I'm somewhere between panic attack and nervous breakdown tonite as I read these headlines. I'm supposed to start a new job in the morning and my head says I should show up. My gut on the other hand is chanting....Time to bug out......time to bug out.....

Can't shake the feeling that TS is mere inches away from HTF.

I'm somewhere between panic attack and nervous breakdown tonite as I read these headlines. I'm supposed to start a new job in the morning and my head says I should show up. My gut on the other hand is chanting....Time to bug out......time to bug out.....

Can't shake the feeling that TS is mere inches away from HTF.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_missiles

TEHRAN, Iran - "Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday in war games officials say are in response to U.S. and Israeli threats, state television reported.Gen.

Hossein Salami, a top Guards commander, was quoted as saying the exercise "is to demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with a harsh language." The drill was conducted in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormouz.

The report didn't provide details but said the missiles fired included a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which officials have said has a range of 1,250 miles.

The report comes less than a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he sees no possibility of a war with the United States or Israel.

"I assure you that there won't be any war in the future," Ahmadinejad told a news conference Tuesday during a visit to Malaysia for a summit of developing Muslim nations.

Iranian officials have been issuing a mix of conciliatory and bellicose statements in recent weeks about the possibility of a clash with the U.S. and Israel.

Israel's military sent warplanes over the eastern Mediterranean for a large military exercise in June that U.S. officials described as a possible rehearsal for a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, which the West fears are aimed at producing atomic weapons.

For months, Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have said they don't believe the U.S. will attack because of its difficulties in Iraq, domestic worries and concerns over the fallout in the region.

At the same time, Tehran has stepped up its warnings of retaliation if the Americans — or Israelis — do attack it, including threats to hit Israel and U.S. Gulf bases with missiles and stop oil traffic through the vital Gulf region."

I had to laugh when I read this. Talk about empty rhetoric! Ground forces are not involved in bombing raids so who do they plan to bury in 320,000 graves!!???

TEHRAN, Iran - "Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday in war games officials say are in response to U.S. and Israeli threats, state television reported.Gen. Hossein Salami

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will visit Tehran on July 19 for talks on Iran's contested nuclear drive, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

It said Solana will meet Iran's chief negotiator Said Jalili to discuss a package of proposals drawn up by six major world powers aimed at ending the nuclear standoff.

There was no immediate confirmation from the EU or Iranian officials.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, had said on Tuesday that Solana would be despatched to Iran for "in-depth discussions" on differences over the package.

Confronting the "oil mafia" was one of the many promises that Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad made to voters in his 2005 presidential campaign.

It was a message that resonated with the electorate. Many Iranians believe central governments in Iran, whether before or after the 1979 Islamic revolution, have failed to use the country's oil wealth for the benefit of the masses, in some cases siphoning it instead for personal gains.

Mr Ahmadi-Nejad was also seen as an outsider, a stranger to the political elite, so his pledge to fight the alleged corruption seemed to be quite a credible one.

Three years on, however, no trace of the alleged "mafia" in the oil industry, which generated revenues of $70bn in the last Iranian year, has been uncovered. People have been moved out of the oil ministry and replaced but that has been seen more as an attempt by Mr Ahmadi-Nejad to gain influence in the hugely important sector.

A United States war against Iran is conceivable as a final apocalyptic manifestation of Pax Americana, but this would only hasten the decline of the US in terms of power, influence and moral authority

The head of French energy giant Total said in an interview published Thursday that it is too politically risky to invest in Iran, dealing a serious blow to the Islamic republic's key energy sector.

Chief executive Christophe de Margerie's comments virtually cripple Tehran's hopes of boosting its gas exports because Total is the last major western energy group considering a big investment.

"Today we would be taking too much political risk to invest in Iran because people will say: 'Total will do anything for money,'" de Margerie told the Financial Times newspaper

The confrontation between Tehran and Washington seemed to sharpen on Thursday as Iran said it tested missiles for a second day and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would defend its allies and protect its interests against an attack.
Ms. Rice was speaking in the former Soviet republic of Georgia at the end of a three-day tour of Eastern Europe. Shortly after she spoke, state-run media in Iran began reporting the new missile tests, which followed a warning from an Iranian official earlier this week that Tehran would strike Tel Aviv and United States interests if Washington attacked it first.

OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said oil supplies are sufficient and declined to predict the outcome of the group's production policy-setting meeting scheduled for Sept. 9.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies more than 40 percent of the world's oil, has kept official production targets unchanged since late last year.

Another is that Iran’s Russian-built reactor at Bushehr is due to start working in October. This is less worrying than the underground enrichment facility at Natanz. But if Israel intends to bomb it, it would be best to do so before it is loaded with nuclear fuel.

Although most agreed that Iraq was years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon, the Iranians and the Israelis felt any raid must occur well before nuclear fuel was loaded to prevent radioactive contamination. Further, Israel's Menachem Begin feared that Israel's next elected government would not act until a nuclear weapon was created.

It is now known that during the strike preparations, one question affecting its timing was the estimated date on which the reactor would become “live”, after which a strike could cause radiation fallout on nearby civilians. That date was assumed to be just a few weeks later.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said that Iran will raise oil export to 3.5 million barrels a day by the end of March 2010, Iran's satellite Press TV reported on Friday.

"Iran's oil export level will be raised to 3.5 million barrels a day from the current 2.4 million barrels a day by the end of the current development plan," Nozari told reporters on Thursday.

He denied an allegation that the country will not be able to export oil because of high internal consumption.

Russia has ordered the United States to drop its missile shield proposals after claiming that Iran's recent military exercises proved that Tehran did not have the firepower to attack Europe.
Escalating a war of words with Washington, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that this week's Iranian missile tests had provided further evidence of an American plot to neuter Moscow's nuclear deterrent.

The White House said despite Iran and Israel flexing muscles back and forth, Tehran and Washington are not close to open a conflict. "I think - Secretary Gates characterized it as sending signals yesterday (Wednesday). That was his take on it. Secretary Gates was right, there is no particular increase," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto to rule out the possibility of a war with Iran.

Iran would destroy Israel and 32 U.S. military bases in the Middle East if the Islamic Republic was attacked over its disputed nuclear programme, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The Islamic Republic and Israel have been embroiled in an escalating war of words in recent weeks, increasing speculation of military confrontation and helping to send global oil prices to record highs.

etroleum giant PTT Plc sees the prospect of world crude prices reaching a previously unthinkable US$300 per barrel if tensions in the Middle East escalate.

Tevin Vongvanich, PTT's senior executive vice-president for corporate strategy and development, said yesterday that Iran's missile tests have had some negative effects on the oil market.


The price of refined oil in Singapore rose by more than US$6 a barrel on Friday, making a decline in local fuel prices unlikely next week as anticipated.

US, European experts believe Iran already has full nuclear capabilities but has chosen to appease international community, suspend uranium enrichment in favor of investing in new centrifuge formation, which in time would allow it to reach its nuclear goals doubly fast

U.S. Sen. John McCain made a wisecrack last week describing reports of increased American cigarette exports to Iran as a way of killing off Iranians. It was just a joke, the presumptive presidential candidate insisted immediately afterward.

Today, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini responded to the comment, and he was not smiling at all.

Mohammed Ali Hosseini said the Iranian government regarded the comment as ugly and immoral, "especially for someone who intends to lead a country claiming civilization," according to a report carried by the Fars News Agency:

Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said on Sunday there was no shortage of crude in the market, the state broadcaster's website reported.

Iranian oil officials, including the minister, have frequently blamed factors such as speculation and geopolitics, as well as the weak U.S. dollar, for driving up the price of oil rather than a lack of supply.

Oil prices have also surged partly on the back of mounting tension surrounding Iran's row with the West over its nuclear ambitions. Big oil consumers like the United States have called for OPEC to increase output, a move Iran opposes.

Iran, at odds with the West over its nuclear work, could reach an accommodation with the United States if its critics accepted that the Islamic Republic is here to stay, according to Tehran's ambitious mayor.

For now, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005, focuses his energy on alleviating the traffic congestion, air pollution and sewage problems of his sprawling city, home to 8 million by night, swelling to 11 million by day.