Iran election roundup

Ahmadinejad Supporters
From June 30, 2008:

Report: U.S. ‘preparing the battlefield’ in Iran

VASHINGTON (CNN) — The Bush administration has launched a “significant escalation” of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country’s nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic’s government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.

White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh’s report, which appears in this week’s issue of The New Yorker.

Hersh told CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents

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From Thursday, 28 May 2009:

Iran: Many die in Zahedan mosque bombing

A bomb in a mosque in south-east Iran has killed at least 19 people and injured 60, the governor of Sistan-Baluchestan province said.
Although it occurred in a remote region, the explosion comes at a time of heightened political sensitivity nationally, with just over two weeks before the first round of the presidential election .

Fars news agency quoted witnesses saying the incident had been a suicide attack, and that a second bomb had been defused near the mosque. The reports could not be verified.

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Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter

Were these legitimate Iranian people or the works of a propaganda machine? I became curious and decided to investigate the origins of the information. In doing so, I narrowed it down to a handful of people who have accounted for 30,000 Iran related tweets in the past few days. Each of them had some striking similarities -

1. They each created their twitter accounts on Saturday June 13th.
2. Each had extremely high number of Tweets since creating their profiles.
3. “IranElection” was each of their most popular keyword
4. With some very small exceptions, each were posting in ENGLISH.
5. Half of them had the exact same profile photo
6. Each had thousands of followers, with only a few friends. Most of their friends were EACH OTHER.

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Jones vs. Ross – Knock Out In The Third Round

. . . .The current Haaretz piece is headlined: “Why is Dennis Ross being ousted as Obama envoy to Iran?” The earlier headline was: “Was Dennis Ross ousted as U.S. envoy to Iran because he’s a Jew?”. If I remember correctly the earlier piece did not include the second paragraph of the current one which says Ross will in future “deal primarily with regional issues related to the peace process.”

We do not know why Ross was moved from that position. He should not have been put there in the first place because he is a. against talking with Iran, b. has never had success in achieving agreements in his earlier roles in the Clinton administration, c. has no experience on or with Iran at all.

Haaretz names several possible reason for this move. His open mistrust about talks with Iran, Irans alleged refusal to accept Ross in the negotiator role, his possible own dissatisfaction with his job and a rumored move of Ross to the National Security Agency where, a Haaretz source claims, he would work more directly under Obama.

The last claim sounds bogus to me. Ross does not have any experience as spy – at least not FOR the United States. The other ones are spurious too. Ross’ positions towards Iran was known before he was put onto the job. They can not be reason to now remove him.

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http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2009/06/iran-election-wrap.html

. . .. It seems the neocons were too smart for their own good, pissed off the Obama administration with their scheming, and paid the price of losing “Dennis Ross: (Ross was probably headed out the door anyway, but the timing of his departure is telling). It was always completely preposterous that the Obama guy in charge of negotiating with Iran was the co-founder – along with Richard Holbrooke, whose job it is to wreck Pakistan – of an institute dedicated to nuking Iran.

From the most dependable newspaper in the world, the Telegraph:

“Mr Mousavi’s cancellation of the protest came as sporadic disturbances continued around the Iranian capital, and reports circulated of leaked interior ministry statistics showing him as the clear victor in last Friday’s polls.

The statistics, circulated on Iranian blogs and websites, claimed Mr Mousavi had won 19.1 million votes while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won only 5.7 million.

The two other candidates, reformist Mehdi Karoubi and hardliner Mohsen Rezai, won 13.4 million and 3.7 million respectively. The authenticity of the leaked figures could not be confirmed.”

Try to remember that this is the Telegraph, not the Onion (a far more reliable news source).

Meanwhile, back in the real world, pollsters explain how the final results are quite credible. Mousavi, a politician who had been out of power for twenty years, entered the race at almost the last moment. The poll showed he didn’t even come close to Ahmadinejad amongst his own ethnic group. Ahmadinejad is considered to be personally completely non-corrupt, while a major supporter of Mousavei, Hashemi Rafsanjani, is infamous in Iran for his corruption.

Mousavi is also good pals with Manucher Ghorbanifar. Remember the meeting in Rome with Ledeen in which they cooked up the trickery which led to the disastrous American attack on Iraq? Remember the Niger documents? The connections to corruption and to the neocons make Mousavi’s recent actions quite understandable. He never thought he was going to win. He was in the election from the get go as part of a neocon/Zionist plot to destabilize Iran and make the election ‘illegitimate’ . . . .

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Ahmadinejad

Some Dots You May Want To Connect

Some U.S. officials who have dealt with Ghorbanifar praise him highly. Says Michael Ledeen, adviser to the Pentagon on counterterrorism: “He is one of the most honest, educated, honorable men I have ever known.” Others call him a liar who, as one puts it, could not tell the truth about the clothes he is wearing. . . .

On or about November 25, 1985, Michael Ledeen received a frantic phone call from Ghorbanifar, asking him to relay a message from the prime minister of Iran to President Reagan regarding the shipment of the wrong type of HAWKs. . . .

The administration’s reluctance to disclose these details seems clear: the DoD-Ghorbanifar meetings suggest the possibility that a rogue faction at the Pentagon was trying to work outside normal US foreign policy channels to advance a “regime change” agenda not approved by the president’s foreign policy principals or even the president himself. . . .

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Axis of Logic

The attempt to discredit the elections and cause instability in Iran look very much like a scheme we've seen before - directly out of the CIA playbook. We've seen this pattern in so many elections in Venezuela, for example, I swear that even the Chavistas would be disappointed if it doesn't reappear next time around. After all, a little drama does add some excitement in elections where consistent landslide victories are won by presidents like Chavez and Ahmadinejad. So here we go again - the old Langley one, two, three:

1. Groom an opposition candidate to run against the guy you hate, pay him well and line up your media to back him.


2. During the campaign, sell him as the savior of the bourgeois opposition who lost their money in the revolution. Use your own pollsters and media propaganda to convince his followers that they are going to win by a wide margin.

3. When your guy loses, scream "FRAUD!" It's akin to yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre, inflaming all those disappointed bourgeois counter-revolutionaries. Get them out on the street, setting fires, playing the victim, waving flags, ready-to-go placards, banners, women crying in front of CNN cameras and men yelling angrily into Christiana Amanpour's microphone. Only this time, they're ready to burn their own flag instead of the U.S. flag. I tell ya, it makes great TV for a western audience.

(Incidentally, don't take Christiana's reports too seriously. The Amanpours, like many Iranian expats, led a privileged life under the Shah of Iran and lost their ill gotten wealth as a result of the Iranian revolution in '79. Naturally, Christiana was very upset. Later, she married James Rubin, an arch-Zionist, and regained her status, good money and even some fame, this time as a CNN reporter in service to the empire.) . . .

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See also:

Golden Straitjacket ? . . . more like Golden Steak-knife . . . . through the ribs

Swiss caught in German/U.S. pincer movement?

Coinkydink? . . ..

UBS Faces U.S. Tax Evasion Probe; Employee Detained

Clients pulled a net 12.8 billion francs ($12.1 billion) from UBS's asset- and wealth-management units in the first quarter, the first withdrawal in almost eight years as the bank's writedowns swelled to $38 billion. German prosecutors said in March they're weighing a criminal investigation into whether UBS helped clients evade taxes.

``UBS has been hit by a perfect storm,'' said Edwin Merner, who oversees $2 billion at Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo. ``Clients may run away if they think they'll leak information to tax authorities in Germany and the U.S.''

UBS fell 1.5 percent to 34.7 francs by 1:47 p.m. in Swiss trading. The bank said yesterday it plans to cut about 5,500 jobs, including as many as 2,600 at its investment-banking unit, which had 18.2 billion francs of first-quarter losses. Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner told analysts he expects ``tough business conditions'' to continue.

Washington Upset Over Iran-Europe Energy Deal

May 5, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com
Europe ignores U.S. calls for tighter sanctions on Iran by pursuing a gas deal.

Today, Swiss energy giant EGL is set to sign a contract with Iran agreeing to purchase €18 billion worth of gas starting 2011. The potential deal comes in quick succession after the revelation in April that Austrian energy company omv signed letters of intent to buy €22 billion of gas from Tehran.

Swiss bank's manager held in U.S. tax probe

ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- UBS said Wednesday that a senior manager was briefly detained in the United States as part of an investigation into whether the Swiss bank helped U.S. customers evade taxes.


Swiss banking giant UBS is under investigation
over possible tax offenses in the United States


UBS said the employee was briefly detained as a material witness and was still in the United States.

"Our understanding is that the respective employee, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing by the U.S. government, will remain in the United States pending discussions with the U.S. authorities regarding resolution of his status as a witness," the company said in a statement.

UBS spokesman Serge Steiner said that the employee had the full support of the bank and that "at the moment he is in the United States until his status as a witness is clear."

He declined to provide details about the man or his detention.

The company says the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Switzerland's largest bank concerning its cross-border business.

The probe focuses on whether UBS helped its clients evade U.S. taxes between 2000 and 2007.
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The company said the SEC was examining whether Swiss-based UBS client advisers engaged in activities that triggered an obligation for UBS Switzerland to register with the SEC as a broker-dealer or investment adviser.

Swiss banks refuse blame for foreign [German] clients' tax evasion

Swiss banks cannot be expected to police foreign clients' tax affairs, one of the country's top banking officials said Monday, rejecting German demands for greater cooperation to catch tax evaders.

The president of the Swiss Bankers Association laid the blame for tax evasion squarely at the feet of governments that demand too much of their citizens' income.

"Countries which worry about tax evasion of their citizens should have a good think about the way they tax their people," Pierre Mirabaud told journalists in Geneva.

The European Union, in particular Germany, has been pressuring Switzerland to crack down on EU citizens who hide money in Swiss banks in order to avoid paying higher taxes at home.

Switzerland, which is not a member of the 27-nation bloc, fiercely protects the privacy of banking customers, including foreigners who have deposited more than 1 trillion Swiss francs (US$950 billion; €640 billion) in its vaults.

"It's necessary to clearly show Germany and the European Union where their sphere of influence ends and where our sovereignty begins," Mirabaud said, adding that his members don't regard themselves as responsible for their clients' actions.

"We are not a tax authority and we are not a police authority," he said.

Leading Swiss politicians and bankers reacted with outrage earlier this year when it was revealed that German intelligence had purchased confidential information on bank customers in neighboring Liechtenstein. Mirabaud said at the time that Berlin had used "Gestapo" methods to acquire the data, but later retracted his comparison to Nazi Germany's secret police.

The information led to a series of high-profile raids against individuals and businesses in Germany, as well as further investigations by authorities in Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Switzerland, like Liechtenstein, provides no judicial assistance to foreign authorities in cases of tax evasion because it is considered an administrative offense subject only to fines rather than a crime punishable by a jail sentence.

A visit last week by German chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the tax issue failed to change Switzerland's stance on the matter.

Mirabaud said criticism of Switzerland was misplaced, and largely driven by competitors jealous of the Alpine nation's success as a leading center for international finance.

"For any Anglo-Saxon newspaper, it's much easier to attack Switzerland than the United Kingdom or the U.S.," he said.

Mirabaud insisted that Switzerland has some of the world's strictest rules against money laundering and has done much in recent years to shake off its reputation as a safe haven for dictators to stash their funds.

Millions of dollars (euros) hidden in Swiss accounts by the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and Philippines strong man Ferdinand Marcos have been returned to their governments, and Swiss authorities are seeking to do the same for money deposited here by former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

But on the matter of tax evasion, Mirabaud said the solution is for countries to demand less from their citizens.

"Humans being what they are, if the tax burden becomes too high there will always be tax evasion," he said.

World Jewish Congress wants Swiss to cancel Iranian gas deal

The president of the World Jewish Congress said Tuesday he wanted Switzerland to cancel a multibillion-dollar Swiss-Iranian natural gas deal because it threatens Israel and the US.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes deals
with Europe, despite American sanctions.

Ronald Lauder, a billionaire cosmetics magnate, said the deal signed by Swiss Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey in Tehran last month has angered the WJC because of Iran's hardline president and because it comes at a time when the United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program.

"Maybe that money that Switzerland is paying to Iran will some day be used to either buy weapons to kill Israelis or buy weapons to kill Americans or buy missiles to be able to deliver nuclear weapons," he said.

"I'd like them to cancel it, yes," Lauder told reporters in the Swiss capital. But he said he did not want to exert pressure on the Swiss government.

pincer movement

noun:
a movement by two [or more?] separate bodies of troops converging on the enemy.