THE STRANGE CASE OF SHAHRAM AMIRI
When Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri disappeared this summer while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, it touched off a round of furious finger-pointing by authorities in Tehran. Nearly six months later, the debate over Amiri's June disappearance is still brewing. In the latest round of accusations, Iran's Foreign Ministry has charged that Amiri - a researcher affiliated with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization - was seized by Saudi authorities and subsequently turned over to the United States for interrogation in connection with his role in the Iranian nuclear effort. "Riyadh has handed over Iran's nuclear scientist Amiri to America," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has told reporters. "He is [now] among 11 jailed Iranians in America." (Reuters, December 8, 2009)
A NUCLEAR TIPPING POINT?
The Iranian regime has mastered the technology associated with creating a nuclear weapon, a top Israeli military official has assessed. Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, the head of the Israeli military's intelligence division, has told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Iran has managed to successfully enrich 1,800 kilograms of uranium, more than the amount necessary to build one atomic bomb. Now, Baidatz says, the only thing stopping Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state is the political decision to build the "bomb" - a decision that could come at any time. (Jerusalem Post, December 7, 2009)
HUMAN RIGHTS AS A POLITICAL WEAPON
At long last, the Iranian regime is getting serious about human rights. The target, however, is not its own well-documented violations of press and personal freedoms, but those allegedly perpetrated by the West. The Iranian majles has reportedly allocated $20 million from the country's Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund for use by the government to probe the worldwide human rights abuses of the United States and Great Britain. The majles has also established a governmental working group, headed by the country's Intelligence Ministry, to oversee the investigation. (Tehran Fars, November 30, 2009)
INTIMIDATING IRANIANS ABROAD
As domestic opposition touched off by Iran's fraudulent June presidential elections drags on, the Iranian regime is becoming more brazen about suppressing dissent among Iranians, wherever they happen to be. In recent weeks, cases of intimidation and threats against the family members of Iranian-born regime critics now living abroad have become increasingly numerous, as the Iranian regime widens its crackdown on opposition to the Iranian Diaspora. The Islamic Republic appears to have done so by tracking social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, which have become crucial mediums for expression of opposition for opposition activists inside and outside of the country. (Wall Street Journal, December 4, 2009)
A PERNICIOUS INTELLIGENCE PARTNERSHIP
The close strategic and political ties between the Iranian regime and the Stalinist state run by North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il have been known to the international community for some time. Increasingly, however, there is an understanding in the West that cooperation between Tehran and Pyongyang also extends to the realm of intelligence. Back in March, the two countries are said to have signed an agreement under which Iran would provide the Kim regime with intelligence on the government of South Korean president Lee Myung-bak using its embassy in Seoul as a collection point. In return, North Korea reportedly supplies the Iranian regime with information on U.S. military activities in the Gulf gleaned from its diplomatic posts in the region. (Tokyo Nikkei, December 7, 2009)