Iranian Alert -- February 8, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 2.8.2004 | 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

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I have a happy feeling today over the freedom of my country.

Rejoicing over the spirit of optimism! Having faith that change can come is an important first step.

Thank you for sharing, Doc!

[DoctorZIn]

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

February 08, 2004
Zawya
Arabies Trends

Should Iran embrace the transition to democracy in Iraq? A look at the Islamic Republic's role within a changing region.

The winds of change are swirling around Iran. The conservatives are confident of gains in parliamentary elections due on February 20th and want to use their mandate for relaxing tensions with the United States. “We need good bilateral relations with all countries, including the US,” said Amir Mohabian, political editor of the conservative newspaper Resalat. “We do not seek to export our revolution abroad, but to create a successful modern example that others may choose to copy.”

Conservatives like to cite the role of Hassan Rowhani, secretary general of the Supreme Council of National Security. His talks with Europe and the International Atomic Energy Agency led to Iran agreeing last month to snap inspections of its nuclear facilities, which Washington claims conceal a weapons program.

“The rise of Hassan Rowhani reflects President Khatami’s lack of power,” said Siamak Namazi, managing director of Tehran-based consultancy Atieh Bahar. Indeed, there is widespread talk of Rowhani running for president next year.

Many obstacles remain to improved US-Iranian relations. Washington has long demanded that Tehran end its support for militants the US regards as terrorists, including the Palestinian groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas, and Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance group. Iran in turn wants the United States to lift all sanctions. Ali Akbar Rasfanjani, the influential head of the Expediency Council, said last month that before negotiations could begin, it was necessary for the US to “apologize” for its past behavior.

Hamid Reza Asefi, the foreign ministry spokesman, said that Iran was open to talks based on “mutual respect.” But he insisted the United States should not “tell Iran what to do.”

Such sentiments are far from unique to the regime that came to power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They could have been expressed by a spokesman for the Shah. Iran has long liked to think of itself as a regional superpower with a reach from the Indian subcontinent through Afghanistan and the Caspian Sea, and from Iraq to the Gulf.

But can Iran’s neoconservatives deal with Iraq, where many predicted Iran and the US were doomed to clash? With no formal relations between Washington and Tehran, diplomats say the file is being mediated by the British. When Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain’s special representative for Iraq, made his first visit to Tehran in early January, he said senior Iranian officials had showed an “increasingly positive” attitude since the announcement of a timetable for the transfer of power to an Iraqi government.

Greenstock said setting July 1st as a date for establishing an interim government in Baghdad had helped “turn” the “expected” negative attitude of Iran towards US and British rule in Iraq “because they can see the end of foreign domination.” This was a marked contrast to the bellicose tone adopted throughout most of last year by the Bush administration as it repeatedly demanded that Tehran end “interference” in Iraqi affairs.

The root of US fears about Iranian influence lies in the simple fact that Iran shares the faith of Shi’ite Islam with around 55 percent of the people of Iraq, and has longstanding cultural and familial links with its western neighbor. In 1991, the United States noted that many in the uprising in southern Iraq raised the slogan of an Islamic republic and duly decided not to back them.

However, Greenstock says that Iran has an interest in encouraging stability in Iraq, and that he does not believe Tehran wants to create an Islamic republic in its western neighbor. “I have never heard an Iranian [official] express any interest in creating a clone in Iraq,” he explained. “What they want is a free expression by the Iraqi people for the government they want – [something] that creates stability.” Greenstock added that polling in Iraq had shown that 90 percent of Iraqis “want religion to be respected” but that only between 11 and 16.7 percent wanted “a religious government.”

As Iran has switched from the language of international Islamic revolution to issues of realpolitik, it is possible for its leaders to see Iraq as a neighbor with whom it can enjoy good relations. “It all depends on how much the US is prepared to pay in negotiations,” said Morad Veisi, a conservative journalist and security specialist. “Any country is concerned with its own potential benefits.”

But whatever Iran’s calculations of national interest, the fall of Saddam Hussein may have important, and uncertain, consequences for Shi’ite Islam as an international phenomenon.

Najaf and Qom, the two great centers of Shi’ite learning, have throughout the 20th century been rival centers of scholarship, rather like Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. During this time, they have gradually been drawn into politics as the emerging modern states of Iraq and Iran have sought to influence the leading Shi’ite clergy who came to command great influence and resources as marja (sources of emulation) and collectors of the religious taxes, khums and zakat.

It has become fashionable to counterpose the “quietism” of Najaf with the model of Velayet-e Faqih ( or Wilayat al-faqih in Arabic) applied in the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to this analysis, the dominant school in Najaf, derived from Ayatollah Mohammed Abu al-Qasim Khoei, who died in 1992, resists the direct involvement of the clergy in politics. Now freed from the oppression of the Ba’athists, Najaf will, some argue, provide an alternative to the Velayet-e Faqih.

The legacy of Ayatollah Khoei is certainly a powerful one, in Iraq and among Shi’ites internationally. He refused to take sides during the Iran-Iraq War, a stance that led to the arrest, disappearance and murder of many of his advisers and associates. He allocated resources and sanctioned the payment of monies to refugees on both sides.

While in the 1970s Ayatollah Khoei refused invitations from the Shah to support him, in 1990 he issued a fatwa forbidding any dealings in property looted from Kuwait, a brave step given the political circumstances.

Yousif al-Khoei, one of his younger relatives, has written that Ayatollah Khoei’s approach in difficult political times was “to refrain from
any confrontational attitude against his antagonists or adversaries” and that “his real legacy has been, and will remain, his academic work and charity institutions.”

I was given a taste of an even more “quietist” approach this summer in Najaf by Ali Bashir al-Najafi, son and spokesman of Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi. “We will offer advice to those in politics,” he told me. “But we do not want to be inside the field. Politics now is guns, theft and fighting for rank.” This is certainly very different from the official view in Iran that the clergy should be directly involved in running the country. But to counterpose the “quietism” of Najaf to the Velayet-e Faqih of Qom is very misleading.

Firstly, the theory of the Velayet-e Faqih was developed in Najaf, most obviously by Ayatollah Khomeini in a series of lectures in 1969. And Ayatollah Mohsen al-Hakim played a clear political role from Najaf in the 1960s while Ayatollah Hussain Boroujerdi, in Qom, until his death in 1961 played a very limited role in politics under the Shah.

Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr Sadr, of Najaf, was a key figure in Iraqi politics in the 1970s, helping found the al-Da’awa Party and developing ideas about a future Islamic state that influenced Khomeini. The oppression by the Ba’athist state impeded the development of this current, most obviously when Saddam Hussein ordered the murder of Sadr in 1980 after he refused to condemn the revolution in Iran.
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Najaf marja recognized by perhaps 40 percent of all Shi’ites worldwide, has made at least one telling political intervention in post-Saddam Iraq by issuing a ruling that the country’s new constitution should be drafted by elected Iraqis. Despite an initially dismissive reaction from Paul Bremer, the US chief administrator, Ayatollah Sistani’s call sent shockwaves through the system, even in Washington.

A revival of Shi’ite thought in post-Ba’athist Iraq could provide a powerful challenge to the Iranian system. While some conservatives in Iran will resist, others who support the Islamic Republic welcome a debate about the future of Shi’ite Islam, both across the borders of the nation-state and within Iran itself. Shi’ite Islam is, after all, built around a concept of ijtihad that requires interpretation of the religion to suit changing times.

Taher Hashemi, a cleric who has been a deputy and is now a prominent newspaper columnist and publisher, said that Iraq could learn important lessons from the experiences of the Islamic Republic in Iran. “Perhaps they can avoid some of the problems we have faced,” he said, a comment qualifying as perhaps the understatement of the year.

Gareth Smyth

Arabies Trends 2004

Article originally published by Arabies Trends 08-Feb-04

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=ZAWYA20040208082156&Section=Main&page=Home&channel=Features%2C%20Analysis%20%26%20Interviews&objectid=C5C3675B-FF61-11D4-867D00D0B74A0D7C

[AdmSmith]

Sorry, but DEBKA is not to be trusted. A recent example is
http://home.cogeco.ca/~kurdistan1/7-2-04-attack-brought-kurds-turks-closer.htm

Salih also said the report issued by the website DEBKAfile stating that the Iraqi Kurds blame Turkey for the February 1 terrorist attacks in Arbil is a complete fabrication.

He said the report (Talabani Accuses Turkish Intelligence of Massacre, DEBKAfile Exclusive Report, Feb. 2, 2004, 12:21 a.m., (GMT+02:00)) distorts the true nature of relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government (Erbil and Sulaimani) and Turkey.

He also said it is entirely false that the Kurdistan Regional Government blames the Turkish government for the terrorist attacks in Erbil.

Salih stated that "among other brazen falsehoods in the report was the claim that Jalal Talabani and Barham Salih had alleged Turkish involvement in the Arbil terrorist attacks. It is also entirely false to claim that Dr. Salih made this allegation during a visit to the White House, because he hasn't visited the White House since the Erbil terrorist attacks."

He said the terrorist attacks in Arbil have, if anything, caused relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Turkey to improve. "The Iraqi Kurds greatly appreciate the sincere condolences offered to us by the government of Turkey. In addition, the government of Turkey has generously offered to provide medical assistance to those wounded in the Erbil terrorist attacks, for which the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi Kurds generally are grateful."

[Pan_Yans Wife]

"Put it this way: we're not holding our breath for democracy to break out," said a senior administration official. "We could be heading toward a situation where the mullahs are even more unambiguously in control and moderates have completely disappeared."

The turmoil must not register on this administration official's radar. He MUST know that the moderates are not moderates. Then again, does the administration make such pacificist pronouncements to lull the regime?

[nuconvert]

Yeah, DEBKA has to be taken with a grain of salt...........

"Barham Salih, the prime minister of the PUK region, issued a statement in Washington praising Turkey." (from Kurdistan Observer) So, he was in Washington or he wasn't?

The Zawahiri/alQaeda stuff has been printed before. It's interesting.

[DoctorZIn]

Iran slams US remarks on parliament elections; says Tehran-Cairo relations ''moving smoothly''

08-02-2004

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said US remarks on elections in Iran indicate a "contradiction" in its policies.

During his weekly press briefing Sunday, Asefi referred to Washington's attempts to stop elections in Iraq and said
US comments regarding the mechanism of holding elections in Iran proved a contradiction in its policies.

He brushed aside the possibility of any new developments in Tehran-Washington ties as long as America's wrong policies toward Iran continued to exist.

Asefi described as "clear cases of interference in Iran's internal affairs," the remarks of certain American politicians regarding the 7th Majlis [parliament] elections, the official IRNA news agency reported.

With regards to the Israeli prime minister's recent decision to "evacuate" Jewish settlements in Gaza, Asefi noted that the recent developments in Palestine proved the victory of the resistance and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.

On the issue of Iran-Egypt ties, Asefi said Tehran-Cairo relations were moving forward on a "smooth path stage by stage". (Albawaba.com)

http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=269796&lang=e&dir=news

[DoctorZIn]

Bin Laden met nuke scientists -- 'Nuclear bazaar' story out of Pakistan gets more bizarre

Worldnetdaily ^ | 2.8.2004 | Joseph Farah
Posted on 02/08/2004 9:48:09 AM PST by DoctorZIn

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1073951/posts

[F14 Pilot]

Admsmith, You might be right but we can not ignore the fact that Iran is a safe house for terrorists.
Do not forget that they support many terrorist groups around the globe.

[McGavin999]

What a joke. Anyone who believes that the Council ignored the wishes of the Ayatollah is fooling themselves. He said one thing in writing and gave quite another impression verbally.

It's going to be interesting to see just how many turn out at the elections.

[AdmSmith]

I agree, they are supporting many terrorists.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1073273/posts?page=3#3

Iran plans to host the largest meeting of hard line Islamic groups regarded by the United States as terrorists, according to informed sources in Tehran.

Iranian officials said the ten-days conference starting next week would discuss strategy against the United States and its allies, particularly Israel and the best ways and means to increase military, financial and propaganda support for Palestinian groups fighting Tel Aviv.

According to same sources, organisations such as the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad of Palestine, the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda allies like the Ansar al Eslam would attend the meeting, to be chaired by Hojjatoleslam Ali Akbar Mohtashami, also known as "the father" of the Lebanese Shi'ite organisation.

[AdmSmith]

"Arabization of Iran has not worked"

here http://www.iran-press-service.com/z_htdocs_z/dcforum/DCForumID6/38.html is a long but interesting article "Iran in History" by Bernard Lewis with comments.

[freedom44]

Precedent of outgoing Majlis cannot be ignored

Sunday, February 08, 2004 - ©2003 IranMania.com

TEHRAN, Feb 7 (Iran Daily) -- A senior press official said the Sixth Parliament's support for the legal rights of the nation will be remembered by history.

Rajabali Mazrouei, head of the Association of Iranian Journalists (AIJ), also said that the outgoing Majlis has set an "example which no individual or group can help but follow".

The Isfahan MP added that the Sixth Parliament is under mounting pressure from the anti-reform camp and that "heavier attacks are expected in the near future". He, however, said pro-reform lawmakers are firmly defending the freedom and law, which is why the conservatives have become so furious.

"Even if the Seventh Parliament will fall in the hands of the conservatives, they will have no option other than respecting public rights and freedoms," he maintained, adding that the reformist-dominated "parliament tried its best to get rid of the restrictions imposed on cultural and press activities".

He also said that "although the parliamentarians faced legislative obstacles, they managed to open up the cultural atmosphere of the country".

Mazrouei noted that the print media fulfilled their professional duty with much more freedom in the wake of the parliamentarians' support for press activities.


http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=22416&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Note: 95% of the pieces of legislation introduced by the 6th majlis was vetoed by the hard-line Guardian Council.
There were over 130 bills on greater freedoms, human rights, privization of business, opening up of elections, legalization of satellite dish, and even dismantling the Guardian Council, all of them were vetoed.

[freedom44]

Tehran opens consulate in Afghan city

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Iran has opened a consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, five years after a group of Iranian diplomats were killed there by Taliban fighters.

The consulate was officially opened on Saturday by Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Mohammad Reza Bahramy, who said he hoped the move would lead to an expansion of trade between the countries. “Re-establishing an Iranian consulate is a big move for Afghanistan, especially for trade and economy,” Bahramy said.

“The main aim of opening the embassy in Kabul and some consulates in other provinces of Afghanistan like Mazar-i-Sharif is to bring peace to Afghanistan.... to bring more security,” he said. The ambassador described the security situation in northern Afghanistan, particularly Mazar city, as good.

“The security of Mazar is now good for diplomats, traders and foreign organizations,” he said. The Iranian consulate closed in 1998 when Islamic fundamentalist Taliban fighters captured Mazar city and attacked the Iranian compound, killing eight diplomats and one journalist working for the Iranian news agency IRNA. Iran has also opened consulates in Kabul, southern Kandahar and western Herat province since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. —AFP

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-2-2004_pg4_19

Note: Few know that in 1998 the Iranian government, in spite of their similiarties, almost declared war on the Taliban

[nuconvert]

Very informative, thank you.

[DoctorZIn]

Fresh demo rocks Tehran University

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Feb 8, 2004

Fresh demo and sporadic clashes rocked, today, the Technical College of Tehran University as hundreds of students joined a meeting, organized by the Islamic Students Association, on the end of the so-called reforms.

Hundreds of students shouted slogans against the totality of the theocratic regime and its leaders as they witnessed the usual soft speeches of several disqualified candidates, current MPs, and heads of the Islamic Students Association. The presence of these incompetent MPs and their desperate try to use the already decided general boycott of the upcoming sham elections, by the majority of Iranians, in their favor was upset many students and made them to protest openly against the totality of the regime.

Many students cut the speeches by reminding them their accomplice silences when students were beaten up or murdered while these MPs were more thinking of safeguarding their positions and cutting deals on the back of Iranians.

Slogans, such as, "Sherkat dar entekhabat, khyanat, khyanat" (Participation in elections, a betryal, betryal), "Khatami, khejalat, khejalat", (Katami, shame, shame), "Ansar jenayat mikonad, Rahbar hemayat mikonad" (Ansar commit crimes, Supreme Leader support them), "Marg bar Dictatori" (Down with Dictatorship), "Marg bar Taleban, tche Kabol, Tche Tehran" (Down with Taleban, in Tehran as in Kabul), "Zendani e siassi, Azad bayad guardad" (Political Prisoners must be freed), "daneshjoo mimirad, Zellat nemi and "Referendum, Referendum, in ast shoar Mardom" (Referendum, Referendum, this is our people's slogan) were shouted by the students under the brutal attacks of regime's plainclothes men and so-called Bassidj students.

Hundreds of tracts were distributed in the premises denouncing the Feb. 20th sham elections. Same type of tracts have been distributed in wide scale in main Iranian cities calling for solidarity in the general boycott and predicting the future downfall of the regime.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4813.shtml

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Royal Trip Highlights 'Open Iran'
The Scotsman

By Caroline Gammell, PA News

The Prince of Wales’ visit to Iran is further illustration of the opening up of a strict Muslim state which has remained impenetrable for the last 25 years.

Last December, diplomatic leaps were made when the country agreed to allow UN inspectors access to its weapons programme, earning plaudits from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

But Iran’s relationship with the West and its whole political outlook has lurched from one extreme to the other in the past three decades and is still far from settled.

When the Westernised Shah was toppled in 1979, many of Iran’s liberal attitudes and policies were quashed by the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

He returned from exile in France and set about re-nationalising the country’s industries and banks as well as reviving Islamic traditions.

All Western influences and music were banned, women had to return to traditional veiled dress and many of the Western-thinking elite fled the country.

Relations with the US collapsed when Iranian militants seized the American embassy in the capital Tehran and held 52 people hostage in November 1979.

When Khomeini refused to negotiate, US President Jimmy Carter imposed an economic boycott and broke off all diplomatic relations.

The Swiss Government assumed representation of US interests in Tehran while Iranian interests in the US were represented by the Pakistani Government.

The hostage crisis lasted 444 days and was only resolved in January 1981 with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan and agreement to most demands, including the unfreezing of nearly eight billion dollars (£5.5bn) of Iranian assets.

In 1980, Iran became embroiled in an eight year war with Iraq over ownership of the Shatt al Arab waterway, which ended up crippling both nations and devastated Iran’s oil industry.

Chemical weapons were used by both countries, but in 1988 Khomeini accepted a UN ceasefire with Iraq.

Since the formation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, the country has worked on a theocratic system of government.

Iran is dominated by the Islamic faith and is now made up of 89% Shia and 10% Sunni Muslims.

When Khomeini died in 1989, he was replaced by the president of Iran Ali Hoseini-Khamenei, who remains Ayatolla to this day.

The new president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani sought to improve relations with Western nations and built up his country’s military force.

But relations soured again in 1991 when Iran condemned the US-led coalition against Iraq and allowed Iraqis to seek refuge in their country.

The US has long been suspicious of Iran, believing it to be a harbourer of terrorists and developing its own weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear.

Relations deteriorated so much that all trade between the countries ceased again in 1995.

Two years later, President Rafsanjani was replaced by Mohammed Khatami, a moderately liberal Muslim cleric.

By the late 90s, several European Union countries had started to rebuild economic ties with Iran, but the US would not be swayed, still suspicious of nuclear weapons.

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Iran was one of many countries to extend its sympathies to the US.

But in January 2002, the US-Iran relationship was rocked once more when US President George Bush named Iran as part of the world’s “axis of evil”.

Since then, Iran has worked towards improving relations and in December 2003 agreed to open its weapons programme to international inspection.

On January 13, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw welcomed the development and said Iran had shown “a new willingness to engage with the international community on the nuclear issue”.

The devastating earthquake in Bam, northern Iran, on Boxing Day last year, also brought the country into the global spotlight.

As the death toll rose to more than 30,000, aid arrived from around the world, with rescue workers worked closely with the Iranian authorities.

The Iranian government rejected an offer from the US government to send a high-level delegation to assist in the distribution of relief supplies.

But American humanitarian groups who travelled to Bam were met with “open arms” and help was eventually accepted.

It is notable that assistance was offered shortly after Iran’s acceptance of UN weapons inspectors and part of the gradual thawing between East and West.

The political scene in Iran is currently stormy as the moderate Khatami does battle with Ayatollah Khamenei and his band of conservative followers, known as the Guardian Council.

Upcoming elections on February 20 have already been accused of being rigged as old-school theocracy tries to undermine the reformers in Iran.

But Charles will undoubtedly steer clear of politics and concentrate on a region crushed by natural disaster.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2507909

[DoctorZIn]

"Masters of Persian Music" (Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Hossein Alizadeh, Kayhan Kalhor and Homayoun Shajarian) as well as Ghazal Ensemble (includes Kayhan Kalhour) have both been nominated for Grammy awards under Best Traditional World Music Album category to be awarded tonight! Spread the word if you can!

[DoctorZIn]

Here are some protest images sent by students inside of Iran...