By Pepe Escobar

A recurrent theme among the lively Iranian global diaspora is that the Supreme Leader is the perfect US/Israel asset – as he incarnates Iran (although in many cases less than President Mahmud Ahmadinejad) as “the enemy”; in parallel, the military dictatorship of the mullahtariat in Tehran also needs “the enemy” – as in the Great Satan and the Zionists – to justify its monopoly of power.

The ultimate loser, in this case, is true Iranian democracy – as in the foundation for the country’s ability to resist Empire. Especially now, after the immensely dodgy 2009 presidential election and the repression of the Green movement – when even former supporters swear the Islamic Republic turned into neither a “republic” and certainly not “Islamic”.

At the same time, informed Iranian – and Western – critics of Empire swear that the belligerent Likud-majority government of Israel is in fact the perfect Iran asset. This is because Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and former Moldova bouncer turned Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s non-stop warmongering has only worked to rally Iranians of all persuasions – always proudly nationalistic – behind the regime.

After all, the absolute majority of Iranians feel they are targeted by a heavily weaponized foreign power – US/Israel, followed in the shade by the Sunni Persian Gulf monarchies of the Gulf Counter-revolution Club, also known as Gulf Cooperation Council. The regime was wily enough to instrumentalize this foreign threat and at the same time further smash the Green movement.

Keep your bombs away from me
Parliamentary elections in Iran are less than a week away, on March 3. These are the first elections after the 2009 drama. In The Ayatollahs’ Democracy: an Iranian Challenge (Penguin Books), Hooman Majd makes a very strong case detailing how the election was stolen. And that’s the key current problem; millions of Iranians don’t believe in their Islamic democracy anymore.

Gholam Reza Moghaddam, a cleric and the head of the Majlis (parliament) commission that is conducting an extremely delicate move in the middle of an economic crisis – to finish government subsidies on basic food items and energy – recently admitted that the Ahmadinejad government was by all practical purposes bribing the population “to encourage them to vote in the Majlis elections”.

Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi – a senior military adviser to Khamenei and, crucially, former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – asked Iranians to “take the elections seriously and by voting in maximum numbers create another epic event”. The Supreme Leader believes – or hopes – turnout at the “epic event” will be around 60%.

They may be in for a rude shock. Word in Iran is that the election appeal at universities is close to zero. No wonder; Green movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has been under house arrest for a full year. According to Kaleme, a website close to Mousavi and his wife, Dr Zahra Rahnavard, a few days ago they were allowed to speak only briefly, by phone, with their three daughters.

Khamenei’s attention seems to be concentrated more on the external pressure than the internal dynamic. Once again, on Wednesday, he went public to renew his vow that a nuclear weapon is anti-Islamic. His words should – but they won’t – be carefully scrutinized in the West:

We believe that using nuclear weapons is haram and prohibited, and that it is everybody’s duty to make efforts to protect humanity against this great disaster. We believe that besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation which is itself a victim of chemical weapons feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats.

To see the Supreme Leader’s “nuclear” views, warmongers could do worse than consult his website. [1] Of course, they won’t.

What’s certain is that the leader seems to be ready to fight for the long haul. Major General (retired) Mohsen Rezai, the secretary general of the Expediency Council, said it in so many words; Western sanctions will go on for at least another five years, and are much tougher than those imposed during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Rezai also said that for 16 years, when Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and then Mohammad Khatami were presidents, Iran tried to reach some sort of deal with the US; but “because the gap [between the two] was too deep, a compromise was not possible … We allowed them to inspect Natanz, we reduced the number of centrifuges, we suspended the Isfahan [uranium conversion facility], and our president [Khatami] began the ‘dialogue among civilizations’. But [president George W] Bush declared that Iran, Iraq and North Korea constitute the ‘axis of evil’ and began a confrontation with us.” [2]

A former spokesman for the Iranian nuclear negotiation team, ambassador Hossein Mousavian, brought this confrontational mood up to date – to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team’s October 2011 visit to Iran, led by deputy director general Herman Nackaerts – the same Nackaerts who was back in Iran this week.

According to Mousavian, “during the visit, Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, offered a blank check to the IAEA, granting full transparency, openness to inspections, and cooperation with the IAEA. He also informed Nackaerts of Iran’s receptiveness to putting the country’s nuclear program under ‘full IAEA supervision’, including implementing the Additional Protocol [of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] for five years, provided that sanctions against Iran were lifted.”

Guess what was Washington’s reaction; forget about dialogue, we want sanctions. That set the scene for Washington’s next steps; the Fast-and-Furious plot trying to frame Tehran for the assassination attempt on the Saudi ambassador to the US; the pressure to divert the IAEA’s November 2011 report on Iran by adding a spin on a “possible” military angle to the nuclear program; the oil embargo; the sponsoring of a United Nations resolution against Iran on terrorism; and the list goes on.

Show me the path of the Imam
In all matters external and internal, in Iran the bucks stops with Khamenei – not Ahmadinejad. If the Supreme Leader seems to have his finger firmly on the nuclear dossier, at homely matters he may be unraveling. He may take comfort that outside the big cities, he remains popular – as government loans in rural areas remain generous, at least while the new Western sanctions don’t bite.

But high-ranking clerics in Qom are now openly calling for legal mechanisms to oversee – and criticize – him; his response – hardly a secret in Tehran – was to order all their offices and homes to be bugged.

Khamenei has vehemently rejected any sort of oversight by the Council of Experts – the body that appoints the Supreme Leader, monitors his performance, and can even topple him.

According to Seyyed Abbas Nabavi, the head of the Organization for Islamic Civilization and Development, Khamenei told the experts, “I do not accept the assembly can say that the Supreme Leader is still qualified, but then question why such and such official was directed in a certain direction, or why I allowed a certain official [to do certain things].” [3]

Following the outbursts of outrage in 2009 – when for the first time people in the streets openly called for the downfall of the leader – revolt steadily marches on, with highly educated Iranians deriding Khamenei as stubborn, jealous and vindictive, holding a monster grudge against millions who never swallowed his endorsement of Ahmadinejad in 2009 (he always calls them “seditionists”).

For instance, even the daughter of a well-known ayatollah has gone public saying that Khamenei “holds a grudge in his heart” against Rafsanjani and former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi “because of the Imam’s [Khomeini's] love and support for them and also because in comparison to these three, in particular Hashemi [Rafsanjani] and Mousavi, he is clearly a second-rate individual.” Khamenei is now being widely blamed for anything from Iran’s falling production capacity to mounting inflation and widespread corruption.

That raises the question; what about the IRGC’s support for the Supreme Leader?

The Iranian diaspora largely considers this to be pure propaganda. Yet the fact is the IRGC is now a monster conglomerate with myriad military-industrial, economic and financial interests. Top managers – and the array of enterprises they control – are bound to the ethos of antagonizing the West, the same West from whose sanctions they profit, handsomely. So, for them, the status quo is nice and dandy – even with the everyday possibility of a miscalculation, or a false flag operation, leading to war.

At the same time, the IRGC may count on the key strategic/political support of BRICS members Russia and China – and is certain that the country will be able to dribble the embargo and keep selling oil mostly to Asian clients.

But what’s really juicy, in terms of the internal dynamic, is the fact that the cream of the IRGC is now engaged in a sort of economic war against the bazaaris – the traditionally very conservative Persian merchants.

It’s crucial to remember that these bazaaris financed the so-called “Path of the Imam” Islamic revolution in 1979. They were – and remain – radically anti-colonialism (especially as practiced by the British and then the Americans); but this does not mean they are anti-Western (something that most in the West still don’t understand).

Once again, as top Iranian analysts have been ceaselessly pointing out, one must remember that the Islamic revolution’s original motto was “Neither East nor West”; what mattered was a sort of curiously Buddhist “middle of the road” – exactly that “Path of the Imam” that would guarantee Islamic Iran as a sovereign, non-aligned country.

And guess who was part of this original “Path of the Imam” coalition of the willing? Exactly; Khamenei (and Ahmadinejad) foes Mousavi, Khatami, Karoubi and Rafsanjani, not to mention a moderate faction of the IRGC, graphically symbolized by former IRGC commander and former presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai.

So what the “Path of the Imam” coalition is essentially saying is that Khamenei is a traitor of the principles of the revolution; they accuse him of trying to become a sort of Shi’ite caliph – an absolute ruler. This message is increasingly getting public resonance among millions of Iranians who believe in a true “Islamic”, but most of all “republic” state.

And that leads us to the Supreme Leader’s supreme fear; that a coalition of Islamic republic purists – including powerful Qom clerics and powerful IRGC commanders or former commanders – may eventually rise up, get rid of him, and finally implement their dream of a true Islamic republic. Only this is certain; the one thing they won’t get rid of is Iran’s civilian nuclear program.

Notes
1. See here.
2. See the original text, in Farsi .
3. See the original text in Farsi.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com

US-Military Logic behind Syrian Insurgency. The “Special Forces Unconventional Warfare” manual TC 18 01

Attack on Syria likely before March?

The Syrian Draft Constitution

Syria Breaking News 18.02.2012

Syria: A Zionist Shoe in the Face of the “Arab Charade”.

NATO set for War on Syria threatens Iran. The Russian Dilemma, and the Possible “Joker”.

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By Christof Lehmann - Editorial Encirclement – One of the Russian preconditions for the re-unification of Eastern and Western Germany was, that NATO would not station any troops in Eastern Germany, any of the former Soviet Republics, and former Warsaw Treaty Member States. The agreement would have created important preconditions for a peaceful and balanced geopolitical development in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Minor. After the discontinuation of the former USSR, Russia was led by a weak and unstable government led by Boris Yeltsin, who rather than seeking alliances with former Soviet Republics, based it´s power in strong economic, US, European, and Globalist players. The result was that Russian assets were moved off-shore and a severe destabilization of the Russian economy, which only began recovering during the Presidency of Vladimir Putin.

Russia and a cohort of former Soviet Republics were invited into NATO´s “Partnership for Peace” or “Individual or Special Partnership Programs” and a cohort of other(1) (2). With Russia ensnared in NATO´s programs and a weakened Russian economy, it became economically, politically as well as militarily difficult to resist NATO´s breeches of contracts, as well as a low intensity war directed against Russia from many of the former Soviet Republics and allies. Recalling discussions with Russian Diplomats in 1990 and 1991 in Moscow, the author remembers that even though there was wide-spread skepticism about US and European ambitions, the impression that all partners were working towards peace and cooperation was the most prevalent.

Encirclement, Terrorism, Subversion – This picture changed significantly with NATO´s war on Yugoslavia and the wide-spread use of NATO intelligence and NATO-backed terrorist and mercenary forces, including Al-Qaeda. (3) The first time use of NATO´s article five of it´s charter for attacking Afghanistan worsened the skepticism. (4) The European and US Support of Chechnyan Militants, as well as Insurgents in Dagestan, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, and Georgian militant nationalists claiming Ossetia made it clear that Russia was under assault by NATO backed Islamic Insurgents. (5) The breeches of contracts by enlarging NATO with the inclusion of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, the Ukraine, and the stationing of US troops in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, effectively encircling Russia aggravated Russia`s suspicions against it`s “Partner for Peace”.. The encirclement was partly facilitated, partly followed by heavily US-backed “Color Revolutions or Flower Revolutions” (6) to install or stabilize US-friendly governments, oust pro-Russian governments, and ensure US-hegemony. This development was followed by the deployment of Air Forces with fighter jets along Russia´s European borders, and the recent stationing of missiles. The Russian Military, Russian Politicians and Diplomats perceive that NATO´s Missile “Shield” is aimed at “neutralizing Russia´s Strategic Deterrent”, and thus an act of aggression or at least in preparation of a plausible aggression against Russia.(7) The author has recently discussed the situation in the Middle East with a Russian Diplomat who stated that NATO most certainly no longer was a “Partner for Peace”, and that Russian military analysts consider the likelihood of a NATO attack on Russia within the decade for being overwhelming.

Speaking confidentially with Russian Diplomats it becomes evident that Russia today “is in a situation where it must assert it´s influence in the Wider Middle East and Asia Minor. Any further encroachment by NATO in Syria or Iran would not only be a serious departure from international obligations towards peace. Not to assert Russian influence with respect to Iran and Syria would implicitly be the neglect of Russia to assure it´s territorial integrity and the security of it´s citizens, while being confronted by a NATO that has the declared goal to attack and subdue Russia and China“. Analyzing documents such as US Military Base Structure Reports that provide a reasonably clear overview over US Bases and Deployments, and taking into consideration that Russia is convinced about NATO´s ambitions for global and full spectrum dominance, the 2008 BSR (8) can not be other than disturbing literature for the Russian General Staff.

In September 2011 the author received information from a high-ranking US-military source at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, that the US and NATO had actively been preparing for, and had begun implementing a war on Syria, Hezbollah, and Iran.(9) The same military source has since drawn attention to the fact that the wars will be conducted with a significant use of Special Forces, and based on the US Special Forces Unconventional Warfare Manual TC 18-01. The document is a detailed revelation of the criminal nature of US Foreign Affairs Policy, and is explanatory for the development of the current situation in Syria. TC 18-01 was published in full, attached to an article on nsnbc in February 2012. (10)

The abuse of UNSC Resolution 1973-2011 on Libya, and the heavy NATO involvement in the attempted subversion of the Syrian government forced Russia to draw a clear line in the sand with respect to Syria. Stating that it would not tolerate another Libya Style intervention or unwarranted interference. Russia is making serious attempts to help the Syrian government and opposition to find a peaceful solution to what has slowly developed into a state of civil war. However, the Russian General Staff, Intelligence Services as well as the Russian Politicians, are well aware of the fact, that  neither NATO, nor the NATO, Qatari, Saudi backed armed insurgents are interested in finding a peaceful solution.The question for NATO planners is no longer “if” but “how” to attack Syria and how to get away with while keeping Russia outside of the military equation. It is a high stakes gamble, with nothing less than the possibility of a regional war which could rapidly develop into a global war at stake.

How to get away with murder – Over 40.000 NATO backed armed insurgents massed in a military staging area in Jordan, along the Syrian border. Approximately 18.000 of these men are under the command of Libyan Al Qaeda commander and long-standing NATO ally Abdelhakim Belhadj. (11) Turkey, is hosting the “National Council of Syria” (NCS) which demands from “the International Community“  to be endorsed as the “sole representative of the people of Syria”. The NCS, backed by Turkey and NATO, is vehemently opposed to finding a peaceful, non-military solution to the crisis in Syria. Armed Muslim Brotherhood fighters are trained, housed, and organize armed aggressions against Syria from NATO bases in Turkey. Al Qaeda and other Islamic Jihadis from Iraq are massing at the Syrian border to Iraq. Saudi Arabia and Qatar demand that Jordan allows their military to use Jordan as a corridor for an attack on Syria which Jordan so far has “publicly” rejected. The public rejection however has very little credibility for three reasons. The Jordanian government would be very interested in ousting the Syrian Baath Party government. Old scores dating back as long as the “Black September” and Syrian military support of the PLO in Jordan against the Jordanian military are too tempting for not to be settled. Jordan is already hosting over 40.000 foreign fighters poised for battle with Syria and Turkey has opened a recruitment center and intelligence operations room in Jordan`s Capitol Amman. Finally, it would be a very incompetent military tactic to inform Syria about a probable military attack by it´s allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia via Jordan, as long as it is possible to attempt to soothe the Syrian General Staff into not paying too much attention to the risk of the attack.

The problems the US and NATO are facing are among other, how to get away with a step by step war while minimizing the likelihood of a Russian military intervention, how to oust the Syrian government without intervention by Russia, how to keep Iranian troops out of the Syrian equation, while attacking Syria, and how to find a later pretext for an aggression against Iran without Russian military intervention later.

On 26 February the people of Syria will hold a referendum about a draft Constitution. (12) A constitution which Preamble is a direct slap in the face of the new want to be colonial powers and their allies.(13) A massive turnout at the referendum, or massive popular support in favor of it, would not have much military significance; it would however, be an absolute domestic and international public relations disaster for the USA, NATO, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Since a military attack on Syria will include a relatively large deployment of Qatari and Saudi troops, as well as a large deployment of NATO Special Forces, it will be important for NATO to deflect as much attention from Syria as possible during the critical phases of military operations. A US Military advisor for nsnbc suggested yesterday, that the ongoing Israeli strong-wording and threatening Iran most likely is a Mossad contribution to deflecting as much attention from Syria as possible.

As reported in a recent article by the author, a Palestinian Intelligence source in Turkey informed, that massive terrorist attacks are to be expected in Syria on the day of the referendum. These attacks will be followed by a massive attack, including the deployment of the fighters now stationed in Jordan, not later than 7 March. (ibid.) 40.000, even 50.000 troops are far from sufficient to seriously threaten the Syrian military. They are however sufficient to create so much chaos, that the fighting can be sold as “a massive popular uprising” in Western Main Stream Media”. The burden of proof that Syria is suffering a NATO attack would rest entirely on Syria and Russia, and without it, it will be politically extremely difficult for Russia to intervene.Russia could intervene indirectly by supporting Iran in doing so, without provoking a direct NATO-Russian confrontation.

The ongoing Israeli threats of an attack against Iran, and the sharp US debates about it may serve a triple purpose and may be significantly increased within the coming weeks. The strategy to focus all possible media attention on Iran and a possible war with Iran while actually waging a war against Syria. Sending a message to Iran that it should stay out of the war in Syria. Weakening Russia´s political strengths by discrediting it by association with Syria and Iran.The most important function of a massive and protracted threat against Iran is in other words to make it less likely that either Russia or Iran are getting directly involved while NATO, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia initiate their main assault on Syria.

Neither Russia nor Iran seem to have any interest in engaging them selves in what invariably would develop into a regional conflict, if not more. It may be tempting for them to avoid military involvement as long as NATO can maintain plausible deniability of direct military involvement. The decision would be disastrous for Syria. More over, it would be disastrous for Iran and Russia. In the final equation, backing off with respect to Syria will not contribute to stability in the region, but rather quicken and heighten the risk for a wider regional war. Syria, Russia and Iran are in a serious military dilemma.

The only player who is holding the “Joker” that could turn the game around seems to be China. It is the only player who could demand an US and NATO policy of non-interference, and demand that NATO calls back it´s bloodhounds. Back off or drown in worthless Dollar and Euro. China would most likely have the support of the BRIC and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and a Cohort of non aligned countries. The question is, will it play the “Joker” and pay a heavy price for peace now, or does it count on defending itself later, while letting NATO get away with murder for the time being.

Dr. Christof Lehmann

23.02.2012

1) NATO Partnership for Peace. http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_50349.htm

2) NATO http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-821D7048-FA6B4315/natolive/51288.htm

3) German Intelligence and CIA supported Al Qaeda sponsored Terrorists in Yugoslavia.  http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BEH502A.html

4) NATO, Invocation of Article Five. http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2006/issue2/english/art2.html

5) US-NATO vs Russia: Towards a Regional War in the Caucasus. E. Walberg. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18019

6) Color Revolutions. http://colorrevolutionsandgeopolitics.blogspot.com/2011/11/belarus-rebel-stronghold-faces-empire.html

7) NATO Missile Shield aimed at Russian Strategic Deterrent. http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/nato-missile-shield-aimed-neutralizing-russian-deterrent-official-claims/

8 ) DoD Base Structure Report 2008 DoD BSR 2008

9) Syrian Info War: Syrian Attorney General Adnan Muhammad Bakkur not defected but kidnapped by Armed Gang with Helicopter Gunships. C. Lehmann, nsnbc. http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/syrian-info-war-syrian-attorney-general-adnan-muhammad-bakkur-not-defected-but-kidnapped-by-armed-gang-with-helicopter-gunships/

10) SPECIAL FORCES UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE (2010) TC 18-01 http://nsnbc.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/special-forces-uw-tc-18-01.pdf

11) Attack on Syria likely before March ? C. Lehmann, nsnbc. http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/attack-on-syria-likely-before-march/

12) The Syrian Draft Constitution. C. Lehmann, nsnbc. http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/the-syrian-draft-constitution/

13)Syria: A Zionist Shoe in the Face of the “Arab Charade”. C. Lehmann, nsnbc. http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/syria-a-zionist-shoe-in-the-face-of-the-arab-charade/

By Scott Creighton

One day after Glenn Greenwald declared that CNN’s Erin Burnett was the “worst of the worst” of the lying war-mongering talking heads on corporate media, CNN’s Arwa Damon throws her hat back in the ring with a more than despicable challenge to the title.

A quick note about Arwa before we get into her new chicken hawk efforts: I exposed a fraudulent little pro-war/regime change bit she did a while back in June of 2011. She went somewhere (probably Bahrain) and filmed what she claimed was a refugee camp for Syrians suffering under the Assad led government. It was complete bullshit, but she did manage to exploit some little kids who were there, brought by their paid parents no doubt, trying to make them seem frightened and lost. They looked at her as if she was an idiot.

Arwa really likes using children to try to help spur another brutal NATO bombardment of civilian targets, this time in Syria. She must get paid well or have absolutely no conscience what-so-ever. To use children as pawns in an effort to bring about a military invasion which will undoubtedly kill and maim children in the process is morally reprehensible.

In September of 2011 Arwa Damon put out a story about “The Rose”, Zainab al-Hosni, an 18 year old girl Arwa said who was abducted and mutilated by the Assad regime. In this video, Arwa states that she is looking at the pictures of the mutilated “Rose” and the pictures are too gruesome to show.

Turns out, the Rose wasn’t dead after all. Her family along with the CNN handlers like Arwa, were all lying. They made the whole thing up, and that means Arwa was not looking at a picture of a dead Rose. That means she was lying as well.

Arwa Damon has a long history of helping globalist murders spin up justifications for more death and suffering. She’s like a young Hillary Clinton in that regard. She was there at Falujah as an embedded “journalist’ and she helped spin up bullshit stories in order to create a fevered pitch to attack Libya.

Her newest propaganda expose revolves around some “refugees’ hiding out in Homs Syria. And par for her course, she includes plenty of women, old and young, and tons of little kids.

They are all sitting around in the dark wondering why the rest of the world doesn’t swing by and bomb the shit out of Syria because they have to hide out now that the Syrian government and the rest of the Syrian people know that they are murderous traitors hell bent on handing over their country to globalist multinational companies and banks.

Arwa walks around with a phony stunned look on her face. When are these tv “journalists” going to realize that they aren’t good actors? She feels kids heads, tries to act like she is remaining neutral… keeps zooming in on the kids that look uncomfortable while rushing past the kids who are playing or have smiles on their faces.

At one point she even shows a “gruesome” picture of someone’s brother who was supposedly killed by Assad’s forces, but of course, Arwa offers up no proof of any of those claims as she apparently forgot her complete failure with the Zainab al-Hosni bullshit.

She really should be sued and the remaining film from that video shoot should be reviewed to see if she is staging all of these ridiculous “won’t somebody think of the CHILDREN!!!” psyops.

Maybe in the future she can sit back and smile and think to herself that she helped bring about yet another NATO bombing and another 30,000 or so dead civilians.

Maybe she’ll get real lucky and the Syrian shock and awe will help bring about an attack on Iran and eventually WWIII. Boy, wouldn’t her teacher daddy be proud of that?

“My little girl helped bring about the slaughter of millions of people by lying through her fucking teeth with every breath in her body! What a proud moment this is” war-monger Arwa Damon’s daddy

But for right now, Arwa can content herself with the knowing that she helped bring about all that democracy they are enjoying in Libya right now. People being rounded up and disappeared, privatizations out the ying-yang, stealing the wealth of the nation at a record setting rate, mercenaries killing civilians left and right.

I wonder if Arwa gets a percentage of the looting that is taking place over there.

If you’re gonna sell your soul, you better damn well be paid for it. I guess she figures after a couple more years of doing the lying dirty work for the globalists, they will reward her with a senate seat or something. Who knows what goes through the mind of someone like that.

In response to the misleading and provocative campaigns carried out by suspected organizations and channels, Syria on Wednesday sent messages to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), United Nations (UN) and the Human Rights Council (HRC).

In these messages, Syria pointed out that the Syrian government gave priority to its health sector in order to provide free health services to all its citizens through 124 public hospitals and 1919 health centers in addition to 387 private hospitals.

The messages outlined that the health institutions affiliated to the Health Ministry provided more than 30 million services and received about 4.5 million persons in the last 9 months, adding that the health centers have provided more than 24 million services.

The messages stressed that several external sides are insisting on using the health sector as a tool to achieve political ends, adding that the health sector suffered heavy losses in lives and materials as the armed terrorist groups targeted hospitals, health centers and medical and paramedic staffs.

The messages added that “For example, armed terrorist groups targeted al-Naimi Hospital in Homs and looted its equipment. 15 doctors and paramedics were martyred, 27 paramedics were injured by armed terrorist groups while trying to transport wounded citizens to hospitals.”

The messages added that there are organized kidnapping operations against doctors, paramedics and ambulance vehicles, adding that 129 ambulance vehicles were sabotaged, 17 hospitals were partly destroyed and some hospitals, such as al-Qsair Hospital in Homs, were looted.

The messages pointed out that the unjust sanctions imposed by the USA and some Arab and European countries resulted in a shortage of some medical equipment and materials.

The messages stressed that despite the aforementioned losses, workers at the health sector are continuing providing services to citizens within the available capabilities.

The messages also stipulated that Syria, despite those losses, stresses its right to protect its citizens adding that Syria is committed to the comprehensive reform program despite all external attempts at hindering them.

Concluding the letters, Syria condemned the unilateral procedures and sanctions imposed by some countries, condemning that criminal acts targeting the health institutions and medical staffs.

Syria held the external sides, which are funding and arming the armed terrorist groups with the aim of targeting the infrastructure institutions, including public and private hospitals, health centers and paramedic staffs, responsibility for these acts.

SyriaOnline

“Please, receive my deepest sympathy and the testimony of my consideration,” says the note read by Cuban Ambassador to Russia Juan Valdes at the funeral of Vorotnikov, who was ambassador of the former Soviet Union to Havana.

Valdes described Vorotnikov as a true friend of Cuba´s, consistent and honest in every circumstance.

He was really linked to the fate of relations between our peoples, said the Cuban diplomat, who added that President Raul Castro and leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro sent wreaths to the funeral of who was also head of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

In the funeral, first deputy president of the DUma (Russian lower chamber) Ivan Melnikov, highlighted the fondness with which Varitnikov´s life and work are remembered in Cuba.

Nearly a dozen Russian notables spoke during the funeral, including former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and former President of the Supreme Soviet of the former Soviet Union Anatoly Lukyanov.

CubaDebate

Azerbaijan claims it has ‘again’ busted another Iranian terror cell, but is refusing to provide any evidence or details. According to the report by the country’s state-run AZTV, on February 21 a terrorist cell operated by Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had been discovered and dismantled. Allegedly the busted group, with guns and explosives, were planning attacks on ‘unspecified’ foreign nationals. By Sibel Edmonds – Boiling Frogs Post

Despite reporters’ attempts the Azeri government refrained from providing any additional information:

Speaking to EurasiaNet.org, a spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Ministry of National Security refused either to confirm or to deny the station’s report. Strangely, pro-government and state-run news sites have proven similarly skittish about delving into the AzTV report; no news about the arrests could be found on any of these websites on the morning of February 22.

Strangely enough, to back up the story AZTV aired footage of terrorist arrests from an incident that occurred in 2008! This new development appears to follow the very same pattern as Azerbaijan’s claim on the ‘alleged’ assassination plot against Israeli officials in Azerbaijan by an Iran-Sponsored terrorist group last month.

Earlier today APA news agency reported new details about this latest alleged Iranian terror operation. Supposedly, the terrorist group operated under two ringleaders – “Hamid” for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and “Haji Abbas” for an armed wing of Hezbollah, Mugavimat. This is supposed to establish the collaborative effort between the Iranian government and Hezbollah:

Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security disarmed the terrorist group of Iranian intelligence agency “Sepah” and “Hezbollah” in Azerbaijan.

The group members gathered material reconnaissance materials. The illegally acquired many weapons, ammunitions, explosives and explosive devices and began preparations to commit a terror act.A group of persons were detained in Azerbaijan over the last several days. Member of Nardaran Sanhedrin Karbalai Natig Karimov told APA that the majority of detained as a result of operative measures taken by the National Security Ministry and law-enforcement bodes were the residents of Baku villages, especially Nardaran. They are accused of establishing armed unit, illegal keeping of weapon, betrayal of motherland and drug trafficking.

Earlier this month Boiling Frogs Post reported on Iran’s formal rebuke to Azerbaijan for housing and accommodating Israeli intelligence agents and assassins to execute assassination plots against Iranian nuclear scientists. Azerbaijan denied the accusations by the Iranian government.

It is also important to note that intimate US-NATO ally Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels on February 15 and has also met with Israeli President Shimon Peres and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the past few weeks.

Boiling Frogs Post has been the only news site closely monitoring and reporting these developments in the US war on Iran operations’ Caucasus front. You can read our previous reports here, here, here and here.

By Stuart Littlewood

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, claims that Iran is threatening to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East which could be more dangerous than the original East-West Cold War http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9089995/Iran-risks-nuclear-Cold-War.html .

“It is a crisis coming down the tracks,” he says. “Because they are clearly continuing their nuclear weapons programme… If they obtain nuclear weapons capability, then I think other nations across the Middle East will want to develop nuclear weapons.

“And so, the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear weapons were invented would have begun with all the de-stabilising effects in the Middle East.

“We are very clear to all concerned that we are not advocating military action,” he assures us. “We support a twin-track strategy of sanctions and pressure and negotiations on the other hand. We are not favouring the idea of anybody attacking Iran at the moment.”

But, says Mr Hague, “all options must remain on the table.”

That same day Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Sarkozy signed a “landmark agreement” committing their two countries to a shared programme of civil nuclear power and setting out a shared long term vision of safe, secure, sustainable and affordable energy.

“We are working together… to stop a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran,” said Cameron. “As two great civil nuclear nations, we will combine our expertise to strengthen industrial partnership, improve nuclear safety and create jobs at home. The deals signed today will create more than 1500 jobs in the UK but they are just the beginning. My goal is clear. I want the vast majority of the content of our new nuclear plants to be constructed, manufactured and engineered by British companies. And we will choose the partners and technologies to maximise the economic benefits to the UK.”

Such such freedom of action or benefits must not be enjoyed by Iran, of course.

Some 3 weeks earlier Mr Hague was clamouring for an “unprecedented” package of measures including an oil embargo and financial sanctions “to increase the peaceful, legitimate pressure on the Iranian government”. It’s tempting to add “as punishment for their peaceful and (so far) legitimate civil nuclear activities”. Such measures are no doubt intended to bring ruin and terror in a way that bombing couldn’t.

Most of us remember only too well how the Iraq sanctions devastated that country’s economy and resulted in widespread hunger and disease among Iraqi people. John Pilger reported in the Guardian, March 4, 2000 http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2000/mar/04/weekend7.weekend9 : “This is a war against the children of Iraq on two fronts: bombing, which in the last year cost the British taxpayer £60 million. And the most ruthless embargo in modern history. According to Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the death rate of children under five is more than 4,000 a month – that is 4,000 more than would have died before sanctions. That is half a million children dead in eight years. If this statistic is difficult to grasp, consider, on the day you read this, up to 200 Iraqi children may die needlessly.”

With this evil still quite fresh in people’s minds Hague successfully obtained his “unprecedented” measures, meaning worse than those taken against Iraq presumably, to inflict on Iranian women and children.

“A mad dog too dangerous to bother”?

There are a number of issues raised by Hague’s extraordinary antics.

Why does he say the Iranians “are clearly continuing their nuclear weapons programme” when there’s no proof?

Why does he say “Iran is threatening to spark a nuclear arms race” when Israel has already de-stabilised the region with its nuclear arsenal?

And even if Iran really does have a weapons programme his claim that the present situation is “the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear weapons were invented” is rubbish. The BBC reported recently http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11709428 that back in 2009 the IAEA expressed concern about Israel’s nuclear capabilities and called on it to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, open its nuclear facilities to inspection and place them under comprehensive IAEA safeguards. “Israel refuses to join the NPT or allow inspections. It is reckoned to have up to 400 warheads but refuses to confirm or deny this.”

Actually, Israel is the third or fourth largest nuclear force in the world and the only one in the Middle East. But our brave politicians dare not even whisper this fact let alone criticize it. According to a 2006/7 report by the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission most unofficial estimates put Israel’s nuclear arsenal in the hundreds, possibly larger than the British stockpile. “Israel… has an unsafeguarded plutonium production reactor and reprocessing capability and possibly some uranium enrichment capability, along with various other uranium-processing facilities.”

It is the only state in the region that is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (Iran is). It has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. As regards biological and chemical weapons, Israel has not signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. It has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Israel just doesn’t care. Who can forget that much-quoted remark by former Israeli Defense Minister, General Moshe Dayan: “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother”?

And is anyone surprised at reports that European cities are targeted?

Hague and Cameron both voted enthusiastically for the Iraq war, and we know the consequence in lives and irreversible damage to the country, its heritage, its social fabric and infrastructure and its survivors… and of course to Britain’s reputation. We want no repetition, surely.

William Hague, according to the Jewish Chronicle, told David Cameron when he became Conservative party leader in 2005 that a deep understanding of the Middle East would be crucial if he wished to be taken seriously as a statesman… “because you can’t understand it without the history. That’s been one of the failings sometimes with the Western governments.”

The pair’s support for Israel and its Zionist ambitions is such that no sane world would allow them anywhere near the levers of international power. Besides, Hague seems to have jettisoned his history. In March 1951 the Iranian Majlis and Senate voted to nationalise Anglo-Iranian Oil, in which the British government had a majority interest and which had controlled Iran’s oil industry since 1913 under terms that were disadvantageous to Iran. Dr Mohammad Mossadeq, the newly elected prime minister, carried out his government’s wish to cancel Anglo-Iranian’s oil concession, which was not due to expire for another 42 years, and take over its assets.

In a speech in June 1951 (M. Fateh, Panjah Sal-e Naft-e Iran, p. 525) he explained: “The Iranian state prefers to take over the production of petroleum itself. The company should do nothing else but return its property to the rightful owners. The nationalization law provides that 25% of the net profits on oil be set aside to meet all the legitimate claims of the company for compensation…

“It has been asserted abroad that Iran intends to expel the foreign oil experts from the country and then shut down oil installations. Not only is this allegation absurd; it is utter invention…”

Considering Britain paid Iran only 16% of the profits during the inter-war years and treated Iranian oil workers abominably, while profiting hugely herself, these were generous terms.

History repeats itself

Faced with nationalisation the British government went mad and imposed a blockade and vicious sanctions, quickly bringing Iran to its knees. Mossadeq, popular and highly regarded, was removed in a coup by MI5 and the CIA, imprisoned for 3 years then put under house arrest until his death. The Iranians were condemned to suffer the re-imposition of the hated Shah and his secret police for another 25 years. The Islamist Revolution of 1979 was the inevitable consequence.

And Iran has not forgotten…

Perhaps Mr Hague, before pressing the ‘History Repeat’ button too many times, should pause to reflect and answer just ten questions…

(1) Have we so easily forgotten the cruel and devastating effect of economic sanctions on civil society, especially children?

(2) Would the Foreign Secretary kindly explain the reasons for his hostility towards Iran?

(3) What concrete proof is there of Iran’s military application of nuclear technology?

(4) Why is he not more concerned about Israel’s nuclear arsenal, the threat it poses to the region and beyond, and the mental attitude of the Israeli regime?

(5) Why is he not seeking sanctions against Israel for its refusal to sign up to the NPT or engage constructively on the issue of its nuclear and other WMD?

(6) How many times has a British foreign secretary visited Tehran in the 32 years since the Islamic Revolution?

(7) Did Mr Hague make an effort to go and talk before embarking on his punitive sanctions programme?

(8) Britain’s conduct towards the Iranians in 1951-53 when a previous Conservative government, in cahoots with the USA, snuffed out Iran’s democracy and reinstated a cruel dictatorship, was largely responsible for bringing about the Islamic Revolution and setting the pattern of future relationships. Is it not shameful that this Conservative government is spoiling for another fight? Shouldn’t the Foreign Office focus on exerting influence through trade and co-operation?

(9) Iran’s present administration, like others, may not be to our liking but nor was Dr Mossadeq’s democracy 60 years ago. Similarly the Israel-leaning administrations of the US and Britain are not much to the liking of the rest of the world. In any event, what threat is Iran to Britain? And why is Mr Hague leading the charge?

(10) By pulling our people out of Tehran and kicking Iran’s people out of London Mr Hague has shut the door on diplomacy. How can he now communicate effectively with a nation he seems determined to goad into becoming an implacable enemy?

On this last point I hear that Baroness Ashton, the EU’s ‘foreign minister’, is handling contact with Iran on behalf of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. So much for Hague’s talk of negotiations alongside sanctions. While playing the role of chief bully he has shut himself out of any direct conversation. As for Ashton, she hasn’t made the slightest impact on the crisis in Palestine, even with the clout of 500 million citizens behind her, so is anyone holding their breath?

Most of those questions were put to Mr Hague through my MP (who happens to be one of Hague’s junior ministers) two-and-a-half months ago and repeated early January, but Mr Hague isn’t replying.

Until he does, the Foreign Secretary ought to be made to stand in the parliamentary ‘naughty corner’.

Stuart Littlewood

20 February 2012

Stuart Littlewood’s book ‘Radio Free Palestine’ can now be read on the internet by visiting www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk .

Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike on Tuesday after meeting with Israeli officials who pledged to release him in April. Khader had been near death, facing possible organ failure, for the last week in an Israeli prison hospital.

His case garnered international attention, with solidarity rallies held in cities worldwide, and a worldwide ‘Twitter hashtag’ protest that made KhaderAdnan a trending topic on Monday.

Adnan’s 66-day hunger strike is the longest one conducted by a Palestinian prisoner in Israeli detention. He began his hunger strike upon his abduction by Israeli troops on December 18th, to protest the fact that he was being held without charges in so-called ‘administrative detention’.

Israeli authorities frequently hold Palestinians without charges for six-month terms that are often extended, without providing the prisoners or their lawyers with any information as to why they are being held, or allowing them a chance to mount a defense.

Khader Adnan is known as a spokesman for the political wing of the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, but has no association with the group’s armed wing. The last known attack on Israeli civilians claimed by the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad was in 2007. Since that time, Israeli forces have extra-judicially assassinated dozens of alleged members of the movement, and have held hundreds of alleged Islamic Jihad members in prison without charge.

A court hearing scheduled for Tuesday was called off after Adnan met with Israeli officials, who negotiated a deal for his release in April. Right-wing Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, criticized the deal, and challenged the Israeli Arab Members of the Knesset (Parliament) who voiced support for Adnan. Deputy Speaker for the Israeli Knesset, Danny Danon, said that officials had “capitulated to terrorism” by agreeing to release Adnan.

Although Khader Adnan agreed to begin taking food again on Tuesday, his health is still at risk, due to the length of time he was without food. Medics have warned that his body may reject the food, and he could still die of organ failure. But Adnan’s family have declared the deal a ‘victory’, and his supporters came out into the streets Tuesday in a number of Palestinian cities to celebrate the decision.

Related Articles:

PCHR Calls upon the International Community to Save the Life of the Detainee Khader Adnan

Palestine: Protests for hunger-striking prisoner attacked by Israeli troops; 16 injured

Jarrar: Khader Adnan’s life in jeopardy – solidarity needed for prisoner on hunger strike

On 26 February the People of the Syrian Arab Republic will hold a referendum about a carefully crafted draft constitution. (1) A draft constitution that renders more liberties and rights to all people of Syria, than the constitutional rights enshrined in the constitutions of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Arab neighbors that are at the forefront of a relentless covert war of terror and attempted subversion against Syria. Waiting for the referendum, and for the word “go”, are also 40.000 NATO mercenaries, the vast majority of them Arabs, who are massed in a military staging area along the Jordanian-Syrian Border, and ready for the attempt to unleash a campaign of murder and terror that is supposed to become the “event” which those who are waging the war on Syria need to stage a media campaign that will propagandize citizens of NATO member states into “demanding” that NATO will wage yet one more “humanitarian war”.

Had Western Main Stream Media´s journalists a grain of integrity, they would long ago have picked up on reports that NATO is manufacturing the Arab Spring, that a NATO created army of chaos, terrorism, unspeakable suffering and death is massed inside Syria and along it´s borders, in Turkey, in Jordan, heavily supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the new Libyan government and army that recently has liberated tens of thousands of black Libyans to death; but rather than picking up on those reports, those who make time for them selves to look behind the matrix of carefully crafted propaganda see  nothing of it but propaganda. Carefully Crafted Propaganda. Is it surprising ? Of course not. Anyone who is above the age of 25 and has not yet understood the intricate relationship between Main Stream Media and Intelligence Services as well as powerful lobbies is so deeply asleep, that attempts to wake them up feel like fighting with windmills.

With the Western Main Stream Media that have denigrated Arabs, and in particular Palestinians as sub-human savages, (2) singing to the tact of Zionism; with the Muslim Brothers and Al Qaeda dancing with NATO and Mossad; with contingents of Special Forces maintaining deniable command responsibility and oversight; and with the bulk of those ready to unleash a massacre on Arabs in Syria being Arabs, the situation is reminding me of  three days of sheer hell, which are forever imprinted in my memory and still can make me tremble from shock and rage, the hell of Sabra and Shatila.

What is most shocking for me today is remembering the cries and shouts of Palestinian men, women and youth, shouting “where are the Arabs, where are the Arabs, why did they desert us “. Yes, the Israeli Army had invaded Lebanon and Beirut. Yes, the Israeli Army had surrounded and sealed of Sabra and Shatila, and yes there were Israeli troops inside Sabra and Shatila. Yes, Israeli officers, first and foremost Ariel Sharon had command responsibility.

When that is said, Arabs must face the fact, that the bulk of the rapes, murders and massacres were committed by Arabs. By Arabs who were dancing a dance macabre with their Zionist friends. The fact that there are by far too many Arabs who are willing agents of Zionism and US-Imperialism must and can only be faced and addressed by Arabs.  This much denied and uncomfortable truth may feel like a slap in the face for many Arabs, and one can hope it wakes them up from their slumber and comfort of blaming all evils on foreign elements. Foreign elements, as was the case in Sabra and Shatila, use Arabs to murder Arabs; willing Arabs. It is a truth that leaves Arabs with two choices. Face it and stand united as Arabs, or continue being laughed at by Zionists and Imperialists who strip sale your nations and laugh while Arabs rape and murder Arabs wives, while Arabs destroy Arab nations, while Arabs torture Arabs, while Arabs sale out on anything Arab, including Palestine.

The truth at the heart of the Arab matter is, that there are very few Arabs left who actually work in the interest of Arabs, and they are not to be found within the chambers and corridors of the Arab League. There are but a few remaining political parties and organizations left in Palestine, in Jordan and Lebanon, in Iraq which was devastated for it´s pan-Arab stance, who are proponents of the pan-Arabist, anti colonialist, anti-imperialist cause. Egypt, once perceived as the mother of Arab nations and the Arab national liberation has turned into an old muttering grandmother, to be ruled by military and Muslim Brothers who both have nothing better in mind for the future of their people than to invite the IMF for advise how to enslave and usurp Egyptians. The only remaining nation, which consequently has been and still is a proponent of Arab liberation and independence is Syria, and it has been, and is paying a high price for remaining the bastion that prevents full dominance and hegemony of Zionist and US Imperialist interests in the region.

That said, the Syrian Draft Constitution is refreshing. It is as if Syria is picking up an old, worn out, smelly Zionist shoe, and is slapping it into the faces of the Arab League and the entire entourage of the Arab Charade radiating from and around it. Extracts from the preamble are paragraph by paragraph slaps in the faces of treason and Arab Quislings.

“Arab civilization, which is part of human heritage, has faced through its long history great challenges aimed at breaking its will and subjecting it to colonial domination, but has always risen through its own creative abilities to exercise its role in building human civilization.”

“The Syrian Arab Republic is proud of its Arab identity and the fact that its people are an integral part of the Arab nation. The Syrian Arab Republic embodies this belonging in its national and pan-Arab project and the work to support Arab cooperation in order to promote integration and achieve the unity of the Arab nation.”

“The Syrian Arab Republic considers international peace and security a key objective and a strategic choice, and it works on achieving both of them under the International Law and the values of right and justice.”

“The Syrian Arab role has increased on the regional and international levels over the past decades, which has led to achieving human and national aspirations and achievements in all fields and domains. Syria has occupied an important political position as it is the beating heart of Arabism, the forefront of confrontation with the Zionist enemy and the bedrock of resistance against colonial hegemony on the Arab world and its capabilities and wealth. The long struggle and sacrifices of our people for the sake of its independence, progress and national unity has paved the way for building the strong state and promoting cohesion between the people and their Syrian Arab army which is the main guarantor and protector of the homeland’s sovereignty, security, stability and territorial integrity; thus, forming the solid foundation of the people’s struggle for liberating all occupied territories.”

To those young, idealistic men who are waiting in the military staging areas outside Syria, and those already taking actively part in the attempted subversion one is tempted to say: “It is up to you to decide if you wish to be remembered as Soldiers of Zionism and proponents of an endless Sabra and Shatila in the entire Arab Region. A Super Sabra and Shatila, where Arab massacres Arab and Arabs rape Arabs wives while Zionists and Imperialists laugh behind your back”. 

To those Muslim Brothers, Al Qaeda Cadres, to the  Saudi, Qatari, and Jordanian Aristocrats of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth’s and the City of London´s Mercy, to those dressing in Arab Dress at Arab League´s meetings while selling everything that is truly Arab to Zionism ? “High Treason and a Disgrace for the entire Arab People“. “A smelly old Zionist Shoe for you.“

Christof Lehmann

21.02.2012

1) The Syrian Draft Constitution.Christof Lehmann, nsnbc.  http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/the-syrian-draft-constitution/

2) Palestine Israel History and Theirstory. Christof Lehmann, nsnbc. http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/palestine-israel-history-and-theirstory/