Today in EA (12 January 2010)

Iran: News from Iran this morning concentrates on the booby-trap bomb explosion in Tehran that killed Professor Massoud Mohammadi. We have the latest, which includes indication that Mohammadi was not involved in Iran's nuclear programme, and a video of state media's presentation of the event.

Links to this and other top stories, from EA and other media, are available as always, in our weblog.

Amidst recent coverage of Iran and Twitter,  and following yesterday's contributions on this issue, we have a comprehensive analysis today from Christopher Parsons, which seeks to dispell some of the fear, uncertainty and doubt around the Iranian Government's use of digital surveillance techniques.

Scott Lucas considers, amidst recent statements by Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Mohamad Khatami, the way forward for the opposition: "The question may not be how the regime reacts to these statements  but how the Green movement(s) respond."

US/Israel: Israel media suggest that, behind the scenes, Israel's relationship with the Obama Administration is flourishing, despite Washington's recent sale of arms to four "moderate" Arab states.

Turkey/Israel: A meeting between Turkish and Lebanese Prime Ministers turned into a platform for sharp criticism of  Israel.

Comments

[Ali Khamenei]

Re:"Iran: News from Iran this morning concentrates on the booby-trap bomb explosion in Tehran that killed Professor Massoud Mohammadi."
I think a more nuanced approach and focus would be more suitable and honorable for this occasion. A few words and notations for this open forum in the name of the martyrs.

In Praise of the Vanishing Dead and Revolutionary Science

     Ali-Mohammadi was a universally praised physicist and Revolutionary phD Scholar martyred by counterrevolutionary agents linked to the West.
     I'd like to say a word about the superiority of Iranian scientists in comparison to the American and Chinese scientists. They are quite undisiplined, the Americans more than the Chinese, as shown by recent events.
     The Americans are in chaos and showing their weakness. The smallest little thing makes them close down an airport. Their scientists fail to support their regime in any effective way with functional devices.
     A Chinese graduate student in Molecular Biology was able to sneak into a secure area of an airport in New Jersey. There is speculation that the security guard was called away to body search a 90-year-old Swedish nun who had been to the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and came under suspicion when someone yelled, "She's a hadji !". They kept demanding she explain why she went to Mecca. While the guard was away the student was able to sneak into the secure area to give his girlfriend a kiss.
     Such decadence. Our Biology grad students without stars are diligent for the revolution -- "Make war not love". Our latest project began with a study to restore the full glory of the complex Iranian ecology. In collaboration with the Russians, methods were designed to reintroduce the Caspian Tiger which is a close relative of the Siberian Tiger. But our scientists, holding the advanced quantum spiritual phD degrees approved by the Supreme Leader himself, have gone way beyond initial expectations.
     In collaboration with the Holy Horticulture Institute, giant pods with the appearance of a 3 meter long melon have been successfully grown from seeds the Russians collected in space. One of these pods was placed in a cage with a Siberian Tiger.
     When the tiger fell asleep, a doppelganger began to grow inside the pod. After a few months, a full grown Tiger burst out of the pod. The tiger was a complete duplicate except that it was lacking in emotion. However, it was easily trained to kill dispassionately without a roar but with an odd purr.
     We have recruited Basiji volunteers for human experiments.
     The detailed research papers will be published soon.
     Also, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be directing a documentary propaganda film based on this research called "The Persian Body Snatchers And The Night of the Living Dead"**
** Ahmadinejad has reviewed confiscated DVD's given to him by Montazavi who took it from a currency smuggler:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049366" rel="nofollow">Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1956), a movie : Director, Don Siegel;Writers: Daniel Mainwaring (screenplay),Jack Finney (Collier's magazine serial). 5 February 1956 (USA)
plot: "A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063350/" rel="nofollow">The Night of the Living Dead(1968)

[Thomas]

Ali Khamenei,

The Night of the Living Dead? You bring back teenage memories when we made a weekend road trip down to the area where it was filmed. Carouse and Love. Love and Carouse.

This was before enlisting in Uncle Satan's Navy to fight the Big Bad Ayatollah against Rockin Rolla.

Ah, those were the days my friend.