Iran threatens to 'crush' U.S....are we scared yet?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks to the annual judiciary summit in Tehran on Saturday. (Rauf Mohseni, AFP/Getty Images)

Iran President Ahmadinejad slammed President Obama on Saturday, saying officials in the Islamic republic are “astonished” over what they see as his interference in Iran’s disputed elections and promising a "crushing" response to continued American condemnation of Iran's crackdown on post-election protest, CNN and AP reported.

How about allowing himself to be "astonished" over what's going on in his country because of he being declared the winner?

"You should know that if you continue the response of the Iranian nation will be strong," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to members of Iran's judiciary, which is directly controlled by the ruling clerics. "The response of the Iranian nation will be crushing. The response will cause remorse."

Well, that does it for me...I'm officially shaking with fear now.

Ahmadinejad has no authority to direct major policy decisions on his own, a power that rests with the non-elected theocracy, but his comments often reflect the thinking of the ruling establishment, AP reported.

So, basically, he's just a puppet...

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Obama said the “violence perpetrated against” demonstrators disputing the June 12 election results “is outrageous."

"We are surprised at Mr. Obama," Ahmadinejad said. “Didn’t he say that he was after change?” Ahmadinejad said. “Why did he interfere? Why did he utter remarks irrespective of norms and decorum?”

I can't think of any other president being more diplomatic on the matter, even at his own expense. What was he supposed to say? "Congratulations on the bloodshed"? "I'm delighted with the peaceful election process in Iran"?

Apparently, to him--or to them--there's no difference between expressing an opinion and interfering.

The cleric-led regime--not surprisingly--appears to have quashed a protest movement that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets of Tehran and other cities in the greatest challenge to its authority in 30 years. Mousavi said Friday that he would seek official permission for any future rallies, effectively ending his role in street protests, AP reported.

I think bullies often win because their insecurity is so severe they don't give a crap about the consequences of their actions and the bad karma they bring down upon themselves.

Days of relatively restrained talk from both Washington and Tehran appear to be returning to a familiar pattern of condemnation and recrimination despite Obama's stated desire to move away from mutual hostility.

Will that ever change?

Obama acknowledged Friday that Iran's violent suppression of unrest would hinder progress, saying "There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks."

I wonder how.

"They keep saying that they want to hold talks with Iran. Alright, we have expressed our readiness as well. But is this the correct way?" Ahmadinejad said. "They showed their hand to the people of Iran, before all people of the world. Their mask has been removed."

Ugh!

He still appeared to leave some opening for dialogue, saying Iranians officials "have expressed our readiness" and still want the U.S. to "join the righteous servants of humanity as well."

"Righteous servants of humanity? Are you freakin kidding me?Given this point of view, what are the chances of sensible--forget diplomatic...there's too much lying in diplomacy--talks between Iran and anyone in the West?

Chances are we'll see what we always see: endless lying and bullying and tossing around of concepts and words that in the end have a heck of a lot to do with useless chatter and nothing to do with proactive, problem-solving rational actions.

Sources: CNN, The Associated Press

N. Korea might be using journalists to bargain

Ugh.

North Korea again.

Not my cup of tea, to say the least.

All week we've been hearing about the U.S. journalists North Korea arrested on March 17 while they were at the border of China and N. Korea reporting on the trafficking of women.

American TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been accused of illegally entering North Korea and unspecified "hostile acts." To this day we don't know whether they actually strayed into the North or were grabbed by border guards who crossed into China. Surely we can't expect N. Korea to be specific about the exact location and the so-called hostile acts--that would be totally unfair. Perhaps the women were chewing gum or wearing lipstick, and detaining them was matter of national security. Or maybe they had the audacity of asking why they were being arrested, which would no doubt be interpreted as a hostile act by phallocentric men with tiny dicks.

*sigh* As you must know by now, I have no patience for N. Korea and its bullying tactics.

Pyongyong, N. Korea's capital city, has yet to publicly announce the exact charges against the journalists, but South Korean legal experts say that a conviction for "hostility" (whatever this hostility is) or espionage (are you fucking kidding me?) could mean five to 10 years in a labor camp. Great.

N. Korea's latest wanna-be bold move was to announce the two journalists were about to go on trial and then sort of check out of the airwaves.

The "news blackout," as AP calls it, could mean the journalists are being used as "bargaining chips." The North might be dragging out their trial as the communist leadership waits to see what kind of sanctions Washington and the U.N. use to punish the nation for its latest nuclear blast and barrage of missile tests last week, AP reported Saturday.

So am I to understand that N. Korea is terrorizing these women and their families, not to mention the U.S., to avoid a UN spanking? Yet more proof of the lack of testicles evidently prevalent among North Koreans. These undated photos show Laura Ling, right, and Euna Lee, who have been imprisoned in North Korea since March. (AP Photo/Yonhap)

Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korean expert at Dongguk University in Seoul, said Pyongyang will likely free the reporters and treat their release as a goodwill gesture (goodwill my ass) that should be reciprocated with a special U.S. envoy visiting the isolated state, AP reported. "It shows how the North makes political judgments, which have nothing to do with laws," Koh said.

Yeah, they're probably expecting a Nobel Peace price for releasing the journalists. Ugh.

The criminal proceedings were supposed to begin two days ago, but instead the "secretive" nation's news agency today filed stories about Sweden's king, American "warmongers" and Syrian Embassy workers helping North Korean farmers weed bean fields. Are we supposed to be panicking now? Penis-less bullying.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she was "incredibly concerned" about the plight of the two women, AP reported. In working for their release, Clinton said she has spoken with foreign officials with influence in North Korea and explored the possibility of sending an envoy to the North, but suggested that no one would be sent during the trial. I say we send them penile implants.

U.S. officials and others working for the reporters' release have said they've received no information about the defendants and even lacked independent confirmation about whether the trial has started, AP reported. The North has said the proceedings wouldn't be open to foreign observers, including Swedish officials who act as Washington's proxy in Pyongyang because the two countries do not have diplomatic ties. Well, of course not. Opening the proceedings to anyone but themselves is an outrageous expectation and, again, would be totally unfair.

If found guilty, the women won't be allowed to appeal because the case is being heard in Pyongyang's high court, where decisions are final, said Choi Eun-suk, a professor on North Korean legal affairs at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in South Korea, AP reported. Isn't that convenient? It would also be convenient to send the much-needed penile implants aboard a long-range missile.

Choi said the reporters would likely be sentenced to more than five years but less than 10 years in a labor prison, AP reported. Then the negotiations with the U.S. would begin, he said. Then? Then the negotiations would begin? Are you fucking kidding me? Well, of course! The bargaining chip would be much bigger and valuable after a conviction.

Reportedly, that's how previous trials for Americans played out, according to the report. The most recent one involved Evan C. Hunziker, a man with alcohol, drug and legal problems. Apparently acting on a drunken dare, he swam across the Yalu River, which marks the North's border with China, and was arrested after farmers found the man, then 26, naked. He was accused of spying and detained for three months before being freed after negotiations with a special U.S. envoy. Yes, he was spying fish and bugs in the river.

In other words, anyone and everyone who for whatever reason ends up on N. Korea automatically is a spy. Phallocentric and paranoid little men with tiny dicks.

The N. Koreans wanted Hunziker to pay a $100,000 criminal fine but eventually agreed on a $5,000 payment to settle a bill for a hotel where he was detained. How gracious of them.

In another case, Venezuelan poet Ali Lameda was sentenced to 20 years in a labor camp in 1967 when he was working as a translator in Pyongyang. And guess what--he, too, was a spy! N. Korea charged him with spying, sabotage and infiltration, according to the AP report. During the one-day trial, it didn't present any evidence, formal charges or specific allegations but demanded Lameda confess his guilt. And get this: a defense lawyer was assigned to him, but the attorney gave a long speech praising the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung before suggesting his client be sentenced to 20 years (WTF!!). Lameda was released after six years.

I may know diddly squat about N. Korea and its relations with the rest of the world, but if anything happens to those two journalists, the shit is going to hit the fan, and those dimwits can kiss their implants (and only hope to resemble real men) goodbye, if you ask me.

Sources: The Associated Press, My Twisted Mind
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