[IsraelTimes] The US imports 60% of its aluminum annually, prompting concerns that strikes on aluminum facilities in the UAE, Bahrain could see supply‑chain risks turn into reality
With attacks on the two biggest aluminum smelters in the Middle East over the weekend, Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... struck at major suppliers to the United States of a strategic metal that the world’s biggest economy does not produce nearly enough of domestically, analysts said.
Before the weekend, disruption from the Iran war centered around the difficulty of shipping aluminum and raw materials through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed by Tehran.
But on Saturday, Emirates Global Aluminium said its roughly 1.5 million metric ton per year Al Taweelah site in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, had sustained significant damage from Iranian attacks. Aluminium Bahrain said its 1.6 million ton per year plant was targeted on the same day.
Neither company has since provided an update on operations. But the attacks have abruptly shifted concerns from temporary shipping snarls to a potentially more serious threat to production in the region.
"That changes the nature of the risk," Paul Adkins, head of aluminum consultancy AZ Global, wrote on LinkedIn.
London Metal Exchange aluminum prices reacted on Monday, leaping 6% to $3,492 a ton, close to a four-year high.
"In this sort of market, when you suddenly take out 3 million tons of capacity, it cannot be replaced," said Panmure Liberum analyst Tom Price.
US DOMESTIC PRODUCTION DWARFED BY MIDDLE EAST
Aluminum — widely used in cars and packaging and named on the list of 60 minerals the US government deems critical — is now seeing supply‑chain risks turn into reality.
The US has a 60% net reliance on aluminum imports, according to the US Geological Survey. It produced just 660,000 tons of primary aluminum itself in 2025, or less than half the output of Alba alone.
Of the 3.4 million tons of total US imports of primary and alloyed aluminum last year, supplies from the Middle East accounted for nearly 22%, according to information provider Trade Data Monitor.
The UAE and Bahrain, which, through EGA and Alba, make up more than two-thirds of the Gulf region’s aluminum production, were the United States’ second- and fourth-biggest suppliers, respectively.
Iran said both EGA and Alba were linked to US military industries, and the attacks followed Israeli strikes on two Iranian steel operations.
Analysts, however, are skeptical.
"There’s no direct link to the US military other than that some of their metal might eventually go into military application through a long chain of changing hands and processing," said Wood Mackenzie senior research manager Uday Patel.
Wood Mackenzie estimates the US military and defense industries consume 450,000 tons of aluminum annually.
Price said he believed the US military sources most of its aluminum from Canada.
But while the US military may not be directly impacted, that does not mean Iran’s targeting of Gulf output and a potential deepening of the conflict are not inflicting damage on the US and other major economies.
"The stresses are already starting to show in terms of industrial activity and further hampering planning, which was already struggling on high levels of uncertainty," StoneX analyst Natalie Scott-Gray wrote in a note.
#4
Guess maybe the super-duper AI should be put to task identifying and scoring US target risks in the region.
I wonder who might have suggested targeting aluminum smelters.
Russian aluminum
**Russian aluminum** is primarily produced by **Rusal (United Company RUSAL)**, the world's second-largest aluminum company by primary production output, with headquarters in **Moscow, Russia**, and operations in 13 countries.
* **Market Impact & Sanctions**: In **March 2023**, the **U.S. imposed a 200% tariff** on Russian aluminum and all products containing Russian aluminum, followed by a ban on imports of Russian-origin aluminum produced on or after **April 13, 2024**, which slashed U.S. imports by over 90%.
* **Recent Developments**: As of **2025**, Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed supplying up to **2 million metric tons** of aluminum annually to the U.S. market and suggested joint hydropower and aluminum production projects, though current trade flows remain heavily restricted.
* **Production Scale**: Rusal accounts for approximately **9% of the world's primary aluminum output** and **6.5% of alumina production**, with 2025 financials showing revenue of **$14.8 billion** and 64,000 employees.
* **Key Assets**: The company operates **eight aluminum smelters** and **four alumina refineries** in Russia, including the **Krasnoyarsk** and **Boguchansky** facilities, and is expanding into rare earth metals like **scandium**.
#6
Aluminum products? or Bauxite? The UAE is the second largest aluminum products exporter to the US, but it's like 300k tons versus 3.5M tons of product from Canada. And domestic production from recycled aluminum almost exactly matched that 3.5M tons from Canada. As for Bauxite, that's almost exclusively Jamaica and Brazil, with almost all of it from Jamaica. It's a Western Hemisphere supply chain. Bauxite imports have been dropping year over year due to all that recycling, and sooner or later domestic production of aluminum from bauxite (which is 100% imported material) will be negligible, right now it's about 500k tons. I'm pretty sure this story is just BS PR from a financial analyst looking for war profits.
Posted by: Lost My Cookies ||
03/31/2026 12:08 Comments ||
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#7
I've finally been called up for the duty I was made for! I won't disappoint you guys!
Posted by: chris ||
03/31/2026 12:20 Comments ||
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#8
America can manufacture everything we need.
If we dont make it, there's probably a law or regulation that gives the competitive advantage to a foreign power or foreign transnational corporation.
We have a major 500,000-ton-per-year alumina refinery in Burnside, LA, has been sitting idle since August 2020.
#9
#7 - Help us Obi Wan Chris! You're our only hope!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/31/2026 12:32 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Much-missed Rantburg moderator Sherry grew up in the small, former mining town of Bauxite, so we can definitely produce the stuff from native materials…
#11
It is pretty abundant stuff and we can get it from Canada, Mexico, South America, Australia, etc.
Also we can refine it here, especially in Texas as it requires a lot of cheap energy and Texas has that from the natural gas from fracking with new gas power plants coming online.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Turkish military forces intercepted a ballistic missile, presumably launched from Iran, in Turkish airspace. The country's Defense Ministry reported this on March 30.
"A ballistic missile, presumably launched from Iran and entering Turkish airspace, was neutralized by NATO air defense and missile defense units deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean," the Turkish ministry said in a statement.
This incident is the fourth since the escalation of the military conflict in the Middle East. The first time, a ballistic missile was shot down over Turkey was on March 4. The threat was promptly detected and neutralized. No one was injured as a result of the missile debris falling. On March 13, NATO forces destroyed another ballistic missile over Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that the country has no intention of becoming a party to the conflict in the Middle East.
The enemy always has a vote.
He claimed that the parties involved are resorting to subterfuge to draw other countries into the fighting.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/31/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1775 views]
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#1
Where the fuck else would it be launched from?
Posted by: chris ||
03/31/2026 1:58 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Suspect identified by security source as junior officer in the PA police; military said hours earlier it had prevented two other attempted attacks on troops
Israel Defense Force soldiers shot and killed a suspect in the West Bank on Monday after, according to the military, he accelerated his vehicle toward them in a threatening manner, in the third incident to apparently target troops in the West Bank within less than 24 hours.
No Israeli injuries were reported in the incident, which took place near Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank.
A security source later identified the suspect as Abd al-Rahman Mahza Abu al-Rub, a junior officer in the Paleostinian Authority’s Tulkarem police department. He held a rank equivalent to lieutenant.
The military, in a statement, said that al-Rab had accelerated toward troops stationed at the Einav checkpoint near Tulkarem "in a manner that posed a threat," leading soldiers to open fire and "neutralize" him in response.
The Paleostinian Authority health minister later confirmed al-Rub’s death, and said the IDF had taken away his body.
Earlier on Monday, the military announced that it had halted two separate attacks on troops, including another attempted ramming.
It said that in the Paleostinian town of al-Ram in the central West Bank, troops fired at a man who accelerated his car toward them in a manner that constituted a threat and neutralized him.
And in Dura, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, the IDF said forces identified a man running at them with a knife. It said the troops opened fire and killed the would-be attacker.
PA security sources identified the dead man as Ramzi Awawada, 22, and accused the soldiers of leaving him to bleed to death and preventing rescuers from reaching him.
Paleostinian health officials said the IDF had taken his body away.
[IsraelTimes] Leaders order IDF to cause economic damage to Iranian regime, after nearly finishing bombing all military targets outlined at start of campaign
A month into the war with Iran, the Israeli military has almost completed bombing all of the targets it defined for itself at the start of the conflict, and has now been ordered by Israel’s politicianship to shift to hitting "economic" targets of the Iranian regime, The Times of Israel learned on Monday.
Israel launched its campaign against Iran, alongside the United States, to degrade the regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and "create the conditions" for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.
The Israeli Air Force has conducted hundreds of waves of strikes in Iran, dropping over 13,000 bombs on Iranian regime and military sites, including air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, weapon production sites, some nuclear facilities, and various headquarters.
Israeli strikes have also killed dozens of top Iranian officials, including former supreme leader Ali Khamnieni, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Pakpour, and many other senior military commanders.
On Saturday, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said that "within a few days" the military would complete targeting all of the "critical" assets of Iran’s military production industries, sites used to develop weapons that threaten Israel. The military has also said it has taken out most of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers and air defense systems.
Israel’s defense establishment is now in what it described as the "completion phase" of the goals it set out at the start of the war, meaning it believes it has largely achieved its objectives of degrading Iran’s military capabilities and "creating the conditions" for the Iranian regime to fall, The Times of Israel has learned.
While Israel has carried out several strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities during the current conflict, as well as in the 12-day war in June 2025, the effort against the Iranian nuclear program is being led by the US. This includes the issue of Iran’s stockpile of over 400 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, which Israeli officials say is enough for 11 nuclear bombs.
The Times of Israel has learned that the defense establishment believes that the Iranian weapon production capabilities have been severely degraded, setting Iran back years. The goal of "creating the conditions" for the Iranian regime to topple has also been achieved "above and beyond," according to the defense establishment, although it still remains unclear when, or if, the Iranian population will rise up against its oppressive government.
As the IDF has almost completed bombing all of Iran’s weapon production sites, Israeli leaders, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, have ordered the military to carry out strikes on targets that cause economic blows to the Iranian regime.
This included a strike on major Iranian gas infrastructure in the country’s south nearly two weeks ago, and strikes on two of Iran’s largest steel factories on Friday. In both cases, Israel aimed to cause massive economic damage to the Iranian regime, according to security sources.
Unusually, the IDF did not comment on either strike.
Last week, US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... threatened to target Iranian energy sites, giving Iran a deadline of April 6 to agree to an American proposal to end the war. As such, Israel has also agreed to suspend strikes on energy infrastructure in Iran, and instead has targeted other sites that cause economic damage, such as the steel plants.
The Times of Israel has learned that additional such strikes against Iranian economic targets are planned by Israel’s defense establishment, aimed at causing even more damage to the regime.
In addition to the strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, the US is also leading the effort to reopen the key Strait of Hormuz, with recent reports suggesting the US has been preparing options for ground operations in Iran. According to Israeli defense sources, the IDF has provided the US with intelligence regarding the strait and nearby islands, including Kharg Island.
[IsraelTimes] Lebanon demanding Ukraine hand over suspect who was detained for planting IED near terror group’s stronghold and managed to flee to Kyiv’s embassy after strike damaged building where he was held
Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... has asked Ukraine’s embassy in Beirut to hand over a man taking refuge there who is suspected of working with Israel’s Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... spy agency, a security bigshot and a Hezbollah source told AFP on Monday.
Lebanon and Israel have officially been at war for decades, and Lebanese security services have arrested dozens of people on suspicion of working for Israel, many of whom were recruited online following the country’s economic collapse beginning in 2019.
The Hezbollah source said it had detained a Syrian-Paleostinian national, who also holds Ukrainian citizenship, in September after he parked a cycle of violence on a road leading to Beirut airport through the city’s southern suburbs — where the Iran-backed terror group exercises a de facto security role.
The motorbike "was planted with an bomb disguised as a battery," the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss security issues.
Hezbollah held the man until its war with Israel erupted earlier this month.
On March 6, Israel’s military struck a building in the southern suburbs next to where he was imprisoned, enabling him to escape to the Ukrainian embassy, the source added.
Lebanon’s General Security agency said it managed to arrest five alleged members of the group that had been working with the man and referred them to the judiciary.
Hassan Choukeir, head of General Security, told AFP that "the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon contacted us on March 10 requesting us to authorize its citizen... who was present there and had lost his passport, to leave through Beirut airport."
"After checking his name and photograph, we became aware that he is wanted by the Lebanese judiciary and is the subject of a number of search and investigation notices from Lebanese security agencies," he added.
Choukeir said authorities told the embassy it was obliged to hand the man over, adding he was "wanted for involvement in a cell belonging to Israel’s Mossad planning liquidations and bombings in Beirut’s southern suburbs."
The Ukrainian embassy did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East conflict when the Tehran-backed terror group fired rockets at Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Theocratic Republic. Israel has been carrying out almost daily strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in the month that followed.
In October, a judicial source told AFP that more than 30 people had been arrested on suspicion of providing Israel with precise information on Hezbollah facilities and the movements of its members during its previous war with Israel in 2023 and 2024.
People convicted of working for Israel have been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison in the past.
Over the past 24 hours, the IDF struck 170 targets belonging to the Iranian terrorist regime using approximately 400 munitions.
As part of the wave of strikes, the IDF continued to deepen the damage to the regime’s weapons production industry.
Among the sites targeted:
🔹 A central site used to produce key components for a variety of weapons in Iran
🔹 Sites used for the production of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) engines
🔹 An industrial complex where components for weapons were developed and a research and development site
In parallel, in western Iran, the IDF struck several key headquarters of armed forces subordinate to the Iranian terrorist regime, including the main Basij compound in the city of Dehgolan and a police station of the Internal Security Forces in the city of Sanandaj.
🇮🇱💥Israel Is Hunting Down Iranian Regime Members:
Israel combines human intelligence and advanced technology to keep high-ranking Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iranian officials under constant surveillance.
Israel combines human intelligence and advanced technology to keep high-ranking Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iranian officials under constant surveillance.
Leading intelligence units like Mossad and Unit 8200 have reportedly spent years infiltrating infrastructure mapping everything from traffic cameras to mobile networks to track key personnel.
This effort is supercharged by AI tools like the "Habsora" system, which sifts through massive data sets to identify targets at lightning speed.
On the ground, Israel invests heavily in recruiting informants within Iran and Palestinian territories.
These sources provide the "boots on the ground" intel, travel routes and hidden locations needed for precision strikes.
According to Hengaw, a Norway-based human rights organization, he is the first reported Iranian child soldier to be killed since the escalation of the war in the Middle East.
He was initially reported as a civilian casualty, but the "Teacher's Basij" organization later confirmed that he died "while on duty." According to his mother, he was at the checkpoint with his father due to a shortage of personnel...
Earlier, Al Arabiya reported that the Islamic regime in Iran had lowered the conscription age and resumed recruiting minors into the armed forces. Teenagers have reportedly been assigned to checkpoints and patrol duties in Tehran.
Similar practices were used during the Iran-Iraq War, when children aged 9-12 [perhaps as many as 100,000 killed] were sent en masse to clear minefields, with the full approval of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Alireza Jafari, an 11-year-old boy, has been identified as a child soldier killed while serving at an IRGC checkpoint in Tehran.
According to Hengaw, a Norway-based human rights organization, he is the first reported Iranian child soldier to be killed since the escalation of the… pic.twitter.com/lln74xIxua
El líder de la organización terrorista, Naim Qassem, y su alto mando han sido eliminados en una serie de ataques aéreos israelíes quirúrgicos sobre Beirut.
#1
OOHRAH! (Or use your own respective war cry of choice. Yah, that's Marine, I was Army. But in my jump School class, Army was outnumbered by Marines and SEALs. Weird class. It had an effect.)
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/31/2026 2:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Thank God Almighty, and the IDF. Long overdue and more than justified.
The UN observer mission in Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... said two of its personnel were killed Monday in the second deadly incident in 24 hours in the country’s south, where Israel and Hezbollah are fighting.
The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said two Indonesian observer force members were killed "when a kaboom of unknown origin destroyed their vehicle." Two other peacekeepers were maimed, one of them seriously.
Also in the south, Lebanon’s army said an Israeli strike killed one of its soldiers, while the IDF announced that three top Hezbollah operatives responsible for the coordination between the Lebanese terror group and Paleostinian terror organizations were killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East conflict when the Tehran-backed terror group fired rockets at Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Theocratic RepublicIsrael has responded with broad strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive in the south. Lebanese authorities say more than 1,200 people have been killed since the hostilities began, though, they don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military has said that it has killed some 800 Hezbollah operatives.
UNIFIL said it had launched an investigation into Monday’s deaths, which came a day after another Indonesian peacekeeper was killed and three others maimed by a projectile, also of unknown provenance, that went kaboom! near a UNIFIL position.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday it was also investigating the two incidents "in order to clarify the circumstances and determine whether they resulted from Hezbollah activity or from IDF activity."
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, strongly condemned "these unacceptable incidents," adding that "all acts that endanger the peacekeepers must stop."
Permanent Security Council member La Belle France said it was seeking a meeting of the body over the matter, while Spain also condemned the deadly attacks.
IDF: STRIKE KILLS HEZBOLLAH COMMANDERS WHO LIAISED WITH PALESTINIAN TERROR GROUPS
Also on Monday, two strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, one targeting an apartment in the Bir Hassan district, according to an AFP photographer, who said Hezbollah button men then cordoned off the site.
The IDF said one strike in Beirut killed top Hezbollah commanders responsible for the coordination between the Lebanese terror group and Paleostinian terror organizations.
The military said the strike in the Lebanese capital targeted and killed Hamza Ibrahim Rakhin, the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s Unit 1800, along with the unit’s chief of operations and another operative.
"Unit 1800 is the unit responsible for coordination between the Hezbollah terror organization and Paleostinian terror organizations in Lebanon, Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , Syria, and Judea and Samaria (West Bank)," the IDF said in a statement.
The military said that as part of his role, the deputy chief of Unit 1800 also oversaw the deployment of Paleostinian terror operatives in southern Lebanon to confront Israeli troops.
A Lebanese security source told AFP that three Hezbollah members were killed in the strike and three others were maimed.
An eyewitness who declined to be identified said victims were evacuated following the strike, which came after an Israeli army warning for parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, where most residents have fled.
The building is located in a residential neighborhood packed with shops and commercial establishments, several of which were damaged, the photographer said.
In other strikes in Beirut on Monday, the IDF said, it bombed Hezbollah headquarters and command centers.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, claimed a series of attacks against Israeli targets in south Lebanon and across the border, including one targeting an intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
The terror group also claimed its fighters were engaged in "fierce festivities" with Israeli forces in south Lebanon’s Ainata.
Ten IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah, including four on Monday. Two civilians have been killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.
Hezbollah has been firing hundreds of rockets per day, according to the IDF. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the vast majority of the daily rocket fire has been directed at Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon, with only a few dozen projectiles crossing the border into Israel.
Israeli officials have said the IDF is establishing a demilitarized "security zone" in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, until the threat of Hezbollah is removed.
The buffer zone would be controlled with surveillance and firepower, as well as ground troops in areas deemed strategically necessary, the military has said. Defense Minister Israel Katz has said he instructed the IDF to raze all buildings in the so-called "first line" of Lebanese villages close to the Israeli border, to ensure Hezbollah cannot use them to stage attacks on Israel.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
