The President seems to have seriously ruffled some EU feathers at the UN (which probably has a lot to do with Chicago’s lackluster run at the Olympics) by pushing his personal image over that of the interests of the international community:

The President is believed to have angered the European leaders by insisting on delaying a joint press conference until after he had chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Mr Obama is said to have been worried the announcement would undermine the impact of his session on nuclear non-proliferation.

The One does not have time for such trivial issues as a nuclear armed Iran. He has to present his glorious presence to his people after all!

Trust me, I have worked with Europeans and this kind of snub irritates the daylights out of them, the more so because it is a deadly serious manner. Another O-Bomba moment.

Addendum: Truly, this man wanted the spotlight instead of sending the message, given is lame excuse:

But Mr Obama did not want to “spoil the image of success” of his disarmament session, which passed a resolution to work towards a nuclear-free world and a host of measures designed to control the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce existing stocks.

How could challenging Iran’s hidden nuclear facilities collide with his image of fighting the spread of nuclear weapons? The two dovetail nicely, and he would have picked up the respect of the hard liners here and abroad. Clearly, this presidency is all about ‘me’ (the imperial ‘me’ of course).

And I thought Clinton was self absorbed.

In 2007 the NIE was a crass act of misinformation.

The NIE claimed two things, one with confidence and one without – but the pliant and not-too-bright news media treated both claims as gospel. The first claim made a lot of sense. It said Iran had ceased its secret nuclear weapons program in 2003 after the quick defeat of Iraq by US forces. Apparently we put some needed fear into them. This was the high confidence claim.

The second claim had no confidence and later turned out to not be a consensus conclusion but the opinion of 3 anti-Bush bureaucrats who apparently wanted a Democrat in the White House. They feared the saber rattling, naively thinking that Iran could be reasoned back to sanity. Men willing to martyr their people for a kingdom in heaven can rarely be talked back to sanity.

The second claim, which was all misinformation, was that Iran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program. Even though a 2005 NIE had said just the opposite. Now we have confirmation from UK intelligence that Iran did restart their nuclear weapons program – and we have proof the 2007 NIE was wrong:

Britain’s intelligence services say that Iran has been secretly designing a nuclear warhead “since late 2004 or early 2005”, an assessment that suggests Tehran has embarked on the final steps towards acquiring nuclear weapons capability.

Emphasis mine. Since that bogus, leaked NIE on Iran came out in 2007 it clearly was wrong. And don’t be naive on intelligence gathering. Both the UK and US have troops in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan. These troops are the perfect target for a short range missile with a nuclear warhead. Both countries share a lot of intelligence on Iran given their alliance in these nearby war zones

As I wrote the other day, it is time to haul the three authors of the 2007 NIE in front of Congress and put them under oath to determine how and why they screwed up so badly in their findings.

How is it they decided to override the views of others on Iran’s nuclear weapons program? What possessed them to think they knew better than all the rest. And why did they leak the NIE to the news media? One of them had no intelligence experience for years!

The bad news is, one of these rogue bureaucrats was promoted and works in the Obama administration. The good news is he still answers to Congress.

Here are some of my posts on the NIE at the time it was released (latest to earliest). As can be seen by the shear number of posts this was a hot topic in December of 2007. This was a coordinated PR spin job by people on the left with delusions of grandeur.

These posts are all worth reviewing in light of these latest revelations about Iran and its nuclear weapons program. They cover an act of stupidity and arrogance, that has resulted in nothing more than a more dangerous Iran. If you can read only one post, read the last one,

Iran Admitted “Civilian” Nuke Program Had Military Implications

Military Commanders Running Iran’s “Civilian” Nuclear Program

Our Spooks Cannot Be So Slow As To Miss Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions

UK Is Not Buying New NIE, Neither Are Career CIA Officials

NIE Defenders An Interesting Lot

NIE Becoming A Howling Joke – UK Guardian Confirms The Three Amigos Of State Produced Rogue Opinion

No One Is Buying The-Staged-For-Media NIE, Restructure Our Intelligence Community

America Not Buying NIE

Israel Takes On NIE

Even Experts On Left Disagree With NIE And Fear Its Repercussions

Cold War Myopia On Iranian Nukes

NIE Jujitsu, Bush Says “Prove It”

It’s Official, Iran NIE Was Not A Consensus Finding

Iran NIE Is Not A Typical Intel NIE

Iran Halted Nuclear Weapons Production in 2003? How Convenient!

Is anyone going to believe – now after Iran’s admission of a secret nuclear processing facility – that Iran kept secret a purely peaceful nuclear facility all these years Especially when it had one out in the open already? Why would you keep one secret and the other out in the open? Can any serious person envision using the facility in the  open as a deception, while the secret one generates peaceful nuclear technologies? Who is that naive and stupid? Combine this news with their known missile program (and their mad leader’s claims to wipe Israel off the map) and it becomes clear that Iran is taking this world into the abyss of hell.

And what does this tell us about our intelligence community – which completely missed the nuclear program of Saddam Hussien in the mid 1990′ (took a defector after Gulf War I to wake them up that time), missed 9-11, Qaddafi’s nuclear program, Pakistan’s nuclear program, the AQ Kahn nuclear smuggling ring - and now missed Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program?

Well, it tells us we cannot trust their judgement, let alone their carefully crafted leaks to the pliant and naive news media.

Back in 2007 and interesting bit of of propaganda was leaked to the press, no doubt to influence the pending 2008 elections. It was an National Intelligence Estimate on Iran and it was unique in many ways. First off, it was not a consensus NIE, but was pushed through by by left leaning bureaucrats who were ready to push false impressions to change the leadership of this country. It was a con that implied Iran and mended its ways, and stopped trying to make nuclear weapons. It was meant to make Bush out to be a bully, and liberals out to be compassionate and caring.

I wrote about the misrepresented and misreported NIE many times (here, here, here, here, to name a few). The last one is very enlightening, given the shocking news  dumped on President Obama and all is naive followers yesterday. The authors of this NIE are very important, since it was they who gave America the impression, now known to be false, that Iran was behaving and safe.

Our own “confidence” is not heightened by the fact that the NIE’s main authors include three former State Department officials with previous reputations as “hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials,” according to an intelligence source. They are Tom Fingar, formerly of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Vann Van Diepen, the National Intelligence Officer for WMD; and Kenneth Brill, the former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Kenneth Brill went into private industry – to make some serious money no doubt (why give up all those great federal health care plans?). Tom Fingar, as my post at the time noted, hails from the same place as one Valerie Plame,. Plame arose ,with her husband Joe Wilson, to lay false charges against Bush and the  Iraq War, something about forged Niger uranium documents – that were held in the same CIA office as Plame. Too bad they forgot to check the dates on the forgeries with Joe Wilson’s CIA sponsored trip to Iraq before trying to claim the Iraq War was based on forged information. Their own false claims fell apart when it was clear the forgery in question came out 6 months after Wilson’s trip to Niger. That all started in 2002.

In 2007, JoshuaPundit had this news at the time political disinformation NIE came out:

Fingar was a key partner of Senate Democrats in their successful effort to derail the confirmation of John Bolton in the spring of 2005 to become the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. As the head of the NIC, Fingar has gone out of his way to fire analysts “who asked the wrong questions,” and who challenged the politically-correct views held by Fingar and his former State Department colleagues, as revealed in “Shadow Warriors.” ( Timmerman’s book -ff).

Fingar is well known to be in denial about the threats to this country. He is well known to play politics and not do his job. To this day there are many more Fingars all through the bureaucracy, the type who feel it is illegal to trace calls to overseas terrorists to persons in this country without a warrant, which requires proof of wrong doing. These are the idiot bureaucrats that led to 9-11 happening. Ineptitude driven by God complexes is wide spread in the bureaucracies in DC – which is why the place needs a good cleaning out and fresh blood which respects the boundaries of the offices being held.

But the real problem was not Fingar, as I suspected at the time. He went on to brief the two presidential candidates prior to the election, then went to academia to fill some heads with nonsense. The Problem apparently was Vann Van Diepen:

“Van Diepen was an enormous problem,” a former colleague of his from the State Department told me when I was fact gathering for “Shadow Warriors.”

“He was insubordinate, hated WMD sanctions, and strived not to implement them,” even though it was his specific responsibility at State to do so, the former colleague told me.

More here from Bill Gertz’s book “The Failure Factory“:

The officials told me that the principle Iran NIE author was Van Diepen, who had last worked in an intelligence role in the 1980′s, when he served in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR).

For those who know the Valerie Plame story, the INR is another one of those key organizations surrounding Plame and Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger. Anyway:

Van Diepen had repeatedly tried to block conservative efforts within the US government to get tough on international arms proliferators like China and Russia …

Van Diepen was, like many others in the national security bureaucracy, devoted to toothless arms-control policies … That put him at odds with the Bush administration’s national security policies. …

Read the whole sordid tale, but Diepen was refusing lawful directions and began his little coup d’ etat early on.

When the bogus Iran NIE came out two things were obvious even to the casual viewer with an understanding of DC bureaucratese – the language of deception and misinformation. First off, the NIE claimed with confidence Iran halted its nuclear weapons program (yes folks, they did have one) in early 2003. This was because the invasion of Iraq made them think twice (it made Qaddaffi crap his pants so bad he turned over his nuclear weapons program materials – another surprise to the liberal dolts in the intelligence community).

That was claimed with high confidence. There are only three levels of confidence in the NIE: high (good evidence), medium (guessing) and low (who knows). Nothing below high should even be discussed. But the news media did their part and blared all kinds of nonsense about one other part of the NIE that was rated medium, and which was apparently forced into the piece of propaganda by the liberal 3 Amigos.

And that claim was Iran had not restarted their weapons program up again since. As I wrote back then, this was at best wishful thinking, at worst a concoction of someone’s imagination. It was not a fact, as I noted:

So in 2005 (and supposedly 2003, etc) the intel claimed Iran was building up the capability to produce nuclear weapons material. But now all that intelligence (and the UN and the blustering Ahmedinejad) were wrong? Something is happening here. This smells like another leak by forces in our intel community trying to – once again – influence our national elections.

…

The NIE is quite clear. We know they stopped, we have no intel on whether they are still stopped or not. The reporting that Iran has stopped as of now is not accurate. Here is the scary part – Iran is still processing fuel! They don’t NEED to process fuel for Nuclear Energy. Russia has offered to SELL THEM fuel if they return the spent fuel so it cannot be used to make weapons.

I even noted a line the news media never got around to reporting:

The estimate does say that Iran’s ultimate goal is still to develop the capability to produce nuclear weapon.

…

The new report concludes that if Iran were to end the freeze of its weapons program, it would still be at least two years before Tehran would have enough highly enriched uranium to produce a nuclear bomb. But it says it is still “very unlikely” Iran could produce enough of the material by then.

Instead, the N.I.E. concludes it is more likely Iran could have a bomb by the early part to the middle of the next decade. The report states that the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research judges Iran is unlikely to achieve this goal before 2013, “because of foreseeable technical and programmatic problems.”

This is pretty scary stuff. Back then, with Pollyannish assumptions Iran was not working on weapons and these clowns did not know about the second procssing facility, the range of time for Iran to go nuclear was 2009-2013. It seems we are here now, and President Obama has been caught off guard – again.

Bush was right to question the NIE. And President Obama was wrong to embrace it so publicly when he was Senator Obama:

By reporting that Iran halted its nuclear weapon development program four years ago because of international pressure, the new National Intelligence Estimate makes a compelling case for less saber-rattling and more direct diplomacy. The juxtaposition of this NIE with the president’s suggestion of World War III serves as an important reminder of what we learned with the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq: members of Congress must carefully read the intelligence before giving the President any justification to use military force.

…

I think Iran continues to be a threat to some of its neighbors in the region. … But it is absolutely clear that this administration and President Bush continues to not let facts get in the way of his ideology.

Our naive young president also had this to say about Iran:

“They don’t pose a serious threat to us in the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us,” Obama told a cheering audience, explaining why he doesn’t think we need to worry about “tiny” countries like Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and Iran.

Nuclear bombs can make a single person a serious threat, since they can take out 100 of thousands, maybe millions of people. Size doesn’t matter.

In one of those ‘where are they now’ questions, it seems one of the 3 Amigos who hoisted these false impressions on the nation and helped propel an inexperienced junior senator to the White House has himself a promotion. It is no surprise the man who started to defy our elected leaders and literally break the laws of this nation, Vann Van Diepen, has moved up in the administration of President Obama:

Vann H. Van Diepen has been Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN) since June 2009. From February 2006 to June 2009, he was National Intelligence Officer for Weapons of Mass Destruction and Proliferation in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, advising the Director on those issues, serving as the Intelligence Community (IC) spokesman on them and producing National Intelligence Estimates and other IC analyses.

From September 2005 to February 2006, Mr. Van Diepen directed the State Department’s Office of Missile Threat Reduction.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary! Wow, his business cards must be huge with such a lofty title. It seems Van Diepen has faired very well since he pushed out the 2007 Iran NIE to the public.

Sadly for him, he would make a mighty fine witness in front of Congress to explain why his NIE was so wrong, and how he and his fellow bureaucrats charged with protecting the world from nuclear holocaust could have screwed up so badly. Diepen looks to be the prime lightening rod and scape goat.

President Bush was right about Iran, and our young and naive current president was wrong. Since 9-11 it is imperative we make sure we understand when and how our intel is badly flawed and leaves us and the world open to deadly consequences.

The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.

This is the insurrection many hinted might come a few weeks ago. This is nation’s top clerics in Qum splitting with Tehran. Without the clerics of Qum there is no religious pretense left for Khamenei or Ahmedinejad. Which means the government could legitimately be seen as a sin against Islam. All bets are off on what happens next in Iran.

More here at the BBC

At least seven bombs exploded around the country Thursday amid a uptick in violence as American troops prepare to withdraw from Iraqi cities on June 30.

The attacks were widespread, targeting Shiites and Sunnis, civilians, Iraqi security forces, and American soldiers. There were at least five bombs in Baghdad. One, at a bus station, killed two and wounded 30 in the late morning, security officials said, though witnesses at the scene said the toll was higher.

It is no surprise the tottering Iranian regime would also attempt to distract the world from its internal strife by initiating a wave of bombings in nearby Iraq. This will not work, but will only underscore the Awakening of the Muslim Street to the violent evil that is at the heart of radical Islam.

Just like the bombings in Iraq spelled the end of al Qaeda in Iraq, just like the bombings in Pakistan has given the government there the backing of the people to destroy the violent Taliban and al Qaeda enclaves in the tribal areas, the Iranian regime’s violence will turn the Muslim Street (Arab and Persian) against radical Islam. When the bombings start echoing through the Muslim Street it is a good sign the radicals are going for their last ditch strategy before they are completely defeated.

And we still see signs this is, in fact, occurring in Iran:

For reasons best not explained, I’ve come to know a former member of the Revolutionary Guards really well.

He’s done some pretty dreadful things in his life, from attacking women in the streets for not wearing the full Islamic gear to fighting alongside Islamic revolutionaries in countries abroad.

And yet now, in the tumult that has gripped Iran since its elections last week, he’s had a change of heart.

…

He’s not the only one.

I had to leave Iran last Sunday, when the authorities refused to renew my visa. But before I left, another former senior Revolutionary Guard came to our hotel to see us.

“Remember me,” he pleaded. “Remember that I helped the BBC.”

I realised that even a person so intimately linked to the Islamic Revolution thinks that something will soon change in Iran.

…

The Revolutionary Guards with second thoughts illustrate some of the deeper forces driving a crisis which I believe could change Iran forever.

I agree 100% with this assessment. Violence, up close and personal, can easily shock a person out of the fantasy of a cause and into the harsh reality of life on the edge. And then survival instinct kicks in.

More than 180 Iranian MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election win, local press reports say.

All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night, but only 105 turned up, the reports say.

A BBC correspondent says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of Iran after disputed presidential polls.

By my math nearly 2/3rds of the PM’s did not show up. If parliament comes even close to representing the views of the nation (I doubt that very much) than at least 2/3rds of the country is tipping towards opposition. If that mass of people realize their power to change the direction of the country through another revolution, the Iranian Regime will fall.

Update: As if to add an exclamation point to this news, Rasfanjani appears to have enough support to also remove the Supreme Leader!

As the Iranian government continues to crackdown on protestors against the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, behind the scenes there is reported to be movement which, although hidden, could bring an end the reign of the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr Ahmadinejad.

Behind the scenes Khamenei’s arch rival, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is believed to be working to remove the Supreme Leader and is even reported to be considering abolishing the post of Supreme Leader altogether in what would be the biggest constitutional change since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

…

According to Al-Arabiya, high-up sources say that Rafsanjani has already gained enough support within the Assembly for the removal of Khamenei, but has found less of a positive response to the proposal to replace the position of Supreme Leader altogether.

This dovetails with what we have been hearing about Grand Ayatollah Sistani’s efforts from Iraq:

The discussions have taken place in a series of secret meetings convened in the holy city of Qom and included Jawad al-Shahristani, the supreme representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the foremost Shiite leader in Iraq.

An option being considered is the resignation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president following condemnation by the United States and other European nations for violence and human rights violations against unarmed protestors.

…

Sistani’s appeal does not end at the Iraqi border, as Iranians increasingly observe his leadership with interest and fondness. Some are “intrigued by the more freewheeling experiment in Shi’ite empowerment taking place across the border in Iraq,” which is fundamentally different in approach than the Iranian theocratic brand of dictated observance and obedience. The Boston Globe’s Anne Barnard reports that within Tehran’s own central bazaar, “an increasing number of merchants are sending their religious donations, a 20 percent tithe expected from all who can spare it, to Iraq’s most senior Shi’ite cleric.”

These are incredible, Earth shaking events. Fingers crossed that the Muslim Street and lead clerics are about ready to change course away from the oppressive and violent Islamo Fascist future that most thought would be the future of Islam after 9-11. Since President George Bush decided to go on the offensive, people like Bin Laden – who used to be seen as the future of Islam – have been turned into the enemy of Islam on the Muslim Streets of Iraq, Afghanistan and to a great degree in Pakistan. None of the ‘moderate’ Arab Muslim states like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE and others have been embracing radical Islam, and have in fact been trying to fight it.

The dominos that President Bush began to push on are still tipping, and hopefully in our direction.

At least 55 people have been killed by a bomb blast in the eastern Sadr City area of Baghdad, say officials.

Iraqi police said the bomb went off in a market place in the predominantly Shia area of the Iraqi capital.

At least 104 people were also reported to have been injured in the blast, one of the worst in Iraq this year.

It comes less than a week before US soldiers pull out of all Iraqi cities in advance of a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011.

…

There has been a recent rise in violence in Iraq, which, correspondents say, shows insurgents are intent on making the country’s security situation appear unstable as the US withdrawal deadline approaches.

On Monday, at least 29 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Muslims killing Muslims again. Things must be on the edge of collapse in Iran if they think bombing Arab Muslims in Iraq will save the Iranian Regime from annihilation.  No surprise these bombings seem to originate in areas that were Mahdi Army strongholds, where the Mahdi were the Iranian backed thugs out killing Iraqis in an attempt to force the US to withdrawal in 2007.

All I can say is the Muslim Street is getting another brutal wake up call on what life is like under the jack boot of Islamo Fascists.

At least two sources described wild and violent conditions at a part of Tehran where protesters had planned to demonstrate.

“They were waiting for us,” the source said. “They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap.”

“I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads — blood everywhere — pepper gas like war,” the source said.

About “500 thugs” with clubs came out of a mosque and attacked people in the square, another source said.

The security forces were “beating women madly” and “killing people like hell,” the source said.

“They beat up a woman so bad, she was all bloody,” 

How many times have we seen the Holy House of a mosque being the rats’ nest of evil. The Iranian Revolution of the 1970′s is dead, beaten and bloodied as the army of Allah is out killing Muslims. There is no credibility left. They are so desperate to hang onto power they risk exploding the entire country into uprising.

Which will, in the end, be the result. Each person maimed or killed has a good chance of being a family member, relative, friend or neighbor of someone in the security forces. As the army sees their loved ones mowed down in this mad bloodlust fury, they will be more and more forced to the opposition side.

You cannot kill and maim at this level and not touch incredible numbers of people in a position to make a difference, to turn the tide. The Iranian regime went from one powerful martyr in the person of Neda Agha-Soltan, to now an army of martyrs. And an even larger army of people out to revenge their sacrifice. As far as I can predict (and I have no crystal ball and have made wrong predictions many times), we are seeing the violent end of the Iranian Revolution. H/T Reader Crosspatch

Update: Ed Morrissey has much more, including some audio from witnesses.

Update: More here at the NY Times:

It was impossible to confirm the extent of the new violence in the capital because of draconian new press restrictions on coverage of the post-election mayhem. But the witnesses reached by telephone said the confrontation, in the streets near the national Parliament building, was bloody, with police using live ammunition.

Defying government warnings, hundreds, if not thousands of protesters, had attempted to gather in front of the parliament on Baharestan Square, witnesses said. They were met with riot police and paramilitary militia, who struck at them with truncheons, tear gas and guns. One witness said he saw a 19-year-old woman shot in the neck.

The more blood let, the less supported the regime will become.

A photo showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest speaks volumes about the new face of Iran’s opposition movement.

In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

 

Maybe the video and images Neda Agha-Soltan’s tragic death pushed some of these men over to the opposition. If Iranian clerics are openly marching against Ahmedinejad’s coup d’etat, then that means the opposition movement is still gaining high level converts. As usual, watch the various military and security groups and the clerics for signs that the 21st century revolution is still alive and growing.

How will the United States of America react to the horrible tragedies playing out on the streets of Iran? How will this great country address the cold blooded killing of beautiful young people like Neda Soltan (see read here and here)?

Her friends say Panahi, Neda and two others were stuck in traffic on Karegar Street, east of Tehran’s Azadi Square, on their way to the demonstration sometime after 6:30 p.m. After stepping out of the car to get some fresh air and crane their necks over the jumble of cars, Panahi heard a crack from the distance. Within a blink of the eye, he realized Neda had collapsed to the ground.

“We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch, and without her throwing a rock or anything they shot her,” he said. “It was just one bullet.”

Blood poured out of the right side of her chest and began bubbling out of her mouth and nose as her lungs filled up.

“I’m burning, I’m burning!” he recalled her saying, her final words.

What will we do to ensure these brutal deaths are not in vane?

We’ll  be partying with the damn cold blooded killers on the 4th of July!

he United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.

President Barack Obama’s administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“There’s no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

“We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran,” Kelly said. “We tried many years of isolation, and we’re pursuing a different path now.”

What the hell is this? Slaughter a few hundred people and let’s sit back and wine and dine. If this happens, if we invite the modern day version of Hitler and Stalin to celebrate our nation’s birth, I think that will be the last 4th of July I will ever be able to stomach.

All the fallen heroes who rose up against British oppression, who carved out this country from the wilderness, who defended this country for over 200 years must be puking in their graves to see us partying with the likes of the Iranian Regime.

This is a game changer for me with Obama (and Secretary/Senator/First Lady Clinton). I had been giving him mixed results overall because he did not cut and run in Iraq or Afghanistan, has kept up the surgical strikes against al Qaeda in Pakistan, held the NSA-FISA reforms in place. He is trashing the economy and failing miserably there, but I was willing to give him some kudos on national defense and international issues.

Until now. I just cannot fathom the thinking here. Ahmedinejad and Khamenei, not to mention their thugs, must be ecstatic. They just got the green light from the Obama administration, who basically said “do what you must, see you in a few weeks to party!”.

Iran is trying to negate the martyrdom of Neda. Iran is trying to quell the rising anger of the uprising. And the Obama administration, by making it known the party is still on, just gut punched the protestors. I knew Obama would make mistakes of ignorance and naiveté. But I never thought he would sell our collective soul to the devil himself. Vice President Biden said the man would be tested, and he has not just failed.

This is a near treasonous act, the coddling of these mass murderers of the innocent. This is not America. We have spent our precious blood over the centuries to fight this kind of cancer on humanity. Now we are going to sit down and party with them on our nation’s birthday right after they have been out on a killing spree.

I could not be more disgusted. H/T Allah Pundit

A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been arrested for refusing to obey Iran’s Supreme Leader, according to reports from the Balatarin website.

 

General Ali Fazli, who was recently appointed as a commander of the Revolutionary Guards in the province of Tehran, is reported to have been arrested after he refused to carry out orders from the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to use force on people protesting the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I think it is safe to say all of us our haunted by the images of young Neda dying in the streets of Tehran. I cannot help but envision the faces of my children in Neda’s dying eyes. I cannot help but feel the rage of a parent at the senselessness of this death. I doubt I am alone, even within the borders of Iran. I hope I am not.

Update: More on Neda Soltan at Fox News. 

Protesters in Iran are hailing 26-year-old Neda Soltan as a martyr after graphic videos of her apparent murder at a protest in Tehran hit the Internet. Iran experts say images of her bloody death have galvanized the country and that mourning for her — which has been banned by authorities — will bring deeper unrest.

“Neda,” whose identity could not be verified by FOXNews.com, was reportedly gunned down by paramilitary police Saturday during protests in the capital city.

My previous posts on Neda:

One Victim’s Face Could Be The End Of A Brutal Islamo Fascist Regime

Iranian Regime Killing Its Own Children

On the other side is the Iranian thugocracy , now fully in the open without any pretext of a perfect Islam guiding the hands of those in power. They have admitted to massive voting irregularities across the country, they only quibble on how massive. Their Basij thugs have been the ones on the front lines killing their people, but now the Revolutionary Guard has determined they must act before the freedom marchers win. They have threatened even more violence against their Muslims in the name of Allah. And now, those who were vetted by the Mullahs as worthy to lead the nation of Iran and, therefore, be on the ballot for President are claimed to be criminals and terrorists.

The latest actions of the Iranian Regime are acts of desperation. They have rightfully lost the support of the people, and the ruling clerics are splintering. The efforts to stop the momentum of the uprising is reaching a violent crescendo. And the government security forces are starting to fall. Gateway Pundit had this post up with video of the Basij getting their just deserts.

And Andrew Sullivan has this post up showing the security forces trying to hold back demonstrators – with some tense moments of a stand off. But at some point the will of the government forces breaks and they run in retreat as the crowds run in advance.

If this repeats itself across Iran, there will be a new day on Earth. A new nation will have a chance to throw off its oppressors and have a chance at freedom. We are possibly witnessing a major historic moment play out in Iran.

Major Update: Has the Muslim-on-Muslim violence hit the point where there is no way for the current Iranian Regime to survive in its current form?

Folks, this is huge. Huge. A report from Saudi Arabia’s al-Arabiya, Iranian clerics seek supreme leader alternative, indicates that Rafsanjani is seeking to eliminate the Supreme Leader. Not just the man, but the position and role presiding over Iranian politics and the Iranian society.

Religious leaders are considering an alternative to the supreme leader structure after at least 13 people were killed in the latest unrest to shake Tehran and family members of Ayatollah Rafsanjani were arrested amid calls by former President Mohammad Khatami for the release of all protesters.

Iran’s religious clerks in Qom and members of the Assembly of Experts, headed by former President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, are mulling the formation of an alternative collective leadership to replace that of the supreme leader, sources in Qom told Al Arabiya on condition of anonymity.

That is a serious turn of events. Let’s hope momentum begins to build behind it. What is most interesting is the effect the democracy in Iraq is having on these discussions:

The discussions have taken place in a series of secret meetings convened in the holy city of Qom and included Jawad al-Shahristani, the supreme representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the foremost Shiite leader in Iraq.

An option being considered is the resignation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president following condemnation by the United States and other European nations for violence and human rights violations against unarmed protestors.

…

Sistani’s appeal does not end at the Iraqi border, as Iranians increasingly observe his leadership with interest and fondness. Some are “intrigued by the more freewheeling experiment in Shi’ite empowerment taking place across the border in Iraq,” which is fundamentally different in approach than the Iranian theocratic brand of dictated observance and obedience. The Boston Globe’s Anne Barnard reports that within Tehran’s own central bazaar, “an increasing number of merchants are sending their religious donations, a 20 percent tithe expected from all who can spare it, to Iraq’s most senior Shi’ite cleric.”

Clearly, the same cleric in Iraq who disabled Moqtada Sadr’s Mahdi Militia movement and supported the Iraqi democracy is playing a key role in how Iran may get out of its current bloody turmoil. If this comes to pass, it will not be just Obama’s speech in Cairo, but the stage that was set in the region, at a huge cost of blood and treasure, by President George Bush as well.

I am not surprised that the face of that young lady killed in Tehran is becoming the face of this Iranian revolution, has become the face if Islamo Fascism brutality:

A disturbing video showing a young woman purportedly shot in the streets of Tehran is becoming a rallying symbol for opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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CNN reports that pictures of the woman are appearing on posters in Tehran and she is being hailed as a martyr. The network broadcast an excerpt of the video with the face of the woman blurred out.

Update: More on the picture here. The woman is apparently named (or being called)  Neda:

A 40 second video clip of an Iranian girl, named “Neda,” the Farsi word for voice, allegedly shot dead by a Basij soldier has been circulating the web as of Saturday.

More here as well. - end update

This picture could spell the end of the Iranian regime, as well as the end of Islamo Fascism as represented by Iran, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, etc.

Sometimes humanity gets a spark to act, one incident or image that compels us on a certain path. There are no fathers on this fathers’ day not outraged, not seeing one of their own child’s faces on this poor woman’s face. Mothers and brothers and sisters are feeling the outrage too, the desire to march right down to Tehran now and pull those responsible out in the street for their turn at justice.

When you look at this brave human being, her life blood poring from her beautiful young face, the life in the blood itself still fresh it has yet to turn dark, her face still flushed with the last breath of life – though you can tell her spirit has moved on – you feel the need to do something. This act of cold brutality must be avenged. Humanity cannot go down this path, where the bodies of our young litter the way for old, viscous men to hold onto power.

I felt haunted by this face all day since I saw the video (below). I knew I was not alone. I felt this could be the incident that broke the camel’s back and unleashed the Iranians. The Supreme Leader said their would be violent consequences for protesting. He is about to learn that there are also consequences for killing a young woman – and they will be violent as well.

Update: Keep an eye on the clerics today, they are one major key in all of this.

Update: Some rifts are beginning to appear in the government of Iran:

The public rift among Iranian leaders widened Sunday when the country’s foreign minister disputed allegations of ballot irregularities even as the parliamentary speaker implied that the election authority had sided with one candidate.

“Although the Guardian Council is made up of religious individuals, I wish certain members would not side with a certain presidential candidate,” Iran’s influential parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting without naming whom he meant.

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“A majority of people are of an opinion separate” from that of a minority, Larijani said.

The face of Neda could very well be the tipping point for many clerics, government leaders and military leaders.

So far, what we have seen, is what it looks like when bitter old men try to hold their grip on power. Mousavi has apparently said he is ready for martyrdom. If the people concur then Iran will be entering the final, determining stage very soon.

You can tell things are not good when a nation kills its own children in an effort to keep control of the masses.

Update: The New York Times has a good round up as well.

Update: This is an interesting bit of news:

There are rallies every day… organized by word of mouth from one event to the other, and then by phone calls, and strangers just telling you to show up as they pass you by or as you are waiting behind red lights. Yesterday, it was supposed to be from Enghelab to Azadi, but it literally started at Emam Hossein Sq. (Fooziyeh) and spread all the way to Ekabatan. The number of protesters should be estimated in the millions. They were from every layer of society.

Southern Teheranis, Northern rich kids, Chaadoris, Ghertis, Hizbullahi, young, old, kids, etc. A huge sample of the Iranian nation, with all its diversity, was there, determined to make a change. They feel betrayed and insulted.

…

Everybody went. The Yegaan vijeh (anti-riot police) first tried to intimidate people as they were gathering, but the immensity of the crowd then made them back up and hide in a nearby policestation.

We shall see how long and bright the desire for freedom can burn in the soul of the Iranians.

Update: Another sign of a tipping point is if a number of clerics bolt from the brutal regime. Here is a Q&A with one lead opposition cleric.