Iranian Alert -- January 14, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 1.14.2004 | DoctorZin

[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

[Bringbackthedraft]

The Clerics will never relinquish control peacefully. There will be a bloody revolution to seize power. Right now the bad guys have the guns and they are looking to build up their arsenal for use against outside enemies and inside heretics. I am left with the feeling that most of the Iranian people are complacient. I base this on my association with Iranian friends who have relatives freely coming and going between the USA and Iran. What I get from conversations is that the politics are left to the hot heads on both sides.

[Bringbackthedraft]

The Clerics will never relinquish control peacefully. There will be a bloody revolution to seize power. Right now the bad guys have the guns and they are looking to build up their arsenal for use against outside enemies and inside heretics. I am left with the feeling that most of the Iranian people are complacient. I base this on my association with Iranian friends who have relatives freely coming and going between the USA and Iran. What I get from conversations is that the politics are left to the hot heads on both sides.

[freedom44]

Doc,

I have one of those bills. Someone brought it for me from Iran.

[blackie]

Freedom ~ Now!

[ZULU]

Doctor Zin, please keep the Free Republic up to date on what is going on in Iran.

If the U.S. pulls out of Iraq and the Aytollahs are still in control in Tehran, there will never be peace in that region. They have noticeably toned down their "Great White Satan" rhetoric with U.S. troops on both borders, but as Ijaz pointed out, they are planning mischief in both Iraq and Afghanistan in an attmept to defuse smoldering resentment at their iron control of the Iranian people.

Many of the people on this Board are unaware that Irans are NOT Arabs. Although Iran is an Islamic country, it was the home of the world's first montheistic religion - Zoroastrianism - which has suffered much there as result of persecution by the Aytollahs.

A free, democratic, secularized Iran, fumigated from the effects of the Ayatollahs, will bring great stability to the region and solidify democratic gains in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[nuconvert]

"Hardliners fear reforms proposed by liberals "

Liberals???

"Hardliners fear".....I don't think so.

"unelected hardliners who control the judiciary, armed forces and constitutional oversight bodies such as the Guardian Council have been able to block most reform attempts."

They block Every "reform attempt" that they want to block.

This writer seems to severely underscore the power of Khamenei.

[freedom44]

I told you so..........


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20040114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_elections

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader ordered hard-liners Wednesday to reconsider their disqualification of more than 3,000 pro-reform electoral candidates, the state news agency reported.

The call by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared aimed at defusing a political crisis over the disqualifications, which sparked angry protests by liberals.


Khamenei met members of the Guardian Council, the body responsible for the disqualifications, and told them "the basis of decision should be that (candidates) are authorized to run unless it's proven otherwise," IRNA reported.


Khamenei, who holds final say in all matters in Iran and who is generally backed by hard-liners, had earlier said he would intervene only after normal channels of appeal had been exhausted.

[nuconvert]

There are 290(?) parliament members. Doesn't seem they'd have to reconsider many of the 3000 in order to make everyone happy. Especially if they only "reconsider" most of the current members they disqualified the other day.
That whittles the number down quite a bit.
And of course, Khamenei looks like the hero settling the dispute. Khatami looks like a wimp.

[windchime]

Bump!

[Mullah-Killer]

As an Iranian living outside Iran, it is easy for me to say why people don't stand up to these ruthless thugs, but I'm afraid the Mullahs have created an atmosphere of terror and they are very clever about it. You simply can't tell what they will do to you. In the Case of Canadian/Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi who was simply attempting to take photos of families of students at front of the notorious Evin Prison in north Tehran, she was picked up by revolutionary guards and was apparently tortured and afterwards raped by one of the interrogators then beaten up so hard that had caused her death. At the time of her murder she was at the custody of Justice Ministry officials (so much for Islamic justice!!). So you can see only in this tragic event there is no known or predictable outcome for any wrongdoing. No one knows the consequences of any action! It is this fear that make people not want to even talk about it. Iranians outside of Iran don't feel safe. The IR security men have even funded TV channels in USA. IR Agents look like any other Iranian but they report their activities and if they make the mistake of going back they get picked up at the airport and as a minimum they will be harassed for a few weeks and if they are lucky they let them go. They even force people to become agents of the Security apparatus and spy on Iranian diaspora!
I simply hope that the Mullahs will go in peace to their beloved Arab lands Syria, Libya, Lebanon etc quietly but I know that's never going to happen. There be a blood bath and if no one intervenes they will kill even more! ...I do not trust the EU, they have supported Mullahs in particular the French and Germans. Over 300 hundred Iranian exiles have been assassinated since 1979 mainly in France and Germany. The last well known one was a restaurant in Berlin Called Mykonos where 4 Iranians of Kurdish part of Iran were brutally killed. As a result a German court has named Rafsanjani, Khamenei and several other Mullahs associated with the murders and should they leave Iran that country must hand them over to International Police to be sent to Germany for court hearings. That's why you never see Rafsanjani or Khamenei never travel abroad for their vacations!!

[nuconvert]

Thanks for your insight.
Welcome to this Iran thread.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Welcome to Freerepublic.

[freedom44]

Welcome to FR.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

'Brokers helped Iran go nuke'
January 14, 2004 (SA)

Islamabad - A top official said on Wednesday Iran sought no help from foreign scientists for its nuclear programme, but that five brokers helped buy equipment on the international market, state media reported.

"No scientist from any other country has helped in this regard," said visiting Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsin Aminzadeh, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

Referring to Iran's talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Aminzadeh said Iran only gave the global nuclear watchdog information about five individuals - three Europeans and two from this region - who helped Iran buy equipment required for its nuclear programme, said APP.

The agency did not specify what Aminzadeh meant when he said "this region", but he said the two "had been acting as brokers, they were businessmen who helped us through as intermediaries."

He said it was normal business practice to procure equipment from anywhere in the world and Iran did not contravene the norms.

Taken away for questioning

He called the alleged Pakistan-Iran nuclear co-operation a "fabrication by media", said APP.

Two Pakistani nuclear scientists, Yasin Chohan and Farooq Mohammad, directors of the country's key Kahuta Research Laboratory (KRL), were taken from their homes in early December for questioning about their links with Iran's nuclear programme.

Chohan has since returned home, but Farooq is still being questioned.

The creator of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, also has been questioned.

A foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday "a very small number of scientists" were being questioned.

"When the government of Iran shared some information with us and subsequently the International Atomic Energy Agency asked for our co-operation, we started these debriefing sessions," Khan said earlier.

Blueprints gave 'tremendous boost' to Iran

The New York Times reported last month that information Iran turned over to the IAEA had strengthened suspicions that Pakistan sold key nuclear secrets to Iran.

Pakistan's suspected role in providing centrifuge designs to Iran was also revealed by the Washington Post, which said the blueprints provided a "tremendous boost" to Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Centrifuges can be used to enrich uranium, spinning it at supersonic speeds to produce a concentrated material used to make nuclear weapons.

Pakistan last week also denied another New York Times report that some of its scientists may have provided Libya with technology to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

Islamabad, which went public as a nuclear power in May 1998 when it conducted underground nuclear tests, has consistently denied reports that it has exported its nuclear know-how.

President Pervez Musharraf has rejected the allegations as a smear campaign.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1469498,00.html

[Pan_Yans Wife]

IRAN: Better shelter needed before weather warms up

BAM, 14 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - Maryam, a resident of Bam in her 40s, lost her husband and four of her 11 children in the devastating earthquake that hit the southeastern Iranian city on 26 December. She has been provided with a tent by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) subsequently established not far from the place where her house used to stand.

She lives there with three of the children who survived, she sent her four other offspring to their grandfather outside the city to be looked after. Maryam's neighbour Mujgan was lucky enough to escape the terrible disaster that claimed the lives of an estimated 30,000 people and left some 100,000 people homeless and destitute.

Nobody died in her family that night as they were sleeping outside their house. However, they lost everything when their house was leveled and turned into rubble. She hurries to get to her temporary shelter with a pair of blankets given by the IRCS to keep her family warm at night when the weather is cold, dropping sometimes below zero.

The United Nations Coordination Centre in Bam has said that according to official figures, a total of 90,000 tents had been distributed among the affected population. "People have received adequate [numbers of] tents and blankets at this point of time," Abdul Haq Amiri, head of the UN team in Bam, told IRIN on Tuesday.

However, one of the concerns is the upcoming hot season, given Bam's desert location. "The heat is coming very soon and in one month the temperature will be about 40 degrees and it will be very hot here," the UN official said.

For that reason the government is said to be keen to have temporary shelter established for the vast number of homeless by the end of April. "But there is no specific or standard design for it as yet," Amiri added, noting that there was a number of possible types of semi-permanent shelter proposed to meet the huge needs. According to official estimates some 10,000 semi-permanent houses would be needed.

"As the weather changes shelter has to be improved," Amiri ascertained. The UN official stressed the need for proper accommodation that could protect people against scorching heat, noting that efforts to push that forward were underway. "It is absolutely impossible to live in summer under those tents that they [people of Bam] have received," he said.

Brunson McKinley, director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told IRIN in Bam that the agency was in the southeastern Iranian city to assess semi-permanent housing needs. "The idea is basically to replace the tents in which many the people are living now with something that will withstand both the wind and the heat better and to do it pretty quickly," McKinley explained. IOM intends constructing after shock-resistant housing that will last around 12 months from local materials.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38924&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN

[PhilDragoo]

Iran regime builds nuclear weapons, promotes terrorism, suppresses human rights--getting a standing O from the EU.

[Nix 2]

Magnitude 5.4 SOUTHERN IRAN
2004 January 14 16:58:51 UTC

[DoctorZIn]

Chirac Meets Iran Official;Seeks "New Stage In Relations"

January 14, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
The Associated Press

PARIS -- A senior Iranian official met with French President Jacques Chirac Wednesday. In a meeting with Hasan Rowhani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Chirac said he hoped for a new future in relations between France and Iran, but stressed that Tehran must follow through with its commitments.

"This will permit the opening of a new stage in relations between Iran and the international community, as in our bilateral relations," Chirac said, quoted by his spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna.

Rowhani was on a three-day visit to Paris to mark a new era of improved ties with Tehran after France, Germany and Russia laid the groundwork last fall for Iran to allow international inspection of its nuclear facilities.

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2004011419300011&Take=1

[DoctorZIn]

Iran Has Yet to Agree on Nuclear Freeze with UN

January 14, 2004
Reuters
Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA -- The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday it had yet to agree with Iran on what constituted suspension of uranium enrichment activities, which Tehran has promised to freeze over charges it is covertly developing an atomic bomb.

Western diplomats have said Iran has continued to amass large amounts of uranium-enrichment centrifuge machinery, despite a promise to suspend all activities related to a technology critical for bomb-making.

On Wednesday, the United States warned Tehran to fulfill its pledges and called for a comprehensive and indefinite suspension, with the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency dictating the terms to Tehran.

The United States, which sees Iran as a source of terrorist activity, views with skepticism Tehran's insistence its nuclear program is aimed only at generating electrical energy. Diplomats say Washington, London and other capitals are viewing the "limited suspension" with concern.

The IAEA, whose inspectors have the task of verifying Tehran's statements that its nuclear program is purely peaceful, declined to comment. But an IAEA spokesman acknowledged the agency was still discussing with Iran what activities should be suspended.

"We are still in consultations about the scope of their suspension," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. He gave no details about where the agency and Tehran disagree.

He said the IAEA would report to the IAEA governing board about the enrichment suspension in March.

"At the request of Iran and the (IAEA) Board of Governors, we are monitoring Iran's suspension of enrichment-related activities and will report on this to the next scheduled meeting of the board," Gwozdecky said.

Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use in weapons or to make nuclear fuel for power plants. Experts say acquiring weapons-grade material is the biggest hurdle countries seeking to make an atomic bomb must overcome.

WHO DEFINES TERMS?

"Failure by Iran to live up to its promise and to adopt a comprehensive and indefinite suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities would be deeply troubling," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington.

"To begin to rebuild the international community's confidence that Iran has genuinely abandoned its nuclear weapons efforts, the scope of that suspension we believe must ... cover all sensitive aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle," he said.

Several Western diplomats said Iran made it clear that it was only suspending activities that fell under its limited definition of the term "enrichment-related" and has therefore continued acquiring enrichment centrifuge machinery.

They say it had originally been understood that the IAEA -- not Tehran -- would define the terms of the suspension. They also say Iran maintains it would only breach the accord if it actually enriched uranium, not just acquired materials.

The Western diplomats said Tehran has been interpreting the term "enrichment-related" as narrowly as possible to enable it to forge ahead with its ambitious enrichment program, which Iran says will provide low-enriched uranium for electricity- generating plants.

Uranium enrichment has been a sensitive issue in Iran ever since IAEA inspectors found traces of bomb-grade highly-enriched uranium at two sites in the country. This sparked concerns that Iran either made or imported weapons-grade material for a bomb.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is purely peaceful and says the traces were from contaminated machinery Iran purchased on the black market during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

(additional reporting by Saul Hudson in Washington)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4128625

[DoctorZIn]

IRAN INVITES FRANCE TO INVEST IN FUTURE NUCLEAR INSTALLATIONS

PARIS 13 Jan.
(IPS)

One of Iran’s post powerful politicians, Hojjahirtoleslam Hasan Rohani met French President Jacques Chirac Wednesday as in Tehran, the unprecedented crisis between Iranian powerless reformists with the ruling conservatives over the rejection of tens of leading reformist candidates entered its fourth strait day.

While in Tehran last week at the very start of the crisis, Mr. Xavier Solana, the EU’s High Representative for Security and Foreign Affairs said he did not know how to explain to the Europeans that popular and active MM’s could be barred from running in elections?

Mr. Rohani briefed his French counterparts on the issue at talks at the Elysee Palace and the Quai D’Orsay. He had a speech at the French Senate, the first ever by any Iranian personality, which highlightens the importance Paris gives to this visit. Mr. Rohani maintained that the elections in the Islamic Republic are among the « most free and fair in the world ».

Well-informed sources following the meeting told Iran Press Service that though the French, like other Europeans, have difficulty understanding the reason of the Council of the Guardians to disqualify popular figures and members of the Majles, but this had no effects on the subject of the talks, specially after the influential cleric observed that very likely, both the next parliament and government in Tehran would be controlled by the ruling conservatives who have, in recent weeks, signed signals to Washington for resuming talks on the possibility of normalising relations.

Mr. Rohani, as the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS) who met in Tehran last October with foreign affairs ministers of France, Germany and Britain, agreed to sign the Additional Protocol to the Non Proliferation Treaty and led, with brio, the stormy talks, two months ago, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The United States, Israel and some European governments accuses the Islamic Republic of using civilian atomic plants for producing nuclear weapons, charges that Tehran rejects vehemently, insisting that it has no such intentions.

According to some Iranian analysts, Mr. Rohani, a cleric who is very close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenehe’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, would very probably, if not certainly, become Iran’s next Speaker or President, hence the warm-welcome he received by the French authorities, « probably on recommendation from the Germans, the first who discovered and cultivated him a long time ago, giving him almost a red carpet reception every time he came to Germany », according to Mr. Morteza Ra’issi, a veteran Iranian journalist and commentator of Iranian affairs based in Germany, covering for the Persian service of the BBC.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources said Mr. Rohani reminded that he agreed to sign the Protocols, that gives international nuclear inspectors unconditional and unrestricted visit to all Iranian nuclear facilities and sites on conditions that in return, Iran receives advanced nuclear technologies for civilian uses, as stipulated in the NPT.

Mr. Rohani also waved the prospects for France – as well as Germany, Iran’s major trading partner and political supporter – entering again Iran’s lucrative nuclear market worth billions of Euros.

Iran’s present 1000 megawatts atomic powered electrical plant being constructed in the Persian Gulf port of Booshehr with the help of Russia was originally designed and started by the German firm of Siemens before the Islamic revolution of 1979 and was followed by two other, situated in the oil-rich province of Khoozestan, by the French.

As a minority shareholder of the Eurodif, the French atomic firm that produces uranium, Iran expects to get some of the fuel it needs for the future nuclear power plants it intends to build from the company.

As Mr. Rohani was talking to the French, in the German Capital of Berlin, a very important agreement aiming starting large-scale technology cooperation between the two sides was signed.

According to the accord that was inked by the Iranian Energy Minister, Mr. Habibollah Bitaraf and Mrs. Edelgard Buhlman, the German Minister for Research and Technology, German firms could invest in Iran up to 660 million Euros, creating water and water cleaning and sewage factories using the most advanced technologies in the fields, covered by the German

“German companies can now form consortium with Iranian counterparts projects worth billions of Euros”, Mrs. Buhlman told reporters, informing that the first agreement of 250 million Euros has been signed, limited to water works in Tehran.

Germany and Iran have carried out water projects studies since 2000 and this new agreement would create much needed jobs for German concerns”, she added.

“The Wednesday’s almost unprecedented agreement would mark the beginning of future close cooperation in advanced technologies not only with Iran, but also aimed at the lucrative Central Asian markets’, Mr. Ra’issi told IPS.

ENDS IRAN FRANCE 14104

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Jan_04/iran_france_13104.html