Two more explosions today. One at the big refinery in Isfahan, the other at the very important Revolutionary Guards base in Kerman, which is the headquarters for the RG’s operations in the East (think Afghanistan, etc.).
I don’t have casualty figures yet, but the Kerman blast was a biggie.
I am told that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hasn’t made a public appearance in more than two weeks. I don’t have any way to check this, but he certainly hasn’t been hogging the spotlight of late. That role is being played by the Iranian currency, the rial, which is in the same death spiral as the regime. It’s dropped from 1300-and-change to the dollar to 1500-plus in a couple of weeks. Maybe Khamenei doesn’t want to talk about the resounding success of his regime?
Michael, you missed a couple of zeroes there. 15,000 rials to a dollar. You are thinking of Toumans that would be 1500 to a dollar.
right you are, perry. never could balance the checkbook…
Hmmm… All this is making me wonder just how loyal elements of the IRGC are. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn some of these blasts are inside jobs.
If they happen at night, think B-2.
I know teh won hasn’t much in the way of testes but drive by shootings, or bombings in this case, don’t require much in the way of testes.
NO Congress required either. If the timing is right, a press release on the program would give him a BIG boost in the polls.
Except, of course, at State. State will be told to sit down, shut up and eat your Peas.
Sorry, but the State Department apparatchiks will not allow their perogatives to be eroded. They will subvert any Executive policy, any time.
No, the only solution for State is the one visited on the still Romanized town discovered by the Vandals (or was it Visigoths, I forget) in Italy a full century after the fall of the Empire. Even that was only partially successful, because the new landlord replaced the entire structure within a year.
Maybe tell Hillery, but by no means let it go any further down the State Dept. command chain. Not until you WANT everyone to know at least.
– accident to coincidence to a pattern.
If, in an absurdly repressive nation, full of internet literate, very unhappy people, the Mossad cannot make hay, I am a monkey’s uncle.
Happy Channukah!
Technically, You’re a monkey’s nephew. Evolutionary speaking. ^_^
Why has the explosion at Kerman (the RG Headquarters) not been reported anywhere? Or is this Ledeen’s wishful thinking?
I can’t find anything on a Kerman attack either.
I found a local news report from the area calling it a 4.2 magnitude earthquake. This morning at about 8 am. A little earthquake or a very big explosion, indeed.
So if they turn around and start blowing up things in our country it’s…what?
LINKS??
not all facts have links.
So if they turn around and start blowing up things in our country it’s…what?
It’s open season, that’s what.
Khameneie met with managers of Haj on Monday. http://farsi.khamenei.ir/news-content?id=18270
Without links, this story is very suspect. Sorry, I just don’t trust PJ that much yet.
Where can I find further information? The link to the currency information is good, much more neutral and informative than I’m used to seeing from the Post, but I’m not seeing anything about things blowing up.
the isfahan explosion is on yahoo, the Kerman attack is not yet reported. not all these events are reported right away…
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4164453,00.html
Fire at Iran refinery prompts state of emergency
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4162680,00.html
Iran: Factory blast death toll reaches 16
“The local governor said some of the foreign nationals residing in the province were among the casualties.”
OK, so we’re going to have to approach this obliquely, via sideways information.
Thanks.
Here’s the link on the “earthquake” in Kerman. It’d be interesting to take the longitude and latitude they give for the epicenter and see what pops up on Google earth.
http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30721596
Thanks, Dana. Plugging into USGS. No results: see http://earthquake.usgs.gov/search/?q=The+quake+was+epicentere+28.08+degrees+latitude+and+52.29+degrees+longitude.+&sa=Search&cx=012856435542074762574%3A49ga9ubtojk&cof=FORID%3A11&sa=Search&siteurl=earthquake.usgs.gov%2Fsearch%2F%3Fq%3DThe%2Bquake%2Bwas%2Bepicentered%2Bin%2Ban%2Barea%2Blocated%2Bat%2B28%26x%3D35%26y%3D8%26cx%3D012856435542074762574%253A49ga9ubtojk%26cof%3DFORID%253A11%26sa%3DSearch
I’m not the best at searches like this, so please feel free to check me.
That location is approximately in the middle of nowhere. It’s roughly 4.6 miles south of Dowlat Abad, a small village judging from Google earth.
Interesting that the USGS does not list an earthquake event for Dec. 20th at all. Their last record of an event in Iran was Dec. 15th, and in a different location. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/last_event/world/world_iran.php
Perhaps the info is delayed by a few days. Surely the seismic activity would look very different if it were from a blast vs. an earthquake, so it might be worth checking back in a few days to see what they report.
The scale level of the “earthquake” was given as 4.2. That is still detectable by the USGS network throughout the world with other countries. You dinna have to be *in* Iran to get it. Since USGS is now reporting it, the level of certainty of an explosion drops-
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc00076zg.php
If, however the USGS is relying on Iranian data, then they might be having bad data fed to them.
The coordinates for the 4.2 earthquake (30.541°N, 50.385°E) locate it in the SouthWest of Iran,….Kerman is in the Eastern Central part of Iran,…so if a noise and shaking were felt in Kerman, it was *not* because of the earthquake USGS reports.
Yes, I know it’s not the same earthquake as reported from the 15th. I’m just thinking that the USGS ought to be able to tell us whether there was an earthquake on the 20th, since they do get data on Iran that allows them to report magnitude 4.2 earthquakes. I wonder what they would post if they detected a really big blast.
We are seeing various Mullah factions running a low level civil war over sharing, with the General non-mullah aligned population getting in a few licks to confuse the situation.
Iran as Lebanon with WMD’s is a scary thought.
If Obama were behind this, it would be absolutely genius. After all the weakness directed towards Iran, no one would believe he would be the one behind it.
Of course, it would be impossible. The State Department leaks like an effing sieve.
Okay, that link Dana gave is to the IRNA, the mouthpiece of the regime. I wouldn’t believe them if they told me water is wet. The few Mideast news sites I have so far don’t have anything on any explosions in Iran today. Maybe Michael Ledeen can let us know where he got his report.
Yeah, I thought I recognized those initials.
So far the USGS says no 4.2 earthquake in Iran today. Them, I trust.
IRNA, not so much.
I’ll stick with Ledeen on that point, how long did it take for the news of the explosion from Isfahan. Btw, the news of Ayatollah Khamenei’s illness some two years ago, was echoed in the wikileaks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/29/us-wikileaks-lemonde-iran-idUSTRE6AS1KS20101129
The report of the Kerman blast is in error. That is a purely accidental explosion that won’t happen until Thursday.
Chuckle out loud:)
Must have happened when they were trying to light the first Hannukah candle.
Seven more Hannukah lights to go.
Sargent Schultz was certainly no Israeli, but when he said “I knoeNooooothin”, he might have been speaking for them. Didn’t cost US taxpayers a dime!
On another news board, I saw an unfamiliar cultural reference to the events in Iran as being attributable to “Operation Lemony Snicket” – which meant absolutely nothing to me. But – after a bit of sniffing around: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events – I thought – wow – what a great allusion !!!!!!
I don’t trust Leeden. His sources play him like a 4 Lb. trout.
I couldn’t find anything current about explosions near Kerman. I did find articles on A UFO landing in 2002, IIRC. Rumors of a nuclear test in 2007 and a huge explosion back in the 90′s. Amadamnutjob was in Kerman a couple of weeks ago. Maybe somebody cut the fuse to long.
The more I think about the B-2 angle, the less I like it. Spirits working Iran would be out of Diego Garcia. While Diego is closed pretty tight, B-2′s leaving with full bomb bays and coming back with empty ones would cause talk. Eventually some E-5 in Milan would say; “Whats up with Diego? They are restockin on JSOWS. I thought the ‘stan was being maintained out of Guam?”
While you can keep the guys and gals at Diego quiet, those bombs get to Diego by ship. That means the Ship’s crews, the guys loading the ships, the truck drivers and a host of other people in the logistics tail would all notice that something was up.
One person can keep a secret, with two it’s gossip, three and you have the news.
No this seems to be a rumor. Somebody is astroturfing. Not sure why, but just because I’m not smart enough to see any point to it doesn’t mean somebody else isn’t. World is full of things I’m not smart enough to figure out.
BTW, the Iranians were successful in fighting off the UFO.
When B-2s hit Afghanistan after 9/11, they flew directly from Whiteman AFB in Missouri, dropped their payloads and returned to Missouri. It’s very possible a single B-2 could be responsible for what’s happening in Iran, which would make operational security much easier to maintain. But isn’t it more likely that a high-flying, stealthy drone is dropping JDAMs or JSOWS on Iran?
Regarding the generally expressed dim view of the State Dept. and it’s apparatchiks, which I share, I’m reminded of a sarcastic comment by an exasperated FDR at the beginning of WW2. “The best we can hope for from the State Dept. in this war is a position of strict neutrality.” Plus ca change…
Regarding the generally expressed dim view of the State Dept. and it’s apparatchiks, which I share, I’m reminded of a sarcastic comment by an also exasperated FDR at the beginning of WW2. “The best we can hope for from the State Dept. in this war is a position of strict neutrality.” Plus ça change…
Okay while we are wildly speculating about an unconfirmed thump……
Is it possible that that “stealth drone” which the crazies claim to have shot down was a trojan horse…..testing the Iranians….for a new version carrying an almost strategic payload?
Logic would indicate this stealth tech would produce something more than manned aircraft and drones….like a stealth cruise missile…..
Just sayin……
http://www.iiees.ac.ir/iiees/EQSearch/%285yftawjb0upeyr55k3hs0b55%29/RecentEvent.aspx
Yes. No earthquake in Kerman on the 20th.
Gee, I wonder what that was that IRNA reported as an earthquake?
Kewl! More, please!
Nice Info , Thanks Guys