and more stable." On Aug. 22 Iran unveils its new Fateh 313 short-range surface-to-surface missile, with pres. Hasan Rouhani uttering the soundbyte that only when Iran is "powerful and capabale" can it negotiate constructively with other countries. On Aug. 23 (Sun.) the U.K. led by foreign secy. Phillip Hammond reopens its embassy in Tehran, Iran (shut down amid violent protests in Nov. 2011) amid violent protests. On Aug. 24 Iran supreme assahola Ali Khameini pub. an article on his Web site titled "The Iron Fist", with the soundbyte: "Those who levelled sanctions against us yesterday are dying today, because Iran has become the region's foremost military power. The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that it works diligently to defend itself. The entire nation unites as a solid fist, standing fast against the aggressors who lack all reason." On Aug. 27 214 retired U.S. gens. and adms. sign a letter urging Congress to reject Pres. Obama's iran nuclear deal, saying the "agreement will enable Iran to become far dangerous", and "introduce new threats to American interests". On Aug. 30 the Iranian armed forces hold a celebration of its victory in the nuclear agreement, with defense minister Hossein Dehghan uttering the soundbyte: "Today, Iran has attained such status that the superpowers have surrendered to it, because of its majesty, its steadfastness, its resistance, and its unity. Despite their great pride, the regime of the arrogance [the West, led by the U.S.] sat humbly behind the negotiating table and obeyed the rights of the Iranian nation."

On Nov. 9, 2015 police across Europe raid an Iranian hacking group affiliated with the Islamic Rev. Guard Corps (IRGC), saying it had targed 1.6K high-profile targets incl. Israeli nuclear scientists, NATO officials, Iranian dissidents, and members of the Saudi royal family.

On Dec. 17, 2015 after the Repubs. cave-in, the U.S. Congress passes a $1.1T budget bill that funds 200K Syrian immigrants in exchange for lifting their ban on oil from the U.S., and pisses-off conservatives by a surprise provision upping caps on H-2B visas for foreign blue-collar workers from 66K/year to 264K/year; it also awards $10K/day compensation to the 1979 Iran hostages.

On Feb. 9, 2016 Iranian pres. advisor Fahimeh Farahmanpour tells the Islamic Society of North Am. (ISNA) that there is widespread disqualification of women running for parliament (12K), esp. outside the main cities, usually under Article 28 Paragraph 1, lack of practical commitment to Islam; only 1,234 are left, up from 458 in the last election.

On Apr. 30, 2018 (12 days before Pres. Trump's deadline for deciding on the Iran nuclear deal) Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyau gives a speech detailing facts about Iran's Project Amad to build nukes found on 55K pages of documents and 55K files on 183 CDs ("half a ton") the Israelis stole from a secret storage facility in Shorabad, Tehran, proving that "Iran lied bigtime after signing the nuclear deal in 2015... Iran is brazenly lying when it says it never had a nuclear weapons program"; the Trump admin. confirms the authenticity of the documents; too bad, the documents are from their nuke project that they shut down in 2003, which is why they were kept in a neglected bldg. with no lock on the door?

On May 8, 2018 (2:00 p.m. local time) Pres. Trump announces that the U.S. is withdrawing from Obama's "horrible" Iran nuke deal (JCPOA) and reimposing "the most extreme" sanctions, calling it “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into", causing co-signers U.K., France, and Germany to lament his decision and reaffirm support for the deal, and Obama to tweet that the decision is "a serious mistake".

On June 26, 2018 thousands of Iranians protest in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran over the govt.'s spending of money on adventurism abroad, shouting "Death to Palestine".