Iranian Alert -- February 23, 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.

Iran's Parliament Poised to Swing Right

February 23, 2004
The Financial Times
Gareth Smyth and Mohsen Asgari

Iran's parliament was yesterday set to swing firmly to the right after Friday's general election in which the turnout was well down on the last poll.

Conservatives won more than 130 of the first 194 seats declared for the 290-seat assembly. The interior ministry announced a turnout of 50.57 per cent against 67 per cent in the election of 2000.

The interior ministry's figures put the turnout in the capital Tehran at only 33 per cent.

Two reformist parties withdrew when the Guardian Council, a constitutional vetting body, disqualified more than 2,000 mainly reformist candidates.

But observers said the decline in voter participation reflected disillusionment with politicians of all factions rather than support for the boycott urged by some reformists and by exiled opposition groups. Reformists fear the result will end faltering moves by Mohammad Khatami, the reformist president, to curb the political powers of religious bodies. There are also concerns that it could jeopardise moves backed by the European Union to thaw relations between Tehran and Washington.

The closure of two reformist newspapers on the eve of the poll fuelled such fears.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, said the real losers in the elections were "the United States, Israeli Zionists and the country's enemies". But many of the newly elected parliamentarians are not well-known and some observers have argued that many will take a pragmatic approach.

* Iran's foreign ministry yesterday admitted that it had bought parts for its nuclear programme from dealers on the international black market. But a spokesman said it was not known from where they were sourced.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982733198&p=1012571727172

Iranians Boycott a Bogus Election

February 23, 2004
National Review Online
Nasser Rashidi

Last Friday, the theocrat tyrants ruling Iran held yet another sham election rigged with massive fraud and grossly inflated numbers to claim high turnout.

Unofficial estimates from government sources notwithstanding, reports from Iran indicate solid shunning of the election by Iranians and a defeat for the clerical regime. The Financial Times reports that, "Despite spring-like weather and impassioned calls to vote from the country's leaders, millions of Iranians appear to have failed to turn out for the Islamic republic's seventh parliamentary elections since the 1979 Islamic revolution."

The mullahs made a mockery of Friday's election by disqualifying nearly 2,500 candidates, 80 of them sitting parliament deputies. This was despite the fact that the rejected candidates had declared their allegiance to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in order to be eligible to run in the first place. Khatami's refusal to protest over the fate of his colleagues, and his promise to work within backdoor channels of power, alienated many in his own camp. This goes to show that the apparent conflicts are not over such fundamental issues as free speech and press, but more a fight over who gets a bigger piece of the pie. The San Francisco Chronicle quotes a resident of Tehran as saying: "They (reformists) enter parliament on a bicycle and they leave driving Mercedes Benzes.''

When Mohammad Khatami took office in 1997, many in the West were mesmerized by his citing of renowned Western philosophers, and rejoiced over the prospects of reform in Iran. Now, seven years later, there is hardly anyone who would make the case for fundamental change in Iran so long as the clerical establishment is in power.

Unfortunately, millions of Iranians paid the price for that misperception as the regime brutally crushed anti-government protests, hanged people in public and stoned victims to death. Some 4,000 students, arrested in June for demonstrating in Tehran and for demanding a referendum for regime change, remain incarcerated. The last seven years of "reform" have meant a rise in prostitution and suicide among the young.

The fact is that the Iranian clerical regime is fundamentally and institutionally incapable of reform; one step back and the whole roof would collapse. Ironically, by founding his Islamic republic, Ayatollah Khomeini sowed within it the seeds of its ultimate demise — the inability to change.

Nevertheless, the biggest political crisis facing the regime in the past quarter-century, has taken the mullahs to the brink. It has also stained the elections with the mark of illegitimacy. The lesson to be learned by Tehran's European trade partners is that a theocracy that does not tolerate its own parliament deputies is not about to allow any genuine dissent on the part of the public.

Millions of Iranians saw that and boycotted the election farce. The cry in Iran now is for a United Nations-sponsored referendum for regime change. The more than 5,000 Iranian Americans who took part in an evening of solidarity with Iran at the Washington, D.C., convention center earlier this month echoed that call. They were joined by dozens of parliamentarians from Canada, Europe, and Australia as well as several American dignitaries, including former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, and the Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi. According to the AFP news service, Mrs. Rajavi called for a "referendum to effect regime change in the Islamic republic, saying it was ‘the only way to peacefully change the medieval regime.'"

Rajavi, who graduated from Tehran Sharif University, said in a statement this weekend that because "a crushing majority of Iranians...have decisively boycotted" the vote, a referendum remained the only option available to change the hardline government.

A resolution, initiated by Kansas Republican Sam Brownback and adopted unanimously by the U.S. Senate last week, underscores that Friday's election in Iran was all for show and that "such elections stifle the growth of the genuine democratic forces in Iran." The Senate resolution demands, "The policy of the United States should be to advocate a genuine democratic government in Iran that will restore freedom to the people of Iran, will abandon terrorism, will protect human rights, and will live in peace and security with the international community."

The message from Tehran and Washington, D.C. rang loud and clear: No more dancing with Tehran's mullahs. It is time to work to end the religious dictatorship in Iran, through a referendum for regime change.

— Nasser Rashidi is executive director of the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rashidi200402230856.asp

2 Million Iranians Jam Southern Iraq Under Cover of Religious Activity

February 20, 2004
IranExpert
iranexpert.com

The Baghdad correspondent for the Jordanian daily al-‘Arab al-Yawm, Ahmad Sabri, reports that Arab public opinion is following with great concern the rapidly growing Iranian presence in Iraq.

Iranians are present in Iraq on the grounds that they are making pilgrimage to Shi‘i holy sites such as an-Najaf and Karbala’ but religion is frequently a pretext for the smuggling of drugs into Iraqi territory and the smuggling of Iraqi resources, antiquities, manuscripts, and even foodstuffs into Iran.

Sabri writes that observers of the situation in Karbala’, an-Najaf, al-Kazimiyah, and Samarra’, as well as Iraqi cities near the Iranian frontier are reporting that Iranian government agencies are working systematically and now have a widely established presence in the centers of these cities where they exploit the absence of local security and order.

According to Iraqi newspaper reports, tens of thousands of Iranians cross the border into Iraq every day, ostensibly to visit Shi‘i holy sites. But those who closely follow this development regard this highly significant scale of Iranian influx – said to total 2 million Iranians in all – as being of potentially serious danger to the security and welfare of Iraq as a result of the chaotic and unsupervised situation that prevails at the border crossings between the two countries.

The Shi‘i holy cities of Karbala’, an-Najaf, and al-Kazimiyah have taken on the appearance of Iranian cities, Sabri writes, making it difficult even to find Arabic speakers there. The Iraqi press published a feature story on the Iranian presence in Iraq that reported that the Iranian flag now flies in the courtyard that lies between the tomb of the Shi‘i Imam al-Husayn and that of his brother al-‘Abbas in Karbala’. Nor is the matter limited to such symbolic manifestations. The Iranian secret police have become highly active in Iraqi cities, recruiting Iraqis by enticement or threat, and distributing pamphlets and books that promote Iran’s political experience, according to the police chief in al-Basrah, who reported that his policemen had monitored this Iranian activity and arrested a number of agents.

Eye witnesses from Karbala’ and an-Najaf report that the cities are being swept by a wave of unprecedented inflation in the price of land and rental rates for apartments and shops. Prices for food are also on the rise because of the huge influx of Iranians into the two cities where they buy and smuggle locally available goods.

The Iraqi press reports that the Iranian secret services are pouring millions of dollars into Iraq and stockpiling large quantities of weapons in specifically designated secret locations in the southern part of the country. The Baghdad papers warn of the danger that hundreds of explosive devices can be imported long-distance from Iran and that they are in fact already in the possession of arms merchants, criminal gangs, and thieves.

http://www.iranexpert.com/2004/iraq20february.htm

Mullahs Regime's Third Surgery

February 23, 2004
The Intellectual Conservative
Nooredin Abedian

On February 20, the seventh legislative elections under the Islamic Republic were held in Iran. In spite of the row on the event, and in spite of a call to postpone the elections by the so-called reformists in the regime, the ballot was held without much difficulty. Counting all other "elections," this was the 24th overall election in the life of the Islamic Republic, and there seemed to be nothing peculiar about the elections except the low turnout. Yet it was very meaningful for the regime.

The Islamic Republic had undergone, up to this election, two main internal surgeries. The first one, in 1981, was when the first president of the regime, Abolhassan Banisadr, elected with a ballot of 11 million votes, was stripped of his position and obliged to join the clandestine opposition, later to leave the country and enter exile. He was accused of being "deceived" by the "Monafeqin" (hypocrites: regime's term for the armed opposition group) Mujaheedin Khalq, which took up arms against the new republic after Banisadr was dismissed. Having resorted to open repression of all legal opposition inside the country as well as being engaged in a bloody external war with Iraq, Khomeini was not capable of tolerating a president not obedient enough to carry out what he was asked to do.

The second surgical operation came in 1988, when Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini's heir apparent, fell from grace when he protested against the massacre of "thousands of political prisoners overnight," as he mentioned in a letter to Khomeini in protest against the exercise. Not able to stop the executions, Montazeri was dismissed quickly, and was later put under house arrest, only to be relieved recently, years after Khomeini's death, when authorities were obliged to end his house arrest because of public opinion. Strangely enough, Montazeri also was labeled as being "deceived" by the MEK. Again, in his weakest position, and after having -- in his own words -- sipped the "poison of accepting a cease-fire" in the war with Iraq, Khomeini was unwilling to let his second in command criticize him for what he purposefully did to save his own neck, and his regime's.

Friday's election, in spite of its banal appearance, was in fact the third big surgery of the regime. Seven years ago, Mohammad Khatami found his way to the regime's presidency amid high hopes for a rather quick process of normalization between the Islamic Republic and the West, in general, and the United States, in particular. In 1997, a few days after Khatami's election, CNN's Christine Ammanpour went all the way to Tehran to interview the newly-elected president long enough to give a clear picture of a true moderate to the whole world. But Khatami never was nor wanted to be a real moderate, and a real moderator of change in Iran. He cared more for the existence of the regime than for reforming it from within. Yesterday, Khatami was seen on CNN, criticizing himself for preaching a reform movement which was now dead, and about to be "buried," after the recent elections. During his seven years in office, the internal balance of power, as well as the regional and international parameters, allowed Khatami and his so-called reformist faction, to keep pace with Khamenei, the supreme leader, and his hardliner gang. Khatami's faction even won the sixth legislative elections four years ago, but nevertheless failed to bring along substantial change. The part of the population deceived by the myth of reform slowly began to leave his camp. And then with the recent changes in the region, notably the installation of several pro-western regimes on its borders in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with international pressure against it to curb its lust for prohibited arms of mass destruction, the regime began to realize that internal schism and infighting could be no longer tolerated. The last thing the mullahs in Tehran wanted was a disobedient parliament and a foot-dragging government during visits by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or the nerve-crashing maneuvers against the United States.

After the regional whirlwinds that changed two regimes in their neighborhood, the mullahs in Iran count on two footholds to keep themselves in place: first, try to "go nuclear," as they call it, as a preemptive measure and for extra leverage in their regional blackmail; and, second, interference in Iraq, a country they consider to be the United States' soft belly exposed to their export of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Though strategically, nothing can replace the "bomb" for the mullahs, tactically -- especially in a US election year, and when there seems to be a certain level of criticism against the Bush administration for its engagement in Iraq -- they give priority to developments in Iraq in order to gain precious time back home.

In order to proceed full speed towards these two goals, the mullahs needed first to put their house in order. "Never go out looking for trouble if you already have trouble inside your own house," says an old Iranian proverb. The mullahs could have opted for continuing the show of "pluralism," or rather "dualism," to keep at least willing Europeans behind them as a counterweight to the American pressure. But unlike the pre-Iraqi war, the Europeans have seemed to act fairly in concert with the United States in pressuring the mullahs for their lust for the "bomb." Khatami and his reformists' show of "pluralism" was not enough to stop that pressure. So the mullahs decided to get rid of them, and gain some time by pretending to abide by the Non Proliferation Treaty of the IAEA. They took the risk of the third surgery.

It might prove fatal:

-- The population turned a cold shoulder to the mullahs' infighting during the election. They did not even care for the sit-in of pro-Khatami members of the mullahs' parliament after they had been dismissed and kept out of the election game.

-- The unprecedented low turnout, put by the regime at around 50% of those eligible to vote, but as low as 6% by the opposition, means that for any elections to be meaningful in the future, the opposition must come from outside the mullahs’ regime and the poll must have the form of a referendum to determine the fate of the regime in its totality.

-- Given the above, much of the mullahs' remaining power should be devoted to curbing internal discontent and unrest, as seen even during the two days after Friday's sham elections, when unrest spread to various towns.

-- The third surgery is different from the two earlier ones in one very important aspect: it comes at a time when somebody of Khomeini's stature is not heading the regime. Already, after having eliminated hundreds of so-called reformist candidates from elections for reason of non-compliance with the laws, Khamenei came under fire by more than 70 members of the current parliament whose applications for a new round were dismissed by organs under Khamenei's power. The disillusioned members of Majles even publicly accused Khamenei of hypocrisy. He chose not to respond. Maybe he was right. The regime is much weaker and more vulnerable after this internal feud, and the upcoming weeks might stand as proof.

Nooredin Abedian is an Iranian engineer based in Germany, and a former lecturer at Tehran University. He writes from time to time on Iranian issues and politics.

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3160.html

The Great Iranian Election Fiasco

February 23, 2004
National Review Online
Michael Ledeen

What actually happened; what we must do.

Even for a regime that excels in deception, the announcement by the Iranian government that nearly half the eligible voters cast their ballots in Friday's election is an extraordinary bit of effrontery. And even those Western "news" outlets that decided to pronounce the turnout "low" (the BBC, of course, echoed the party line by talking about a large turnout), did so by comparing the official numbers with those of the last parliamentary election, when more than 60 percent voted for the toothless "reformers."

The real numbers are a tiny fragment of the official ones. The overall turnout came in at about twelve percent, with Tehran a bit lower, and places like Isfahan and Qom (of all places, the headquarters of the Shiite religious elite) closer to five percent. The only major city with a substantially higher turnout was Kerman, due to a local factor: A widely hated hardliner was running, and many people judged it more important to demonstrate their contempt for him personally by voting for others than to show their rejection of the regime en bloc by abstaining.

It shouldn't have been hard to get this story right, at least in its broad outlines. A leading member of the old parliament, Mehdi Karoubi, was asked why he did badly, and he replied, publicly: "because the people boycotted the election."

Keep in mind that the reporters knew full well that all but a handful of polling sites in Tehran — the only place they were able to observe, thanks to the usual clampdown on information — were virtually dead. They knew, or should have known, that the regime had trotted out more than 10,000 "mobile voting booths," that is to say, trucks driving around inviting people to vote. They surely heard the stories — widely repeated on Iranian web sites — of thousands of phony ballots, and of citizens being forced to turn over their identity cards, thus making it possible for others to pose as legitimate voters. They must also have heard that high-school students were warned that if they did not vote they would never get into the universities.

But they did not report any of this. The Washington Post's Karl Vick wrote an upbeat report, as if the hardliners had won a normal election, and CNN's legendary Ms. Amanpour stressed that Iran was changing for the better since the dress code for women had loosened a bit in the past few years. Neither seemed to know that there were violent protests throughout the country, that several people had been killed and scores wounded by the regime's thugs, and that highways were blocked because the regime was afraid the protests would spread. There was enough electoral fraud to fill any Western news report, had the correspondents wished to do so. As the website The Student Movement Coordinating Committee for Democracy in Iran recorded violent clashes in Izeh, a southern city where a local politician was murdered by security forces when he protested his exclusion from the electoral list. Other protests were reported from Khorram-Abad, Firoozabad, and Dehdasht in the south, in Isfahan, and near the Afghan border in Mashad, Sabze-war, Nelshaboor, and Tchenaran.

Instead of this important information, we get the usual election-day analysis, as if a real election had been conducted, and one could understand something important about Iranian public opinion from the official numbers.

Oddly, the wild distortion of the real results does show something that the mullahs do not want us to know. They fear the Iranian people, knowing how deeply the people hate them, and they believe they must continue to tell a big lie about popular support for the regime. But the people know better. Thus, the demonstrations.

The regime clearly intends to clamp down even harder in the immediate future. Hints of this were seen in the run-up to the election, when Internet sites and foreign broadcasts were jammed, the few remaining opposition newspapers shut down, and thousands of security forces poured into the major cities. One wonders whether any Western government is prepared to speak the truth about Iran, or whether they are so determined to arrive at make-believe deals — for terrorists that are never delivered, for promises to stop the nuclear program, that are broken within minutes of their announcement, or for help fighting terrorism while the regime does everything in its power to support the terrorists — that they will play along and pretend, as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has put it, that "Iran is a democracy."

For those interested in exposing hypocrisy, it is hard to find a better example than all those noble souls who denounced Operation Iraqi Freedom as a callous operation to gain control over Iraqi oil, but who remain silent as country after country, from Europe to Japan, appeases the Iranian tyrants precisely in order to win oil concessions.

Meanwhile, the only Western leader who consistently speaks the truth about Iran is President George W. Bush, and the phony intellectuals of the West continue to call him a fool and a fascist. Meanwhile, his most likely Democrat opponent, Senator John Kerry, sends an e-mail to Tehran Times, Iran's official English-language newspaper, promising that relations between the United States and Iran would improve enormously if Kerry were to be elected next November.

Finally, perhaps our enterprising journalists could ask the administration how it can be, three years after inauguration, that we still have no Iran policy. Yes, Virginia, there is still no National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) on Iran, even though Iran is the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, and we claim to be in a war against the terror masters.

Faster, please.

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200402231057.asp

Al Qaeda & Hezbollah Will Attend Terrorist Conference In Iran

Gary Fitleberg, 02/23/04

The Islamic regime of Iran will host a conference of international terrorists next week that will see attendees coming from across the globe, including representatives of the groups linked to Al Qaeda and Hezbollah and terrorism expert Amir Taheri reported in The New York Post.

Wrote Taheri: "Most of the groups attending the event, labeled 'Ten Days of Dawn,' are branded by the United States and some European Union members as terrorist outfits. These include 17 branches of the Hezbollah

The Islamic Republic's hospitality cuts across even religious divides. Militant Sunni organizations, including two linked to Al Qaeda - Ansar al-Islam (Companions of Islam) and Hizb Islami (The Islamic Party) - will enjoy Iranian hospitality."

The State Department considers the Iranian regime to be the world's leading state sponsor of terror and has also condemned its efforts to build nuclear weapons. The U.S. Congress is considering legislation against Iran much like it did with Syria and the "Syria Accountabilty Act" which will make Iran legally accountable for its actions and with possible repurcussions in the form of sanctions.

Gary is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs. His articles have been published in numerous publications including La Prensa (Managua, Nicaragua equivalent to the L.A. Times), Pakistan Today, The Kashmir Telegraph, The Iranian and many more.

Copyright © 2003 Gary Fitleberg.

http://www.americandaily.com/item/4856

Iran's regime unrattled by record low turnout

Monday, February 23, 2004 - ©2004 IranMania.com

TEHRAN, Feb 23 (AFP) -- Iran's conservatives have regained control of almost all the main seats of power ahead of next year's presidential polls, despite a record low turnout in Friday's parliamentary elections.

The reformist-controlled Interior Ministry dashed the hopes of conservatives of a high turnout to add credibility to their sweeping victory when it announced on Sunday that only 50.57% of the electorate took part.

Before the election, the leading regime figures of the 25-year-old Islamic republic called for a strong turnout, playing on nationalist and religious sentiments.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said it was a "religious duty", while Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, head of the Guardians Council political vetting body, said "voting is as important as praying".

And although state television, on its six national channels, repeatedly backed up their calls, the turnout was still 17% lower than the last parliamentary elections in 2000.

The reformists had urged voters to stay away after nearly all pro-reform candidates were disqualified from even standing for the Majlis by the unelected Guardians Council.

The outcome was an "acceptable" turnout "which does not put into question the regime's legitimacy, even if the rejection of candidates raises questions over the regularity of the elections," said political journalist Said Leylaz.

Many reformists had predicted that less than 40 to 45% of the 46.3 million eligible voters would cast their ballots.

But Iranian leaders will still not be able to overlook the low turnout in the major towns, especially the capital, where the figure was as low as 28%.

"You cannot offset the 70% abstention by Tehranis with the 70% turnout of voter in small constituencies in the provinces. That would be a big political error," said Leylaz.

"The vote, or rather the non-vote, in Tehran has a political significance, whereas the strong turnout in the small places has none."

In the small provincial towns, voting in the Islamic republic is normally motivated by local considerations, or by ethnic or clan rivalries, rather than major national issues.

It was the second time in a year that voters in the cities failed to turn up at polling stations.

Last February, largely due to voter apathy and disenchantment, less than 12% took part in municipal elections in Tehran, where conservatives strolled home with less than five percent of the potential votes.

"We can't question the correctness of the municipal elections because all the political groups put up candidates. But this time, the reformists were eliminated even before the contest started," said Leylaz.

Moreover, the regime can argue that the 50% turnout compares favourably with those of Western democracies, especially the United States.

Although the turnout was the only issue of suspense going into the polls, in which a conservative triumph was a foregone conclusion, "in a few days, nobody will be talking about it any more", said another Iranian journalist.

Those reformists who were approved and did not boycott appeared set to take about 40 seats in the 290-seat Majlis. They were able to contest just over half of the seats up for grabs.

Definitive results were expected from Monday.

A blend of hardliners, conservatives and independents -- a label under which many other right-wingers have stood -- appears set to replace the noisy but largely ineffectual reformist-held parliament.

Embattled President Mohammad Khatami, whose final term ends in June 2005, now stands isolated as one of the few reformists left in public office.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=22823&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

•Several activists in Iran, including constitutional reform advocate and former pro-reform newspaper publisher Mohsen Sazegara have asked the UN to investigate the Friday elections for possible fraud. Former UNIFEM official Parvin Paiydar who returned to London after tours of duty in Afghanistan and Pakistan, tells Radio Farda that UN intervention is a legitimate demand. When democracy is destroyed in one country, it is the responsibility of all democratic states to protest, she adds. (Shahran Tabari, London)

•The Los Angeles Persian-TV broadcasters, who beam their shows to Iran via satellite, actively promoted elections boycott. We receive detailed information on the activities of the government officials from their bodyguards and IRGC members, who have now turned against the regime, operator of a Persian satellite channel Reza Fazeli. Knowing the truth is the people's right and we try to provide that in our broadcasts, owner of another channel Zia Atabai says. Most callers to my 90-minute daily broadcast were pro-Shah women, Azadi-TV broadcaster and monarchist activist Behruz Suresrafil says. (Firouzeh Khatibi, Los Angeles)

Culture Minister Asks Khatami to Intervene on Behalf of Two Closed Reformists Newspapers

•In an open letter to President Khatami, culture minister Ahmad Masjed-Jamei asked him for advice on reversing the Tehran judiciary's bans on two reformist newspapers Shargh and Yaas-e Now. The two newspapers were closed a day before the Majles elections for having carried a letter signed by 130 Majles MPs blaming the Supreme Leader for the mass disqualification of 2,500 reformist election candidates. The judiciary said the newspapers were closed by the order of the secretary of the supreme national security council Hasan Rowhani, who yesterday denied judiciary's claim. (Mahmonir Rahimi)

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Admits Black Market Nuclear Buys

•“We purchased some (nuclear) parts from some dealers, but we don't know what the sources were or which countries they came from,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said today, in an admission that confirms recent reports about the activities of an international black market in nuclear equipment and technology operated by Pakistani scientist. “It happened that some of the dealers were from some subcontinent countries,” Asefi added, refusing to name Pakistan. “We have said from the beginning that we acquired some equipment from some dealers. We haven't mentioned any specific scientist or government organization,” he added. (Shireen Famili)

EU Foreign Minister to Discuss Iran Elections

•In their meeting tomorrow in Dublin, the foreign ministers of the EU countries will discuss the Friday Majles elections in Iran, according to Austria's foreign minister, who said conservatives' takeover the Majles would endanger the future of the reforms. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)

Depositors Demonstrate Outside Three Failed Isfahan S & L Institutions

•Angry depositors who lined up outside three failed Islamic savings and loan institutions on Saturday demanded the return of their deposits, an eyewitness tells Radio Farda. The crowd blocked several highways and streets, he adds. Another eyewitness says people find it curious that the institutions closed a day after the elections. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)

Neyshabur Residents Block Rail Road in Protest against Poor Relief Work after Train Explosion

•Four days after the massive cargo train explosion near Neyshabour, which killed 300, wounded 400, and leveled several villages, angry demonstrators blocked the Tehran-Mashhad railroad in protest against poor relief work. As people who have lost their loved ones in the explosion, we demand to know the nature of the cargo carried by the exploded train, a Neyshabur resident told the state-owned “students” news agency. A protestor said hospitals demand payment before admitting the surviving victims. (Ali Sajjadi)

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http://www.radiofarda.com/transcripts/topstory/2004/02/20040222_1530_0350_0629_EN.asp

Toughening of EU-Iranian Relations Follows Elections

February 23, 2004
EUobserver
Andrew Beatty

BRUSSELS -- Iran is today facing international isolation as its premier western ally, the EU, followed the United States in branding the country’s recent elections undemocratic.

Meeting in Brussels on Monday (23 February), EU foreign ministers have condemned the elections as a setback and expressed their "deep regret and disappointment".

Earlier the United States criticised the poll, pointing to the ban on 2,400 candidates, many of them reformists opposed to the powerful conservative Council of Guardians - today the EU followed suit.

"It is clear that they [the elections] have not taken place according to what the EU perceives as international standards", Commission spokesperson Diego Ojeda told journalists.

"This is a step back for democracy in Iran" he said adding that the elections would be a "factor to take into account in our future relations with Iran".

Although Washington has had terrible relations with the Islamic republic since the revolution in 1979, the EU has continued to follow a policy of constructive engagement - this now looks set to change.

Trade impact
Publicly, the EU refuses to make any formal link between the elections and the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, currently under negotiation between Brussels and Tehran, insisting that the primary obstacle remains Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

But privately officials acknowledge the impact of the elections.

One official close to the External Relations Commissioner, Chris Patten, told the EUobserver that the Commissioner viewed the elections as a setback that could only impact relations.

In a practical sense there are also problems with some concern that the EU has backed a losing horse. "We have had a policy of backing reformists", said one diplomat.

Now the reformists have been ousted and the President severely weakened, the EU’s best interlocutors have been swept away.

In the coming days, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is set to report on its investigations into Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Officially at least, the decision to schedule more talks will be taken on the basis of the IAEA’s findings. However, diplomats say that, for now, no future talks are scheduled.

Last December talks were scheduled to be held, but were cancelled by the Iranian’s shortly before.

http://www.euobserver.com/index.phtml?sid=9&aid=14583

Rumsfeld: Syria, Iran Allow Anti-US Fighters Into Iraq

February 23, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD -- Syria and Iran both continue to allow anti-U.S. fighters across their borders and into Iraq, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday in Baghdad while on a visit to U.S. troops.

"We are not getting good cooperation with Iran and Syria," Rumsfeld said.

It isn't the first time that Rumsfeld has accused the two countries of actions that harm U.S. interests in Iraq, although other U.S. officials have said there is little sign of active Syrian or Iranian meddling in the country.

Meanwhile, U.S. military officers told Rumsfeld that the chief threat to stability in Iraq is evolving away from pro-Saddam guerillas to suicide bombers and other terrorists.

U.S. officials in Iraq told Rumsfeld the origin of these terrorists remains murky - in particular the extent of their relationship with al-Qaida. Some are thought to be from the homegrown Ansar al-Islam group; others are thought to be former supporters of ousted President Saddam Hussein who have joined Islamic extremist groups, and others might be from al-Qaida itself.

"We've seen a real step up on the part of these professional terrorists from al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam conducting suicide attacks," L. Paul Bremer, chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority, told reporters after meeting with Rumsfeld on Monday.

The best evidence of terrorist ties is in the nature of the attacks - some of which rely on suicide bombers - and the tactics and weapons used, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy operations director for coalition forces in Iraq.

The tactics are similar to those used by al-Qaida and related organizations, Kimmitt said. Only one al-Qaida figure has been captured in Iraq, and another senior terrorist-Abu Musab Zarqawi - is described by U.S. officials alternately as a freelancer with al-Qaida ties to a senior associate of Osama bin Laden. He remains at large.

Rumsfeld, on a daylong trip to the occupied Iraqi capital, was also briefed on the threat and the status of new Iraqi security forces, which the U.S. hopes will eventually take the lead in combatting it. For now, though, they work largely under the leadership of the better-equipped and trained U.S. forces.

Meanwhile, attacks on coalition forces have dropped from 50 per day in November to between 15 and 20 a day, Kimmitt said. And gun battles with guerrillas have been supplanted by remotely detonated bombs and suicide bombers.

The targets have also changed. Around 8:45 a.m. local time Monday morning, an unidentified bomber detonated a white Oldsmobile outside a police station in Kirkuk in northern Iraq, Kimmitt said. At least 10 people were killed and dozens others injured.

Iraqi police were investigating. It was unclear if the driver of the car was inside when it exploded, Kimmitt said.

U.S. officials say their adversaries are targeting U.S. forces less, instead targeting police and civil defense stations and trying to foment interethnic and religious violence. Such are the goals laid out in an intercepted letter that U.S. officials believe was written by Zarqawi.

Kimmitt and other officials attributed the drop in guerrilla-style attacks to the December capture of Saddam. Documents found with him provided information on the guerrilla organization and financing, and his detention probably served to persuade some Iraqis to stop supporting the resistance.

In addition to meeting with senior U.S. military and occupation officials Monday, Rumsfeld also visited elements of Iraq's security apparatus. He saw trainees with the new Iraqi Civil Defense Corps taking a first aid class, and also spoke of the importance of transferring security duties to Iraqis.

"We're looking forward to seeing Iraqis take over responsibility for the security of your country," he told a a small group of young Iraqis in uniform.

Kimmitt said the new security agencies, financed by .2 billion from the last Iraqi funding bill approved in Congress, don't have the training or equipment to handle many security threats. But U.S. authorities are trying to get them patrolling the streets as much as possible.

Rumsfeld arrived Monday morning from Kuwait and took a helicopter ride to the headquarters of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment east of here. It was his fourth trip to the region since the U.S.-led coalition ousted Saddam from power last spring.

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2004022318390005&Take=1

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