LATEST: Analyst Insists “Movie Prop Warship” Is Really Dangerous Replica to Practice “Swarm Techniques”

An Iranian official has confirmed the execution of one of five border guards kidnapped by the Sunni insurgency Jaish ul-Adl on February 6 in southeastern Iran.

The Interior Ministry initially denied Jaish ul-Adl’s claim that it hung the sergeant because of the regime’s “oppression and cruelty”. However, the Deputy Governor of Sistan Baluchestan Province said on Monday, “Based on investigations, the report that one of the five Iranian border guards has been martyred was confirmed.”

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham expressed “serious regret” and urged Pakistan’s government to undertake “serious and immediate measures” to help free the remaining four guards.

The guards are now in Pakistan, where they were taken soon after the abduction. Jaish ul-Adl has said that it will kill another guard in 10 days if its demands, which include the release of 300 detainees from Iranian prisons, are not met.

The head of Parliament’s National Security Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said Pakistan “is responsible for the lives of the kidnapped border guards” and denied Pakistani claims that Iranian authorities never established contact with Islamabad as “an excuse worse than sin”.

Interior Ministry official Ali Abdollahi echoed, “Statements made by Pakistan about the lack of follow through by Iranian officials pertaining to this matter are unacceptable.”

Jaish ul-Adl has carried out a series of attacks on Iranian forces in Sistan Baluchestan since last summer, including an October assault that killed 14 troops and border guards.


Analyst Insists “Movie Prop Warship” Is Really Dangerous Replica to Practice “Swarm Techniques”

In a separate entry, we explain, “Pentagon’s and New York Times’ ‘Scary Iranian PR Ship’ Turns Out to Be Movie Prop“.

But it seems that, when it comes to propaganda, you can’t keep a good “analyst” down.

Christopher Harmer of the Institute for the Study for War insists, “It only makes sense to build a two-thirds model of a ship for movie if you are making a major commercial success movie.”

Harmer is oblivious to the news — revealed in April 2013 — that the film, on the downing of an Iranian passenger jet by a US warship in July 1988, is a major Iranian-Canadian venture seeking international recognition. Indeed, he seems to have no knowledge of the Iranian film industry, which has pursued similar ventures in the past, whatsoever.

Instead he presses on with a detailed psychological evaluation of the entire country, “It would be an utterly ridiculous waste of money, but it’s just barely possible that the Iranians are that stupid.”

Harmer assures us:

It is far more likely that the Iranians are building a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier to practice their swarm techniques. After losing battles with the U.S. Navy in the 1980s, the Iranians realized that they could not defeat the U.S. Navy in a conventional fight, so they have adopted Kamikaze tactics in which hundreds or thousands of small boats armed with rocket launchers or machine guns would launch suicide attacks against U.S. warships.

Claim: Judiciary Cancelled New Year’s Furloughs for Political Prisoners Because of Ashton Meeting with Activists

The opposition website Kalemeh claims the judiciary cancelled Nowruz furloughs for 54 political prisoners, because of a dispute over a meeting between the European Union’s Catherine Ashton and women’s rights activists.

Kalemeh claims head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani suspended the temporary releases in an internal memorandum. Five other detainees, who campaigned for Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed 2009 Presidential election, were granted leave.

Iranian officials have loudly condemned Ashton’s meeting with the activists at the Austrian Embassy during a trip to Tehran earlier this month for nuclear discussions, and they were also angered by reports on human rights in Iran, issued by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Ahmed Shaheed.

Larijani and leading MPs and clerics said Ashton’s discussion with the women supported “sedition”, the term given by the regime to the protests after the 2009 election.