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Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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

1 posted on 12/05/2003 12:10:29 AM PST by DoctorZIn
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To: Pan_Yans Wife; fat city; freedom44; Tamsey; Grampa Dave; PhiKapMom; McGavin999; Hinoki Cypress; ...
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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

2 posted on 12/05/2003 12:12:55 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
YEARNING FOR FREEDOM

Iran forces quell massive uprising

Protesters gunned down as people resist Revolutionary Guard assault

Posted: December 5, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Guard forces under the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly killed a 10-year-old boy in the country's minority Baloch region yesterday, touching off a massive uprising against the Islamic regime countered by a deadly crackdown and imposition of martial law, according to sources on the scene.

Amid burning banks, stores and government offices, at least 30 Baloch protesters are dead and 80 injured in the southeastern city of Saravan near the Pakistani border, said Malek Meerdora, who immigrated to Canada from the city in 1993.

Meerdora told WorldNetDaily the Iranian government has attempted to shut off communication from the city, but he has been in contact with sources there via satellite telephone and the Internet.

He said soldiers approached the 10-year-old, Haroun Balochzahi, and grabbed his bike from him, insisting on a bribe. The boy did not speak Farsi, the majority language, and responded by biting a soldier and running. The youth was shelled with bullets in front of people on the streets and died on the spot, Meerdora said, prompting an immediate reaction.

In an unusual display of resistance to the hard-line, cleric-led regime, a crowd set a military jeep on fire and began beating the soldiers, Meerdora said.

Later, at about 1:30 p.m., thousands of Balochs, including many from surrounding cities, began to congregate on the streets in protest.

Revolutionary Guard soldiers opened fire on the crowd, hitting up to 80 people, witnesses claimed.

The entire city and surrounding area is raised up against the Tehran government, Meerdora said, burning down symbols of the regime and attacking Iranian officials.

Crowds reached the offices of the mayor, commissioners and chief of police and beat them, he said, and many soldiers have been beaten by unarmed citizens.

The director of the hospital has been warned by the government to not take in any wounded protesters, and some Balochs have been shot in front of the hospital, according to Meerdora's sources.

He said security forces went to the hospital and killed people in their rooms.

About 300 people have been jailed, and uncooperative prisoners have had their tongues cut out, he said.

"I mark this as a day of revolution," Meerdora said. "I think the Iranian government will face more problems."

He said throughout the evening, Revolutionary Guard forces watched over the people from roof tops, prepared to fire at anyone who moves from his home.

No one is allowed to enter or leave the city, he added.

Similar to the Kurds, the Balochs, who comprise 2 percent of Iran's population, regard themselves as a nation separated by borders – in their case the frontier between Iran and Pakistan, which also has a sizable Baloch minority.

Politically the Baloch identify as Muslims, but most do not practice Islam, Meerdora said.

Some analysts say Iran's theocratic regime is unraveling, as resistance movements, including one led by students, grow stronger.

"This theocratic regime is in shambles, coming to the end of its rope," according to Fereydoun Hoveyda, senior fellow at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York City. "People are not afraid of it anymore."

Hoveyda contends, however, Western nations have adopted a flawed policy that focuses on support of President Mohammad Khatami's reform movement rather than on a secular, democratic movement led by students. He adds that while Arabs in many lands danced in the streets in praise of the Sept. 11 attackers, "ordinary Iranians were the only Muslims to openly condemn them and express sympathy to the American people."

"The American press, as well as the [U.S.] government, misreads the events in Iran," Hoveyda said in an interview with WorldNetDaily last fall. "They think that there is one reformist movement, represented by Khatami."

Khatami, he points out, is against dismissing the Islamic regime, which came into power after the ruling shah was forced into exile amid seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militant students. The U.S. no longer has diplomatic relations with Iran.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35967
3 posted on 12/05/2003 12:16:50 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
Iran nuclear freeze should be permanent-France

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
04 Dec 2003 22:11:56 GMT

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - France is determined to ensure that Iran permanently freezes experiments to make enriched uranium and plutonium, which could be used in nuclear weapons, its foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

The spokesman, Herve Ladsous, said he believes a permanent freeze is still possible, despite a senior Iranian official's recent assertion that "there has been and will be no question of a permanent suspension or halt at all."

Ladsous, in Washington to meet U.S. officials, discussed the situation in Iran and Iraq and other issues of concern to both nations at a breakfast with a small group of reporters.

The U.N.'s watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week condemned Iran's 18-year cover-up of sensitive nuclear research, including uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, and said any further serious breaches of non-proliferation obligations would not be tolerated.

The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear power as a front to build a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.

Ladsous refused to take sides, saying "I don't think we pass judgment on what the intentions are. We stick to the facts."

The IAEA concluded in a recent report that it had seen "no evidence" Iran did have a covert weapons program but said the jury was still out as to whether one existed.

Faced with concerted international pressure, Iran agreed on Oct. 21 after talks with France, Britain and Germany to allow snap inspections of its nuclear sites and suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used to make fuel for bombs.

ROHANI COMMENTS

But U.S. officials said the deal was in doubt after the official who negotiated with the Europeans -- Hasan Rohani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council -- said the decision to suspend uranium enrichment was "voluntary and temporary" and Tehran wanted to "control the whole (nuclear) fuel cycle."

Asked if France intended that Iran's "freeze" in nuclear enrichment and reprocessing activities be permanent, Ladsous said: "That is what we have on our mind, definitely."

"We did not say it in so many words because we're dealing with a country which has its sensitivities, but yeah, the objective is to have an Iran with peaceful atomic energy (and) prevent proliferation of mass destruction weapons," he said.

As a signer of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, Iran is permitted to have a civilian nuclear energy program but is forbidden from developing or possessing nuclear weapons.

Hardliners control all security and foreign policy levers in the Islamic republic but the country is embroiled in a vigorous debate over its future.

Ladsous said while some Iranians oppose the Oct. 21 agreement with the Europeans, he believes Rohani worked hard to get the deal approved by his government.

The spokesman described a scene in which the three European foreign ministers watched on Oct. 21 as Rohani paused the talks so he could speak on three cell phones at once with other Iranian government officials.

"He really wanted to make a deal ... but then he wanted to secure support and agreement from everybody in the (Iranian) system," Ladsous said.

The spokesman expressed confidence that a "process" to rid Iran of unacceptable nuclear activities was underway.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04305683.htm
5 posted on 12/05/2003 12:21:11 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
ElBaradei rejects criticism of UN's Iran inspections

MSNBC
VIENNA, Dec. 4

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Thursday rejected criticism of its failure to detect Iran's clandestine experiments to make enriched uranium and plutonium, saying they were practically undetectable.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said Iran had yet to sign a protocol accepting more intrusive snap inspections, though diplomats said it was too early to say whether Tehran was stalling.

Iran acknowledged to the IAEA in October that it hid a secret centrifuge uranium enrichment programme from U.N. inspectors for nearly two decades.

ElBaradei said Iran's laboratory-scale experiments, which Washington said were further proof that Tehran has been secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, were on too small a scale to be easily detected by his inspectors.

''People have been saying Iran has been cheating the agency, if you like, for 18 years,'' ElBaradei told reporters. ''Yes, Iran has been successful in doing research and laboratory activities and this we were not able to detect, and I don't think we will be able to detect in the future.

''But...if a country moves from research...to an industrial scale to develop weapons, I think the system, with all the technology that we have, makes it highly unlikely that this kind of programme would go on undetected.''

The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear power programme as a front to build an atom bomb. Tehran denies this.

While the IAEA concluded in a recent report that it had seen ''no evidence'' Iran did have a covert weapons programme, it said the jury was still out as to whether one existed.

ElBaradei said that no matter how thorough and intrusive inspections are, there are clear limits to what they can detect.

''There will always be easily concealable items -- one centrifuge or two centrifuges operating somewhere or a computer study,'' he said.

ELBARADEI CRITICISES WASHINGTON

In a separate interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, ElBaradei said Washington was setting a bad example for would-be nuclear proliferators by research into so-called ''mini nukes.''

The United States, like Iran, is a signatory of the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). By signing the treaty as a nuclear power, Washington has pledged to gradually disarm.

''If you see Congress unblocking millions of dollars for research into mini nuclear bombs, one understands that far from aiming for nuclear disarmament, the United States seeks to improve its arsenal,'' he said in the interview to appear in the paper's Friday edition.

ElBaradei also said Iran had not yet told him when it would sign an NPT protocol permitting more intrusive, short-notice IAEA inspections but he expected it to sign soon, as promised.

Several non-U.S. diplomats told Reuters they did not consider the fact that Iran had not signed the NPT protocol as proof Tehran was stalling.

ElBaradei said the agency was in the process of contacting companies and individuals who had been involved with Iran's purchase of centrifuge components, which it said were contaminated with weapons-grade uranium.

Although he did not name names, diplomats and arms experts have said Pakistan was the likely origin of Iran's European-developed centrifuge designs and much of its hardware.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters12-04-035832.asp?reg=MIDEAST
6 posted on 12/05/2003 12:32:07 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
Iran nuclear freeze should be permanent-France

Reuters
Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - France is determined to ensure that Iran permanently freezes experiments to make enriched uranium and plutonium, which could be used in nuclear weapons, its foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

The spokesman, Herve Ladsous, said he believes a permanent freeze is still possible, despite a senior Iranian official's recent assertion that "there has been and will be no question of a permanent suspension or halt at all."

Ladsous, in Washington to meet U.S. officials, discussed the situation in Iran and Iraq and other issues of concern to both nations at a breakfast with a small group of reporters.

The U.N.'s watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week condemned Iran's 18-year cover-up of sensitive nuclear research, including uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, and said any further serious breaches of non-proliferation obligations would not be tolerated.

The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear power as a front to build a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.

Ladsous refused to take sides, saying "I don't think we pass judgment on what the intentions are. We stick to the facts."

The IAEA concluded in a recent report that it had seen "no evidence" Iran did have a covert weapons program but said the jury was still out as to whether one existed.

Faced with concerted international pressure, Iran agreed on Oct. 21 after talks with France, Britain and Germany to allow snap inspections of its nuclear sites and suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used to make fuel for bombs.

ROHANI COMMENTS

But U.S. officials said the deal was in doubt after the official who negotiated with the Europeans -- Hasan Rohani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council -- said the decision to suspend uranium enrichment was "voluntary and temporary" and Tehran wanted to "control the whole (nuclear) fuel cycle."

Asked if France intended that Iran's "freeze" in nuclear enrichment and reprocessing activities be permanent, Ladsous said: "That is what we have on our mind, definitely."

"We did not say it in so many words because we're dealing with a country which has its sensitivities, but yeah, the objective is to have an Iran with peaceful atomic energy (and) prevent proliferation of mass destruction weapons," he said.

As a signer of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, Iran is permitted to have a civilian nuclear energy program but is forbidden from developing or possessing nuclear weapons.

Hardliners control all security and foreign policy levers in the Islamic republic but the country is embroiled in a vigorous debate over its future.

Ladsous said while some Iranians oppose the Oct. 21 agreement with the Europeans, he believes Rohani worked hard to get the deal approved by his government.

The spokesman described a scene in which the three European foreign ministers watched on Oct. 21 as Rohani paused the talks so he could speak on three cell phones at once with other Iranian government officials.

"He really wanted to make a deal ... but then he wanted to secure support and agreement from everybody in the (Iranian) system," Ladsous said.

The spokesman expressed confidence that a "process" to rid Iran of unacceptable nuclear activities was underway.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04305683.htm
9 posted on 12/05/2003 8:11:50 AM PST by F14 Pilot
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To: DoctorZIn
Iranian Opposition Supporters Voice Discontent with Regime
AEI hosts radio talk show connecting U.S. and Iran



By Afzal Khan
Washington File Special Correspondent

Washington -- The growing opposition to the Islamic regime in Iran found expression during an intercontinental radio talk show connecting Iranian opposition supporters with Iranian Americans December 3.

The event was organized by the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and was broadcast live by the Farsi-language radio station "Radio Sedaye Iran (KRSI)" that broadcasts daily into Iran from Los Angeles, California. A panel of Iranian-American activists invited by AEI joined in the discussions with opposition activists from within Iran participating by phone.

The callers from Iran, who used pseudonyms for security reasons, were united in their belief that the so-called reforms promised by the Islamic regime are a sham and that true freedom and democracy can only return to Iran with the removal of the "mullah-ridden" government there.

A caller identifying herself as a housewife said, "We gave President Khatami six and a half years to impose his reforms, but nothing has happened. We don't trust him," she said

The housewife, who claimed to be a member of the "activist" movement in Iran, said that democracy cannot "co-exist" with an Islamic regime, and that religion must be divorced from government.

Asked what the United States can do to help the democracy movement in Iran, she said the U.S. government must not "support" or encourage the Islamic regime. Instead, the Bush administration should "boycott" the regime, she said.

She said she was part of a large group of Iranians who on September 11, 2001 took part in a candlelight procession. "Many of us were arrested and taken to solitary cells," she said.

A student under the pseudonym of "Ms. Nargess" called on the United States to play "a bigger role" against the Islamic regime by providing support to the opposition media.

"Nargess" said that as a woman living in Iran, she wanted a secular government, not an Islamic one.

The third caller, identifying himself as a university professor, said that Iranians for the last 25 years have been denied freedom.

He said the 65 million people in Iran have "God-given rights" and that they should be allowed to hold a referendum to choose their government, "be it a monarchy or a Khomeini-like one."

The professor urged Iranians living abroad to help the opposition. He pointed out that radio programs beamed into Iran need to be more sophisticated and have "interesting programs" such as on human rights, instead of just rhetoric against the Islamic regime.

A fourth caller said that he is "a handicapped man" as a result of wounds suffered during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

He said he is a practicing Muslim who wanted the opposition to be more organized. "We want the United States to recognize us," he said.

The fifth caller, "Hassan," said he too was handicapped from wounds sustained in the Iran-Iraq war.

"Hassan" said the highly touted reforms are "done and finished" and the people in Iran are "fed-up and cannot take it anymore."

The sixth caller, describing himself as a poet, complained about the dire economic conditions facing many Iranians. He said he knew many jobless people who eat just one meal a day of "only potatoes and no meat or chicken."

In answer to a question from AEI moderator, Danielle Pletka, a caller identifying herself as "Miss Iran" said activists in the student movement were going to boycott the parliamentary elections planned by the regime in February.

Another caller, "Mohammad," said that "two months ago" posters to boycott the elections began appearing on walls.

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=December&x=20031204185336retsurbmraw0.4855463&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
12 posted on 12/05/2003 10:37:36 AM PST by freedom44
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To: DoctorZIn
Iranians overwhelmingly against being a non-Arab member in the "Arab League".


Iran has expressed interest to join the Arab League as an observer (non-voting member). Should it or not ?
-- Not sure 6.30 % (22)
-- No 70.77 % (247)
-- Yes 22.92 % (80)

http://www.mashregh.com/poll/iranian/
18 posted on 12/05/2003 11:24:05 AM PST by freedom44
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To: DoctorZIn
Amr Mousa Hopes Iran Joins Arab League

December 05, 2003
Saudi Press Agency
SPA

Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Mousa has underlined the importance of enhancing Arab-Iranian relations.

In a statement to the Iranian News Agency, Mousa said intensive efforts should be exerted to enhance these relations.

He noted that the proposal of Iran to join the Arab League with the status of observer, would be discussed at the meeting of the Arab League
next March.

'It is hoped that the Arab League will positively view the Iranian proposal', he said.

http://www.spa.gov.sa/html/archive_e.asp?srcfile=598662&NDay=05/12/2003&wcatg=0
19 posted on 12/05/2003 11:24:28 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
Rocket Man Rejects Iranian Offer to Develop his Pulsejet

December 05, 2003
New Zealand News
Scott MacLeod

An engineer who made global headlines while building a cruise missile in his garage has spurned an offer from an Iranian firm to develop his jet engines.

Tokoroa's Bruce Simpson said the firm was linked to the aerospace and missile industries. He also had nibbles from Lebanon, Pakistan and China.

"I contacted the SIS, who promptly arrived on my doorstep without even asking for directions," Mr Simpson said on his website. "They advised that it was most certainly not a sensible thing to do."

Mr Simpson instead signed a heads of agreement with a United States firm that would have set up a research and development plant in the Waikato.

But the deal was scuttled on Monday because Mr Simpson was bankrupted by the Inland Revenue Department over unpaid taxes.

A bitter Mr Simpson said the department was stupid to quash a deal that would have let the tax be paid.

The venture would have reaped cash "hundreds of times the value of the outstanding debt".

The department's Alison Welch rejected the claims, saying the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and members of Parliament had looked at the case.

Mr Simpson, 49, is an engineer, website developer and software technician who spent four years perfecting his "X-Jet", similar to the pulse-jets that powered Germany's V-1 missiles in World War II.

His GPS-guided missile has a normal pulse-jet and is meant to fly 160km with a 10kg warhead.

Six weeks ago, Mr Simpson advertised for volunteers to help with a test flight, but yesterday said the missile was no longer in his possession.

Its whereabouts would be "kept secret until an appropriate time".

The Defence Force refused to help with the test-flight, in which the 640km/h missile would have flown a square course with 10km legs.

Mr Simpson took just 10 hours to make a pulse-jet out of trash on the British television show Scrapheap Challenge.

The episode, seen by millions of viewers in England in October and the United States last month, showed Mr Simpson's team of Navy sailors fix the jet to a kart which hit 64km/h, beating a rival team.

Scrapheap co-host Lisa Rogers said it was "the most astounding bit of engineering I've ever seen on the show".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3537971&thesection=news&thesubsection=general
20 posted on 12/05/2003 11:30:33 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
'Five Dead in Iran Riot'

December 05, 2003
bbc.co.uk
BBC World Service

Reports from south-east Iran say several people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and police.

An Iranian member of parliament from the region, Jafar Kambouzia, was quoted as saying five people were killed in the clashes.

They took place on Thursday in Saravan, in Baluchistan province, near Iran's borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mr Kambouzia said the clashes broke out when police shot and killed a motorcyclist who had refused to stop.

Correspondents say there is often tension in Baluchistan province, which has a Sunni Muslim majority, unlike the rest of Iran.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3295337.stm
22 posted on 12/05/2003 12:25:08 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
Iran's Mullahs Try Hard, Turn Iran To Iranestan

Iranian.ws
Dec 5, 2003, 21:38

Iran news - You(Iranian) better start getting used to being called an arab and very soon will be Iranestan, instead of Iran.

The Arab League on Wednesday welcomed the prospect of non-Arab nations Iran and Turkey joining the organization as observers. "We welcome Iran's and Turkey's requests" to join the Arab League as observers, Secretary General Amr Mussa told reporters at Cairo airport before leaving for the United States. Mussa said the league received similar requests "from neighboring countries and countries from Latin America," adding that these requests "are currently studied as part of changes concerning the restructuring of the league."

Iran's deputy foreign minister for Middle East and North African affairs, Mohammad Sobhani, "presented the request that Iran become an observer at the Arab League during his meeting with Amr Mussa on November 13," an Iranian paper reported Monday. Meanwhile, Mussa said in January that Turkey could enter the organization as an observer. Established in 1945, the 22-member Arab League is based in Cairo.

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_890.shtml
25 posted on 12/05/2003 2:02:45 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
Saddam and Conspiracy Theories by Amir Taheri

Arab News
8.5.2003

We don-t know if Saddam Hussein, in his hide-out, reads the Arab press these days. If he were he would not be too happy with the way his self-styled friends are commenting on his life work.

Broadly speaking, Saddam-s demise has produced three positions among those who lament it.

The first comes from nostalgics of pan-Arabism who would rather have Iraq crucified for decades than witness an Arab despot thrown out of his palace by the Americans.

The second position is that of those who claim that Saddam was a pawn in a power game played by the West, specially the United States, and was discarded because he decided to play for himself.

The third position would have us believe that Saddam was a well-meaning leader whose naivetÈ was exploited by big powers in the service of sinister designs.

The first position is beyond rational analysis because it is based on what sociologists label ?nexal¦ sentiments, a more sophisticated term for tribal prejudices.

The second position is no compliment to him. Saddam compared himself to Hammurabi, a king of ancient Babylon who is supposed to have promulgated the first laws in human history, thus providing a structure without which there could be no civilization.

The third position, Saddam being misled by the big powers, is by far the most popular. People across the Arab world find it hard to accept that an Arab leader could have made so many mistakes for so long without having been misled by others.

Why did Saddam decide to murder the Kurdish leader Mulla Mostafa Barzani in 1969 thus provoking a civil war that lasted for six years? The answer given by adepts of the conspiracy theory is simple: Saddam acted on fake information planted by the Israeli secret service Mossad. The Israelis, so the theory goes, wanted to keep Iraq busy and out of any Arab coalition that might form against the Jewish state.

And why did Saddam decide to close the Shatt Al-Arab border waterway to Iranian ships almost at the same time, thus provoking a bloody border war that ended with his humiliating defeat in 1975?

Again the conspiracy theorists have the answer: The Soviets sought a base in the Gulf at a time that the British were preparing to withdraw from East of Suez, and hoped that Iraq, threatened by Iran, would give them what they wanted.

OK, But why did Saddam invade Iran in 1980?

Here is the conspiracy theorists- answer: The US wanted to contain the revolution in Iran and urged Saddam to start a war. And what was it that prompted Saddam to invade Kuwait in 1990?

Here the answers are a bit more complicated. We are told that Saddam misunderstood what he was told by April Glaspie, then US ambassador in Baghdad. Glaspie had told Saddam that Iraq-s dispute with Kuwait was an internal matter and had better be sorted out through bilateral talks. Saddam had interpreted this as a sign that Washington would not mind if his armies annexed Kuwait.

Well, well. And why did Saddam insist on playing games with the United Nations for 13 years to the point that he left the US and its allies no choice but to topple him?

Again the conspiracy theorists have an interesting answer: The US asked some allies, including France and Germany, to make noises against the use of force, thus giving Saddam the illusion that he would, once again, escape the worst.

According to conspiracy theorists Saddam never had a will of his own and could be manipulated by anyone who wished to use him.

But the fact is that Saddam was the ultimate Arab despot with a perverted vision of his role in history. He was the victim of the system he had created ? a system in which the chief never hears different views and always decides alone.

Saddam was a gambler. Only he gambled with the life and the future of his people. Even if he were deceived by this or that foreign power, he remains responsible for his deeds and misdeeds.

He could render a service to his people, perhaps even to his place in history, if he were to come out of his hiding to face trial. A proper trial would give him a chance to explain and defend his record, and to show that he was not a mere pawn in a game played by others. Such a trial would also help the Iraqis, and Arabs in general, understand the roots of the evil that has afflicted their politics for decades.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=35928&d=5&m=12&y=2003
27 posted on 12/05/2003 2:12:11 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
CONTACT MEDIA NOW - about MASSACRE of IRANIANS and CURRENT UPRISING!!!!

ActivistChat.com ^ | Dec 5, 2003 | Spenta
Posted on 12/05/2003 11:30:21 AM PST by faludeh_shirazi

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1034724/posts
30 posted on 12/05/2003 4:15:47 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
This thread is now closed.

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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

32 posted on 12/06/2003 12:17:41 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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