munky.org|v3.0

A reminder of the recent revolts against the current regime - Photo: AFP/GETTY

My favorite country in the whole wide world, Iran, is back at it, AGAIN! Favorite being the relative term, given that I if I were given control of the little red button, Iran would become the deepest geological pit on the planet. Yes, they are always at it, but of course, they made front page CNN.com again. It’s not enough that they are refining nuclear material for “peaceful energy purposes.” Peaceful energy being another relative term, since their 3/4 of a year supply incidicates that their idea of peaceful energy is harnessing a nuclear bomb to eliminate Israel off the map. Nor is it enough that Ahmadinejad and his cronies (including the “Supreme” Leader Khamenie, a position which sounds more like a member of Star War’s galactic empire than the ruler of a fundamental Islamic republic) rigged the recent election, and brought so much hell against the people that it suppressed their views. Never fear, that’s a pot that will probably boil over sooner than later. Its not enough to consider the treatment of the people who were arrested during those protests, including a journalist who was tortured and forced to give an old confession, and who was only recently released on a large sum of bail. He had a great quote too, “I knew I was in trouble, because the people who were in charge of my life were idiots.” Great stuff.

But nope, they done gone and done something else again. Now they are conducting military exercises, designed to protect their “peaceful energy” deposits. Read: Iran wants to try and make sure neither the Israelis nor the Westerners are able to destroy their weapons grade stash. According to CNN,

Iran’s regular military and its elite Revolutionary Guards were to participate in the exercise against aerial attacks, especially against Iran’s nuclear plants, according to Press TV.

The Iranians are also still up to their “honest truth” campaign. Iran has stated,” it intends to produce nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes, including civilian electricity and medical research.” Scouts honor dude, these Iranians would never lie to us. I think we should believe them. That’s why they only have 3/4 of a year’s worth of material, capability to enrich to weapon’s grade, and that used nuclear reactor fuel makes a good base stock for weapon’s grade enrichment, according to my sources.

The sooner we realize that we’ve just let a bunch of fundamentalists have control over a country, control over its military, and now has access to some of the most dangerous weapons material in existence, the sooner we can figure out a plan of action. They have absolutely no track record of truly caring for its citizenry. Iran has never demonstrated its interested in doing medical research and the like. Modern science slaps their form of Islam right in the face. They have presented their agenda, we know it clearly. They refuse to accept that Israel is even in existence. They have denied that the holocaust has even occurred. They refuse to embrace the rights of their citizenry, evident by the rigged election and the mistreatment and murder of many of its own people. They have continually accepted and embraced the evils of the world that keeps us at war.

We need to wake up and smell the bacon. Iran does not get solved by diplomacy. A crook will not relinquish his power because we ask him too. If Bernie Madoff had been caught before the recession, and the authorities asked him nicely to stop, do you think he would’ve? No! The only way to handle a crook is to take him down, whether by force or by pulling the rug right out from under him. The world and so many Persians know the truth about this regime, but knowing and doing are two completely different things. Are we just going to sit on the sidelines and wait until Ahmadinejad brings about WW3/Armageddon/etc., or are we going to stop him before he has a chance to make Adolf Hitler look like a sweet Annie Orphan?

The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the prison closed because it lagged below the required standards - whatever those are in Iran

In an odd move by the Iranian government, the authorities fired and arrested the warden and a security official at the Kahrizak prison facility that was closed late last month. They are purportedly being held for mistreatment of detainees, this coming in the wake of the death of two detainees that were being held for protesting the June 12th election there. The prison was ordered to be shut down by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, amid reports that the prison did not meet the required standards. You can read the full story at CNN.

No offense to the people who were detained there (as Kahrizak may be home to more human rights violations than we’ll ever know about), but I find the matter rather amusing. After the recent display of self-destructive protests in Iran, the government is in a position where it needs to restore some faith from its people. The supreme leader has had a taste of how truly insignificant his position is in Iran. He is supposed to be a direct link to Allah himself, his word being final. Yet those protests of the (rigged) elections, which saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being re-elected under “curious” circumstances, were condemned by the Ayatollah, yet continued on with full force. I hate to saw I’ve lost my best for now: I was betting on a civil war.

But this move shows just how fragile the power hold on the Iranians is right now. Most of the time, the regime would’ve swept this under the rug, even if it were students as in this case. Anyone who would have spoken out would have been foolish, like playing Russian roullete with a Colt 1911. Yet had this story had surfaced, and the regime behind the game on it, oh boy what a mess.

I believe that we will see even more divisive cracks like this in the coming months. The Islamic Iranian government had unwittingly provoked the Persian soul of its inhabitants, and has quickly learned to respect a culture that is older than Islam itself.

"Ahem, I would like to speak both to my people, and the infidel nation of the United States. This one's for you!"

So for those Americans (or anyone else for that matter) who are afraid that we are going to pick another fight and go to war with Iraq’s neighbor, I wouldn’t be too concerned. There will probably be a war there at some point, but we’ll probably be on the sidelines. This election may well be the straw that broke the Iranian camels back.

This Chinese trawler was trying to snag the Impeccable's acoustic array

So the Chinese are up to cheap tricks in international waters. The USNS Impeccable was harassed Sunday in the South China Sea by multiple Chinese boats (read full story on CNN here or on Al Jazeera English Edition here). The ship was in international waters, yet one of the vessels radioed in and ”called her operations illegal and directed Impeccable to leave the area or ‘suffer the consequences’.”

 

The US ship’s commander asked the Chinese ships by radio “in a friendly manner” for a safe path to leave the area.

Two Chinese boats then moved directly in front of the USNS Impeccable, forcing it to take emergency action to avoid collision (Al Jazeera)

 

This is disturbing. First off, the ship is generally unarmed, with most of its crew being civilians. The other Chinese vessels also attempted to snag off the underwater acoustic equipment that is the purpose of the ship.

Given the Chinese government’s history of harassing naval ships, and of closing its ports to Navy vessels (and detaining for 11 days the 24 American crew members who had a mid-air collision and crash landed in China), I think our government needs to take some steps. Obviously, in some parts of the Chinese government, diplomacy doesn’t work. The Navy should attach Marines to any vessels that are to be in the sea near China. The original purpose of the Marines were to be on ships and fight of attackers (I.E. Pirates and the British). They are the only true amphibious fighting force in the military. And I promise you any Chinese intelligence boat, trawler, etc. that decides it wants to try to harass an American vessel without regard will think twice after being boarded by a handful of Marines.

Just my thoughts. It is concerning though. The Chinese have been smuggling classified parts out of America for years, probably to reverse engineer them and build up its own military prowess. The plan is simple yet very powerful. Faithful Chinese move to America to work, educated, etc. Although they have not been given any direct orders by the government to steal information, they know they will receive payment for anything they get. Eventually they make contacts, and hopefully manage to leave the country with something good.

A few years back a respectable Chinese man made the wrong contact. It turned out his contact was a UC FBI agent playing a dissident American with access to an F-15 engine. Although I don’t remember the specifics, they had made an arrangement for him to purpose the engine for millions of dollars. Although he was a respectable business man, he wasn’t a millionaire. Where did the money come from? China denies all involvement, obviously.

Of course even bigger threats emerge without the need for millions of dollars and sleeper spies. In February is was announced that the plans for the Marine One helicopter were compromised. Not by a high-tech hacker but via P2P file-sharing software. Absolutely absurd that some idiot with a computer that has sensitive data on it could install file-sharing software! You would think somebody would think “hey, why don’t we put a block on all P2P clients?” Nope. Real geniuses, and these guys get paid the big bucks. The lucky recipient of the plans? Tehran. Yup, one of the biggest enemies to the western world (and Israel), who has been developing nuclear technology while our bastard politicians have been trying to play diplomatic. These guys have the plans for the upgraded presidential helicopter. Genius.

We walk a tight line in this country. Although America is supposed to be a melting pot of cultures, we also have doors open to cultures and individuals whose only intent is to destroy us or steal from us. We could lock the borders tight, but to think of it, that would be truely un-American. What do we do? I don’t have all those answers.