Iran to Deploy Higher-Orbiting Satellite

Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011

A planned Iranian-built satellite would circle the earth at an altitude of more than 22,000 miles, far higher than orbiters previously deployed by the Middle Eastern nation, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported on Monday (see GSN, July 13).

Students at Iran's Sharif University of Technology would build the craft, "the last student satellite series which is to be fired into space," university president Reza Rosta-Azad told the news agency.

The lower orbits of Iran's previously launched satellites have limited the amount of time they could remain in space, he said (Iranian Students' News Agency, Aug. 9). Tehran last month indicated it had deployed its Rasad 1 satellite at an orbit of roughly 160 miles, the Xinhua News Agency reported (Xinhua News Agency, Aug. 9).

"Satellites should be sent into space when the launch power is raised, so that they would remain in space for a long time to work more effectively," Rosta-Azad told ISNA. "The first Iranian satellite launched into space managed to remain for two months (see GSN, Feb. 3, 2009). The second one which is able to take photos was placed at a higher altitude and has a more lifespan."

Iran would formally announce the new orbiter at a later date, he said (Iranian Students' News Agency).

The United States and other countries closely monitor Iranian space developments, as the same ballistic missile technology that is used to launch satellites can also be used to fire warheads, according to Xinhua. Iran's continuing nuclear development is suspected by Washington and other governments of being secretly aimed at attaining a weapons capability, a charge Tehran strongly denies (Xinhua News Agency)
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ECONOMIES: U.S. Shale Gas Weakening Russian, Iranian Petro-power

Published 22 July 2011

Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has already played a critical role in weakening Russia’s ability to wield an "energy weapon" over its European customers, and this trend will accelerate in the coming decades

Natural gas drilling rig in Hopewell Township, PA // Source: congdonghoalan.com

Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has already played a critical role in weakening Russia’s ability to wield an “energy weapon” over its European customers, and this trend will accelerate in the coming decades, according to a new Baker Institute study, “Shale Gas and U.S. National Security.” The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, projects that Russia’s natural gas market share in Western Europe will decline to as little as 13 percent by 2040, down from 27 percent in 2009. “The geopolitical repercussions of expanding U.S. shale gas production are going to be enormous,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies and one of the authors of the study. “By increasing alternative supplies to Europe in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) displaced from the U.S. market, the petro-power of Russia, Venezuela, and Iran is faltering on the back of plentiful American natural gas supply.”  For more

The Rise and Fall of Iran’s Ahmadinejad

Karim SadjadpourWASHINGTON POST, JULY 13, 2011

While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’sdemagoguery and Holocaust revisionism on the world stage have earned him alarmist comparisons to Adolf Hitler, his recent, ignoble fall from grace reveals the Iranian president for what he really is: the dispensable sword of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 The marriage of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad should be understood in the context of Iran’s internal rivalries. Since the death in 1989 of the revolution’s father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — whose austere nature and anti-Americanism set the tenor for Iran’s post-monarchic order — Tehran’s political elite has been broadly divided into two schools.

 

Reformists and pragmatists argued that ensuring the Islamic Republic’s survival required easing political and social restrictions and prioritizing economic expediency over ideology. Hard-liners, led by Khamenei, believed that compromising on revolutionary ideals could unravel the system, just as perestroika did the Soviet Union.

 

Given the youthful Iranian public’s desire for change, Khamenei seemed to have lost the war of ideas by the early 2000s.

 

No one anticipated that his saving grace would arrive in the person of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hitherto unknown mayor of Tehran.  Read more

Iran Infiltrated IAEA Electronics, Officials Allege

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Iran has allegedly tried to glean data from portable computers and cellular telephones left by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors carrying out nuclear safeguards checks in the Middle Eastern country, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday (see GSN, May 16).

(May. 18) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, shown last year. Clinton and Ashton on Tuesday pressed Iran to join new multilateral discussions aimed at resolving the dispute over its atomic activities (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images).

The Vienna-based nuclear watchdog is looking into "a range of events, ranging from those where it is certain something has happened to suppositions" during first three months of 2011, one IAEA member nation diplomat said. Agency officials had first informed the U.N. organization of "unusual events" pointing to possible interference with their computers and phones, the official added.

Two additional IAEA member nation diplomats verified key elements of the allegations. Agency spokeswoman Gill Tudor declined to address the matter.

Inspectors typically place their cellular telephones inside closed and signed envelopes while conducting safeguards visits, which are intended to ensure that civilian atomic operations are not turned toward military purposes, one U.N. nuclear watchdog official said. Portable computers are either similarly sealed in envelopes or placed inside secured containers. Inspectors occasionally leave such computers behind in temporary lodgings after working hours, the official said Full article

image courtesy of:  enviro.org.au

Iran to Display New Ballistic Missiles

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Iran plans next Tuesday to show off a new set of ballistic missiles built recently within its borders, the country's Fars News Agency reported (see GSN, March 1).

Military equipment "including some vessels, ballistic missiles and new ammunitions will come into use on the occasion of Khorramshahr Liberation Anniversary," Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Wednesday, referring to Iran's 1982 victory against Iraq in a southern coastal city.

The nation's military would soon formally receive the new missiles, Vahidi said.

Iran's missile manufacturing systems have advanced significantly over the past 10 years, according to the media report. The Middle Eastern nation tested an antiship ballistic missile in February (see GSN, Feb. 10).

Iran's Revolutionary Guard last October received the third variant of the Fateh 110 ballistic missile, and another version of the weapon was due for testing soon, Fars reported. The Fateh 110 is a short-range, solid-fuel weapon suited for firing from a mobile launcher. The missile has sophisticated command and guidance mechanisms, the news report said (see GSN, Sept. 22, 2010; Fars News Agency, May 18).

Iran's Shahab 3 ballistic missile is the greatest source of worry for Western countries, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. The weapon has a 1,240-mile range and could strike any point in Israel (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/Monsters and Critics, May 18)
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