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Iranian Alert -- October 16, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD PING LIST
The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 10.16.2003 | DoctorZin

Posted on 10/16/2003 12:54:48 AM PDT by DoctorZIn

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

DoctorZIn

PS I have a daily ping list and a breaking news ping list. If you would like to receive alerts to these stories please let me know which list you would like to join.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iaea; iran; iranianalert; protests; southasia; studentmovement; studentprotest
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To: DoctorZIn
Just read the post on Ebadi. Very brave, very intelligent women. If there is any hope for peace in this region of the world, people such as her must be supported. I wish her much success in her struggle.
21 posted on 10/16/2003 10:47:24 AM PDT by PigRigger (Send donations to http://www.AdoptAPlatoon.org)
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To: DoctorZIn
President's Brother Wants the Leader's Powers Curbed

October 16, 2003
The Associated Press
Dow Jones Newswires

TEHRAN -- The leader of Iran's largest reformist political party called Thursday for curbing the powers of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he and unelected bodies he runs undermine democracy.

"Hard-liners interpret the authority of the supreme leader as being above the law and not responsive to any legal elected bodies," Mohammad Reza Khatami, leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, told the annual meeting of his party.

"We believe the leader can't be above the law."

Mohammad Reza Khatami, who is also the Iranian parliament's vice speaker and a younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami, said the view by hard-liners that Khamenei is above the law and answerable only to God was tantamount to dictatorship.

For years, Iran has been embroiled in a power struggle between elected reformers supporting president Khatami's program of peaceful democratic reforms and hard-liners resisting them through powerful but unelected bodies they control, including the Guardian Council and judiciary.

"Where the ruler uses force to impose what he considers being good against the wishes and vote of the people, then he has lost the legitimacy to rule and continuation of such a rule would not be Islamic," Reza Khatami said, drawing wild applause from the audience.

Criticizing the supreme leader is considered a taboo in Iran and critics are subject to punishment. But in recent months, reformers have become bolder and directly criticized Khamenei, along with the unelected bodies he controls.

Reza Khatami said unelected hard-liners account for 15% of the population but are stubbornly resisting the program of democratic reforms voted for in several free elections since 1997.

Iranian journalists and newspapers have been under assault from the judiciary, which is run by Islamic hard-liners opposed to democratic reforms launched by Khatami since his 1997 election. Dozens of journalists and political activists have been jailed without trial, while others have faced closed trials without juries.

About 100 pro-democracy publications have been closed since April 2000.

The younger Khatami also said the murder of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, who was beaten to death while in custody, should be blamed on hard-line clerics who oppose legislation banning torture.

Zahra Kazemi, 54, died on July 10 some three weeks after being detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests. After 77 hours of interrogation, she was rushed to a hospital intensive care unit where she died 14 days later.

Reza Khatami said that the real responsibility did not lie with the person who beat her to death, but "with members of the Guardian Council who have opposed legislation banning torture."

Intelligence agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi pleaded innocent to murdering Kazemi during the first session of his trial earlier this month. Iran's Intelligence Ministry has, instead, blamed the murder on a hard-line official.

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2003101613480004&Take=1
22 posted on 10/16/2003 12:07:08 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
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To: DoctorZIn
Ebadi is a woman and as such is regarded by Khatami and other mullahs as, at best, half a human being.

She has all these fans cheering her--I put my hands
over my ears like this and sing loudly,
"LALALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

23 posted on 10/16/2003 5:26:09 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: DoctorZIn
Yes, but.

Iran allowing inspection of announced nuclear facilities--even if true (and I say, "Show me the money")--what about the rest of the vast country?

It's no doubt concealing hundreds of centrifuges--and a parallel to Al Tuwaitha's undeclared stealth lower level.

What the trade calls a limited holdout.

More rope-a-dope Iraqi three-card-Monty deja vu all over again.

24 posted on 10/16/2003 5:40:44 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: DoctorZIn
EU Big Three Exploring Last-ditch Iran Nuke Deal

October 16, 2003
MSNBC News
Reuters

Britain, France and Germany are exploring a last-ditch mission to Tehran to try to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff before a looming October 31 U.N. deadline for Tehran to prove it has no atomic arms ambitions.

Western diplomats told Reuters on Thursday delegations from the three countries held talks in Tehran this week to pave the way for a foreign ministers' visit.

''It (the visit) is a possibility. It is being studied closely at this moment,'' one senior European diplomat told Reuters.

A Western diplomat said that if the foreign ministers' visit went ahead ''they will come very soon because everyone has the (October 31) deadline in mind.''

The initiative comes from the same three countries which wrote to Tehran offering Iran the prospect of sharing technology if it stops its disputed nuclear fuel enrichment programme and accepts tougher U.N. inspections.

The joint letter delivered in early August upset fellow European Union countries who were not consulted and angered Washington which opposes any kind of deal with Tehran over the nuclear issue.

Tehran initially gave no response to the letter, but a European diplomat told Reuters that Iran's foreign minister contacted the three European capitals last week to ask them to send a discreet delegation to Tehran to discuss it further.

''There were meetings here with senior government officials from Germany, Britain and France to follow up on the letter...and to find a constructive avenue to settle this crisis peacefully,'' said a Western diplomat in Tehran.

A French diplomat in Tehran confirmed that the meetings had taken place but refused to give details of the talks.

ELBARADEI GIVEN ASSURANCES

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has given Tehran until October 31 to fully substantiate its statements that its sophisticated network of nuclear facilities are solely geared to producing electricity, not bombs.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said after meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday that he had been given assurance that Iran would clear up all of the agency's outstanding questions about its nuclear activities.

He also said officials had expressed a willingness to sign up to tough, no-notice inspections although they continued to express apprehensions about how this would work in practice.

One Western diplomat said the joint proposal by Britain Germany and France called on Iran to provide full cooperation with the IAEA, sign up to tougher inspections and stop enriching uranium.

''If they do that then the EU, or at least these three countries, would be positive about providing Iran with technology and even with nuclear technology as well as supplying nuclear fuel,'' the diplomat said.

The original British-French-German letter, whose contents were first disclosed by Reuters in September, was careful not to specifically pledge nuclear technology cooperation, although this was implied, the diplomats said.

An EU diplomat said no progress would be made on the plans for the three EU foreign ministers to visit Tehran until ElBaradei had returned to Vienna and reported on the outcome of his visit to Tehran.

The British, French and German officials who were in Tehran this week preparing the ground for the foreign ministers visit, also held a 45 minute meeting with ElBaradei in Tehran in the early hours of Thursday morning, diplomats said.

(additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi)

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters10-16-121535.asp?reg=EUROPE
25 posted on 10/16/2003 8:09:03 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
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To: PhilDragoo
Haven't you heard?
Khatami's a "credible, nice guy"?

"She has all these fans cheering her--I put my hands
over my ears like this and sing loudly,
"LALALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" "

LOL (ok, you got me twice)
26 posted on 10/16/2003 9:07:11 PM PDT by nuconvert
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To: DoctorZIn
This thread is now closed.

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread

Live Thread Ping List | DoctorZin

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”

27 posted on 10/17/2003 12:47:27 AM PDT by DoctorZIn
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To: DoctorZIn; snopercod; Jeff Head; Travis McGee; harpseal; Squantos; joanie-f; TPartyType; ...
The "Islamic Revolution" in Iran, 1979, was a Soviet KGB operation and the best that they ever pulled off; too many people, then and now, grossly underestimate the wishes of the communists, to maintain the buffer states around the [so-called "Former"] Soviet Bloc; which is exactly what Moscow did in Iran.

The Soviet Bloc has changed shape, and continues to change shape, using a variety of such tools --- just last week, with the fall of Georgia to communist control, though labeled for public consumption as the "velvet" or "rose" revolution.

The Soviet Union manipulates its buffer states for the very same reason that President Reagan "upped the ante" in the arms race --- to cause redirections of large amounts of resources and effort, to either defeat, or effectively immobilize the foe from making any serious advances.

Stalin set out long ago, to make the Middle-East and Southwestern Asia a sea of torment for "Western influence," to pit Jew versus Arab, knowing that the West would involve itself out of commercial interest, in one side or the other or both --- communist inspired "tarpits" in which to get stuck: quagmires.

Islamic fascists are perhaps one of the most opportune fronts for communist aims, because all the symbolism is readily supplied by the Islamicists, the useful [idiot] true believers who will go to any length in the name of Allah, while inadvertently advance the cause of Stalin.

Mr. Arafat is one of the best examples; a top student; communist trained.

Not Islamic trained.

Communist trained.

Now, there are many people who would like to say, "How do you know this?" Prove it.

My answer is, visit the library and start reading about communism and its toolbox for making your life miserable in the name of pursuing workers' freedom.

Yet my answer is more; because we knew what the Soviets were up to, but we did not act to stop them, in order to not reveal how we knew.

Or at least I should say that there have been rumors to that effect. Or ... I made it up. Or ... it's doublespeak. We imagine, you decide, where a straight answer cannot be offered.

This issue, by the way, is at the crux of the feud between George Bush "Senior" and Ross Perot; a dispute, during the Carter era, of how the matter should have been handled.

28 posted on 12/05/2003 7:57:28 AM PST by First_Salute
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