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POPSIranian Protesters to Obama: "You're Either With Us or With Them" "I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect." Now the Iranian protesters know who the man is with. Since we've never had a President who favored tyranny over liberty before, this appears to be uncharted territory for not only the protesters -- but the American citizenry as well.
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POPSProtests flare in Iran's capital .... "....opposition protesters warned the Obama administration -- which is seeking to engage Iran to defuse a confrontation over Tehran's nuclear program -- that now's not the time for a deal." Hmmm....and this: "...Protesters chanted, "Death to the dictator" and "Russia is the den of espionage,".....
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POPS TenSION Obama On Iran: "I''m Not Interested in Victory" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6nMxYcmjE&feature=player_embedded H/T Gateway Pundit HotAirpundit Well done Chip Reid You showed the President's hand Reid: Thank you Mr. President, you just mentioned sanctions that have bite, what kinds of sanction, and I know you can't get into details but what kind of sanctions at all would have bite with Iran, do you really think that any kind of sanctions would have any effect on somebody like Ahmadinejad, secondly some of your advisers today said that this announcement was a victory, do you consider it a victory and if so why didn't you announce it earlier since you have known since you were President elect?.. Obama flustered by the question, "I'm not interested in victory, I'm interested in solving the problem" Clearly, today is a big smokescreen, he doesn't wanna come across as "America good, Iran bad," the global citizen is all talk here, we're not going to do anything
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POPSUS Press Freedom Improves At the bottom of the list were Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea "where media are so suppressed they are nonexistent," said Reporters Without Borders. Iran dropped to No. 172 from No. 166, with Reporters Without Borders saying the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had fostered a paranoia about journalists and bloggers. "Automatic prior censorship, state surveillance of journalists, mistreatment, journalists forced to flee the country, illegal arrests and imprisonment -- such is the state of press freedom this year in Iran," the group said. The ranking was compiled from hundreds of questionnaires completed by journalists and media experts around the world and reflecting press freedom violations that took place between Sept. 1, 2008 and Aug. 31, 2009. The complete ranking can be seen at www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html Read more at source.
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POPS One Other Thought I know the pundits are all saying this means people will have to take him seriously and go along with the hopey peace thing. OK, only the sap pundits are saying that, but still … Mickey Kaus has a point . Maybe he should turn it down. Before he’s stuck with it, and its stuck all over him. http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/kausfiles/archive/2009/10/09/what-obama-should-do-with-his-nobel-peace-prize.aspx
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POPSCan Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb? 
positions shifted. American and Israeli national-security players grudgingly accepted that they could tolerate Iran having some civilian nuclear-energy capacity. Ahmadinejad, Khamenei and the religious radicals wavered; then, as the model reached our present day, their power " another variable in Bueno de Mesquita’s model " sagged significantly. Amid the thousands of rows on the spreadsheet, there’s one called Forecast. It consists of a single number that represents the most likely consensus of all the players. It begins at 160 " bomb-making territory " but by next year settles at 118, where it doesn’t move much. “That’s the outcome,” Bueno de Mesquita said confidently, tapping the screen. What does 118 mean? It means that Iran won’t make a nuclear bomb. By early 2010, according to the forecast, Iran will be at the brink of developing one, but then it will stop and go no further. If this computer model is right, all the dire portents we’ve seen in recent months . . .
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POPS The Greatest Threat in the Middle East Dr. ElBaradei has long considered a confrontational strategy toward Iran to be counterproductive. Responding to calls for the report’s release, he has raised doubts about its completeness and reliability.” ElBaradei’s non-confrontational approach likely explains today’s statement in Tehran that “Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses.” Because it’s much safer to verbally attack democratic nations like Israel than unpredictable authoritarian regimes like Iran. patterico's pontifications http://patterico.com/
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POPSSmart Power! Results May Not Be The Same as Implied or Expected That would be the same Mohammed El-Baradei that, you know, conveniently left out of the IAEA reports the part concerning Iran’s work on nuclear weapons; the same El-Baradei that considers himself a world peacemaker that’s doing God’s work! This is the guy the administration is going to rely on to “coordinate the details” of the Qum inspection schedule and regimen? This is the kind of Smart Power ! that’s guiding our nation’s most urgent and sensitive foreign policy actions; yet another example of the President’s Brilliance! and Judgement! perhaps? It’s been observed by some of his opponents that all of Obama’s promises have an expiration date, but a few months ago nobody would have believed that the time period would become this short! And I guess it’s safe to say that his proclamation that, “a nuclear Iran is unacceptable“, has expired too; after all, they’re just words …
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POPSMahmoud Ahmadinejad's Jewish Roots Revealed: "Heil Sabourjian!"
The phenomenon of Jews denouncing other Jews and being their own worst critics (and I do mean worst) is a well known one, in history down to the present day -- whether it's those who profess to still identify with the faith, as with some members of Jewish Voice for Peace (most have long since substituted Marxism for their religion and simply live off genetics), those whose parents converted (as with Marx), or those who converted out themselves and now prove their bona fides by trashing their former co-religionists. One thing's for sure, this is just more proof that there's something about those Jews -- always prime movers on every side of world-historical events and movements. In fact, maybe that's it! Ahmadinejad (nee Sabourjian) is just a ZIonist under deep cover, agitating for a war to bring about Iran's ultimate defeat and the massive expansion of Greater Israel's borders. Think about it, fever swampers. The title of course refers to the fact that Adolf Hitler's . . .
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POPSObama's Move: Iran and Afghanistan United States between April and September. In his speech to the Islamic world from Cairo, he planned to show a desire not only to find common ground, but also to acknowledge shortcomings in U.S. policy in the region. With the appointment of special envoys George Mitchell (for Israel and the Palestinian territories) and Richard Holbrooke (for Pakistan and Afghanistan), Obama sought to build on his opening to the Islamic world with intense diplomatic activity designed to reshape regional relationships. It can be argued that the Islamic masses responded positively to Obama’s opening " it has been asserted to be so and we will accept this " but the diplomatic mission did not solve the core problem. Mitchell could not get the Israelis to move on the settlement issue, and while Holbrooke appears to have made some headway on increasing Pakistan’s aggressiveness toward the Taliban, no fundamental shift has occurred in the Afghan war.
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POPSObama On Nuclear Conflict With Iran: "I'm Not Interested In Victory" (Video)
Obama At The G-20 On Iran: "I'm Not Interested In Victory" Oh yes he did say it, first of all, Obama gets hit with a very good question from CBS's Chip Reid Well done Chip Reid....You showed the President's hand... Reid: Thank you Mr. President, you just mentioned sanctions that have bite, what kinds of sanction, and I know you can't get into details but what kind of sanctions at all would have bite with Iran, do you really think that any kind of sanctions would have any effect on somebody like Ahmadinejad, secondly some of your advisers today said that this announcement was a victory, do you consider it a victory and if so why didn't you announce it earlier since you have known since you were President elect?.. Obama flustered by the question, "I'm not interested in victory, I'm interested in solving the problem" Clearly, today is a big smokescreen, he doesn't wanna come across as "America good, Iran bad," the global citizen is all talk here, we're not going to do
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POPSDiscovering Iran's secret nuclear plant has wiped off Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's smile Holding court at his hotel, Mr Ahmadinejad said he was looking forward to "free and open" discussions during this week's meeting with six world powers on Iran's nuclear programme. But by Friday, Mr Ahmadinejad's composure looked shaken when he appeared at a news conference shortly after President Barack Obama had disclosed that Iran had been developing a second uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom without bothering to inform the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency what it was up to.
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POPS The Iran Attack Plan 
Israel would have to contend with the fact that it has consistently had a "red light" from both the Bush and Obama administrations opposing such strikes. Any strike that overflew Arab territory or attacked a fellow Islamic state would stir the ire of neighboring Arab states, as well as Russia, China and several European states. No one knows what specialized weapons Israel may have developed on its own, but Israeli intelligence has probably given Israel good access to U.S., European, and Russian designs for more advanced weapons than the GBU-28. Therefore, the odds are that Israel can have a serious impact on Iran's three most visible nuclear targets and possibly delay Iran's efforts for several years. The story is very different, however, when it comes to destroying the full range of Iranian capabilities. There are no meaningful unclassified estimates of Iran's total mix of nuclear facilities, but known unclassified research, reactor, and centrifuge facilities number . . .