Sedona Arizona Newspapers
Business Hotels in Sedona
Sedona business hotels offer convenience, modern amenities, and sensible comfort that every executive needs. The Orchards Inn of Sedona combines Uptown convenience with Red Rock beauty, and its entrance faces Main Street, lined with stores, galleries, offices, and restaurants. L’Auberge de Sedona offers a secluded yet convenient location one quarter-mile from Uptown Sedona, and also provides a technology helpdesk, complimentary newspapers, conference and meeting rooms with audio-visual equipment for business use. The rooms and the accommodations at the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Spa are fantastic, and more importantly, it has successfully implemented consciousness based principles in favor of business travelers. The Enchantment Resort provides business travelers with conveniences like a business center in the lobby with free wireless high-speed internet connection and access to copy and fax services. Leave with wonderful memories of your business adventure in Sedona, then come back again and again to experience friendly warm hospitality at its best.
Luxury Hotels in Sedona
Most Sedona, Arizona luxury hotels have accommodations that include choices of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, or studio condominiums, each with full kitchens, dining rooms, fireplaces, jetted tubs, separate living and dining areas, and patios. The Adobe Village Graham Inn, one of Sedona’s luxury hotels, has an amazing location and an equally fabulous food service. You will also love the grounds of L’Auberge de Sedona, a very peaceful and inviting place to stay in. You will have no complaints, but praises for Las Posadas of Sedona, which is located about 6 miles south of Sedona’s main shopping district. Sedona Rouge Hotel is one of the Best Bang for the Buck Hotels in Sedona for travelers who want 5-star accommodations and services at 4-star prices. The beds at Amara Hotel are worth every penny of your money, great to come home to after a long day of hiking or walking around town. Luxury hotels in Sedona offer a perfect blend of homestyle living and first-class luxuries.
Family Hotels in Sedona
The Sedona area has plenty of affordable family attractions, and is a two-hour drive from the Grand Canyon. Stay at the Kings Ransom Sedona Hotel and take an off road adventure with the premier jeep tour company, Pink Jeeps, with the rest of the family. Most suites at the Enchantment Resort in Sedona have kitchen facilities, perfect for the whole family; in addition, the hotel offers pottery classes, guided walks, and stargazing. The Junipine Resort offers special programs for family reunions, guided hikes and tours with lunches, and a nice cafe on the resort grounds. The Hilton Sedona Resort and Spa is within minutes of shopping, dining, hiking, mountain biking, and over 40 art galleries for the young and old. While you are at Sedona, also take a scenic drive to see Cathedral Rock, Snoopy Rock, and other legendary formations.
Pet-Friendly Hotels in Sedona
Pet-friendly hotels in Sedona are doing more than just accepting pets, they are catering to them, so come and pack your pooch and check into these exceptional animal-loving hotels. El Portal Sedona is proud to be a unique pet-friendly hotel in Arizona, as well as your resource to make your pets stay the best ever. Sedona Real Inn & Suites’ pet friendly accommodations are large roomy suites with 9-foot ceilings, fireplaces, and plenty of light. Your pets will love the hiking trails to Arizona’s gorgeous Red Rock Country, just steps from your hotel room at the Kings Ransom Sedona Hotel. You can also pamper yourself and your pooch at the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Spa with two-night accommodations in a Deluxe Sedona guest room, located on the first floor, through the hotel’s Rouge and Pooch Package. Pet-friendly hotels in Sedona understand the joy of traveling with your pet because after all, they are part of the family.
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Summary
The Islamic Republic's state television broadcast a video on its evening news on Monday, June 7, 2010, which it contended was made by Shahram Amiri, an Iranian scientist who went missing on June 3, 2009, and was obtained through 'special methods' by the Islamic regime's intelligence agencies. The Islamic Republic claims that Amiri is a scientist who does not work for the country's nuclear program and that he was abducted in Medina, Saudi Arabia, by the United States while he was on a pilgrimage. The US has declared that it has no information concerning Amiri, although ABC News reported in March 2010 that Amiri was a scientist working in the IRI's nuclear program, and that he had defected to the US and was cooperating with the CIA. The grainy film, apparently shot on a computer, shows a person alleged to be Amiri saying that he is currently in the US, that he was abducted by the US, and that he had been tortured in order to get him to tell an American news outlet in a televised interview that he had handed over crucial secret information about the IRI's nuclear weapons program.
8 hours later, a second film, this one much more polished, appeared on the Internet, showing the same person. This time the person alleged to be Amiri said that he had not been abducted, that he was free and safe in the US, and that he planned to obtain a doctorate in an American institution.
The veracity of the films, their source, and whether or not they are a part of a disinformation campaign, are unclear.
The videos
Video 1
This is the first video from the state television of the Islamic Republic (translation follows). I am placing quotes around the name Shahram Amiri because the individual's identity remains to be confirmed:
Voice-over
This individual is Shahram Amiri, the Iranian researcher who disappeared a year ago. How was Amiri abducted and where is he now? The answer in Amiri's own words...
'Shahram Amiri'
In the name of God. Today is Tuesday, Farvardin 17, 1389, which corresponds to April 5, 2010. I am Shahram Amiri, expert and researcher at Malek-Ashtar University of Technology. I am currently in the city of Tucson, state of Arizona in the United States. On Khordad 13, 1388 (NB June 3, 2009) in an operation coordinated between the terroristic and abduction teams of the American intelligence agency CIA and Saudi Arabia's Istikhbarat, I was abducted from Medina Munnawarah (NB alternate name of Medina, Saudi Arabia, which means enlightened city). They transferred me to a house in an unknown location in Saudi Arabia. They injected me with a syringe which made me unconscious in this house. When I regained consciousness, (garbled) in an American wide-body aircraft going towards the United States.
Voice-over
During this time, what did the Americans want from Shahram Amiri, this Iranian researcher?
'Shahram Amiri'
Over the eight months that I was kept in the United States, I was subjected by interrogation teams of the American intelligence agency to the most severe torture and psychological pressure. The main goal and the main pressure that these interrogation, in reality torture, teams exerted on me... Their goal was, they wanted this from me, that I claim, in a televised interview with an American news outlet, that I am an important person in the Iranian nuclear program and that I requested asylum from the United States. And that in the course of requesting asylum, I had handed over important evidence and documents from my country, along with a laptop containing secret information on Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Voice-over
Why do the Americans want to force Shahram Amiri to falsely claim that he has important information about Iran's nuclear program?
Shahram Amiri
The main goal in these developments is to put political pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran and to condemn... to prove the lies that the United States continuously utters about the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Voice-over
This Iranian researcher also directed a request to international organizations in this footage which lasts minutes...
'Shahram Amiri'
I ask organizations and departments which are concerned with human rights and are active in seeking freedom for captives to pursue my case. I have truly been abducted unjustly from a third country and brought to the United States. I ask that you put all your efforts and energy into obtaining my freedom so I may return to my dear homeland, Iran.
Voice-over
And his words for his family...
'Shahram Amiri'
I'd like to say a few words to my dear family. If they see my speech some day, if they hear my final words, I ask them to please be patient.
Voice-over
The words of this Iranian researcher which were obtained by Iran's intelligence bodies through special methods are the clearest evidence of his abduction by the United States, with the cooperation of Saudi Arabia's government. This film also constitutes unique proof that the United States' claims about Iran's nuclear program are no more than worthless fabrications. The United States must now answer for this abduction.
Video 2
The following is the footage posted to YouTube channel ShahramAmiri2010 about 8 hours later (translation follows):
'Shahram Amiri'
I would like to express my greetings and gratitude for the opportunity given to me to be able to speak directly to the international community. I, Shahram Amiri, citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran, am in the United States and intend to continue my studies in this country.
I am free here and assure everyone that I am safe. My aim in today's comments is to put an end to all the rumors and accusations concerning me in the past year.
I am an Iranian and have not taken any action against my homeland. My hope is to see Iran and its people at the summit of progress and success. I am not a political individual and have no particular interest in the political affairs or positions of any government or country.
I do not believe in weapons research and have no experience or knowledge in this field. I am a simple health physics researcher who is studying and researching in the field of protection against radiation.
My plan, while I am in the United States, is to obtain a doctorate in health physics in order to help improve the health and safety of Iranians and the international community. After completing my studies, if the conditions for my safe travel are ensured, I hope that my studies here will be beneficial for Iranians and international academic and scientific circles.
During the period I have been engaged in scientific and academic activities, I have really missed my dear wife Azar and my son Amir Hossein. I know that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take care of and protect my family. I want them to know that I never abandoned them and that I will always love them. I hope to see them again and to join them after the completion of my studies.
I ask everyone to stop giving the wrong image of me.
Finally, I thank and express gratitude to the international community for its correct understanding and support for Iran's positive advances and its proud people's achievements
Thank you.
What follows is my personal analysis, which is obviously not infallible. I must add that I believe that no intelligence service, including the CIA, is above carrying out such an abduction and that Amiri may very well have been taken to the US against his will.
But I also believe that the evidence strongly suggests that both videos were made by the same intelligence service, most probably the intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in order to put pressure on the US and to discredit allegations made against the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. If this is the case, then either the person in the videos is Amiri, he was never abducted by anyone, and the whole affair was a disinformation operation from the start or the person in the videos is a lookalike employed by the IRGC. I lean towards the second option.
The videos are complementary although they are made to look as if one is genuine (Video 1 which is grainy) and the other is fabricated (Video 2 which is polished), a hurried reaction by the CIA. The messages in both, overt in Video 1 because it is supposed to be the truth and hidden in Video 2 because it is so obviously acted out that any any reasonably intelligent person is expected to believe the opposite of what is being said, is the same: 'I am not free. I was abducted. The US violates human rights and is making false accusations against the Iranian nuclear program.'
I encourage readers to freely comment at the end of the article.
Where is Shahram Amiri?
Given the Islamic Republic's astute use of disinformation in the past, it is worth asking whether Amiri is missing at all or whether he is somewhere in Iran. This is the same regime, for example, which created the story of a young woman, Saeedeh Pouraghai, who was allegedly raped and murdered by the Islamic Republic's security forces. After the opposition started reporting this 'fact,' the intelligence services presented Saeedeh, very much alive, on the evening news show '20:30.'
According to the Islamic Republic, Shahram Amiri went missing on June 2, 2009, but it was not until October 7 that Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki officially accused the US of being behind his disappearance. Meanwhile IRI Supreme National Security Council chief Saeed Jalili had been engaged in nuclear talks with US Undersecretary of State William Burns, of which even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said, 'The U.S. representative had asked for talks, Mr. Jalili welcomed the proposal, and their negotiations were fruitful.' During the same period hard-liner Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the arch-conservative Keyhan daily and the representative of the Leader at the Keyhan Institute, was writing vociferously against the talks in his newspaper's columns and wrote of Ahmadinejad's positive comments about the discussions, 'There is no doubt that Dr. Ahmadinejad’s remark was a slip of the tongue.' (For a look at the reformists' opinion of these events, please click here to go to the foreign policy web site of Sadegh Kharrazi, former ambassador to the UN and France, and senior adviser to President Mohammad Khatami.)
The fiasco that ensued -- Jalili first accepted the terms put forth at the Geneva 2 Talks, but then Leader Ali Khamenei backtracked -- indicate that there may have been serious differences in the country's senior leadership at the time. Ali Alfoneh, an expert on the IRGC at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Voice of America that Jalili would not have been able to agree to the Geneva proposals if he had not received the express acquiescence of Khamenei. He surmised that the IRGC, which is in charge of the nuclear program, had subsequently convinced Khamenei that he should not accept the terms of the agreement.
Could the Amiri affair have been designed by hardliners to derail any nuclear agreement? Could part of the intelligence services, particularly the intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards whose power has increased at the expense of the Intelligence Ministry, have organized a fake disappearance?
Not only would such a plan have been useful in sidelining those in the regime who wish to reach some sort of nuclear settlement (and they certainly exist), but Amiri could also be pulled out at an opportune time, in a grainy video somehow secreted out of an American dungeon for example, to discredit accusations against Iran's nuclear program. This week, with Russia's hardening stance towards the Islamic Republic and UN sanctions looming in the near future, appears to be just such an opportune time.
Is the man in the videos Shahram Amiri?
