Iranian Alert -- February 11, 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.

IRANIANS COLD TO THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

PARIS, 11 Feb. (IPS)

The Islamic Republic marked on Wednesday the 25th anniversary of its foundation by Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini amidst general indifference in Iran and anti-regime demonstrations by the Iranian Diaspora in several American and European cities.

Contrary to the Iranian media, mostly the official and the semi-officials that hailed "the mass participation" of Iranians in the celebrations, independent journalists observed the "quasi indifference" of the public for the ceremonies, preferring to use the extended week end holiday to go to sunny and warm cities on the Persian Gulf or the popular Caspian Sea’s resorts.

"Despite streets being illuminated by colourful lanterns, crowns of flowers and gigantic posters, the majority of the Iranians remain indifferent to the festivities", Ms. Delphine Minoui, the correspondent of the French centre of the right newspaper "Le Figaro" said in a lengthy dispatch from the Iranian Capital.

"I refused to go to the ceremonies because I realise that all the promises made by this regime from the start up until today came to be a big lie", the brother of a martyr killed on the battlefront of the bloody War against Iraq told "The Irish Times" of Dublin.

In a speech pronounced on the occasion, the embattled Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami warned that "if pressures on the people became insupportable, one not only has betrayed the people and the Revolution, but also provoke damages that would be difficult to compensate, if not impossible".

Repeating accusations and criticism against the West and defending the Islamic Revolution for "teaching the world about real and true democracy and freedom" as well as the action of his government, Mr. Khatami also called for "free and fair" elections.

However, he avoided touching the recent electoral crisis that had marred the commemoration of the victory of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 as well as addressing the slightest criticism to the leader-controlled Council of the Guardians for rejecting the majority of incumbent reformist lawmakers from running for the seventh Majles.

To protest the decision, more than a hundred deputies of the reformist faction of the Majles staged a sit-in and cabinet ministers threatened of mass resignation, but not only they faced apathy from the public, but were also abandoned by Mr. Khatami, now dubbed by many Iranians as "the Judah".

As A result of the stand off, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the country’s largest political formation that is led by Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the powerless President and one of the disqualified candidates decided not to take part in the polls.

"Badly deceived by the Islamic justice, democracy and freedom promised by Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini, the Iranians have now serious doubts about the religious-based government as well as about the compatibility of religion and democracy, as defended by President Mohammad Khatami", observed the relatively authoritative American newspaper "The Christian Science Monitor".

"Times have changed", she quoted Massoumeh, a former Moslem militant, remembering that at the time, Khomeini had succeeded in uniting all groups (opposed to the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi). "Even my friends of left were bewitched by the leader's words" she says, adding: For us, he embodied this model of wisdom that one was looking for a long time. I still have difficulty to explain this magic attraction that all would have for him".

Today, Massoumeh stood back. She has exchanged the black chador against a simple scarf and she enrolled, four years ago in the class of Mr. Abdolkarim Soroush, a religious intellectual, a former member of the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution in charge of the islamisation of the universities turned one of the theoreticians the more in vogue of "post-Islamism".

Defending a "personal Islam", he now rejects in block the embodiment of the religion and dare to question the concept of velayate faqih, or the corner stone of the Iranian theocratic system based on the supreme jurisdiction incarnated by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i after the death of the Grand Ayatollah in 1989, she wrote.

He is not the only one, Ms. reported, adding: In the holy city of Qom as well as in Tehran, many thinkers dare to question the narrow relation between politics and the religion. "We come back from afar", she quoted Mr Hamid Reza Jalaïpour, professor of social studies in Tehran.

"Twenty-five years ago, many of us would believe that theocracy could solve all problems. But one can see that since the revolution, the number of faithful didn't increase, the mosques didn't become more popular and the State is not more efficient", Mr. Jalaipour, the publisher of several reformist dailies all shut down by the leader-controlled Judiciary says.

Many of the former radicals are now among today’s reformers. Abbas Abdi, to mention him only, one of the "mentors" of hostage taking at the American embassy Tehran in November 1979 reached fame more than a year ago by the publication of a "shock" poll that revealed that three quarters of the Iranians were in favour of the resumption of the dialogue between Iran and America. His investigation provoked the grumbles of the conservative justice that sent it behind the bars.

"This revolution allowed us to experiment the religious fundamentalism. This is an important achievement in relation to our neighbouring countries that discovers it only now", Mr. Jalaipour went on, noting that "today, the opening on the world and democracy is unavoidable in Iran".

"It is the fight of the ideological Islam against the cultural and tolerant Islam", commented Mr. Masha’llah Shamsolva’ezine a writer and journalist who, according to Ms. Minoui, "even dares to skim the word of "secularism".

"This activist of the reformist press who now heads the Association for the Defence of the Rights of Journalists knows what he talks about: He has just been again called by a tribunal to give some accounts for "spreading of untrue information". The man, who knew the jail during eighteen months says, "After this painful experience that was the Revolution, the Iranian society is reaching its maturity", Le Figaro said.

But, according to Mr. Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di, a former Member of the Majles, "from reforms as promised by Mr. Khatami, Iranians are now demanding radical changes".

ENDS 25 ANNIVERSARY 11204

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Feb_04/25_anniversary_11204.htm

A Kinder View of Uncle Sam
Iranians' Affinity Grows After Encounters With Troops in Iraq

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 12, 2004; Page A21

TEHRAN, Feb. 11 -- On Revolution Day, the Iranian equivalent of the Fourth of July, Azadi Street was again transformed from east-west artery to carnival midway. Men lined up for free yogurt. Hawkers coaxed women to finger the material of baby clothes. Children clamored for a turn throwing darts at George W. Bush.

Hossein Asadi put three darts right between the eyes of the caricature, sketched on a pair of boards mounted in a sideshow tent. He walked away with a new yellow tennis ball but no change in his feelings, which were nothing if not admiring.

"They like me to hit George Bush, so I hit George Bush," said Hossein, 15. "They say it's the Great Satan, but I say it's a great country.

"I've seen nothing bad from the Americans."

Wednesday marked 25 years since an elderly Muslim cleric with eyes the color of coal declared Iran a theocracy. But while religious figures remain firmly in charge here, sweeping aside an entire reform movement last week with the stroke of a pen, another pillar of the revolution appears shakier.

Anti-Americanism is not what it used to be in Iran.

As the United States and Iran edge warily toward possible rapprochement, the Iranian public makes no secret of its appetite for restoring relations formally severed in 1980, after militant students took over the U.S. Embassy here. In recent months, Iranians say, the appetite has grown for an unexpected reason: Iranian pilgrims returning from Iraq are spreading admiring stories of their encounters with American troops.

Thousands of Iranians have visited the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala since the war ended. Many have expressed surprise at the respectful and helpful behavior of the U.S. soldiers they met along the way.

Leila Araki, waiting in the back of a Renault sedan as her husband peddled shoes, recalled that her mother-in-law somehow lost her money on the road to Karbala. She said a U.S. soldier reached into his pocket and handed her taxi fare back to Najaf.

"This is something quite contrary to what we have been told about Americans," said Araki, 31, who was told of Americans flashing thumbs-up and saying, "Good, Iranians."

"They were really surprised. I would never be this respected and well-treated even in my country, by my countrymen."

Esmaeil Omrani told of a relative with asthma struggling to breathe in the dust of Najaf. A young American in full battle dress advised him to switch inhalants, then gave the pilgrim his own, plus an extra for the road. "Everybody liked them," Omrani said.

Hossein Amiri related a similar story from a thirsty relative given water by a U.S. soldier outside Najaf when the city was closed by a car bombing.

"Between our countries, there might be problems at the top," said Amiri, 48, a civil servant. "There is no problem at the bottom."

This unusual cultural exchange has emerged at a fortuitous time, according to analysts and ordinary Iranians. After a quarter century of mutual hostility, the U.S. and Iranian governments are working quietly to establish order both in Afghanistan and Iraq, neighboring countries that Iran considered hostile under the regimes that the United States and allied nations recently toppled.

The prospect of formal relations remains uncertain. Senior Iranian officials said they do not expect serious progress until after the U.S. presidential election and Iran's own contest for a new president in 2005.

But the soft words rising from Azadi Street carry significance. The annual gathering on Revolution Day draws Iranians who remain most fiercely devoted to the hard-line government, loyalists who routinely chant "Death to America" at Friday prayers (a refrain not heard on Wednesday). Bussed to Azadi, their numbers include volunteers of the Basiji militia who have pledged fealty to the country's supreme leader and veterans who defended the nascent Islamic republic in the 1980-88 war against Iraq.

U.S. support for Iraq in that war has been an abiding complaint in Iran, along with the CIA role in a 1953 coup that replaced a nationalist government with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, widely seen as a U.S. puppet disrespectful of Islam.

"I was a volunteer during the war," said Amir Hossein Yazdarian, 35, who has used a wheelchair since an Iraqi grenade pierced his spine. "I was injured by the weapons of Saddam Hussein, who was supported by the Americans. So I have suffered from the Americans. But I don't see any reason why we should not have relations.

"We are a nation with an ancient civilization. America is a nation with a modern civilization. If we cooperate, good things could happen."

In the complex geometry of Iranian politics, prospects for U.S. ties may actually be enhanced by the electoral crisis still unfolding here. Since 2000, the government has been stalemated between elected reformers and conservatives who occupy the appointed positions that carry real authority here.

Last month, conservatives summarily disqualified most of the most prominent reform candidates for parliament. The move prompted a mass resignation among lawmakers, calls to boycott the Feb. 20 election and a stern warning from the reformist president to the several hundred thousand assembled on Wednesday.

"Elections are a symbol of democracy if they are performed correctly," said President Mohammad Khatami, who has reluctantly vowed to go ahead with the election. "If this is restricted, it's a threat to the nation and the system. This threat is difficult to reverse."

But analysts said a government dominated by conservatives may accelerate the move toward negotiations with Washington. Renewed U.S. relations long have been quietly regarded as the ultimate prize in domestic politics here, one that reformers and conservatives have been loathe to see the other side win credit for delivering.

As for anti-American rhetoric enshrined by the 1979 revolution, a foreign diplomat in Tehran said, "I think ultimately Iranians feel they've been fed a line."

"Whatever the cost of living there, please take me to America," said Mohammad Tehrani, a bus driver waiting to carry the faithful home. He stood beside a kiosk bearing the slogan, stenciled in English, "Down with USA."

"We have no problems with America really," insisted Hassan Diyanat, a fellow driver. "Why should we have problems?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34513-2004Feb11.html

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