Iran Feature: What a Joke(r) --- Replaying Ahmadinejad's Defiance in Parliament

An EA correspondent from Iran replays the highlights/lowlights of the President's appearance in Parliament on Wednesday:

Ahmadinejad did not reply to any of the MPs questions properly. Instead he mixed jokes and criticism in his characteristic style, joshing and laugh. We wait to see the effect --- most of the MPs were not satisfied with the answers, believing the President had again insulted the parliament and undermined its authority.

A Message for The Designer of the Questions

Ahmadinejad indirectly insulted and questioned the competence of the writers and main planner, MP Ali Motahri, of the 10 enquiries: “If you have consulted the government, better (i.e. more challenging) questions would have been recommended. It seems that the designer of the questions is the person who has got his master degree with pressing a button!”

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Syria Breaking: Alien World Steps In...Since This One Refuses To (The Onion)

The satirical newspaper The Onion interrupts EA's normal coverage with this exclusive:

Frustrated by "the astonishing incapacity of earthlings to halt the rampant slaughter of their own kind" in Syria, the emperor of Zarklom 12 announced Wednesday he had no choice but to dispatch his own intergalactic forces from 3 million light years away to end the senseless bloodshed.

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Iran Analysis: Who Won Ahmadinejad's Non-Interrogation? The Supreme Leader.

In the end, the "interrogation" of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was no more than a one-act show.

Some in the audience of the Western press put out critical reviews --- "His Jokes Fell Flat" --- but those missed the significance of the production. This was a play designed not to run and run, but to open and close in the same morning.

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Syria Special: Will Turkey Back Foreign Intervention? (Cagaptay and Meral)

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan & Syrian President AssadSince the beginning of the political crisis in Syria, no country has been more outspoken about the atrocities of the Assad regime than Turkey. Faced with a desire to strengthen its popularity in the region, and faced with a humanitarian crisis on its door, Turkey was forthright in its criticism. By the late fall of 2011, Turkey was pushing the international community towards action and was increasingly hostile towards Damascus, both behind closed doors and in front of them.

So what happened to Turkey's zeal to end the crisis in Syria? The answer to that question may tip off that the fate of foreign intervention lies in Ankara's hands.

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Turkey Live Coverage (14 March): A Growing Role Over Syria

1845 GMT: Turkey is getting ready to sue Iran for its relatively high natural gas price. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız said: "The road to arbitration is being paved on March 16, and we will not wait for too long after that to file our complaint."

Turkey currently buys a cubic meter of Azerbaijani gas for $330 and pays Russia $400 for the same amount. However, Iran sells its gas to Turkey for $505 for each cubic meter. 

Turkey is reportedly going to take the issue to the International Chamber of Commerce in Switzerland, which awarded Turkey $800 million in compensation in 2009 in a previous dispute with Iran.

1730 GMT: Retired Gen. Ergin Saygun, who has been receiving medical support since he was first arrested as a Sledgehammer suspect in 2011, was arrested by a Turkish court today. 

The case of Sledgehammer suspects, a clique inside the military, are being accused of carrying out anti-government plans to overthrow the AKP government. Crashing jets, bombing mosques during a busy hour of the day are just some of the accusations. 

1645 GMT: State-run Anatolia news agency reported that at least 765 Syrian refugees, mostly women and children, have crossed into Turkey since Tuesday night. It is reported that Turkey currently hosts nearly 14,000 Syrian refugees in its Hatay district.

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The Latest from Iran (14 March): Questioning Ahmadinejad

One of a set of photos of President Ahmadinejad's appearance in Parliament

See also The Latest from Iran (13 March): "Tehran is a Pioneer of Human Rights in the World"

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1805 GMT: Drumbeats of War Watch. Some of the better journalists on the Iran beat have noticed the "intriguing signs of potential diplomatic progress over Iran’s nuclear program", but that should not stop others from fishing for readers with the "Could It Be War?" bait.

CNN simply asks, "Will Israel Strike Iran?", opening:

It's late in Iran on a dark night, moonless or with heavy clouds. Suddenly the silence is broken by sonic booms, followed by the sound of jets roaring overhead.

Flying in tight formation, Israeli fighter planes drop bunker-busting bombs on a nuclear enrichment plant built into the side of a mountain.

Iranian pilots race for their own jets to fight back, but by the time they take to the sky, it's too late. The Israeli jets streak away.

And The Atlantic, which introduced "The Iran Doomsday Clock", seeks profit by arguing against itself --- James Fallows derides speculation without knowledge...by speculating without knowledge:

While I am skeptical of the journalistic bias toward guessing what might happen rather than analyzing what has actually occurred, in the current climate I'll hazard this prediction: the United States is in fact not going to bomb Iran, and in anything like the current set of facts not even Netanyahu's Israeli administration is likely to do so. Indeed we will look back on the hyped-up bomb-Iran frenzy of the past two months with an air of wonder and dismay.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: More Than 100 Die as Regime Takes Idlib

2024 GMT: We've been discussing a video on Twitter with several prominent activists that claims to show soldiers from the Free Syrian Army using a guided missile to destroy a T-72 tank in a convoy near Qalaat al Madiq, a besieged city in Hama province.

In which a #FSA soldier destroys a regime tank using an Anti-Tank missile - youtube.com/watch?v=LD2Eo6… #Mar15

— Fadi Mqayed ★★★ (@DSyrer) March 14, 2012

We'd note that the town of Qalaat al Madiq has been shelled by tanks for several days, and there are reports that a historic castle in the city has partially collapsed. While there are also rumors of FSA activity there, we have not been able to verify reports that the Free Syrian Army has successfully destroyed any tanks belonging to the regime.

2016 GMT: Saudi Arabia has closed its embassy in Syria and has withdrawn all embassy staff.

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Yemen Feature: Why is President Obama Insisting on Imprisonment of an Honest Journalist?

Abduelah Haider Shaye (Photo: Iona Craig)On February 2, 2011, President Obama called Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The two discussed counterterrorism cooperation and the battle against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. At the end of the call, according to a White House read-out, Obama “expressed concern” over the release of a man named Abdulelah Haider Shaye, whom Obama said “had been sentenced to five years in prison for his association with AQAP". It turned out that Shaye had not yet been released at the time of the call, but Saleh did have a pardon for him prepared and was ready to sign it.

It would not have been unusual for the White House to express concern about Yemen’s allowing AQAP suspects to go free. Suspicious prison breaks of Islamist militants in Yemen had been a regular occurrence over the past decade, and Saleh has been known to exploit the threat of terrorism to leverage counterterrorism dollars from the United States.

But this case was different. Abdulelah Haider Shaye is not an Islamist militant or an Al Qaeda operative. He is a journalist.

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US Shocker: What Scares Ex-Vice President Cheney? Canada.

He pulled President George W. Bush's strings for eight years. He put bad guys on waterboards. He single-handedly took down Saddam Hussein. (He didn't go mano-a-mano with Osama bin Laden, but let's skip over that.) He even shot his friend in the face.

What could possibly frighten Dick? This can:

Former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney has cancelled an April appearance in Toronto citing concerns Canada is too dangerous.

“He felt that in Canada the risk of violent protest was simply too high,” said Ryan Ruppert, president of promotions company Spectre Live Corp., which had booked Mr. Cheney for an April 24 appearance at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

In September, Mr. Cheney was speaking at a private club in Vancouver when protesters massed outside the front door harassing ticket holders and in one instance, choking a security guard. The former vice-president was reportedly held inside the building for more than seven hours as Vancouver Police in riot gear dispersed the demonstrators.

“God forbid there was ever an emergency,” said Ruppert, noting Cheney’s history of heart problems.

Next week: Dick Cheney bites head off terrorist rabbit but runs away from scary Canadian Celine Dion....

US Politics Developing: "Desperate End"? Santorum Wins Two Southern Primaries (Hanna/Helton)

Rick Santorum's speech after Tuesday night victories in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries

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Rick Santorum marches forward to the next GOP primary battle with wins in Alabama and Mississippi, throwing cold water on rival Mitt Romney's prediction that his campaign was reaching a "desperate end."

Romney, rejected again by Southern conservatives in the Tuesday primaries, was battling for second place with Newt Gingrich.

The latter had staked his campaign on a Southern strategy after winning South Carolina and Georgia.

In Alabama, Santorum won 35% of the vote. Gingrich and Romney both had 29% --- although Gingrich was about 2,000 votes ahead with 99% of the vote counted -- and Ron Paul had 5%.

With 99% of the vote counted in Mississippi, Santorum had 33%. Gingrich was at 31%, Romney at 30% and Paul at 4%. Romney claimed victory in the caucuses of American Samoa, local officials said, while caucus results in Hawaii had yet to come in.

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