THE SITUATION UNFOLDS

Hezbollah says no, they were not our weapons.

Israel gives details and even movies of the arrested ship.

UN says it has no evidence of arms smuggling into Lebanon.

Does Israel care? I don't think so. What they are saying through all the footage of the ship and with all the details released to the media (how many rockets, type, how the clues match the type of weaponry used by Hezbollah, and even papers of the ship allegedly headed for Latakia harbor in Syria) say that " Look guys, UN is a tired incompetent organization, Hezbollah is a danger to everybody around here, and we need to do something about Iran before it's too late. Who's gonna do that?"

Who do you think the West is going to believe?
We have a cultural difference here. As one of my professors in political science keeps repeating, the Israelis speak the language of the West: media awareness campaign, transparency, clear information provided in English, clear construction of the arguments and the visual proof provided.

Hezbollah clearly does not speak the language of the West. No clear arguments, no visual proof that Israel is wrong, no arguments. Some say that this is it's charm. But, they barely opened their mouths 24 hours after the whole scandal.

WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE FOLKS?

The news of the day:

Israeli special forces on Wednesday seized control of an Iranian vessel carrying arms intended for Hezbollah, in a daring pre-dawn raid not far from the coast of Cyprus.

The ship was believed to have set out from Iran and later docked in Yemen and Sudan before sailing through the Suez Canal. Its final destination was believed to be either Syria or Lebanon.

The Antigua-flagged ship was discovered during routine patrols conducted by the Navy, according to a communiqué from the Israel Defense Forces Spokespersons Unit.

It makes me wonder as my editor has been wondering for a while: what the hell are these guys doing? Last night there was the UN report on how dangerous the Hezbollah weapons are for the region's peace. And here they are: the IDF seizes THE weapons!, coming exactly from Iran and going to, surprise!, Hezbollah.

In the meantime, there is stuff going on behind the closed doors. Two European countries in the UNIFIL are sort of diplomatically, silently quarreling over who's to be in charge of the peace keeping mission. The Italians should leave the command in February 2010 together with some 1000 troops. The Spanish, who have been in charge of the south eastern sector and have been doing quite a good job there (visited their sector several times), are the ones willing to take the leadership. But wait, not so fast.
While the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had already received congratulations for the move, the little devil's tail had to come in. Netanyahu, the Israeli head of government, has requested most "secretly and personally" to prime minister Berlusconi to keep Claudio Graziano, the present UNIFIL chief, in place. The Spanish were furious. They still are.

The Spanish newspapers are blaming the Italians. The Italians are praising their general telling that it's only because of him that the tripartite meetings with the IDF, LAF and UNIFIL. He is friends with Michel Sleiman, the Lebanese president, and is also very much esteemed by the Israelis.

The Spanish still believe they are getting the command in February, sources from the embassy in Beirut say.

But, why all these games? Why should the Italians stay and what is wrong with the Spanish?

The quarrel helps a bit the Israeli case. The UNIFIL troops are to get fewer and fewer. Germany wants to withdraw, the Italians want to withdraw. Until now the Spanish and the French are the only ones who didn't get bored of this 30 year peace mission.

Meanwhile, the IDF seems to build up a pretext. I have this deja vu about weapons of mass destruction already. UN says Hezbollah has weapons, Iran is busy with its own internal opposition, Israel finds the weapons, makes a big deal out of it, although a month before the Germans found another ship and it didn't get so much publicity. Then there is some rocket fire once in a while in South Lebanon, Israeli planes fly over Beirut, and life goes on.

Or just seems to do so?

The only actor in this show who has not said anything and hasn't even moved a finger is none other than Hezbollah.

IRAN FROM INSIDE: "Iran can attack Dubai or any target. It is dangerous"

It seems my friend from Iran is better now and he forced himself out of that depression. We have very interesting conversations lately, after a while when we didn't even talk at all. He seems to have got a few forbidden books and studied the history of Islam. Right now he hates it and feels sorry for the Persians who became the "victims" of it. It's a bit shocking coming from a guy who used to be a convinced practican muslim when he was about 20.
This morning he asked me if I knew how the negotiations in Geneva went yesterday. I told him there was no change. Iran had said something like "no, no, no and no".
He knew about number 3 in the US State Department taking part in the negotiations. Then he said something quite interesting. "I thik that they wont attack right now. Coz Iran can attack Dubai or any target. It is dangerous". Weird, I thought. A few months ago he made fun of Iran's army and nuclear facilities.

"They have the missiles bought fom North Korea. I was in Tehran and I met some people from a company". The guys he had talked to worked for a company in charge of the weapons trade for the Iranian government, he said. "Iran has suspended his nuclear activities from last month. They have developed third generation of centrifuges too."

Are you sure, isn't it just propaganda?

"I am sure. They have lot of companies registered in China. And when they want to buy some equipments they start from China and if it does not work, they try it from Japan, Korea and even European countries. It is complicated. There are a lot of smugglers helping them". Then I got busy and couldn't continue the conversation and he logged off. I can't wait to ask him more.

ASTONISHING STORY

The kind of story that really matters. Beyond missiles, beyond the Axis of Evil.

His name is Ahmad Batebi. He was arrested in 1999 after he appeared on the cover of the Economist with a blood stained t shirt belonging to a friend who had been wounded during a protest.

I read the story here, on New York Times.

That picture has cost him 8 years in the Iranian prisons. Not pretty at all, as some of my friends say. I remember being shocked at an 18 year old Kurdish kid story, back in March. My friend, Hasan had told me the story and he wanted me to publish it here.

Ahmad Batemi went through hell. Most people wouldn't make it.

"His jailers thrashed him with a metal cable, beat his testicles and kicked in his teeth, he said. They held his face down in a pool of excrement. They tied his arms behind his back and hung him from the ceiling. At other times, strapping him to a chair, they kept him awake night after night, cutting him and rubbing salt into the wounds."

"Twice he was led blindfolded to the gallows. Once the noose was left around his neck for 45 minutes, and he passed out from fear, he recalled. The second time, he sat, waiting, as a prisoner on each side of him was hanged. "

He left Iran a few months ago, he was smuggled by the Kurds to Erbil, in Iraq, and finally made it to the US. His intervew for the New York Times is here. There is also a video.

I COULDN'T HELP POSTING THIS :)

Bassem linked me to BoingBoing.com, Iran You Suck at Photoshop
They had a little contest on Photoshopping the picture with the Iranian missile test. Very funny. Check it out. The Iranzilla is my favorite. Obviously, because I like cats.

Wel, it seems like there is a world wide Photoshop frenzy on the Iran Missiles picture. There are some more on NYTimes Lede blog .


And if you follow the links you get here, in the Danger Room .

SO THEY WERE TALKING SHIT TO AMERICA

It seems like the Revolutionary Guards are very fond of Photoshop, cause the missile test pictures contain one missile too many. Hehe. The picture sold by AFP to most of the mainstream media contained 4 missiles, while the same picture obtained by AP had only 3 missiles. Both news wires got the pictures from the same source, Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The story is on New York Times.

France Presse picture.

AP picture.

It reminds me of the story Hassan, my friend in Iran told me a while ago about the Iranian president visiting his hometown. Hilarious. The national TV footage showed thousands of people applauding, while local tv which does not have the same digital technique, only showed a few local students forced by the teachers to leave the classes in order to cheer for Ahmadinejad. My question is, what happened to the guys who gave the real picture to AP?

TALKING SHIT TO AMERICA

Iranian Revolutionary Guards practicing war-game maneuvers test-fired nine missiles today in the Gulf. At least one, the government in Tehran says, has the range to reach Israel. The US already says is backing Israel if it decides to attack Iran.

The tests, shown on Iranian television, come as the Iranian president accuses the West of trying to assassinate him using high radiation in his room while he was in Rome for the Food Summit. Imagine that, how else would you kill Ahmadinejad other than use nuclear stuff? Isn't that ironic? Hehe.

Seriously now, Iran's military display came just a day after the United States and the Czech Republic signed a deal in Prague to allow the Pentagon to deploy part of its contentious antiballistic missile shield in Central Europe. Damn, that makes us a target. I doubt the Iranian missile would reach us better than a suicide bomber in the Prague railway station.

It does sound serious though, cause the United States and British warships have been conducting naval maneuvers in the Gulf — apparently within range of the launch site of the missiles tested by the Iranians.

This whole thing reminds me of Maz Jobrani, Iranian American comedian. Here he is. And tell me he's not right.