Fintan Dunne:

With many people convinced that John Kerry sold out the American people in 2004 by not challenging the clearly fraudulent and pivotal Bush vote in Ohio, Kerry's reported comments to Afghan president Karzai are troubling to say the least. The Associated Press reports: A senior American official briefed on the meetings by Sen. John Kerry gave The Associated Press details of the negotiations with Karzai... [Karzai] needed several more hours of convincing, including a long walk with Kerry on the Presidential Palace grounds. During the extended stroll, the official said, Kerry opened up to Karzai, telling him about his own difficult decision not to challenge the vote count in Ohio on election night in 2004. There were allegations of voting irregularities in favor of incumbent President George W. Bush, and Kerry told Karzai that he knew he could have held up a final outcome for weeks by filing a challenge. The official said Kerry told Karzai that he had decided then that a challenge was ...

In a recent article on Tehran Bureau, Muhammad Sahimi was too dismissive (by dint of his choice of adjectives), in describing of Ahmadinejad as: "isolated and delusional", and he erred in reducing the regime to the person of the president. But he was correct to describe Ahmadinejad as "weak". Professor Sahimi accurately catalogs the ongoing obstruction of the hardliners and the very public political fractures. Furthermore he shows the regime is now tellingly reliant on a narrow base of IRGC appointees to fill government posts. Ahmadinejad/IRGC's core 'hard' support is as low as 12%, with a 'softer' support extending to up to 20% of the population. Because of this, the disputed president's public pronouncements are reductionist and defensive --aimed at his own supporters and the ill-informed. By contrast, most other voices in Iranian politics are addressing the remaining 80%+ of the population. Despite their hard-line rhetoric, Ahmadinejad/IR...

Professor Scott Lucas joins Fintan Dunne to discuss latest developments and prospects in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq . In the aftermath of voting in the Afghan Presidential election, we chart the prospects for progress. We gauge the status and strength of political opposition to the Iranian regime. And we touch on the dire implications of the sophisticated multiple bombings and attacks in Baghdad, Iraq. LISTEN : Mp3 Audio Professor Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is Professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tehran, and on the Advisory Board of the Centre for American Studies and Research at American University Beirut. He writes for, and is a founder of, the weblog EnduringAmerica .com --where he currently blogs unmissable news analysis and reporting.

In advance of the imminent Afghan Presidential election, we preview the leading candidates; details the deals; and chart the furure of the NATO campaign and the battle for civil society in Afghanistan. LISTEN : Mp3 Audio Professor Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is Professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tehran, and on the Advisory Board of the Centre for American Studies and Research at American University Beirut. He writes for, and is a founder of, the weblog EnduringAmerica.com --where he currently blogs unmissable news analysis and reporting.

In the wake of the street protests across Iran on July 9th, Prof Scott Lucas joins Fintan Dunne to discuss the political fallout against the background of political developments which took place during the last week in Iran. Interview Guest: Professor Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is Professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is also Adjunct Professor of the Institute for North American and European Studies at the University of Tehran, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for American Studies and Research at American University Beirut. A specialist in US and British foreign policy, he has published extensively on Middle-East politics -especially on the Suez Crisis. Professor Lucas is a frequent contributor to American, British, and international media. He writes for, and is a founder of, the weblog EnduringAmerica.com --where he currently blogs unmissable news analysis and reporting. LISTEN: Mp3 Audio Protester estimate subsequent to the above ...

Respected investigative journalist and ' Devil's Game ' author, Robert Dreyfuss was in Iran for the elections. His go-to, singular account in 'The Nation' of the country's election crisis, paints an unflattering picture of a government abandoning all but a propaganda pretence of democracy: It was clear by nightfall on election day, June 12, that something was wrong. Across Tehran, troop transports rumbled out of the IRGC's fortified bases. Before the polls had even closed, Tehran took on the air of an occupied city. Later that night, ominously, my cellphone went dead, like everyone else's. The atmospheric article outlines the breath across Iranian society of alienation from the coup regime: Besides reformists, students, women and businessmen, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad are losing their core constituency: the clergy. And given that Iran is a state run by the priestly class, that might prove their undoing. I spoke to a dozen or so clerics, from low- to mid-...

There is only one revolution tolerable to all men, all societies, all political systems: revolution by design and invention.... --- R. Buckminster Fuller T he recent dramatic events in Iran have indefinitely sidelined the hard-line mullahs. I'm referring to the mullahs of the rabid US neocon cohort and their corresponding absolutists in Iran. Mere weeks have consigned John McCain's infamous "Bomb, Bomb Iran" to history's lamentable anachronisms. The "collateral damage" of conquest now has a face: Neda's. Millions more Iranian faces join her in our mind. And we like them! We like, not just: the westernized youths of Tehran. We also like the fearless black-clothed women who took the beatings; who answered back; who gathered the stones to be used against the firearmed Basij. We even like some of the "towel-head" (see: prejudice, 9/11, Iraq) mullahs. Such as Mehdi Karroubi -striding with arms aloft in defiance; marching to Qoba mosque amidst a...

Earlier today I found this beautiful new tribute song to the Iranian uprising on YouTube. Listen and watch, and if you think it captures the spirit of Iran's uprising, then do whatever you can to make this viral on the internet. Thank you. And thanks to YouTube user " freemylandsong " for a moving and wonderful song. The Spirit of the People of Iran has inspired you. YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_r0GgHiIzE 2nd @ 19:00GMT: Tweet on http://twitter.com/fintandunne

Blood or Politics: What Next for Iran? Despite the official certification of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the victor in Irans presidential election, and despite the relative calm on the streets of Tehran, the country is still seething. Rumours abound of moves by different factions, and the opposition is trying to consolidate a clerical and political platform to take a stand against the government. The main opposition leader, Mir-Hossein Mousavi has now called on his Facebook page for a general strike. Protesters who took to the streets to shed blood for democratic principles are still afire with a zeal for reform. So what next for Iran? Will political pragmatism win out over factionalism? Or will arrests, detentions and street clashes dominate the weeks ahead. Professor Scott Lucas of Birmingham University discusses the likely directions for Iran with Fintan Dunne. Interview Guest: Professor Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is Professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. He...

Ahmadinejad Victory Was Announced to Halt Compromise The claimed victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidential election is built on sand and hides a deep split in the Iranian establishment. That's the hidden tale behind a most curious mystery surrounding the official announcement by Irans electoral Guardian Council of a presidential election victory by Ahmadinejad. Just hours earlier the very same electoral body had extended by five days the period for investigation of voting anomalies, and had welcomed proposals by Mir-Hossein Mousavi as "positive." That decision not only indicated a compromise deal on the election outcome, but it should have postponed any official confirmation of a victor. So why the sudden turnaround? Does it hint at a spit in the government? Now You See It, Now You Don't! Early on Monday, 29th of January the New York Times reported the extension by Iranian authorities of the deadline for examining voting irregularities. The web URL of that N...

by Fintan Dunne, 29th June, 2009 Influential Iranian former-president, Ayotalloh Rafsanjani has deferred for tactical reasons an emergency meeting of the Assembly of Experts -despite having now secured a majority in favor of convening the powerful clerical body, according to the Iranian political analyst Professor Muhammad Sahimi. In a telephone interview this weekend, Prof. Sahimi said Rafsanjani and Iran's opposition leaders are biding their time to allow social pressures on Iran's government to intensify. Their aims are to split the government and to detach some commanders of the Revolutionary Guard from supporting the hardline government stance on the official election outcome. "And if that happens," said Professor Sahimi, "then stronger actions such as an emegncy meeting of the Assembly of Experts to investigate the performance of the Supreme Leader can be done." The government also now seems to be avoiding a definitive showdown. The deadline to inves...

25th June, 2009 Green Shoots of an Islamic Restoration Guest: Prof. Hamid Dabashi http://www.hamiddabashi.com/ Iranian-born, internationally renowned cultural critic and award-winning author, Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of the prestigious Chair of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. Author of scores of scholarly essays and books, Professor Dabashi has written extensively on the relationship between Islamic throcracy and democratic politics. Among his best-known books: Authority in Islam; Theology of Discontent; and Iran: A People Interrupted . LISTEN: Mp3 Audio

2nd May, 2009 Swine Flu Goes Human to Human GUEST : Dr. Michael Greger, M.D. DIRECTOR, PUBLIC HEALTH & ANIMAL AGRICULTURE - HUMANE SOCIETY OF USA http://www.hsus.org LISTEN: Mp3 Audio

27th May, 2009 The Man Who Beat Monsanto Guest : Percy Schmeiser http://www.percyschmeiser.com/ LISTEN: Mp3 Audio

Jersey's Campaigning Politician 10th April, 2009 Guest: Senator Stuart Syvret http://stuartsyvret.blogspot.com/ Jersey politician Stuart Syvret, who has been relentless in trying to force a proper invesigation of the Jersey child abuse issues has been arrested in a bid to try pressure him to back down. Syvret has served as a Senator since 1990 and as Minister for Health and Social Services from 2005-2007. He was dismissed from his ministership in September 2007 after criticisms over his claims that officials in Jersey had been covering up child abuse cases. LISTEN Mp3 Audio

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2005 By Fintan Dunne "In November, 2005, the Fed mysteriously announced with little comment and no palatable justification that they will hide the main staple of money supply measurement(M-3), effective March 2006. So what's been happening to M-3 since then? For the raw figures, fasten your seat belt. M-3 was increased $58.7 billion last week , a 30% annual rate of growth. Over the past 6 weeks it is up $192.9 billion, a 16.7 percent Banana Republic hyperinflationary pace. This is nuts, folks - unless there is an incredible risk out there we are not being told about." So writes Robert McHugh in a recent financial article (in full below). And it's an article that has been getting some traffic on the CIA Fakes . One of the key factors McHugh cites for the M-3 madness is the forthcoming Euro-denominated trading of oil on the new Iranian bourse in March, 2006. And there has been much nudge-nudge comment among the self-same CIA Fakes about the U.S....

MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2005 International media are still downplaying the scale of last week's massacre of civillians in China's Guangdong province, putting the number of dead between two and twenty. But local reports set the toll far higher. On December 6, Chinese authorities in the rural village of Shanwei deployed 3,000 paramilitary police with tanks and machine guns, who have killed in all between 50 and 70 protesting villagers --the greatest anti-civillian use of used military force since the June 4, 1989 Massacre in Tiananmen Square. By the 8th of December, 33 residents had been killed and several dozen were missing say local reports. The villagers had been protesting for proper compensation after corrupt officials had expropriated farmers' land for a power plant. Protests against corruption, pollution and land seizures have become increasingly common in rural China. In a damage limitation exercise, the authorities in China have arrested a police commander who ordered o...

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 by Fintan Dunne Disgraced FEMA chief, Michael Brown once worked for Stephen Jones, the prominent Oklahoma lawyer who was the lead defense attorney in the Timothy McVeigh case. And Jones is someone with a very interesting background himself. He has represented many ex- and retired spies, and previously worked for Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller and Donald Rumsfeld. Jones has acted for former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Security Council staff. But that's just the workaday rountne of a carreer mired in state security issues. He has defended cases involving allegations of terrorism, domestic subversion, espionage, electronic surveillance, wiretapping, and computer surveillance. His bio states: He was also involved in consulting work with various targets, defendants, or persons of interest to the Federal Government for alleged acts of terrorism in the Philippines, the Far East, and September 1...

AUGUST 25, 2005 For a while there, Cindy Sheehan was everywhere. As a mainstream media which had been silent on anti-war sentiment in the USA suddenly gave voice to one mother protesting against Bush. Why? A sudden attack of media conscience? No. For a start, the media had to eventually acknowledge the antiwar feelings, in order to buff up their "impartial" image. Best to do so in August, getting the issue out of the way before the political season resumes. So the timing suited the establishment. But there's another reason. They ran with Cindy because it let them frame the issue to their liking. They had a perfect ambush for Cindy ready and waiting all along. Here it is: War Mom vs. Peace Mom wpost.com Stung by the ability of one grieving mother to inspire a growing antiwar movement, the White House has found a mom to call its own . An obviously delighted President Bush introduced her to a boisterous invitation-only audience mostly made up of military families in Idaho ye...