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Iranian Alert -- January 11, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran
The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 1.11.2004 | DoctorZin

Posted on 01/11/2004 12:07:57 AM PST 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


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iaea; iran; iranianalert; iranquake; protests; southasia; studentmovement; studentprotest
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To: Pan_Yans Wife; fat city; freedom44; Tamsey; Grampa Dave; PhiKapMom; McGavin999; Hinoki Cypress; ...
Iranian Reformist Blasts "Coup d'etat" by Hardliners

January 11, 2004
AFP
TerraNet

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1055649/posts?page=20#20

Important Development... DoctorZin
21 posted on 01/11/2004 9:24:58 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
I'm actually quite shocked that Khatami's brother has been banned. This should be real huge.

This is either a real big mistake by the Guardian Council that vets elections or another ploy to fool people.
22 posted on 01/11/2004 9:37:38 AM PST by freedom44
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To: DoctorZIn
Do you still think Iran's government is a legitimate democracy?

Please consider a hypothetical analogy of the IRI constitutional power setup in American terms*...

This analogy is based on the notes on Iranian Government Structure at http://www.netiran.com/.

Suppose that, according to the US Constitution, every potential candidate for President, the Senate or the House of Representatives had to receive the approval of a 12 man committee appointed by the ACLU before he could actually run for office.

Suppose that any legislation coming out of the Congress had to be ratified by an ACLU committee before it could become law and that this committee indeed had total veto authority.

Suppose that the ACLU had the constitutional authority to dismiss the President and/or the Congress if he saw fit.

Suppose that the heads of all armed services, police forces, broadcast media and the Supreme Court were appointed directly by the ACLU.

Suppose that ACLU, not the President, was the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.

Now suppose that the next ACLU-approved Republican Presidential candidate ran on a platform calling for greater religious freedom.

How much would you trust him to keep his campaign promises?

* This analogy was adapted from:
http://www.pcpages.com/ani/pages/gov/analogy.htm
23 posted on 01/11/2004 9:59:13 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: freedom44
Hopefully this will finally motivate the voting public to refuse to participate in the elections next month.

The Mullahs are playing a high stakes game. They hope to crush their opposition but in the process may finally prove to the international community that the Iranian government is illegitimate.

If this happens and foreign investments in the regime end, this will likely cause a collapse of their economy and destabilize the regime.

Therefore, this bold move by the mullahs may lead to their own destruction.

If not, it will certainly lead to a much more oppression.

Things are heating up.
24 posted on 01/11/2004 10:13:25 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
Iran Resumes Arms Shipment to Hizbullah

January 11, 2004
Middle East Newsline
MENL

Iran has resumed weapons shipments to Hizbullah under the guise of an international relief effort for the victims of the earthquake in Bam.

Israeli intelligence sources said the Iranian weapons shipments were resumed over the last two weeks after a suspension of more than a year. The sources said Syrian aircraft were deployed to transport the weapons from Iran to Damascus, where the cargo proceeded overland to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

So far, the sources said, Iran has sent several shipments of rockets, short-range anti-aircraft missiles and logistical equipment to Hizbullah via Syria. They said that in at least one case a shipment of Iranian weapons was sent from Iran to Syria under the guise of relief efforts for the victims of the earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam.

"The Syrian aircraft was said to have brought equipment to Iran for the earthquake survivors," an intelligence source said. "When they arrived in Iran, these aircraft were loaded with weapons for Hizbullah and flown back to Damascus."

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/january/01_11_1.html
25 posted on 01/11/2004 10:17:31 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife; fat city; freedom44; Tamsey; Grampa Dave; PhiKapMom; McGavin999; Hinoki Cypress; ...
Do you still think Iran's government is a legitimate democracy?

Please consider a hypothetical analogy of the IRI constitutional power setup in American terms*...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1055649/posts?page=23#23
26 posted on 01/11/2004 10:19:46 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: F14 Pilot
Thanks for the ping!
27 posted on 01/11/2004 10:19:48 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: DoctorZIn
Great analogy.

Thanks doc.
28 posted on 01/11/2004 10:30:30 AM PST by freedom44
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To: DoctorZIn
Excellent, DoctorZin. I like the change you made, too. :)
29 posted on 01/11/2004 10:39:32 AM PST by Pan_Yans Wife (Freedom is a package deal - with it comes responsibilities and consequences.)
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To: DoctorZIn
"Iran risks widespread voter boycott": IIPF head

Sunday, January 11, 2004 - ©2003 IranMania.com

TEHRAN, Jan 11 (AFP) - The leader of Iran's main reformist party and a brother of President Mohammad Khatami warned Sunday of a massive voter boycott of next month's parliamentary elections unless conservatives reversed their decision to disqualify large numbers of reformist candidates.

"If the situation continues, the conditions for voting will not exist, people will not be prepared to vote and naturally we are heading in the direction of a national election boycott," Mohammad Reza Khatami told AFP.

"We demand the president and the government prevent the rejection of candidates and not be responsibe for organising undemocratic elections," added the head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF).

Nevertheless, the IIPF leader said he had the impression that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was against the move by the Guardians' Council -- a 12-member political oversight body which drew up the blacklist -- and said the body "will be obliged to go back on their decision."

But he also reminded his brother -- the embattled president -- that he was "responsible for the respect of the constitution and this will show how serious he is."

He cautioned that the crisis would have "consequences for Iran relations with foreign states".

It emerged Sunday that the Guardians' Council had disqualified large numbers of reformists, including top figures in the movement, from contesting the February 20 parliamentary elections.

Mohammad Reza Khatami was among those disqualified.

He said that in some areas, notably the northeastern city of Mashhad, all reformists had been struck off the voting lists and only conservatives were left.


http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=21532&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Khameini might reverse GC's decisions.
Khatami's brother is right, EU will have no option other than to cut some of the relations or look miserable being that their whole theory is working with reformists.
This disqualification may actually be a really good thing if it goes as planned it'll definitely heat things up and cause a quicker downfall for the regime.

30 posted on 01/11/2004 10:44:42 AM PST by freedom44
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To: DoctorZIn
Doc, you got something against the ACLU??????

LOL!!!
31 posted on 01/11/2004 10:57:59 AM PST by nuconvert ("This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. ")
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To: F14 Pilot
Freedom ~ Now!
32 posted on 01/11/2004 11:13:12 AM PST by blackie
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Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: nuconvert
Fact is, you could replace the ACLU with ANY group and we would still learn to hate it.
34 posted on 01/11/2004 11:25:35 AM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: DoctorZIn
Got it the 1st time.....
35 posted on 01/11/2004 11:26:43 AM PST by nuconvert ("This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. ")
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To: DoctorZIn
EU Foreign Policy Chief, UN Nuclear Head Meet On Iran

January 11, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
The Associated Press

VIENNA -- The European Union foreign policy chief met Sunday with the U.N. atomic agency head for brief discussions before continuing to Iran, a spokeswoman said.

Javier Solana, who is traveling to Iran to try to prod Tehran into complying with U.N. rules on nonproliferation, met with Mohamed ElBaradei on Sunday morning in Vienna, said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"He met with Mr. ElBaradei to compare notes in advance of his trip to Tehran," Fleming said. "The Europeans have been all along closely informing Mr. ElBaradei about what they are doing and also making sure that their efforts are complementary to the IAEA's effort."

The two officials talk regularly, Fleming added.

The U.S. has accused Tehran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and geared only toward producing electricity. The country last month signed an additional protocol to the Nonproliferation Treaty.

The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors censured Iran in November for 18 years of secrecy in a resolution that warned Tehran to stay in line with international efforts to make sure the country has no nuclear weapons ambitions.

Solana has defended the E.U. strategy to engage Tehran in a broad dialogue that covers trade and other issues, something that has caused concern in Washington.

Solana has also said he would use the Iran trip to discuss humanitarian issues faced by the country following last months' earthquake, which razed the southern city of Bam.

After visiting Iran, Solana will continue to Afghanistan and Georgia.

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2004011112490000&Take=1
36 posted on 01/11/2004 12:07:36 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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To: F14 Pilot
What do you suppose the students are going to do with this? This may just be a perfect opportunity.
37 posted on 01/11/2004 1:37:25 PM PST by McGavin999 (Don't be a Freeploader-Have you donated yet?)
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To: freedom44
Reza Khatami has been much more vocal with his reformist views, and more "reformist" than his brother.
I'm not surprised he was rejected.
38 posted on 01/11/2004 1:55:16 PM PST by nuconvert ("This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. ")
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To: DoctorZIn
At least it will give the Iranian people a hard number of those who support the regime. If the students are wise, they will have "poll watchers" to see who actually votes.

They will know who their enemies are and their number.

39 posted on 01/11/2004 2:07:51 PM PST by McGavin999 (Don't be a Freeploader-Have you donated yet?)
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To: DoctorZIn
Solana Travels to Iran to Revitalise Nuclear Talks

January 11, 2004
The Financial Times
Gareth Smyth

Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, was due in Iran on Sunday night for a two-day visit designed to keep up European momentum for dialogue with Tehran, which last month agreed to greater international access to its nuclear facilities.

The Iranian leadership over the weekend strongly criticised the US, curbing earlier speculation - after Washington suspended some sanctions to help earthquake victims in Bam - that the two sides would move to restore diplomatic relations.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, said there was "no sign of US animosity towards Iran decreasing". Akbar Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council, said President George W. Bush had "made the mistake of repeating past accusations".

The EU's "conditional engagement" with Iran scored a notable success in December when Tehran signed an additional protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and said it would suspend uranium enrichment.

Before leaving Brussels, Mr Solana told Irna, the Iranian news agency, that "relations with an important country like Iran are based on mutual respect." He added: "We try to solve problems through the mechanism of dialogue and not through any other way".

"The challenge [for the EU] is to make it clear that it takes Iran's security concerns seriously, while showing that nuclear weapons are not the answer," said Steven Everts, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, the London based think-tank.

Cristina Gallach, Mr Solana's spokeswoman, said the visit would cover not just the nuclear issue but also "trade and human rights". Mr Solana would also "assess preparations" for Iran's parliamentary elections due next month.

Conservatives are expecting the elections will end the parliament's reformist majority. As if to leave little to chance, the Guardian Council on Sunday barred 80 of the 290 members of parliament from running, prompting a walk-out in protest during a parliamentary session.

Those disqualified have a right to appeal, but their numbers are higher than expected. Some reformists have already threatened to boycott the elections.

Mr Solana is due to meet on Monday president Mohammed Khatemi, Kamal Kharrazi, the foreign minister, and Hassan Rowhani, the influential head of the Supreme National Security Council who had led discussions with the EU and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He will travel on Tuesday to Bam.

The EU and Iran have not as yet set a date for a fresh round of talks over a Trade and Co-operation Agreement, which have been in progress since December 2002.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1073280934890&p=1012571727172
40 posted on 01/11/2004 3:32:18 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are free, we shall all be Iranians!)
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