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Proof: DHS is monitoring social media, bloggers, and…why?

SUAadmin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:09:17 +0000

By Scott W. Winchell

Its official; the Department of Homeland Security did award the HS HODC-10-00080 contract to General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems Division as the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) for DHS. What does that mean?

It means that the DHS project – Media Monitoring Capability Mission – is actually underway as we all suspected. What the project should be called is the “Cover our asses, identify our enemies, and spin baby, spin, capability mission.”

Its similar to the system for data collection that the Obama 2012 Campaign is doing on Facebook now:

Barack Obama‘s re-election team are building a vast digital data operation that for the first time combines a unified database on millions of Americans with the power of Facebook to target individual voters to a degree never achieved before…

For the past nine months a crack team of some of America’s top data wonks has occupied an entire floor of the Prudential building in Chicago devising a digital campaign from the bottom up. The team draws much of its style and inspiration from the corporate sector, with its driving ambition to create a vote-garnering machine that is smooth, unobtrusive and ruthlessly efficient. (Read the rest here.)

MMCM Contract Documents – On December 15, 2010, the contract was awarded. Two links below show documents related to the project:

Raw Story posted the FOIA request fulfillment document here on the actual contract. (Names redacted, 285 pages)
DHS Analysts’s desktop binder that details the project. (40 pages)

What the MMC Mission purports to do:

First – to continually update existing National Situation Summaries (NSS) and International Situation Summaries (ISS) with the most recent, relevant, and actionable open source media information.

Second – to constantly monitor all available open source information with the goal of expeditiously alerting the NOC Watch Team and other key Department personnel of emergent situations.

Third – to receive, process, and distribute media captured by DHS Situational Awareness Teams (DSAT) or other streaming media available to the NOC such as Northern Command’s (NORTHCOM) Full Motion Video (FMV) and via open sources.

What does it mean to the public?

Ostensibly, reading the actual words printed, it sounds like a great way for DHS to stay abreast of the mountains of information available from open sources that should be known by its staff and management. As public servants, its wise to be more conversant in all aspects of all events to make sure that the proper resources are being allocated, dangers are mitigated, and life-saving efforts can be maximized. Sounds great – our tax dollars going to a good thing; our government being wise and efficient.

Well, enough of that bilge. What it more likely means are one or all of the following scenarios:

Making sure that any DHS spokesperson, whether from FEMA, or any other agency, does not have a James Clapper moment. The Director of National Intelligence was blind-sided by the media about a major story he did not get briefed on, but definitely should have known;
Covering their collective posteriors because the intelligence gathering and analysis performed in recent years has been eclipsed by open-source investigators who are much less constrained in acquiring important information;
Allowing appointees and other politicians a way to spin information to misdirect, change the focus of, or just plain old twist the facts for a given incident;
Protect the reputation and image of the department and its requisite divisions and leaders;
Monitor those of us who monitor them, and identify political adversaries, assign strong negative names and labels to political movements, collect the names of all “subversive” individuals as defined by political forces, and control baby, control…the imagination just carries you away, does it not?

Those summaries above need to be looked at in more detail, the following shows what information is actually being studied and monitored and why:

Leverage Operationally Relevant Data

Leveraging news stories, media reports and postings on social media sites concerning HomelandSecurity, Emergency Management, and National Health for operationally relevant data, information, analysis, and imagery is the first mission component. The traditional and social media teams review a story or posting from every direction and interest, utilizing thousands of reporters, sources, still/video cameramen, analysts, bloggers and ordinary individuals on scene. Traditional Media outlets provide unmatched insight into the depth and breadth of the situation, worsening issues, federal preparations, response activities, and critical timelines. At the sametime, Social Media outlets provide instant feedback and alert capabilities to rapidly changing or newly occurring situations. The MMC works to summarize the extensive information from these resources to provide a well rounded operational picture for the Department of Homeland Security.

Support NOC in Identifying Relevant Operational Media

Supporting the NOC by ensuring they have a timely appreciation for evolving Homeland Security news stories and media reports of interest to the public and DHS/other federal agencies involved in preparations and response activities is the second key component. DHS and other federal agencies conducting joint operations may be affected by other evolving situations in that area. These situations may be related; have a cause and effect relationship; or be unrelated but have a detrimental effect. Through coordination with the NOC Duty Director (NDD), Senior Watch Officer (SWO) the MMC works to ensure the NOC Watch Team is aware of such stories and news events and has time to analyze any effect on operations.

Timely reporting of current information is an integral element in maintaining complete operational awareness by Homeland Security Personnel. The MMC understand it is vital that critical information is relayed to key Department decision makers in as expeditious a manner aspossible.

Increase Situational Awareness of the DHS Secretary

Mitigating the likelihood that the Secretary and DHS Executive staffs are unaware of a breaking Homeland Security news story or media report is the third component. The Secretary and executive staff members are subject to press questions regarding domestic and international events and may or may not be informed of the most current media coverage. The MMC understands critical information requirements and monitors news coverage with the perspective of how the breaking story may be related to current and other important ongoing situations and DHS activities. The on-duty MMC analyst alerts DHS personnel and related federal agencies of updated news stories through distributed Items of Interest (see section 3.9.6). Recognizing that local media coverage is potentially sensationalizing an incident, the MMC strives to comprehend the media’s message and identify sensitive situations that must be brought to the attention of the Secretary.

Facebook

It is clear to many Facebook aficionados that the DHS work has been more than just gleaning information. There are reliable reports where:

If you type certain words on your wall, it will automatically ”friend” you on the DHS page, without permission, and you cannot “un-friend” yourself;
If you type anything that has the word DHS or a few other key words, your post will show up on the DHS FB page;
Politicians are using it as well, ask the Romney people. If you post “I love Mitt Romney” on your wall, that post will appear on Romeny’s FB page;
Then there are other weird anomalies, and many FB folks are “pruning” their friends lists for these very reasons, no privacy!

Wake up America, DHS and others may be watching you and gleaning information from you, and as we have seen repeatedly with the current administration, it will or could be used against you. Remember, the Defense Authorization Act of 2012 has reset a lot of the rules on detention for American citizens. The pieces and parts for total control are coming into place.

Iran – Boost the Lebanese Army – Hezbollah branch only

SUAadmin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:11:25 +0000

Editor’s Note – The key factor in understanding what it means for Iran to want to boost the Lebanon Army is that Hezbollah has infiltrated the armed forces. Certain portions of the formal military in Lebanon are completely comprised of Hezbollah alone. The other blocs within the military are Christian, Druze, Sunni, or a combination thereof. So it is with a certain goal that Iran seeks to bolster the forces – it wants to bolster its puppet, Hezbollah – solely!

In no way does Iran benefit by supporting any other faction in the formal army. To think of Lebanon as a unified nation is folly – and to say that Lebanon has enemies is to say Israel alone. However, Lebanon has many factions that are aware that Israel is not their true enemy, and defending Lebanon against Israel is in the interest of only one faction, Hezbollah and its puppet master, Iran.

Many western journalists continue to equate Hezbollah now as a legitimate part of the nation, in fact several refer to Hezbollah as the “one-time terrorist” group. Hezbollah has worked hard to make that distinction, and Iran is certainly promoting that end as well. Always remember, Lebanon was never an Arab homeland until it was conquered. It certainly was not a Muslim nation from birth as many would have us believe.

Iran: Boosting Lebanese army part of our Mideast strategy

Iranian Defense Minister Vahidi - Himself a suspected terrorist.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Iranian Defense Minister Vahidi tells Lebanese counterpart: “Lebanon must have strong army to defend regional interests”; Lebanese defense minister in Iran to bolster ties between two nations.

Strengthening the Lebanese military is a key Iranian strategic and regional policy, Iranian Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told his Lebanese counterpart Faiz Ghosn, who was in Tehran Sunday in order to strengthen relations between the two nations.

“Lebanon must have a strong army to defend its interests in the region,” Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliate Al Manar quoted the Iranian defense minister as saying Sunday during a meeting with Ghosn in the Iranian capital.

Vahidi said the viability of both the Lebanese army and the “resistance movement” – a reference to Lebanese Hezbollah – would improve security and stability in the Middle East, according to the report.

Iran sees Lebanon as an important regional ally, especially in regards to Israel, which neighbors Lebanon and has threatened to strike Iran over its nuclear program.

Israel has accused Iran of funding Hezbollah with advanced weapons and weapons technology to bolster the terrorist group’s deterrence capabilities against the IDF. Iran denies the claims, but has voiced support for the terrorist group in its resistance to Israel.

Iran may also be seeking to improve its standing in the Middle East as its chief regional ally, Syria, is facing an ongoing conflict with an opposition that has become more militant.

The Lebanese defense minister expressed hope on Sunday that Lebanon and Iran would continue and build on an already longstanding cooperation.

He said he appreciated Iran’s support of Lebanon during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, which was fought primarily between Hezbollah’s paramilitary forces and the IDF.

Ghosn said that were Israel to attempt any “stupidity in attacking Lebanon,” it would encounter strong resistance from both the Lebanese army and Hezbollah.

The Lebanese defense minister also met with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his visit to Iran.

Patrick Kennedy – De-list the MeK

SUAadmin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:49:46 +0000

Editor’s Note – Though former Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and SUA have been on opposite sides of most issues, usually due to his liberal, progressive stances versus our Constitutional conservative positions, we are certainly in agreement in the case of the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) (aka People’s Mujahedin of Iran or PMOI). It is unconscionable that the group has not been de-listed from the US Department of State terror list to date, not just because they are a staunch ally of the west, but they are true patriots striving to achieve for their homeland what our founders did for this one.

Once again, SUA calls for the immediate cessation of violence against the MEK in Ashraf, Iraq, and anywhere else, and simultaneously, de-listing the group as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State. Past diplomatic mistakes by the Clinton Administration should propel the current Clinton holding the position of Secretary of State to correct that mistake, now!

If we want to make Iran quake in her boots, de-listing the MEK is a great step in that direction.

Confront Iran by unleashing opposition

BuffaloNews.com

By Patrick Kennedy

As the crisis between the West and Iran escalates, one thing seems clear: The U.S. and its allies are running out of leverage to change the regime’s behavior. Twenty-plus years of sanctions have done nothing to stymie the regime’s race to a nuclear weapon.

The latest round – a European Union boycott of Iranian crude oil – looks like a repeat of a familiar cycle in which the regime, under economic pressure, pledges to “talk” with nuclear monitors while their nuclear-weapons campaign continues unabated. Threats of a violent confrontation have mostly served to let the regime whip up nationalism and anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment, driving even moderate Iranians to lock arms.

Amazingly, the U.S. has left in reserve perhaps its most powerful instrument of persuasion: unleashing the opposition.

During the Clinton administration, the U.S. designated Iran’s main opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), as a terrorist organization, a move requested by Tehran as a condition for talks that never materialized. The MEK, which has been an important source of information on Iran’s nuclear program and its terrorist meddling in Iraq and elsewhere, subsequently disarmed and worked with the U.S. forces in efforts to bring stability to Diyala province in Iraq.

Moreover, the United Kingdom and the E.U. removed the MEK from their lists and in May 2011, a French investigative magistrate dropped all terrorism and terrorism-financing charges against the MEK in France. It even went further in saying that the MEK’s military operations inside Iran before the group unilaterally ceased its armed activities, in 2001, were not terrorism, but legitimate resistance against tyranny.

Still, the 3,400 members of the MEK encamped in a fragile Iraqi enclave known as Ashraf languish on the “terror” list. The designation has let Iran’s allied government in Iraq ferociously crack down on the dissidents, killing scores and wounding hundreds in deadly unprovoked raids in July 2009 and April 2011.

The regime rightly fears the MEK: The dissidents are secular, while the regime is a radical theocracy; the dissidents are educated and organized; the MEK envisions a non-nuclear Iran, where the regime is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons; the MEK is dedicated to establishing democratic institutions while Tehran violently opposes freedom. And the MEK espouses and practices gender equality, while the mullahs are misogynous in law and practice.

So it’s hard to understand why the Obama administration has yet to unchain and legitimize the group. A federal appeals court has already ruled that the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton erred in not delisting the group in 2009 and ordered a review. Some 18 months later, the decision is in sight.

Dozens of top former bi-partisan U.S. national security officials, including former directors of central intelligence and the FBI as well as a significant number of members of Congress, say the designation is unwarranted and counterproductive.

Lifting the designation would achieve several immediate goals:

• It would send the strongest signal yet to the regime and to the Iranian people that a democratic storm is gathering. To the regime, this would be a direct response to intransigence on the nuclear question. To the people, it would potentially be a catalyst for their own “Iranian spring.”
• It would let the MEK leave its besieged Iraqi outpost and to organize safely all over the world.
• It would unblock the tremendous resources of the MEK to step up its efforts as a credible organized voice against the Iranian regime. Iraqi officials have justified their violence against the group by citing the terror designation. This would help deflate the “us-versus-them” argument the regime has used to justify continued quest for nuclear weapons.

The Iraqi government has allocated Camp Liberty as a transit camp for the residents of Camp Ashraf to be resettled in third countries. America must make sure that during the transfer, no one is arrested by the Iraqis and turned over to Iran, or jailed at the behest of Tehran; that Liberty is not turned into a prison; and that the free access of lawyers, families and parliamentarians is allowed by the Iraqis.

The U.S. should address the MEK’s unfair listing as a terrorist organization with no further delay. Not only is it right politically, it is right morally because the designation is not legally valid and has led to the massacre of people who share American values and are willing to fight the most dangerous threat in the world.

_______________

Patrick J. Kennedy is a former eight-term Democratic congressman from Rhode Island.

Holder – Obama 2012, promises to keep, Bush policies in force

SUAadmin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:21:26 +0000

SUA Staff – While America is focused on Republican candidates, debates, primaries, and caucuses, the Fast and Furious Scandal, much higher gas prices then ever before, and the conflicts in Syria, we are being distracted from what Eric Holder and his associates are really spending their time on.

Rather than producing documents pertaining to the Fast and Furious scandal, the Solyndra debacle, the sentencing of the Holyland trial convictions, or prosecuting the New Black Panther polling place thugs, he is an integral part of the Obama re-election team. The team leader in achieving Obama promises concerning the Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) detention center.

As part of that campaign, it seems they are working quietly to empty Gitmo; a ploy that will shore up their base and create a great set of campaign ‘talking points’. This all despite the fact that the Obama administration has continued the Bush era wire-tap policies. A fact that will be easily hidden behind Gitmo moves.

Meanwhile, Obama is under fire for secret detentions of Somali terror suspects, a subject the left railed about during the Bush years that are still in force:

The militant Somali group al-Shabab is one of the organisations Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame is said to have joined. Photograph: AP

The Obama administration approved the secret detention of a Somali terror suspect on board a US navy ship, where for two months he was subjected to military interrogation in the absence of a lawyer and without charge.

The capture and treatment of Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame has rekindled the debate within the US about the appropriate handling of terror suspects. Republicans in Congress have objected to Warsame being brought to New York this week to be tried in a criminal court – an attempt by the Obama administration to avoid sending the prisoner to Guantánamo Bay, which it has promised to close.

Soon, probably close to voting day in November, we will find that Gitmo is empty. Holder is feverishly working on a deal to transfer five of the top leaders of the Taliban now, trying to send them to a new home in Qatar, where a new Taliban headquarters has been erected paid for by your tax dollars. Five of the worst of the worst.

We all remember the release of Uighur detainees who were sent to live the life on the wonderful islands of Palau.

Of these detainees slated for transfer, Majid Khan, has a very nasty history and has even nastier lawyers that come from the Center for Constitutional Rights. (Videos available here.) These friends and associates act as Eric Holder’s silent law partners from both his time at Covington & Burling and now at the Department of Justice. Majid has three lawyers, Gitanjali Gutierrez, Wells Dixon, and Shayana Kadidal. Another of these worst of the worst is Ammar al Baluchi.

But what about the true picture of what Gitmo really is, ask the Belgians:

Gitmo Better Than Belgian Prisons

Real Clear Politics

Well, well:

Inmates at Guantanamo Bay prison are treated better than in Belgian jails, an expert for Europe’s biggest security organization said on Monday after a visit to the controversial U.S. detention center. [snip]Grignard told a news conference that prisoners’ right to practice their religion, food, clothes and medical care were better than in Belgian prisons.

“I know no Belgian prison where each inmate receives its Muslim kit,” Grignard said.

This is certainly not the impression we get from any media accounts of Gitmo. On FridayTime Magazine made national headlines with the story that Mohammad al-Qahtani, the so-called “20th hijacker,” was recanting all of his previous testimony, claiming he made everything up because he was being tortured.

Lost amid the sensational headlines is that Qahtani’s reversal came after two recent visits with a newly appointed lawyer, Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, from the ultra-liberal Center For Constitutional Rights. Gutierrez is part of CCR’s “Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative” designed to “expand CCR’s defense of human rights and the rule of law to combat abuses of Executive power by the U.S. throughout the world.”

I sifted through the log of Qahtani’s interrogation that accompanied Time’s report and from what I read it seems as if he was treated perfectly within bounds. The full interrogation log (pdf) is here, so go read it and decide for yourself whether Qahtani was tortured or not.

Also last Friday the BBC ran a story headlined, “Guantanamo man tells of ‘torture’.” Here is an excerpt from the BBC’s interview with Fawzi al-Odah, a Kuwaiti citizen currently being held at Gitmo:

Through his lawyer, Mr Odah described his treatment during his hunger strike.”First they took my comfort items away from me. You know, my blanket, my towel, my long pants, then my shoes. I was put in isolation for 10 days.

“They came in and read out an order. It said if you refuse to eat, we will put you on the chair [for force feeding].”

Remember, these people are trying to starve themselves to death. Imagine the reaction of human rights organizations if the United States military stood by and allowed two dozen or more prisoners to die of starvation.

The idea that force feeding prisoners to keep them alive constitutes “torture” borders on the insane. These men are are being offered food and adequate care, but they are refusing. As a result the United States military is put in an impossible situation; force them to eat or let them die. The goal of critics, of course, is to make either of these choices such a public relations nightmare for the United States that the Pentagon is forced to go with the only other option: close Gitmo down altogether.

______________________

Also, watch this video about Obama’s continued use of Bush policies here:

More at The Real News

Analysis: Iran Threatens War – Ilana Freedman

SUAadmin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:27:33 +0000

Ilana Freedman, SUA Kitchen Cabinet Member

Gerard Direct

The accelerating events of last ten days have exacerbated the growing angst throughout the Middle East, while the US Administration has used a volley of words from senior administration officials to further threaten Israel and appease Iran.

The discussion is beyond stupid, since the question of Iran developing nuclear weapons is largely a matter of gaming the timing of their completion. However, another more sinister reality is being ignored.

The prospects for the world are not good, and the continued efforts of Western countries to appease Iran will not make them better. Those countries whose leadership still thinks that this is just Israel’s problem, and that Iran will not prove a threat to them as well, have some bad news in store. There are also strong indications that Iran’s sleeper cells in the US and Europe are primed and ready to strike as soon as they receive the permission of Teheran.

In this image made available by the Iranian Students News Agency, an Iranian navy vessel launches a missile during a drill at the sea of Oman, on Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012. Iran's navy said Sunday it test-fired an advanced surface-to-air missile during a drill in international waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-sixth of the world's oil supply.

Even as Iran offers to re-engage in nuclear negotiations, Iranian leaders continue to display their progress in their nuclear development, and promise new announcements of further advances soon. They have cut fuel deliveries to Europe and threaten more. Iran is a master at using “negotiations” to buy time while they press forward with their own agenda.

Iran already has nukes According to our sources, Iran already has at least thirty nuclear weapons, assembled (not produced) in Iran, each with a minimum yield of 25 kilotons. The only thing keeping Iran from deploying them is their size. They are older weapons that need to be fitted to newer, slimmer missiles. North Korean engineers have been working on this for months, and it is only a matter of time before they complete their assignment.

If we know all this, what are the chances that Israel knows it too, and why doesn’t General Dempsey know it?

The conflicting messages now emanating out of Teheran should be interpreted as a serious attempt to distract and delay Western reaction to their continuing nuclear development. By welcoming their letter as though it were a meaningful gesture towards accommodation, we are playing right into their hands. We threaten Israel if they dare to defend themselves against nuclear holocaust, but appease Iran as they accelerate their nuclear program.

The Iranian intention to pursue their nuclear ambitions at all costs is crystal clear. Far from being rational actors, the Iranian leaders are devious, maniacal, and murderous in their intention. They have openly vowed to annihilate Israel, kill all the Jews, and destroy America. They have sent assassins and suicide bombers to begin their war against civilization as we know it. They have firmly supported the brutal Assad regime in Syria and helped perpetrate the slaughter of civilians throughout the country.

They have been no less vicious to their own people. Their brutality was vividly reported during and after the Green Revolution, following the flawed election in which Ahmadinejad “won” the popular vote. Government forces shot down unarmed demonstrators in the streets of Teheran, and the murder, torture and sexual violence visited upon the hundreds who were arrested has been well documented.

The threat from Iran is not only real, it is imminent. While we have wasted the precious time in which we could have been containing the threat, Iran has been hardening their facilities and coming dangerously close to developing their own source of nuclear weapons. America’s empty words and meaningless threats make us a laughing stock in the Middle East, and we are fast approaching the moment when it will be too late to do anything.

The world as it exists today is a crap shoot and the game is fixed for as long as America plays it safe. It is totally irrational to consider Iran a “rational actor”. Their strategy is clear, and it is not in our favor. Our government needs to stop playing craps with broken dice and start playing hardball, or we will soon wake up to a world with a nuclear Iran, and the world as we know it will be forever changed.

=====

Ilana Freedman is Editor of GerardDirect.com and CEO/Director of Intelligence Analysis at Gerard Group International

2 more Americans Killed in Afghanistan over Koran Burning

SUAadmin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:08:14 +0000

Editor’s Note – It is now clear that the NATO troops were burning the Korans that were desecrated by the inmates properly, according to Islamic Law. Apologies have been flying, but they are falling on deaf ears.

The problem is, there should be no apologies from the USA, or NATO, but one is certainly due from Hamid Karzai over the murders committed by an Afghan trooper, and now, an assailant still on the loose. NATO did nothing wrong, but fanatics only need an excuse as history has shown time and again.

All this as the West talks to the Taliban…reminder to NATO and the US administration, there is no talking to crazy people! They will use it just like they are using this burning incident to fire up the masses. Takiya is still a word the west has yet to understand.

NY Times Asia/Pacific

By Graham Bowley and Alissa J. RubinKABUL,

Afghanistan — Two American officers were shot dead inside the Interior Ministry building here on Saturday, as outrage continued to erupt violently across the country at the American military’s burning of Korans at a NATO army base.

Now 4 Americans have been killed because of the Koran Burning riots

The NATO commander, Gen. John R. Allen, immediately ordered all military advisers withdrawn from Afghan ministries in Kabul, in a startling admission of how deep the crisis had become, with anti-American fury reaching deeply into even the Afghan security forces and ministries working most closely with the coalition.

Although there was no official statement that the shooter was an Afghan, in an e-mail sent to Western officials here from NATO headquarters the incident was described as “blue on green,” which is the military term used here when Afghan security forces turn their weapons on their Western military allies.

The killings, which happened within one of the most tightly secured areas of the ministry, add to the drumbeat of concern about a deepening animosity between civilians and militaries on both sides that had led to American and coalition forces being killed in increasing numbers even before the Koran burning ignited nationwide rioting. Now, the withdrawal from Afghan ministries suddenly calls into question the coalitions’ entire strategy of joint operations with Afghan forces across the country, although General Allen said NATO was still committed to fighting the war in Afghanistan.

“I condemn today’s attack at the Afghan Ministry of Interior that killed two of our coalition officers,” General Allen said in a statement. “The perpetrator of this attack is a coward whose actions will not go unanswered. We are committed to our partnership with the government of Afghanistan to reach our common goal of a peaceful, stable and secure Afghanistan in the near future.”

The deaths on Saturday are only the latest events, including the killing by Afghan soldiers of French troops in eastern Afghanistan and a video, showing four United StatesMarines urinating on three bodies, said to be those of Taliban fighters, that have inflamed emotions here. On Thursday, two American soldiers were shot to death by a member of the Afghan Army at a base in eastern Afghanistan, as protests about the Koran burning were raging outside the base.

The intensifying enmity toward the American presence in Afghanistan a decade into the war is casting into doubt a central plank of the Obama administration’s strategy to end the United States’ involvement in the war: a close working relationship between Afghan forces and advisers and trainers who are working to help the Afghans become ready to defend and police the country on their own. But it is also likely to have an immediate bearing on several critical negotiations with Afghan officials.

An American official in Washington said the unrest and shootings of American personnel by their Afghan counterparts would have a “huge” impact on a slew of discussions planned for the coming weeks among officials from the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and other agencies. On the agenda of the various inter-agency meetings is the future of the main American prison in Afghanistan, the Detention Facility in Parwan, which President Hamid Karzai wants handed to Afghan control in less than a month; how to proceed with stalled negotiations over the Strategic Partnership Document that is intended to map out relations between Washington and Kabul after 2014; and the how large a pullout President Obama will announce at a NATO summit planned for May in Chicago.

The official cautioned that no one was “panicking,” but that the initial reaction to the growing hostility from Afghans was to convince more officials that the pace of the American drawdown needed to be hastened, and that sooner the mission was transitioned to one of training and counter-terrorism, the better.

“You look at this as clearly and objectively as you can, what you see is that we’re in a weaker position than we were maybe two or three or four weeks ago,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing internal deliberations. “I’m not sure anyone knows the clear way forward. It’s gotten more and more complicated. It’s fraught.”

The shootings came on another violent day, as thousands of Afghans incensed by the American military’s burning of Korans once again took to the streets in running clashes with the police that claimed the lives of another five Afghan protesters, officials said, while many more were wounded.

Chanting anti-American slogans calling for an end to NATO’s presence, the protesters also vented broader fury, storming offices of the Afghan government and the United Nations, leading to violent standoffs.

Officials said that five protesters were killed on Saturday, including four who were shot by Afghan police after a large crowd of about 5,000 attacked the United Nations headquarters in Kunduz Province in the north, wrecking public buildings and stores. Those shootings left another 51 wounded, hospital officials said.

In the east, 2,000 protesters, mainly young students from one of the main high schools, marched on the governor’s residence in Laghman Province, and 21 Afghans were wounded when the police opened fire, at least two critically. Laghman Province, a normally peaceful region, had seen earlier protests since the Koran burning and was the scene of NATO air attacks on insurgents on Thursday, when NATO seized heavy machine-guns and other firearms.

The shooting of the two American officers took place in the Interior Ministry’s command and control center, a highly restricted area within the ministry where officials monitor the entire country, according to an Afghan official in the ministry who spoke off the record because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

General Allen’s order to withdraw military advisers includes both those service members operating under the NATO flag, Americans and members of the coalition of 49 countries here, as well as specialized military advisers from Special Operations forces who are separate from the NATO chain of command. There are at least several hundred advisers embedded in almost every department of the security ministries, but a NATO spokesman would not give a number. They work on everything from logistics and weapons training to strategic planning for top level officials.

Most military advisors are in the Ministries of Defense, Interior, National Directorate of Security (Intelligence), and a few are scattered in other ministries.

American diplomats had already been withdrawn from work inside Afghan ministries because of travel restrictions imposed since Feb. 21, when the Koran burning became public, said Gavin Sundwall, the spokesman for American Embassy here.

The Taliban was quick to claim responsibility for the shooting, saying one of its members had infiltrated the ministry. But the Taliban regularly claims responsibility for deaths of NATO forces. A Taliban spokesman also claimed the shooter was carrying a suicide vest, but that detail did not agree with any other reports.

Saturday’s deaths added on to 24 Afghans people already reported killed since Tuesday, when reports first emerged about the Korans.

An apology by President Obama on Thursday has failed to keep thousands off the streets in Kabul and around the country, and the continuation of the demonstrations into their fifth day suggests that the outrage over the Koran burnings may not be about to end soon. The attacks on broader international targets and the provincial Afghan government offices as well as American military installations point to a broader frustration among Afghans.

Altogether there were protests in about six provinces, although not all were violent.

Further north in Sar-e-Pol, a crowd of about 4,000 congregated at a main mosque to hear mullahs preaching, according to Asadullah Khuram, deputy head of the provincial council, but the demonstration concluded peacefully.

There seemed to be a tension across the country where some leaders called for non-violent protest against the Koran burnings but elsewhere crowds were riled by provocateurs.

In Kunduz, for example, Ghulam Mohammad Farhad, the deputy police chief, said believes “there were some people who tried to sabotage the demonstration and turn it to violence.”

NATO is still investigating what led to the decision to burn Korans and other religious texts, and the findings of that investigation will prove highly sensitive.

Early reports said that the books had inflammatory messages written in them from detained Taliban suspects. Most of the Korans that were rescued from the flames are still at Bagram Air Base in a locked container. They are viewed as evidence. A few of the Korans were taken out of the base by Afghan employees.

Spike in Iran’s uranium production says U.N.

SUAadmin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:43:39 +0000

By Joby Warrick

Washington PostIran dramatically boosted its production of a purer form of nuclear fuel in recent months, with much of the increased output coming from a newly opened plant built inside a mountain bunker, U.N. officials said Friday, further exacerbating worries about Iran’s march toward nuclear-weapons capability.

The finding, in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, showed a nearly 50 percent jump since the fall in Iran’s stockpile of a kind of highly enriched uranium that is closer to weapons-grade than the type normally used in nuclear power plants.

Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Mamoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan on the 18th of February

More than a third of the increased output came from a formerly secret installation called Fordow, which began enriching uranium last month from inside a heavily fortified bunker carved into a mountain in northwestern Iran, the IAEA inspectors found.

Iran already has enough enriched uranium to build four nuclear weapons, if it decides in the future to do so. The shift to underground bunkers and a larger stockpile of the highly enriched uranium, however, could shorten the amount of time needed for Iran to develop a weapon, U.S. officials and nuclear experts say.

Iran would probably have to take additional steps, including kicking U.N. inspectors out of the country, before it is able to assemble a bomb.

Still, the jump in production was immediately criticized by U.S. and European officials who said Iran had undermined its credibility with a provocative spike in its production of nuclear fuel at at time when Iranian leaders were signaling an interest in restartingnuclear talks with the West. U.S. officials noted that Iran also sharply increased the number of centrifuges making enriched uranium at its main nuclear facility atNatanz.

“Iran’s actions demonstrate why Iran has failed to convince the international community that its nuclear program is peaceful,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. Unless Iran changes course, “its isolation from the international community will only continue to grow,” Vietor said.

The report by the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog was the first since the breakdown last week of an extraordinary round of negotiations between the IAEA and Iranian nuclear officials. U.N. officials confirmed early reports that Iran had stonewalled the agency’s efforts to investigate allegations that Iran’s scientists had conducted extensive research on how to build a nuclear warhead.

“No agreement was reached between Iran and the agency,” the report said, adding that Iranian officials twice refused an IAEA request to visit a key research facility where some of the alleged experiments were said to have occurred.

Iran dismissed the IAEA’s concerns about alleged nuclear weapons research “largely on the grounds that Iran considered them to be based on unfounded allegations,” said the report, prepared in advance of a meeting next month of the Vienna agency’s 35-nation board of governors.

As a signatory to the international Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran is required to grant the IAEA access to its nuclear facilities to ensure that no nuclear material is being diverted to a nuclear weapons program. IAEA inspectors have unearthed no direct evidence that Iran is working on a building a bomb. But Iran’s growing stockpile of enriched uranium has fueled fears in the West that the country’s leaders are at least seeking the option to develop nuclear weapons in the future. Iranian officials say the country’s nuclear program is intended only for electricity production.

Most worrisome to U.S. officials is Iran’s shift to a purer form of enriched uranium. Most of the country’s stockpile consists of the 5 percent enriched uranium used in nuclear power plants. But the IAEA’s new report documented a sharp rise in the production of a 20 percent enriched uranium.

Iran claims that it will use the material to make fuel rods for the country’s sole medical research reactor, but its stockpile of 20 percent uranium already far surpasses the country’s projected needs, nuclear experts say. U.S. officials note that 20 percent enriched uranium can be quickly converted to weapons-grade uranium using equipment Iran already has.

The surplus grew further since the fall, the IAEA report said, as Iran added more than 78 pounds of the purer form of enriched uranium to the 163 pounds it already had, the agency said. The rate of production of the fuel tripled over the past four months, according to an analysis by the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington nonprofit group that researches nuclear weapons programs.

Some nuclear experts say they suspect the new stockpiling may be an attempt by Iran to improve its bargaining position ahead of any new nuclear talks with the West.

Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said it was probably significant that Iran began its production of 20 percent enrichment at the underground Fordow plant before Iranian officials formally proposed a new round of nuclear talks with the so-called P5-plus-1 nations — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

“Iran is steadily creating facts in the ground, such as enrichment to 20 percent at the underground site near Qom,” Lewis said. Whatever the motivation, Iran has succeeded in “pushing this standoff toward a military confrontation that leaves Iran isolated but with the bomb.”

In a rare bright spot for Western countries, the report showed Iran continuing to struggle to perfect more advanced centrifuges that could vastly increase its rate of uranium enrichment.

“Tension and risk is moderated by the failure, or severe trouble, of Iran’s other main nuclear plank — advanced generation machines,” said Cliff Kupchan, a former State Department official and director of Middle East analysis for the Euraisa Group, a private consulting firm. “On balance, the report will keep tensions at a high level, but it does not change the trajectory of the crisis.”

Obama plays “Sim-City” on his Virtual Economy

SUAadmin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:05:55 +0000

Editor’s Note – SUA has been pointing out for years that the President’s messages just do not make sense. Playing by the same rules, everyone doing their fair share, taxing the rich, improving economy, and many more catch phrases meant to sway your vote, yet each is easily dismantled. Why? Because they are not true.

When almost 50% of wage earners pay zero income taxes, when the combined total of all the rich people’s money cannot pay for one year of the budget, when job statistics and reports do not include a very large portion of the out-of-work, work force – and so on, his numbers must be from an alternate universe. A “Sim-City” universe he created that is painfully untrue, and irrationally twisted, is not the cure for what ails America, but he knows many will believe him, after all, they did in 2008!

Obama’s Virtual Economy

It’s endless fun, fiddling with the dials on the real world.

By Daniel Henninger

WSJ Online

If you were a president who for three years presided over an economy with more than 13 million unemployed, a growth rate gasping around 2%, an historic credit downgrade and underwater home mortgages drifting like icebergs toward the American Titanic, what would you do?

You’d do what Barack Obama’s done: Reboot.

With his recently announced campaign platform—An Economy Built to Last—President Obama has essentially constructed a virtual economy. Instead of the economy we all live in, he’s making one up and inviting us to pretend we are living in it. Welcome to the Sim City Economy.

Sim City, one of the most popular products ever in the imaginary world of video games, lets players bring to life towns of their own devising in great detail. It’s endless fun, fiddling with the dials on the real world.

In his State of the Union Address, Mr. Obama described what will be a major claim of his re-election campaign—that he renewed the American dream by bailing out General Motors. About the defensibility of this policy we can argue. But as is his wont, Mr. Obama erected a generalized theory of social betterment atop this one event. “What’s happening in Detroit can happen in other industries.” Mr. Obama announced. “It can happen in Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Raleigh.”

It can?

What’s interesting about this claim is that the corridor between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, much of it economically moribund for years, is experiencing a rebirth thanks to real economic forces, not a president who types in the name of another beleaguered city and hits Ctrl-Shift-Enter to solve its problems.

Most of this revival is taking place around the godforsaken city of Youngstown, Ohio, and the formerly dying steel towns west of Pittsburgh, an area better known today as the Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Field. Last summer, a French steel company, Vallourec & Mannesmann Holdings Inc., began construction on a new $650 million plant to make steel tubes for the hydraulic fracking industry. About 400 workers are building it. Nothing Barack Obama has done in three years—not the $800 billion stimulus or anything in his four, $3 trillion-plus budgets—is remotely related to the better times in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

But other than grudging acknowledgment of the private entrepreneurs’ natural-gas success, don’t expect to hear the carbon-based word “fracking” much in the president’s stump speech when he paints in the numbers of the American economy as he imagines it. That pitch will run more toward the ideas in the Presidential Memorandum released this Tuesday, directing the Department of Agriculture to put in motion a program called “Promoting a Bioeconomy.”

The Obama Bioeconomy will come to life after the Ag Department “increases the purchase of biobased products” under a program that originated in the 2002 farm bill. After mandating a 50% increase in products designated as biobased, “items like paints, soaps and detergents . . . are developed from farm grown plants, rather than chemicals or petroleum bases.” This, the president says, “will drive innovation and economic growth and create jobs at marginal cost to the American public.”

You can’t make this up. On the other hand, that’s the point: You can make this up, and then sell it, or try to sell it, as An Economy Built to Last.

The announcement Tuesday of the impending Bioeconomy was of course overwhelmed that day by the president’s White House speech celebrating Congress’s one-year extension of his payroll tax cut. This was the biggest economic policy event in Washington the past two months. The president himself announced the payoff for the American people: “It means $40 extra in their paycheck.” Sounds real, but barely.

Moments later, he drew attention to an initiative “we passed” that will “create jobs by expanding wireless broadband and ensuring that first responders have access to the latest lifesaving technologies.” When Newt makes claims like this, he’s nuts; with Barack Obama, it’s a vision.

A cynic might argue that none of these pretend ideas for reviving a $15 trillion economy in the second term matters much because the lasting damage was done in the first term, with ObamaCare’s redo of the health sector—16% of the economy—and Dodd-Frank, which even the bureaucrats asked to write things like the Volcker Rule admit they can’t figure out.

A cynic might say further that much of what Mr. Obama is outputting from his laptop for the next four years are pop-gun ideas or phantom tax policy. The Buffett Rule will never become a real law. On Wednesday Mr. Obama proposed an array of corporate tax changes—some up, some down—but as the reporting noted repeatedly, with virtually “no specifics.” Ctrl-Alt-Delete. The scheme to revive manufacturing—taxes overseas that are reprogrammed into domestic hires—would challenge even Sim City’s programmers.

Cynical resignation and a president living in a videogame economy aren’t what the U.S. needs at this turn in history. The biggest burden on this week’s two Republican front-runners, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, will be to describe—in detail—what really happened to the U.S. economy the past three years. Against that reality, Mr. Obama will repeat until November that he wants an economy “where everyone plays by the same set of rules.” If he’s writing them, it may not compute.

America’s Full-Blown Dhimmitude – Diana West

SUAadmin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:49:24 +0000

Diana West asks why in the world U.S. apologized for burning Qurans

By Diana West

WND

I’ve got it.

Diana West

After all these years of official stumbling over what to call the mission the United States has spearheaded in the Islamic world in response to the 9/11 attacks, I’ve come up with a name – not to brag or anything – that I believe brings much-needed clarity to our cause.

We’ve come a long way since the days of the Global War on Terror. Frankly, the GWOT – whatever that was supposed to mean (how do you fight against a tactic?) – is so 10 years ago. “Terror,” meanwhile, has morphed into “extremism,” but that’s only made things more unclear. We still don’t know what it’s all supposed to be about.

Until today.

Mr. and Mrs. America, boys and girls, welcome to the Global War on Quran-Burning, as led by the United States Masochists To Make the World Safe for Shariah (Islamic law).

If a column could have special effects, this is where piercing beams of sunlight would dispel clouds of confusion as pink bunnies jump up and down, squeaking, “That’s it, that’s it!” And a sigh of relief would spread across the happy valley …

Or would it? If my title for the war our country has engaged us in is apt, have I described a cause most Americans support? I don’t think so, but, of course, I don’t claim to know the answer. That’s partly because I see no upset in the land over the latest and greatest display of American dhimmitude – the subservient state of Jews and Christians in thrall to Islamic law – that we have witnessed in Afghanistan all week. Afghan Muslims have convulsed in rioting and killing (among other fatalities, two U.S. military personnel have been murdered by an Afghan army member) on word that Qurans and other religious materials were disposed of on a U.S. military base after authorities discovered the books were being used at Parwan prison in what the BBC said may have been “a secret Taliban message system.”

You didn’t hear about that last part? I’m not surprised. This crucial piece of the story – the logical reason for the books’ destruction – is treated by the media, and also by the U.S. government, as secondary material. At least one unnamed “U.S. official” imparted this part of the story to the press (Reuters and AFP); unnamed “Afghan officials” have told the BBC the same thing. Judging by the gingerly way this news is being handled, it almost seems as if the perfectly logical rationale for the disposal of these materials is regarded as an embarrassment.

Not so the outrageous, primitive response of rioting Muslims. In our state of abject apology, we have, in effect, condoned this murderous behavior according to the Islamic rules governing treatment of the Quran. This isn’t just political correctness run amok; it’s open submission to Islamic law. After all, the Quran is an inanimate object, a thing, cheaply printed and distributed by the gazillion, often by Saudi Arabia. We – if by “we” I may still refer to the Judeo-Christian-humanist world – do not rampage and shoot people when an inanimate object, a thing, even a Bible, is torn, written on or thrown away. In fact, we have constitutional rights to do all of those things as a matter of free speech.

Nonetheless, we as a nation – spilling blood for the “noble people of Afghanistan,” as top commander Marine Gen. John R. Allen says in his prostration video – have deemed it vital to accommodate, apologize, slurp and scrape to those who do. Equally as tragic, in the frenzy to apologize, the logic behind throwing the stuff away has been sacrificed. Reason itself has been discarded in a shameful and irrational act of fealty. This isn’t just dysfunctional behavior. This is full-blown dhimmitude.

Sorry to disappoint the pink bunnies.

Hamas – Sunnis who allow Iran to direct them

SUAadmin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:36:48 +0000

Editor’s Note – There is no simple answer to anything in the Middle East, and for some time, SUA and others have been pointing to one element to watch out for. This element is not just any Israeli problem, its a regional issue. The ‘Palestinian’ issue is tied to the very core to Hamas, and to think otherwise is folly at least, total stupidity at the worst.

To those who wish ‘Palestinian’ statehood, don’t hold your breath, you may not look good in blue. To those who have researched and understand at least the major facts, make sure you include this group in all your analysis.

To those who are completely up to date on all of the Middle East, well, you already know this. But please, read on and remember, what the media says and does is of little consequence, because they eschew fact so they can rile up the masses and the ignorant into reading about bloody headlines.

Iran is the key, and Ron Paul and his followers need to understand that isolationism will be our downfall. It never worked before, and American Exceptionalism is something to spread far and wide.

Is this a deli in Jerusalem? ... no, its a supermarket in Gaza...Poor 'Palestinians'! Hamas' propaganda machine - and its Iranian puppeteers.

Hamas’s Iran connection

According to many Palestinians, Iran manipulates the Palestinian cause, raising suspicions about Ismail Haniyeh’s recent visit to Tehran, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

Al Ahram Weekly

The latest visit to Tehran by Hamas’s prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, raised many eyebrows among Palestinians who viewed the timing as “problematic and unwise”.

Critics argue that having cordial meetings with the Iranian leadership at this time is bound to be interpreted by many Muslims as a brazen betrayal of the Syrian revolution, including the Syrian Muslim Brothers, the Alawite regime’s arch foe and ultimate enemy.

Iran, which officially claims it doesn’t interfere in the Syrian situation, is one of the Bashar Al-Assad regime’s ardent supporters. The same thing applies to the Lebanese militia Hizbullah, which is rumoured to be assisting the Syrian army in its bloody crackdown on the freedom movement.

The ruling Alawite sect in Syria is an esoteric branch of Shiism. In recent years, Shia scholars tried to “rehabilitate” the Alawites, with some Shia clerics issuing edicts that the Alawites were bona fide Shia.

The Alawites are anthropomorphists who believe that the Prophet Mohamed’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali, was God incarnate.

Syrian sources close to the anti-Assad movement have reported that Iranian fighters were spotted helping the regime’s forces kill peaceful protesters. However, these reports have not been confirmed by independent or third party sources.

Until fairly recently, Hamas resorted to reiterating terse statements affirming its “absolute neutrality” with regard to “the situation” in Syria.

Hamas’s politburo chief, Khaled Meshaal, said during a recent Al-Jazeera interview that “we support the Arab peoples’ quest for freedom but we can’t betray those who stood with us during hard times.”

Officially, Meshaal’s remarks passed quietly as many ordinary Palestinians understood, begrudgingly, that Hamas had to refrain from burning all bridges with Damascus or Tehran before knowing for sure the direction of the political winds in Syria.

But this logic is not being widely and readily accepted, especially among the more ideologically oriented Islamists who believe religion, not politics, must always come first.

One veteran Islamist leader who had spent many years in Israeli jails told Al-Ahram Weekly that “expediency plays a role in the formation of Muslims’ positions, but not when Muslim blood is being spilled on a large scale in the streets and squares of Syria”.

The middle-aged Hebronite read a Hadith or saying of the Prophet Mohammed that, “Whoever aids or abets in spilling an innocent Muslim’s blood will have no hope for God’s mercy on the Day of Judgment.”

In their hearts, even supporters of the Gaza-Tehran connection swear they are with the Syrian people heart and soul.

Ahmed Youssef, a former political advisor to Haniyeh, told the Weekly that, “Hamas can’t be a genuine Islamic movement while siding with murderous regimes against the people.

“And it would be wrong to assume that the ostensible ambiguity and ambivalence connote or denote support for the regime in Damascus.”

Youssef, nonetheless, admitted that, “Occasionally, a free man must seek the friendship of an enemy for survival.”

In Tehran, Haniyeh was accorded a stately reception. He also had a cordial meeting with Iranian spiritual leader Ali Khamenei.

It is likely that Iran tried to use the visit to alleviate its isolation. Supporting the Palestinian cause is always a winning card in Tehran. This is certainly the case ever since the triumph of the Khomeini revolution in 1978. Moreover, it is generally understood that Iranian support for the Palestinians is considered one of the main factors behind the hostility shown towards the Iranian regime by Israel and guardian-ally, the United States.

It is uncertain how large is the amount of financial aid Tehran gives the Islamist regime in Gaza. Some Gaza sources point out that Iranian aid to Hamas was erratic and dwindling. However, Haniyeh’s visit to Tehran, which was termed a “resounding success” by both sides, seems to have convinced the Islamist government in Gaza that this is not the time to scale down relations with Tehran.

One Hamas official, Ismail Radwan, lashed out at critics of Haniyeh’s visit to Tehran.

“What do the critics want? The Arabs, or most of them, are squandering their billions on their lusts and vagaries, but Iran is helping us remain steadfast and resilient in the face of Israel.”

The Gazan Islamist leader further advised critics to examine their Islamic credentials, especially their obligations towards Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“Look, Arab leaders are not even raising the matter with foreign diplomats. So what do these people really want? Do they want us to tell the Iranians that our civilians will die of hunger and lack of medical care because we don’t accept Iranian aid?”

Apart from Hamas’s decision to maintain liaison with Damascus, some Sunni Arab voices are worried that Iran might utilise its badly needed financial aid to Gaza to convert Sunnis to Shiism.

A few months ago, a small group of neophytes tried to hold a procession in Gaza to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the nephew of the Prophet Mohammed. However, the move was suppressed before it began and those involved were charged with spreading schism and endangering social cohesion.

Palestinian Muslims, who constitute 99.95 per cent of the overall population of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, are almost all Sunni who resent any notion of conversion to the esoteric Shia sect.

One Palestinian journalist wrote an article recently warning that “there should be no tolerance for those who curse the companions and wives of the Prophet, worship tombs and dead saints and bloody their bodies during Ashura,” an allusion to Shias.

Iran denies any sectarian motives behind its policy towards the Palestinians.