Iranian Alert -- January 17, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

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.

http://www.iranian.com/Ahmadi/2004/January/Dean/

Reply to Ramin Ahmadi
By: Slater Bakhtavar

I recently read your heartfelt appeal advocating the Iranian-American community towards supporting Governor Howard Dean for the presidency of the United States. While i am supportive of your activism, i'm quite disappointed by your inaccuracy.

Unfortunately similar to many diaspora Iranians you're misguided on President Bush's foreign policy. Contrary to exported propaganda President Bush and the defense board have never called for 'attacking Iran', this was pure propaganda purposefully instigated by those with their own political agenda.

President Bush has consistently sent support to Student Demonstrations in Iran, has aggresively and openly supported a democratic Iran, and has denounced those mingling Iran with 'arab countries'. Unlike the Democrats, President Bush, has clearly separated the good Iranian people from the Islamic regime, and has reiterrated Iran's strong ties to it's Persian ethnicity. President Bush referred to the failed reform movement in Iran as unsupported and Iranians responded when only 12% of Iranians voted in 'sham' elections.

As consistently stated --the strategy of President Bush is to aid the internal opposition in Iran (virtually the entire population) iin overthrowing or radically changing the dictatorship advocated by Khamenei or the semi-Dictatorship advocated by Khatami.

Howard Dean's strategy consists of engaging the reformists within Iran's adminstration. While his strategy maybe 'heartfelt' nonethless it's politically motivated, and what Governor Dean needs to realize is that the reformists aren't supported by the people, as evidence there are no student demonstrations during the current quarrel of the reformist vs. hard-liner camp. Furthermore, virtually all Student groups have distanced themselves from Khatami's reformist movement, and only 12% of Iranians voted in recent elections in Tehran.

The engagement that Howard Dean and the Democrats are calling for is a deathwish to a truly democratic Iran. Any sort of 'engagement' with the Islamic Republic will strongly streghten the regime and will undermine those seeking true democracy in Iran. In recent polls over 70% supported a separation of religion from politics, but even those aligned with Iran's reformist movement are calling for a strong 'Islamic Democracy' where candidates are disqualified based on devotion to Islam. It's unfortunate that some are letting either political agenda, ignorance, or propaganda get in the way.

President Bush supports the democracy sought by the majority of Iranians, and he's willing to aid and fund those groups in Iran who are seeking to free themselves. He's denounced military actions in Iran, therefore those claiming that he has advocated military action can never quite quote a single time he's made such a statement.. course they can quote the Islamic Republic 'claiming' he made such statements.

On the other hand Howard Dean and his compatriots are seeking to engage Iranian 'reformists', and if they're gone, the hard-liners. They are seeking to strengthen the Iranian Regime economically while seeking gradual and extremely minor concessions over a period of 10-30 years. By their model Iran will become the next China, a dictatorship who relies merely on economic prosperity to survive.

It's time to put aside the propaganda and think logically...

Slater Bakhtavar.

"Crises in the region can't be resolved without Iran" Top Iranian Official Says
AFP - World News (Via Yahoo)
Jan 16, 2004

PARIS - One of Iran's most senior leaders, Hassan Rowhani, has said in a newspaper interview that Tehran and Washington will re-establish ties one day and the task is for Iran to choose the right moment.

"We have to be realistic. One day ties will have to be re-established," Rowhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview due to appear on Saturday.

"Our skill, I would say our artistry, will be to choose the right moment," he told Le Figaro during a visit to Paris.

The United States severed ties with Iran -- accused by US President George W. Bush of belonging to an "axis of evil" -- in 1980, after Islamic revolutionaries stormed its embassy in Tehran.

But the Islamic republic's recent decision to allow international inspection of its nuclear facilities and US aid to victims of the earthquake in Iran in December, which killed more than 41,000 people, has led to speculation there might be a slight thaw in their relations.

"The end of a presidential mandate could be the best moment to take such a decision," Rowhani continued, without making clear whether he was referring to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, whose term of office expires in 2006, or Bush, who faces an election in November 2004.

"By intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Americans have become our neighbours. They realised they really needed us and that the crises in the region can't be resolved without the Iranians," he added.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4617.shtml

The Islamic Republic 'seems' to be verbally and politically in control even though dreaded by 75+ percent of the population and under international pressure. Rowhani is claiming that the IRI is in 'control' of US policy and US is in dire need of the Iranian government.

Protesting Iran lawmakers stick to their demand
Tehran |Reuters | 17-01-2004
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Iran's reformist parliamentarians yesterday dismissed any suggestion of compromise and vowed to end their sit-in protest only when all bans on candidates in next month's election were lifted.

Their defiance flies in the face of an appeal from reformist President Mohammed Khatami and an attempt by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's most powerful figure, to defuse the row by ordering another review of the candidates' bans.

"We stand united until all those barred are qualified," said reformist woman MP Fatemeh Haqiqatjou.

The 12-man Guardian Council watchdog barred almost half of 8,200 parliamentary hopefuls, mainly Khatami allies. The conservative council blocked 80 of the 290 standing MPs. More than 90 increasingly dishevelled reformist deputies are heading towards their sixth night in parliamentary anterooms.

"We want guarantees of a free election with the presence of all the disqualified candidates," said reformist woman MP Jamileh Kadivar. "The sit-in will go on until then."

Senior conservative cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Emami Kashani defended the Guardian Council's role in weeding out candidates.

"It is for the Guardian Council to decide who is competent... (It judges) if a person cannot show a practical commitment to Islam and steer the ship of state forward," he told worshippers at Friday prayers.

Despite Khamenei's call for the Guardian Council to think again, analysts say hardliners hold the stronger cards because any compromise they make would split the liberal camp which has lost much of its support from a disillusioned public.

At stake are rival visions of the future of the 24-year-old Islamic Republic. Hardliners believe concessions to Western-style democracy could destroy Islamic rule. Reformists meanwhile believe the system needs to become more open and democratic in order to keep up with the demands of its overwhelmingly youthful population.

But more than six years after Khatami came to office many Iranians no longer believe he can deliver reform.

Students, normally the vanguard of protest in Iran, ignored calls for them to turn out in support of the parliament sit-in and the general public has shown even less interest.

The Guardian Council, made up of six clerics and six Islamic lawyers, has used its veto powers to overturn dozens of bills passed by the reformist parliament, including an attempt by Khatami to temper its power to block election candidates.

Parliamentary elections are due on February 20.

http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=108236

Protesting Iranian reformists announce political fast
Jan. 16 - Iran's reformist politicians, who have been banned by the hardline clergy from running in elections, are to continue their sit-in protest in parliament and will start a political fast Saturday, Vice-Speaker Mohammad-Reza Khatami proclaimed Friday.
The political fast will involve abstaining from food during the day, like the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan.
"We will continue the protests until the issue is settled in practice and not only words and from tomorrow (Saturday), we start political fasting," Khatami, the younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami, told reporters in the parliament.
The political fast was announced despite Iranian hardliners showing the first signs of retreat Friday in the row over elimination reformist candidates.
Ayatollah Emami Kashani, a senior member of the hardline faction, said in the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran that the recommendation by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over revising the rejection of at least the sitting legislators would be followed.
Friday was the sixth consecutive day of the sit-in protest by MPs in parliament./-
(Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh)

http://www.iranwpd.com/

16 Jan 2004 12:10 GMT DJ UK's Straw To Meet Iranian Pres At World Economic Forum

Copyright © 2004, Dow Jones Newswires

LONDON (AP)--U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will meet Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at next week's World Economic Forum for broad-ranging talks expected to cover Tehran's nuclear program, a U.K. official said Friday.

Straw, whose visit to Tehran with his French and German counterparts in October helped broker an agreement on U.N. access to Iran's nuclear sites, will meet Khatami Wednesday at the event in Davos, Switzerland.

Iran agreed last month to accept unannounced inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2004011612100009&Take=1

"Khatami must quit if hardliners keep stalling him" - Ebadi

Saturday, January 17, 2004 - ©2003 IranMania.com

BOMBAY, Jan 17 (AFP) -- Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace laureate, said Saturday that President Mohammad Khatami should make good on threats to resign if hardliners continued to stall his reformist agenda.

In an interview with AFP in Bombay where she is attending the World Social Forum, Ebadi said Iran's future would be "unpredictable" without the reformist Khatami but she was optimistic his camp would triumph in the Islamic republic's power struggle.

"President Khatami said himself that if he couldn't pass measures due to the Guardians Council he would resign. So then he should resign," Ebadi said.

"It is not me who believes that Mr Khatami should resign, but he himself said he would quit if his measures couldn't be passed," she said.

The Guardians Council, Iran's conservative controlled electoral vetting body, on January 11 disqualified nearly half of the 8,157 people, mostly reformists, seeking to contest the February 20 parliamentary elections.

The move brought a threat by Khatami to lead mass resignations of ministers, MPs and provincial governors.

Asked what would happen if Khatami quit, Ebadi said: "It is unpredictable now."

But she said she doubted the reaction to a Khatami resignation would be violent.

"I think that the Iranian people are now fed up with violence. Twenty-five years ago we had a bloody revolution and then eight years of war (with Iraq)," she said.

"That's why they don't want to be involved in violence or another revolution," she said.

"I am an optimist," Ebadi said. "I have a vision that in the next year the Iranian people can get whatever they want and meet their demands. The Iranian people have been so patient throughout history to obtain democracy and human rights," she said.

Ebadi, who in 1974 became Iran's first female judge, was in Bombay to attend the annual convention of the anti-globalisation movement.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=21693&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Iran top official: Iran,US will renew ties one day

Saturday, January 17, 2004 -
©2003 IranMania.com
PARIS, Jan 16 (AFP)

One of Iran's most senior leaders, Hassan Rowhani, has said in a newspaper interview that Tehran and Washington will re-establish ties one day and the task is for Iran to choose the right moment.

"We have to be realistic. One day ties will have to be re-established," Rowhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview due to appear on Saturday.

"Our skill, I would say our artistry, will be to choose the right moment," he told Le Figaro during a visit to Paris.

The United States severed ties with Iran -- accused by US President George W. Bush of belonging to an "axis of evil" -- in 1980, after Islamic revolutionaries stormed its embassy in Tehran.

But the Islamic republic's recent decision to allow international inspection of its nuclear facilities and US aid to victims of the earthquake in Iran in December, which killed more than 41,000 people, has led to speculation there might be a slight thaw in their relations.

"The end of a presidential mandate could be the best moment to take such a decision," Rowhani continued, without making clear whether he was referring to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, whose term of office expires in 2006, or Bush, who faces an election in November 2004.

"By intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Americans have become our neighbours. They realised they really needed us and that the crises in the region can't be resolved without the Iranians," he added.

Rowhani said US aid to victims of the earthquake in Bam, southeastern Iran, "isn't enough to get rid of the bottleneck preventing the renewal of ties between us (but) has produced a glimmer of hope".

On the question of Iran's nuclear power programme -- which Washington alleges is a cover for the development of nuclear weapons -- Rowhani said: "We want to prove to the world that we are not seeking to procure nuclear weapons. We want to create confidence. In return we are asking the industrialised countries to provide us with nuclear technology for civilian uses."

But he added: "If Israel's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction is not destroyed at some point, the countries of the region will be encouraged to start an arms race."

Rowhani's visit to France, essentially to discuss Tehran's nuclear programme, coincided with furious protests back at home by reformists who have been barred in large numbers from standing in key elections next month.

Rowhani, who is believed to be close to the conservatives, said he believed a solution could be found now that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had intervened. On Wednesday, Khamenei ordered the 12 members of the Guardians Council -- an unelected watchdog which screens all laws and candidates for public office -- to be less stringent in weeding out candidates, particularly when it came to incumbent members of parliament.

"The outgoing members of parliament (most of them reformers) should be considered at the outset as having the right qualifications to stand," he said.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=21692&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

"Iran political crisis stalling diplomatic ties"

Saturday, January 17, 2004 - ©2003 IranMania.com

CAIRO, Jan 16 (AFP) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher admitted that a political crisis in Iran was stalling efforts to repair their diplomatic relations.

"I believe that what's happening on the Iranian scene has delayed a decision on resuming relations," Maher was quoted as saying by the state MENA news agency.

"Egypt had contacts and meetings were held (with Iranian officials), there was an understanding and things were going well," he said.

The countries appeared earlier this month to be on the verge of resuming ties after nearly 25 years. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has notably been invited to an economic summit in Iran at the end of February.

However, a major political crisis has erupted in Iran after a large numbers of reformists were blacklisted by a conservative oversight body from contesting next month's key parliamentary elections.

For six days, furious pro-reform MPs have been staging a sit-in at the Iranian parliament, while reformist President Mohammad Khatami threatened to lead a mass resignation of ministers, MPs and provincial governors.

Diplomatic ties between Cairo and Tehran were severed in 1979, the year that Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and gave asylum to shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was deposed by the Islamic revolution.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=21690&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

List will be revised, says Iranian leader

TEHRAN, Jan 16: A senior Iranian conservative leader said on Friday that a controversial electoral blacklist barring large numbers of reformists from contesting next month's key parliamentary elections would be carefully revised.

In his Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani nonetheless stood by the right of the Guardians Council. "Everywhere around the world there are boundaries, and in our constitution there are restrictions on anyone who wants to be elected," he said.

Ayatollah is a former member of the Guardians Council and he currently sits on the Expediency Council - Iran's top political arbitration body which like the Guardians Council is also controlled by conservatives.

On Sunday, the Councils drew allegations that it was trying to rig the Feb 20 parliament elections after it disqualified almost half of the 8,000 people seeking to stand for the Majlis.

Most on the blacklist were reformists, among them some 83 incumbent MPs and some of the movement's most prominent figures. For six days, furious pro-reform MPs have been staging a sit-in parliament, while reformist President Mohammad Khatami threatened to lead a mass resignation of ministers, MPs and provincial governors.

On Wednesday Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei intervened, ordering the 12 members of the Guardians Council to review their blacklist and be less stringent, notably in the case of those currently in parliament.

"The Leader gave us some comments," Ayatollah Kashani told worshippers here. "This is an aid to incumbent deputies in the Majlis, and it is a correct aid. The Guardians Council is obliged to act according to the comments of the Supreme Leader."

The Guardians Council is due to make a final ruling on the disqualifications at the end of the month, and a definitive list of candidates is due to be released around Feb 12.

And according to the student news agency ISNA, another dispute between reformists and conservatives was also brewing over vote counting. The reformist-run interior ministry, which is charged with running elections, is trying to introduce computerised vote counting, but Tehran's governor, Ali Owsat Hashemi, said this had been rejected by the Guardians Council.

"The Guardians Council said although they have not seen the software for the computerised counting of the votes, they noted a few faults to the plan," he said, but added that "since the law gives us this option, we will not follow what they have asked us." But this could yet pose a serious problem, given that the Council also has the responsibility of validating the election result.-AFP

http://www.dawn.com/2004/01/17/top19.htm

Iran's Election Chief Threatens to Quit
Greg LaMotte
Cairo
17 Jan 2004, 12:54 UTC

The head of elections in Iran is threatening to quit unless candidates barred from next month's parliamentary elections are reinstated.

The deputy interior minister in charge of elections in Iran, Morteza Mobalegh, said Saturday he will resign unless he is assured that next month's parliamentary elections are free and legal.

The right-wing conservative Guardian Council created a political storm in Iran last Sunday by barring almost half of the more than 8,000 mostly reformist parliamentary candidates.

While saying the Interior Ministry doesn't have the authority to postpone the elections, Mr. Mobalegh said unless the February 20 vote is open to all candidates he will step down, forcing senior Iranian officials to appoint a new body to oversee the vote.

He said the Interior Ministry, which is under the direct authority of reform-minded President Mohammad Khatami, wants to restore the rights of the barred candidates.

The Guardian Council has the authority to screen all potential candidates, but it has been ordered to re-examine its decision by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Among the candidates disqualified from the election were more than 80 current members of parliament, including the deputy speaker who is the younger brother of Iran's president.

In the meantime, a sit-in protest by dozens of reformist members of parliament continued Saturday with some of the strikers pledging to abstain from food and water during daylight hours.

Several members of parliament, vice presidents and provincial governors have threatened to resign unless the council reverses its ban.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=2164088F-6259-4949-9A7950D7B34B94B1

Rethinking Iran

Saturday, January 17, 2004; Page A24

Thomas Pickering and John Newhouse ["Thinking About Iran," op-ed, Jan. 1] said that "Iran's larger interest lies in becoming a strategic pivot, a stabilizing force in a region that badly needs one." But Iran's regime has proclaimed itself the engine of Islamic revolution and has acted that way since 1979.

They also said, "The economy is the pivotal issue; continuing to move toward nuclear weapons would put it under heavy strain." But Iran's regime has long since wrecked that country's economy while it has continued to move toward nuclear weapons.

Mr. Pickering and Mr. Newhouse said Iran's "reformist government" has "favored limiting Iran's role in the Middle East conflict to moral and ideological support for the Palestinians." But Iran is a major financier and supplier of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

Mr. Pickering and Mr. Newhouse talked about "the helpful role Iran seems to be playing [in Iraq]." But The Post has reported extensively about Iranian support for al Qaeda, among other terrorist organizations, and the State Department brands Iran the leading state supporter of terrorism. That is decidedly not helpful.

Finally, in addition to listing Mr. Pickering's State Department credentials, The Post should have told its readers that he is senior vice president of Boeing Co., which would love to see the U.S. embargo lifted so that it could sell aircraft to Iran.

MICHAEL LEDEEN

Resident Scholar

American Enterprise Institute

Washington

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23727-2004Jan16.html

Ebadi Calls on Khatami to Make Good on Promise to Step Down ...

January 17, 2004
Radio Free Europe
RFE/RL

Tehran -- The head of Iran's election committee said today that next month's parliamentary poll will go ahead as planned but he hinted he would personally resign unless the disqualification of more than 3,000 pro-reform candidates is rescinded.

Election committee head Morteza Mobalagh, who is also the country's deputy interior minister, said he was striving to organize a fair and lawful poll. Hinting at the conservative Guardians Council's decision to ban nearly half of the 8,000 candidates from running, Mobalagh said that if a fair ballot was not permitted, he would be forced to resign.

Meantime, Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said today that Iranian President Mohammad Khatami should make good on an earlier promise and step down if hard-liners continue to stall his reforms.

But Ebadi, speaking in Bombay, said she was optimistic that, in time, popular will would triumph against the hard-liners.

http://www.rferl.org/features/features_article.aspx?id=13bdcf71-df23-4e85-a6b9-90e062f490f7&y=2004&m=01

Famous US scholar-writer hopes for future liberation of Iran

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jan 17, 2004

David Frum, an American researcher and former writer of President Bush's speeches, is hoping for the future liberation of Iran. This statement was made, on Thursday, during a meeting with Aryo Pirouznia, of SMCCDI, by adding that such hope will be realized, in a near future, as more and more Iranians are standing up against the Islamic republic regime and the World's becoming aware of their struggle.

Mr. Frum offered as well his formal support of the Iranian Student Movement by signing an examplary of his new book, co-written with Richard Perle (former assistant secretary of defense) and titled "An End to Evil", which was given to Pirouznia. Frum's written statement in this book is: "To the Iranian Student Movement: For your Freedom and ours, With every good wish, David Frum January 2004".

David Frum is also a leading member of the "American Enterprise Institute" (AEI) where the famous Michael Ledden is holding the Freedom Chair. His name became well known following the "Axis of Evil" speech of President Bush.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4629.shtml

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