Iraqi prime minister meets Assad in first Syria visit since 2011

Religious conversions later in life are generally greeted as evidence that something terrible must have happened to the converter. The Onion published a satire in 2016, ridiculing Paul DAmatol, who took up a life of Christian piety in late middle age. It must be drugs or maybe he killed someone in a car accident. Something super messed up.

No room in satire for something good as the cause. Interestingly, its not Protestant evangelical born-again-ism but the Catholic bells-and-smells and Islamic mysticism that attract those interested in spiritual growth as they approach the end, despite (because of?) Romes/ Islams hard teachings on divorce, homosexuality, the ordination of women. Catholics and Muslims take their religion seriously.

From Fire, By Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith, a memoir by Iranian American Sohrab Ahmari, is provocative, to say the least.

Such conversions are rare and never casually broadcast. Muslims do not look kindly on such apostates. You can interpret that as you like, but I figure it is a good indication that they take their beliefs seriously, something that we cant say about most of the Christianities or Judaisms on offer. Yes, schisms abound; even the monolithic Catholic church struggles to keep the faith in this truly godless age of anything goes.

But good for Ahmari. His own life has been charmed, from a bohemian childhood in post-revolutionary Iran to Wall Street Journal London correspondent and still in his mid-30s. He remembers his grandparents being pro-revolution, as Iranians generally are bitter about foreign meddling, with good reason. But many of the urban, educated young look to the West. The taste of western living under the Shah, the open culture, comedy, the arts, racey theatre, the high life all suddenly gone. His uncle went to the US right away. Ahmari and his mother emigrated in 1993.

His religious training in Tehran was actually stimulating and entertaining. His first instructor was clearly from the wild tribal lands, hair disheveled, shirt half tucked in, a rube from the hicks thrust into downtown Tehran. His acting out of the Battle of Karbala transfixed little Ahmed. He learned that Hussein stuck by his friend unto death. Stood for the Truth.

Iranians lash out at Russia after Moscow wades into Gulf territorial row

Iranian press review: One person executed almost every 12 hours in 2023

• Hackers linked to the Iranian government, known as TA453 or Charming Kitten, are targeting experts in Middle Eastern affairs and nuclear security with a new campaign involving malware for Apple and Microsoft products.
• The campaign aims at reconnaissance, with the hackers deploying backdoors in victims systems to gather intelligence. They have been adapting their tools and tactics, including sending Mac malware to one of their recent targets.
• The campaign began with an email posing as a senior fellow from the UK think tank RUSI requesting feedback on a project called Iran in the Global Security Context. The hackers used various cloud hosting providers to deliver the malware and offered to pay the expert for their input. The likely goal is to monitor experts involved in the Iran nuclear agreement negotiations. Read More

The post Iran Hackers Targeting Nuclear Security Experts appeared first on The Clarion Project.

Mark Crispin-Miller News From the Underground July 9, 2023

Recently the New York Times enhanced its daily dump on RFK, Jr. with a new hit-piece by Times columnist Farhad Manjoo: Its Not Possible to Win an Argument With Kennedy. That title is, of course, no compliment. It means that no one can best Kennedy in a debatenot because the latter knows his stuff, has all the pertinent data at his fingertips, and argues with extraordinary clarity (and civility): on the contrary. According to Manjoo, Bobby does not win debates for real, through such forensic skill and intellectual ability, but only seems to win them (or, as the headline puts it, win them) by fogging everybodys minds with sophistry, intermingled craftily with bits of truth. This is good enough for him, because he doesnt really care about the issues, claims Manjoo: Conspiracy theorists dont care about facts, just attention.

That crack about the facts is pure projectionas Ill show here, by telling the whole story of Manjoos attacks on Bobby in the summer of 2006; but lets begin with Manjoos version of that story. Here Im going to paraphrase, and gloss, his absolutely right, andwhat matters morebecause it perfectly exemplifies the propaganda thats been used to smear the candidate since he declared his run, and thats been used against him (and others) for many years. In other words, this op ed perfectly exemplifies the gaslighting technique thats been deployed relentlesslyand catastrophicallyby the free press throughout the West since 1967, when the CIA first weaponized the phrase conspiracy theory (and coined the phrase conspiracy theorist), urging journalists to use that mocking language to discredit critics of the Warren Report.

Since then, that dismissive tactic has been used to maintain one Official Story after another, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 (both, like JFK, killed by lone gunmen), to Ronald Reagans landslide victory in 1980 (not enabled by a secret deal with Irans Revolutionary Guards, to keep the hostages locked up through the election), to Iran/contra (not overseen by George H.W. Bush), to the Oklahoma City bombing (carried out by two angry amateurs, using a truckload of fertilizer), to the 2000 election (not stolen), to 9/11 (the staggeringly lucky work of nineteen Saudi jihadists), to the 2004 election (not stolen), to Ukraines Maidan Revolution in 2014 (not another coup run by the CIA), to Bashar Assads two gas attacks on his own people in 2017 and 2018 (the first not perpetrated by the rebels, the second not accidentally caused by the explosion of a rebel arsenal); and so ona history far richer even than this parag...

 July 10, 2023 The Iranian embassy in Beirut marked the forty-first anniversary of the crime of kidnapping four Iranian diplomats at Al-Barbara checkpoint which belongs to the Lebanese Forces militia. Since the kidnap crime, the destiny of the four Iranian diplomats has been unknown. The Iranian ambassador Mujtaba Amani stressed that the Iranian authorities  will []

This weeks News on China.

SCOs 23rd Summit
Measures to protect the chip industry
Over-reliance on seed imports
Fewer Chinese students in the US

Via: Democracy Now: President Biden has nominated Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Elliott Abrams was convicted in 1991 of lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair, and later pardoned by then-President George H.W. Bush. He defended death squads in Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s, when he served []