September23, 2008:  The government is complaining of the NATO and American failure to shut down heroin and opium production in Afghanistan. Much of these drugs are shipped through Iran, to reach more lucrative markets in the Middle East, Europe and North America. Iran admits to over two million drug addicts, and complains that drugs coming in from Afghanistan have increased five times over the last five years. Afghanistan is fighting a minor war on its Afghan border, where several hundred casualties (government and smugger) are suffered each year, and thousands of arrests are made. But the well armed Afghan drug smugglers keep coming.

The CIA and Mossad (Israelis CIA) agree on one thing; Iran is trying to build  nuclear weapons, and will succeed in the next few years.

September 21, 2008: Hundreds of Iraqi Shia who had been sent to Iran to take training in bomb making and assassination, are returning to Iraq. But these men are not doing anything, yet.

September 20, 2008: The head of the Iranian Central Bank resigned, after failing to get the government to do anything about the raging inflation (currently about 25 percent a year). Government policies are ruining the economy, and officials refuse to listen to economists or bankers who know how to fix such things.

September 18, 2008: The U.S. has charged eight companies and eight individuals for trying to export weapons grades components to Iran. This includes manufacturers of warships, weapons and UAVs.

In southeast Iran, eight Iranian troops, including a brigadier general, were killed in a clash with Baluchi tribal rebels (who are Sunnis and much opposed to the Shia Iranians).

September 17, 2008: The government has given the Revolutionary Guards responsibility for defending the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf. The Revolutionary Guards are recruited more for their loyalty than military skill, and their naval forces consist largely of several hundred speedboats. Iranian naval forces in the Gulf are weak, and this change of responsibility may be to solve morale problems. The Revolutionary Guards are more willing to undertake suicide missions that the navy personnel. The navy is also nervous about recent government announcements that new Qaaem class submarines were under construction. The navy knows this is mainly a propaganda ploy, and that Iran has no real expertise in building 1,000 ton diesel-electric submarines. The Iranian navy has been starved for resources for over three decades, and is unable to put up much of a resistance against Western navies and air forces.

September 16, 2008: The UN IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) complains that Iran continues to block efforts to investigate Iranian nuclear weapons research projects.

September 9, 2008: The U.S. is imposing on the Iranian state shipping company, and 18 other Iranian companies, because these firms are accused of involvement in smuggling weapons and weapons related technology to Iran.

September 8, 2008: Al Qaeda released a video in which senior (number two) leader Ayman al Zawahri accused Iran of secretly working with the United States against Sunni Arabs (about 83 percent of all Moslems) and al Qaeda. Both Iran and al Qaeda are seeking to establish a global Islamic dictatorship. But al Qaeda wants it to be Sunni, while Iran wants it to be Shia. Iran and al Qaeda have cooperated in the past, but this was done reluctantly, and with many people protesting on both sides.

September 7, 2008: China launched an earth resources photo satellite, which will be shared by China, Iran and Thailand. All three nations shared in the cost and development of the satellite, which will have limited military use.

September 6, 2008: In Lebanon, Iran has reorganized control over the military elements of the Shia Hezbollah organization. This was in response to the 2006 Hezbollah war with Israel. Hezbollah claimed a victory, but Iran believed otherwise. There are now UN peacekeepers controlling an area within 20 kilometers of the Israeli border. Since Iran supplies most of the money and weapons for Hezbollahs armed forces, it was possible for Iranian "advisors" and "trainers" to take control of these forces.

September 3, 2008: Four women have been jailed for organizing opposition to a government effort to change the law and allow men to take up to three more wives without asking permission of the first wife. This is how it is in the Arab world, but before the 1079 revolution, the Shah enacted pro-women laws, one of them requiring that the first wife grant permission for her husband to marry more women. The current government wants to repeal many of these pro-woman laws, and this is making the government unpopular even among very religious women.