The Cost of Collaborating with Iran, and There is a Cost - by Ben Cohen

...As more evidence regarding this shameful agreement emerges, the underlying theme that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted will be resonate even more strongly. More immediately, the AMIA scandal gives us an important glimpse into how the Iranians negotiate. What they don’t do is compromise. Instead, they present a mixture of threats, ideological venom and faith in the reluctance of Western leaders to take military action as a negotiating strategy. That’s why any country that declares a conflict with the Iranians satisfactorily resolved – whether that’s the AMIA issue or Tehran’s nuclear ambitions – has reached that conclusion in spite of the facts, not because of them.

Ben Cohen..
J-Wire..
26 December '15..

Next month marks the first anniversary of the death of Alberto Nisman, the Argentine federal prosecutor who spent a decade investigating the 1994 Iranian-backed bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. In that massacre, 85 people were murdered and hundreds more injured.Nisman’s lifeless body, readers will remember, was discovered in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment on January 18, 2015 – the night before he was due to elaborate on his formal complaint against the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in front of the Argentine Congress. Nisman had concluded, based on the mountain of evidence that was available to him, that the main purpose of Fernández de Kirchner’s 2013 “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) with the Iranian regime was to abandon the demand for six Iranian suspects in the AMIA bombing to be extradited, thereby paving the way to restored relations between Buenos Aires and Tehran.

The Argentine President made one spectacular miscalculation in all of this. At no point did it occur to her that Daniel Scioli, the candidate she chose to succeed her in the presidential election this year, would end up losing the ballot. But that’s exactly what happened. With the victory, in November, of the pragmatic Mauricio Macri, all of Fernández de Kirchner’s bets regarding the future of the AMIA investigation have been made redundant.

There is a lesson here for politicians that goes far beyond Argentina’s borders. Very basically, the lesson determines that while colluding with Iranian terrorism may deliver short-term gains, in the long-term there are no benefits yielded and quite a few costs to boot.

In the case of Fernández de Kirchner and her principal cohorts, among them her foreign minister Hector Timerman, those costs could conceivably include a jail sentence. Securing the MOU with Iran required Argentina’s leaders to lie about the circumstances of the AMIA bombing. At the time, anyone with even superficial knowledge of the atrocity and its tortured aftermath knew that they were lying. Now it can be proven.

Last week, previously unknown recordings of Timerman’s telephone conversations with local Jewish leaders were released into the public domain. No-one quite knows how the recordings surfaced, but it’s reasonable to believe that with Fernández de Kirchner out of the presidential palace, and with President Macri’s new government declaring that it regards the MOU with Iran as null and void, whoever unveiled them has figured that doing so will not result in a knock on the door in the middle of the night – or a bullet in the back of the head.

Unquestionably, Appeasing Iran Will Come With a Terrible Price

...The Islamic Republic remains implacably opposed to Israel's existence and its leaders speak approvingly of the country's destruction. The U.S. is in Iran's sights too. Hence Ayatollah Khamenei's chilling call for 'Death to America' only a fortnight ago in Tehran. No attempt is made to hide such incendiary rhetoric. Instead it is embraced with a zeal and brazenness that is wholly unsettling. This deal allows Iran to continue sponsoring terrorist groups, carry out human rights violations and destabilise the entire region. This is the truly terrible price to pay for appeasing a rogue regime.

Jeremy Harvardi..
The Commentator..
04 April '15..

he face of it, the parameters of the deal on Iran's nuclear programme are better than expected. The country is not about to join the elite nuclear club, at least for the time being. Under the proposed deal, Tehran must reduce by two thirds all its installed centrifuges, and those that remain will only be first generation.

It has agreed 'not to enrich uranium over 3.67 percent' for 15 years while reducing its stockpile of enriched uranium from 10,000 kg to 300 kg for the same period. It has agreed 'not to enrich uranium at Fordow for 15 years' and to rebuild the heavy water reactor in Arak for peaceful purposes.

The IAEA 'will have regular access to all of Iran's nuclear facilities' and 'the supply chain that supports Iran's nuclear program'. Sanctions relief will be given if Iran 'verifiably abides by its commitments' but sanctions 'snap back' if there is 'significant non-performance'.

For the next decade, the breakout time for acquiring enough fissile material for a bomb, currently two to three months, will be extended to at least one year.

But appeasement has a price -- it always does. Iran has effectively received international legitimacy as a nuclear threshold state. Years of Security Council resolutions were supposed to have resulted in the complete suspension of nuclear activities and the removal of Iran's nuclear architecture.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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Beginning to strike back at the money that enables the terrorists

...While foreign governments were previously shielded from lawsuits, the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act lifted that immunity from nations Canada has designated state sponsors of terrorism. Iran and Syria were placed on the list of state sponsors last September. Tehran has long bankrolled Palestinian terrorists, partly through its militant Revolutionary Guards Corp. It has also used the Lebanese Shi’ite extremist group Hezbollah as a proxy force for attacking Iranian targets internationally, from South America to Europe.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
18 September '13..

From National Post, Canada, yesterday: "Canadian bank accounts linked to Iranian government frozen as terror victims seek damages"

A judge has frozen more than a dozen Canadian bank accounts linked to the government of Iran at the request of victims trying to collect damages from the Islamic republic over its sponsorship of Middle East terror groups. The list of Iran’s accounts and other state assets in Canada was disclosed last week by the Department of Foreign Affairs in an effort to help victims hold Tehran responsible for financing, training and arming Hezbollah and Hamas. The five-page decision by Justice David Brown of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered banks to lock down the 14 Royal Bank, Scotiabank, CIBC and BMO accounts named by Foreign Affairs, which contain at least $2.6-million. Banks were given until Friday to disclose the names of the account holders and their contact information to lawyers representing the victims. On Sept. 30, the lawyers are scheduled to return to court to ask for a default judgment against Iran... The Ontario court order is the latest fallout from legislation enacted last year that allows victims of terrorism committed anywhere in the world since Jan. 1, 1985 to seek redress through Canadian courts. While foreign governments were previously shielded from lawsuits, the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act lifted that immunity from nations Canada has designated state sponsors of terrorism. Iran and Syria were placed on the list of state sponsors last September. Tehran has long bankrolled Palestinian terrorists, partly through its militant Revolutionary Guards Corp. It has also used the Lebanese Shi’ite extremist group Hezbollah as a proxy force for attacking Iranian targets internationally, from South America to Europe.

In a separate seizure/forfeiture action against Iran, perhaps the largest court-ordered asset seizure ever, a court in New York City ruled [see the court order here] that federal authorities could seize a 36-storey Fifth Avenue office tower worth half a billion dollars or more from its owners, Alavi Foundation and Assa Company, declaring them to be fronts for the Iranian regime. (This 2009 report provides some of the background as of when this legal effort got started.)

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out!

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Roth - Long noses and red faces in Tehran

Iranian statesman and
unembarrassed opponent of terrorism,
Mahmoud Ahmedinijad

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
13 February '12..

A Reuters report some hours ago quoting the Iranian government-controlled Islamic Republican News Agency said the Iranians reject as "sheer lies" accusations that they were involved in today's bomb attack on the Israeli embassy in India. The Ayatollah-rich regime's ambassador to New Delhi, Mehdi Nabizadeh, said:

"Any terrorist attack is condemned (by Iran) and we strongly reject the untrue comments by an Israeli official. These accusations are untrue and sheer lies, like previous times."

There must have been some back in Tehran's foreign ministry who felt Nabizadeh's denial and straight-faced condemnation of terrorist attacks were insufficiently emphatic. So when Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, spoke out in mid-afternoon blaming Iran for the coordinated attacks today on Israel's missions in India and Georgia, a spokesman in the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, revealed what had really and truly happened: Israel bombed its own embassies to "tarnish Iran's friendly ties with the host countries".

From Terrorist Infiltrators to Arms Ships, Israel Has to Think of Everything

Shoshana Bryen
Senior Director for Security Policy
JINSA Report #1071
March 15, 2011

The Middle East is in political and military turmoil from Bahrain to Tunisia - some of which may one day benefit Israel, some of which will not. Hamas is firing again from the Gaza. The Palestinian Authority continues to spew Jew-hatred through its official organs and feign horror at the inevitable result. The UN is screening an anti-Israel movie (popcorn optional) for the General Assembly while Iran ascends to the UN Committee on the Status of Women and Western European countries on the Security Council throw Israel to the dogs assuming the United States will veto their folly. The United States does, because it declined to expend the necessary effort to gather the votes to defeat the resolution and couldn't prevail upon Abu Mazen (who relies on the United States for money and military training for this Praetorian Guard) to withdraw it. Israel can't even take the time to mourn its latest dead - three children and their parents gruesomely murdered in their own home on the Sabbath - because it might lose track of the two Iranian naval ships that passed through the Suez Canal under the eyes of the new Egyptian junta.

Remember those? Israel did. Israel had to.

American and Israeli intelligence assets kept the Iranian Alvand frigate and Kharg supply and replenishment ship in their sights after Egypt gave them a clean bill and permitted them to pass through the Canal. The ships went to Latakia, Syria where, apparently, they offloaded a shipment of weapons. The second ship, a German-owned-Liberian-flagged freighter named Victoria, stopped in Latakia to pick up the weapons and then went to the port in Mersin, Turkey, where it stayed for a few days for no apparent purpose (except to give people time to forget about the Iranian ships and focus their attention elsewhere?). Then the ship left Turkey and headed for Egypt, where the cargo could have gone to Gaza through the smuggling tunnels.

The Israel Navy tracked the ship, boarded it and had it dock in Israel. There was no resistance from the crew, who apparently were unaware of the cargo, as was the German owner of the ship. The Turkish government appears to have had nothing to do with anything. But someone did.

Early word is that the ship contained "tons" of weapons, possibly including Chinese C-802 anti-ship missiles - the ones Hezbollah used during the 2006 war to disable an Israeli ship and kill four Israeli sailors. Acquisition of the C-802 missile, according to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, "Would have impaired the Israel Navy's freedom of operations in the Mediterranean Sea." Given recent Israeli gas finds in the Mediterranean and the fact that most of Israel's imports and exports are seaborne and that 80% of Israel's population lives in the coastal plain, the ability to secure Israel's "western border" is essential.

The Victoria joins the Karine A, the Santorini, the Francop, the Hansa India, the Monchegorsk and scores of smaller ships that Israel has intercepted with weapons intended for its enemies. This is in addition to Iranian military supplies to Hezbollah through Syria and Iran's own ongoing efforts to acquire nuclear weapons capabilities.

The point has frequently been made that Israel has to win every war while its Arab (or Iranian) enemies only have to win one. It may have been true that the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship, sponsored by the terrorist-linked IHH didn't have large weapons caches - it didn't have any humanitarian aid either - but the Government of Israel can't afford to miss even one.

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The art of deceit - terrorists' weapon route

IsraeliGirl
15 March '11

March 15th in the open waters of the Mediterranean Sea - an innocent looking commercial ship flying a Liberian flag is stopped by the Israel navy. The operation was approved by PM Netanyahu taking into account confirmed reports that the vessel was carrying illicit arms destined for terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

Nothing in the freight manifest of the Victoria revealed the true nature of the content of the ship's containers. The crew had no idea they were carrying illegal weapons intended for terrorists and were quite surprised when a preliminary search by the boarding party, found significant amounts of arms and military equipment.

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

In addition to weapons, soldiers who boarded the "Victoria" also found a radar used to detect ships prior to the launching of missiles from the coast.

There is no doubt these weapons would have been used by Hamas against Israeli civilians. This attempt at smuggling large amounts of weaponry aboard the Victoria provides additional proof of Israel’s imperative need to examine all goods entering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Iran has been creative in its attempts to transfer weapons to it's allies in the region over the last 10 years. Weapons were transferred on board ships like Karine A (carried 50 tons of weapons), aerial convoys and trains. Weapons are often concealed as humanitarian aid. After the earthquake in southern Iran in January 2004, the world was sending in help to Iran. In return, Iran disguised aerial convoys as humanitarian aid and tried to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah. A few years after that an Iranian train carrying arms (mortar shells, light arms, rocket launchers and ammunition) was uncovered in Turkey. The arms were destined for Hezbollah. Again , the Iranians attempted to conceal and disguise the arms in order to avoid suspicion by the Turkish authorities.

The illegal smuggling of arms to the Gaza Strip poses a direct and imminent threat to the safety and security of Israel and its citizens. As Hamas keeps firing rockets from Gaza, Iran will do whatever it can to keep the weapon route alive. All of us in Giyus.org hope for peace but as long as terrorists control Gaza, Israel must maintain its naval blockade and ensure weapons will not reach their hands.

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Bankrupting Terror

AishVideo
15 March '10

Shurat haDin's Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is the voice of Victims of Terror. By suing Hamas and other terror organizations, she is hitting them in the wallet, trying to put an end to terror.



Our Mission

We tend to think of the fight against terrorism as a burden that falls mainly on the shoulders of government—our military, diplomatic, homeland security, and law-enforcement agencies. Yet there is one area where private citizens can play a leading role: In stopping the flow of funds to terror organizations. Beginning in the 1990s, Western countries, and especially the United States, passed laws making it possible for victims of terror to sue the regimes that sponsor terror, banks that transfer funds to terror groups, front organizations that pretend to serve charitable causes, and even the terrorists themselves. For the first time, terror victims and their families have a chance to fight back through the courts.

Visit Shurat HaDin's website at www.israellawcenter.org