Iranian Alert -- March 30, 2004 [EST]-- IRAN LIVE THREAD -- "Americans for Regime Change in Iran"

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"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”

Officials: U.S. 'outed' Iran's spies in 1997

Posted 3/29/2004 9:39 PM Updated 3/29/2004 10:49 PM
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — After a bombing killed 19 U.S. airmen at a barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the Clinton administration struck back by unmasking Iranian intelligence officers around the world, significantly disrupting Iranian-backed terrorism, according to a high-level U.S. official and a former top official who was serving at the time of the operation.

Undisclosed until now, Operation Sapphire took place in 1997. Though the bombers who struck the Khobar Towers barracks were mostly Saudis, U.S. investigators quickly determined that Iranian intelligence officials had trained and organized the plotters. The former U.S. official said Iran was intimidated enough by the U.S. counterspy operation that it stopped targeting Americans after the bombing.

The first public hint of the U.S. operation came last week, when Richard Clarke, White House counterterrorism chief for three administrations, told a bipartisan commission investigating the 9/11 attacks that the Clinton administration responded "against Iranian terrorism ... at Khobar Towers with a covert action."

Asked about Clarke's comments, the two other officials spoke about the operation on condition they not be named. Both had knowledge of the operation when it occurred, and both are motivated to speak now at least in part to defend the Clinton administration's anti-terrorism credentials. Separately, CIA officials declined to comment. They said it was standard practice not to give information about covert activities.

Iran's top official in the United States dismissed questions about the operation. "Iran has never been involved in any terrorism, including terrorism against the United States," said Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations.

The former high-level U.S. official said Operation Sapphire led to the identification of scores of Iranian intelligence officers and the expulsion of some from foreign capitals. "We outed them," he said. "The CIA, working with others, identified every known Iranian intelligence operative and made it known that they were known. It resulted in no further manifestation of Iranian terrorism directed against the United States."

Some Iran analysts noticed that Iran-backed groups ended attacks against U.S. targets. "We don't know why the terrorism stopped," said Judith Yaphe, an Iran expert at the National Defense University and former CIA analyst who said left the agency in 1995, before Operation Sapphire. "The general assumption was" that the reason was the 1997 election of an Iranian reformer, Mohammad Khatami, as president, Yaphe said. Khatami ran on a platform of improving Iran's relations with the outside world.

The U.S. officials who talked about the operation declined to discuss details. But there are various ways to "out" intelligence officers from rival services: circulating rumors at dinners and cocktail parties; allowing comments about the officers to be overheard on phones known to be bugged; planting stories in newspapers. CIA officers often know who their counterparts are in foreign embassies. It is more difficult to spot those without official cover.

Identifying intelligence officers inhibits their ability to function because they know they are being watched. This kind of identification also carries an implicit threat that officers could be expelled or perhaps, depending on who learns their identity, even killed.

Besides Operation Sapphire, there were other factors in Iran's end to support for terrorism not related to the Arab-Israeli dispute. A non-Arab Shiite Muslim nation, Iran wanted to patch up relations with Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Sunni Muslim Gulf states. In return, it agreed to stop fomenting unrest among Shiite minorities in those countries.

Iran had also been embarrassed by a case involving the 1992 killing of four Iranian Kurd dissidents in a Berlin restaurant. In April 1997, a German court that had convicted four men for the killings stated that the murders were approved at "highest state levels" in Iran. Germany expelled several Iranian spies after the verdict.

Operation Sapphire didn't end Iran's connection to terrorism. Iran has continued to support anti-Israeli militants and has refused to extradite members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network who fled to Iran after the U.S. ouster of the Taliban in Afghanistan. But Iran's government is not known to have targeted Americans since 1996.

Early on, U.S. officials suspected Iran of organizing the Khobar Towers plot by members of an Iranian-trained group called Saudi Hezbollah. But the Clinton administration had difficulty proving the charge because almost all the suspects were in Saudi hands. Only in 1999 did the Saudis allow FBI officers to observe interrogations and suggest questions.

In June 2001, nearly five years after the bombing, a federal grand jury indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese for planting an explosives-laden fuel-tanker truck outside the barracks. In announcing the indictment, Attorney General John Ashcroft said that "elements of the Iranian government inspired, supported and supervised" the attack. Of those indicted, 10 were in Saudi custody, and the others were at large, possibly in Iran. No public trial has ever been held.

The Khobar Towers case capped more than a decade of anti-U.S. terror by Iranians and Iran-backed groups. Iranian radicals seized the U.S. Embassy in 1979 and held Americans hostage for 444 days. Iran was believed to have backed the bombers who attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 Americans. Iran-backed terrorists in 1985 hijacked a TWA flight on which a U.S. Navy diver was murdered and also kidnapped American journalists and academics in Beirut throughout the 1980s.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-03-29-sapphire-usat_x.htm

Why is the primary role of Iranian intelligence in getting all the Terror groups to stop fighting each other and instead coordinate against the U.S., Israel and Turkey being ignored?

Good question.

Iran binds Hizbullah to Hamas

Mar. 29, 2004 21:29
By AARON MANNES

With the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, history may repeat itself.

On October 26, 1995 in Malta, Israeli agents assassinated Fathi Shkaki, the secretary-general of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He was replaced by Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, who was not as effective a leader.

As Islamic Jihad began to decline, Iran became its primary funder, and Islamic Jihad in turn became Iran's proxy in the West Bank and Gaza.

With Sheikh Yassin, Hamas's founder dead, Iran may again attempt to move into a power vacuum in order to extend the reach of its terror network both against Israel and worldwide.

The relationship between Hamas and Hizbullah, Iran's leading terrorist proxy, dates back to the early 1990s. After being released from Israeli prison in 1997, Yassin visited Iran and secured a multimillion dollar annual Iranian contribution to Hamas. In the Aksa Intifada, Hizbullah has been generous in sharing its expertise, smuggling plans, equipment, and operatives with the Palestinian territories.

Hizbullah has helped Hamas build rockets based on Katyushas and bombs – including the device used in the March 27, 2002 Passover Massacre. Hamas has also carried out ambushes, such as a February 2002 attack that destroyed an Israeli tank, based on tactics Hizbullah honed in its long fight against Israel in Lebanon.

In the wake of Yassin's assassination, Hizbullah shelled northern Israel, further demonstrating the expanding ties between the two organizations.

Within Hamas, power will pass to the Damascus-based political leadership under Khaled Mashaal, which is not as highly regarded as Yassin and which already cooperates closely with Hizbullah and Iran. As Hamas's networks are damaged by Israeli crackdowns, the Hamas leadership will rely more frequently on Hizbullah's assistance in carrying out operations and transferring funds.

HAMAS HAS a vast social welfare network including schools and clinics in the Palestinian territories providing material support for its terrorist activities, as well as propaganda and fundraising arms worldwide. This independent base of support makes a complete Iranian takeover of Hamas unlikely. But it also makes the possibility of a deeper Hamas-Hizbullah-Iran alliance a much more potent threat.

For Israel, this alliance is a matter of grave concern.

Hizbullah has made inroads in the West Bank and Gaza, both among the Palestinian terrorist organizations and in establishing independent terrorist cells and a social welfare network. In addition to the Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah's relations with the various factions associated with Yasser Arafat are well established.

Hizbullah's top terrorist, Imad Mughniyah, who masterminded the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the Karine A arms shipment to the Palestinian Authority in December 2001, was a member of Force 17, Yasser Arafat's elite bodyguard, in the early 1980s.

Ma'ariv reports that Hizbullah and Iran currently finance most Aksa Martyrs Brigade operations. With Hamas folded into this alliance, Israel could face a well-coordinated threat on three fronts directed from Iran.
But the greater repercussions could be international. Ideologically, Hamas grew from the Muslim Brotherhood, the original Islamic extremist organization, which viewed the United States as Islam's central enemy.

In the past, Hamas refrained from launching attacks outside Israel. But the December 2003 arrest of Jamal Akkal, a Canadian citizen of Palestinian descent who confessed that he had been trained by Hamas to attack Israeli targets in Canada, indicates that this policy is changing.

Hizbullah has an extensive international network that has, in close coordination with the Iranian government, launched terror attacks throughout Europe and the Middle East, and in Latin American and Asia.
Hamas brings important assets to Hizbullah's network. Gaza and the West Bank could prove fertile ground in recruiting operatives for attacks elsewhere in the world. Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and could help cement (Shi'ite) Hizbullah's ties with (Sunni) Islamist groups around the world.

Hamas also has an international network of supporters who have raised tens of millions annually in North America, Britain, Europe, and Latin America. These networks could also provide logistical support for terror attacks. Already Hamas and Hizbullah have reportedly opened offices in Iraq, where they are infiltrating their supporters and recruiting Iraqis.

None of this is to argue that Israel should not have targeted Yassin, whose long, murderous career needed to be brought to a close. Hamas will be less effective without him.
But his absence creates a vacuum, and the possibility that Iran could fill that vacuum, expanding its already formidable international terror network, is real and frightening.

The writer is the author of the TerrorBlog (www.profilesinterror.com) and the book Profiles in Terror, forthcoming in May 2004, Rowman & Littlefield-JINSA Press.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1080533950461&p=1006953079865

Interesting piece of info came up on a discussion in forum about this article.

"As part of the de-nuclearization process, the U.S. and Kazakhstan executed Operation Sapphire, which removed 600 kilograms of a weapons-grade HEU-non-HEU mix from Kazakhstan in 1994."

"Operation Sapphire" refers to an earlier mission.

What's the Real story here?

Bump!

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040330/API/403300534

Iran Dramatically Revises Down Quake Toll

The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran
Iran on Monday lowered the death toll in last year's devastating earthquake by more than one-third to 26,271.

Government officials had previously said that more than 41,000 people died in the magnitude 6.6 quake that hit the southeastern city of Bam.

But the head of the State Statistics Center Abbas Ali Zaali said Monday that 26,271 people died in the temblor, which flattened most of the city on Dec. 26, state radio reported.

"A big reason for this discrepancy is that some of the dead were counted twice due to the confusion and disorder following the quake," the radio quoted Zaali as saying.

He said February's census found 103,516 people to be living in Bam and surrounding villages. At the time of the quake, officials worked off the previous census, which gave Bam's population as 142,376.

Zaali said 525 people were still listed as missing from the quake, and more than 9,000 people were injured.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1505693,00.html

Vienna - UN atomic agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei is to hold talks in Iran next Tuesday to urge the government to co-operate fully with international monitoring of its nuclear program.

It will be the third visit to Iran by ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, since the IAEA began in investigating February 2003 whether the Islamic Republic was secretly developing atomic weapons, as the United States alleges.

The purpose of the visit is "to consult on outstanding issues relevant to the IAEA's verification of Iran's safeguards agreement" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), spokesperson Melissa Fleming said in a statement.

She said: "With the IAEA board of governors members calling for a comprehensive report for the next board meeting in June, Dr ElBaradei wants to personally emphasise to the Iranians how crucial it is they act in a fully transparent and co-operative manner so that the open questions about Iran's nuclear activities can be answered."

Two IAEA inspectors arrived in Iran last Saturday to carry out more checks on the country's nuclear program.

Iran had tried to put off the mission earlier this month after the IAEA condemned it for continuing to hide sensitive nuclear activities including designs for sophisticated P2 centrifuges for making enriched uranium which could be weapon-grade.

But Tehran yielded and allowed the visit after a delay of two weeks, following an international outcry against Iran for failing to co-operate with the atomic agency.

The UN team will focus its inspections on the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and the Isfahan nuclear technology centre.

The Natanz plant is one of two sites where IAEA inspectors have discovered traces of highly enriched uranium. This substance can be used in civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity but it can also be used as raw material for a nuclear bomb.

Isfahan is a nuclear technology centre with a uranium conversion facility.

Inspection missions later in April are to verify Iran's pledge to suspend uranium enrichment and to try to answer questions about whether Iran has tried to make P2 centrifuges or has designs for nuclear weapons, diplomats said.

Play dead
Visiting Niavaran Palace

By Ardavan Bahrami
March 29, 2004
iranian.com unedited

On a recent trip to Tehran I decided to visit for the first time the Niavaran Palace, the former winter residence of our Imperial Pahlavi family. It is a cubic structure with a modern architecture found in many buildings that were designed in the sixties or seventies all around Iran and the world.

The day I planned to go with a younger member of my family was one of those beautiful days when you can smell the spring. It had rained earlier and the sky over Tehran seemed strangely free of pollution and the shining sun was lukewarm. It was simply pleasant.

I had such a cocktail of feelings as I entered the palace grounds. I had previously only seen few pictures of it but now as I walked into its main central hall with its roof rising above us I was shocked and disappointed as we walked through its rooms.

The Islamic Republic with its continuous propagandas, particularly in the early years of the revolution had portrayed a lavish lifestyle in an opulent surrounding for the Pahlavis. Having visited many European palaces and estate houses, I knew that none of our so called opulent palaces can compete with even Dolmabahche or Topkapi in Istanbul, let alone with the likes of Shoenbrune, Windsor Castle, or those of the Scandinavian and other European monarchs. Iranian palaces seemed more modest than many houses belonging to the rich and famous elite of the Western world. Later on during my stay in Tehran I met people who invited me to their home where I thought it was worth more visiting than the Niavaran Palace.

I was shocked by Niavaran's simplicity and modesty and disappointed because I found it embarrassing for having received such foreign dignitaries as American and European presidents and royalty in such a humble house.

We all know that after 11th February 1979 the palaces were attacked and many valuable objects were then and later on stolen. However, the current management had tried to arrange what was left in a presentable way. But it was difficult to miss the havoc created by a mixture of various objects and furniture brought from different palaces to fill the place. A modern painting stood by a Chinese vase from the Ming dynasty next to an electric organ and it went on and on. "Not the original lay out" I thought to myself.

As it was Noruz, there were many people from provinces who had come to visit relatives or to spend their holidays in Tehran. You could hear accents literary from all over the country. I wanted to know what went through their mind walking through these rooms. Most of them seemed old enough to remember the days when people were not hung from cranes, lashed, amputated, stoned or arrested. The era when our nation had full social freedom, more than many countries that even today can dream of.

I told my cousin that I would like to follow the people and listen to their conversations! In the Shah's dressing room, where his uniforms are hung from cupboards with glass windows a group of chadori women were looking at HIM's uniforms, hats and shoes. One woman murmured to another one - with a strong accent that I could not recognize to which part of the country she belonged to; "Look, I had seen him in these clothes. Khoda biyamorzatesh, che balayi saresh avordand, hanuz daarim taqas pas midim." ("May his soul rest in peace. For what they did to him, we are still paying for our crimes.") Her friend who noticed me near them pointed to her to keep quiet. As I heard her, I walked closer and said to her that she doesn't need to worry and that I understand their sentiments fully.

This put them at ease and the same lady just shook her head and brought her face close and whispered, "But I am sure they will come back". Suddenly she pulled herself back with laughter and said to her friends, "we better go, we have already said too much." And they rushed out of the room.

The new management has recruited young girls as tour guides, giving explanation and assisting the visitors. They are all from a generation who were not even born when the Shah reigned from these palaces. Dressed in a shabby military green manteau and a scarf, two size bigger than them; I said to one who seemed extremely bored, "Is this what all that hoo haa was about?! One can hardly call these structures palaces!" She replied, "Sir it's the most horrible place! It is dark even when its sunshine outside. It is embarrassing to show these houses to the public where there are more richer ones just a few blocks away."

I walked out of the palace with a grin, thinking to myself that visitors come here and feel nostalgic, employees are fed up with the system and the young want nothing but a complete discarding of the current Islamic establishment.

Before walking down the gentle slope that leads one to Sahebqraniyeh palace I wanted to walk a little in the grounds of this once a happy home of a happy family. We walked and talked together and my young cousins knowledge of the past was inspirational. I met numerous of his friends during my stay in Tehran. They were all from the new generation - the children of the revolution, so to speak. None were religious or prayed. They were extremely well informed, educated and well aware of what is going on around the world. The Internet has truly brought these youngsters in touch with the outside free world.

Farzad suddenly brought my attention to a tree. "Look! They were like us, we used to peel our names on trees too when we were much younger." When I understood what he was trying to show me, it saddened me immensely. There were our princes and princesses names carved out on a tree. With a difference that the tree - like them, was now twenty-five years older, its bark grown and so were the names, reminding the passer by of whom once lived there.

My attention was attracted to a sudden noise made by birds on the trees. To my amazement I realised they were all green parrots. I thought I was wrong but Farzad who found my amazement funny told me that most of our parks have parrots.

"Then they must be Armaghan's children," I said.

Farzad who had no idea who I was talking about looked puzzled. So I told him the story of The Merchant & His Parrot called Armaghan; that we used to read in the old days in our Persian textbook in schools.

A merchant kept a parrot in a cage in his house. Before leaving for India he asks his parrot if he wants anything from his homeland. Armaghan replies; "Nothing, but when you see my free friends in India, tell them about me and that I live here at your house in a cage. Tell them how I am and how I live."

The bazargan - the merchant, leaves for India. Once there in a jungle he sees parrots sitting on trees and suddenly remembers his owns request. He turns to one of them and tells the parrot about his. He asks the parrot if he has a message for Armaghan. Suddenly the parrot falls down from the tree and dies.

Sadden by this, he wonders as what caused such misfortune. On his return when Armaghan asks him whether he passed his message to the parrots of India he tells him of the unfortunate incident. Suddenly Armaghan falls and dies. He cries for his loss. He opens the cage, takes the parrot out, takes it to the garden and puts it under a tree.

All of a sudden Armaghan opens its wings and takes off to the top of a tree! The shocked bazargan looks at the parrot with disbelief. "But I thought you died!" say the merchant.

"When you told me what happened to the parrot in India I understood their message," said Armaghan. "They tried to tell me in order to be set free I should pretend I am dead. To trick you, as you would never understand logic to set me free."

I could see Farzad was fascinated with the story. He turned to me and said, "That is a great message. So true!" I, who could not fully understand what he was referring to asked him what he meant.

"In order for us to be free, we have to fight to the bitter end. These people too do not understand logic. We need to find a way out of this cage that the Islamic Republic has built around us." He smiled confidently and said "and we will find it."

We headed back towards the palace. Contrary to Niavaran's simplicity, Sahebqraniyeh which was build during the reign of Nassereddin Shah who ordered its construction to Haj Ali Khan Habib-od-Dowleh, is a lavishly decorated palace reflecting the Qajar's love of comfort and their attention to pleasures of life.

According to the Islamic regime possessions of all palaces were registered and documented in 1995. What has been stolen from these treasure houses from 1979 up to their registration sixteen years later, obviously has not been recorded for understandable reasons!

The palace is composed of two floors. On the Ground floor Hose-Khaneh is one of its most attractive rooms. It was redesigned and renovated by the Empress during the 70's. It has beautiful stucco carvings and unique sash windows. With a famous painting by Kamal-ol-Molk representing the same room.

On the first floor is the hall of Jahannama leading to the Shah's office, with his desk located in the shah-neshin of this hall. The walls are decorated with firearms and several magnificent carpets cover the floor. Other parts of this Qajar palace has a midday bedroom and a cabinet consultation room. Several photographs of foreign heads of states as well as medals and works of arts presented to the court adorn this room.

Coming down a staircase to leave the palace by the side entrance, one faces a large mirror. The mirror is made of hundreds of small but long rectangular shaped mirror pieces sitting neatly next to each other. Though one cannot see an image in it anymore, but its purpose must have dated before the coming of electricity to Iran, when lights from candles would have reflected back and lit the palace staircase. However, today it could not perform even that! The mirror had turned almost completely black

I knew had they looked after it such thing should have not happened, so I approached yet another girl from Miras Farhangi (Cultural Heritage Organization) and complained. She said; "As a matter of fact few days ago I saw a visitor inspecting it very carefully, it was an old gentleman. Out of curiosity I approached him, but before I get the chance to ask anything he turned to me and said, "Look what have they done to my mirror?!"

She said that she was not sure what he meant by "my mirror". But the old man continues, "So as long as I looked after it, it was always nice and clean. I built this mirror miss, you know! I built it with my own hands at the time of Reza Shah. Look what they have done to it, it looks like the rest of the country." "He was very angry, the poor man" she said to me.

I thanked her and left the palace with Farzad. As we were walking out of its grounds I was still picturing the old man. He was so right. My country did resemble that mirror.

http://www.iranian.com/Diaspora/2004/March/Niavaran/index.html

Khatami meets the Pope.

Mandela Cancels Iran Visit

•Former South Africa's president Nelson Mandela, who is on tour in the Middle East, cancelled his Tehran stop. He had been invited by President Khatami to receive what government media described as highest honor. The cancellation of his trip could be linked to the protests he received from the anti-regime coalition of secular republicans E'telaf-e Jumhurikhahan-e Iran, Washington-based commentator Mehrdad Mashayekhi tells Radio Farda. Probably Mandela does not want to be seen endorsing dictators, he adds. By inviting Mandela and British Crown Prince Charles to Iran, the regime's conservative faction tries to project a cosmopolitan image to the world, he says. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)

http://www.radiofarda.com/transcripts/topstory/2004/03/20040329_1730_0034_0121_EN.asp

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/77886/1/.html

OPEC should maintain production cut - Iran

VIENNA : Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said OPEC should carry out the one million barrel per day (bpd) production cut it has planned for Thursday.

He told reporters upon arriving in Vienna Tuesday for a meeting Wednesday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries: "This is our valid decision and we should implement it because we have discussed and we have decided this issue."

The 10 nations in OPEC's quota system decided on February 10 at a meeting in Algiers to reduce their official crude oil production from 24.5 million bpd to 23.5 million from April 1. Iraq does not participate in the quota system.

OPEC is worried about crude oil prices falling when world demand eases in the spring in the northern hemisphere.

But the cartel is under pressure from the United States to postpone its cut, with crude prices near 13-year highs.

US gasoline prices near their historic highs are already an issue in political bickering between US President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry.

Zangeneh said that if OPEC wanted to back off from the production cut, then "we should have a new unanimous decision" to do this.

Quake hits Golestan province in northeastern Iran
Gorgan, Golestan Prov, March 30, IRNA -- An earthquake with an intensity of 3.9 degrees on the open-ended Richter scale hit the city of Minoodasht, in the northeastern province of Golestan, and its surrounding vicinity at 11:03 hours local time (06:33 GMT) Tuesday.

The local seismological base affiliated to the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University registered the epicenter of the quake at 15 kilometers east of Minoodasht.

There are no reports of casualties or damage to property caused by the quake.

Iran is situated on some of the world's most active seismic faultlines and quakes of varying magnitudes are of usual occurrence.

Quake hits Izeh in southwestern Iran
Tehran, March 30, IRNA -- An earthquake measuring 3.5 degrees on the Richter scale shook the city of Izeh and its vicinity, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan at 03:45 hours local time Tuesday (23:15 GMT Monday).

The seismological base of Geophysics Institute of Tehran University registered the epicenter of the quake somewhere in the vicinity of the city of Izeh.

There were no reports of any casualties or damage to property caused by the quake.

Iran is situated on some of the world's most active seismic fault lines and quakes of varying magnitudes are of usual occurrence.

http://www.payvand.com/news/04/mar/1190.html

Iran's youth outside Tehran Tennis Stadium

Iran's youth outside Tehran Tennis Stadium.

Social revolution in Iran.

Somehow I get the impression that most of these "youth" have money.