Iranian Alert -- April 15, 2004 [EST]-- 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.” 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. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.

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.

Dangerous Liaisons

April 15, 2004
National Review Online
Michael Rubin

Are we compromising with the enemy in Iraq?

On April 14, Shaykh Qays al-Khazali, Baghdad office director for Muqtada al-Sadr, told al-Jazeera that the firebrand cleric sought unconditional negotiation with Coalition forces. What a difference a week makes. On April 7, al-Khazali had stood before al-Manar cameras to enumerate Muqtada al-Sadr's demands calling for American withdrawal. Just two days ago, Muqtada al-Sadr gave an "exclusive" interview to the same network from his Najaf hideout. The medium is significant. Al-Manar is the television channel of Lebanese Hezbollah, defined by the State Department as a terrorist organization. While European diplomats may prevaricate about whether Hezbollah deserves such a designation, the organization is unapologetic about its mission. Just 18 months ago, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah told Lebanon's Daily Star, "If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them world wide." Anti-American and Anti-Semitic slogans decorate the compound Hezbollah and the Iranian-subsidized Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq share in Basra. Muqtada al-Sadr has openly incited violence and call for suicide bombings. Residents of Najaf complain that al-Sadr's militia invades homes, smashes satellite dishes, and holds its own ad hoc law courts, sentencing ordinary Iraqis to Draconian torture.

Sitting in Washington, London, or the oasis of Baghdad's Green Zone, it is easy for officials to advocate engagement. Muqtada al-Sadr's "concession" has ignited calls for compromise by television pundits and politicians who, while well-meaning, will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The British government, with tacit U.S. approval, has initiated discussions with the Iranian foreign ministry. A team led by top Iranian diplomat Hossein Sadeghi visited Iraq in recent days, but his talks went nowhere. The Iranian regime used Washington and London's outreach not to promote dialogue, but to humiliate the United States at a time our soldiers sacrifice to preserve Iraq's freedom. Leaking news of the talks on Iranian television, the Islamic Republic's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi demonstrated to his domestic audience that the United States was not in control and had run to Iran for assistance. Moving in for the propaganda kill, Kharrazi stated, "The solution is for occupiers to leave Iraq."

The Iranian government's offer of assistance in Iraq is akin to an arsonist offering his help put out a fire. Even if the Iranian foreign ministry were sincere, it has no more power over Iranian policy than Washington's Department of Motor Vehicles has over U.S. policy. Nevertheless, can engagement with the Iranians — or negotiations with Muqtada al-Sadr — do any harm? They already have. Diplomats and pundits now suggest that U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi might co-opt Muqtada al-Sadr or his proxies into an interim Iraqi government. The lesson for potential populist leaders? Violence works.

Washington's decision to engage the Islamic Republic has undercut liberty and freedom in Iran. Ahmed Batebi, made famous by an Economist cover photograph showing him holding a bloodied shirt during 1999 student demonstrations, remains locked up in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. He and hundreds of other dissidents will see on Iranian state television that, despite Bush's call for freedom, Foggy Bottom and the National Security Council continue to lend legitimacy to an unrepresentative and dictatorial regime. Pundits and diplomats alike argue that engagement encourages reform within Iran's governing clique. But, the Islamic Republic's main concern is not the dichotomy between hardliners and reformers, but rather the challenge a free Iraq poses to the religious legitimacy of the Iranian regime.

On April 10, Grand Ayatollah Husayn Ali Montazeri, former deputy to Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared that Muqtada al-Sadr had no legitimacy. "Although the supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr have chosen the name Mehdi Army for themselves, Imam Mehdi would never be content to initiate disunity, division and factionalism in his name," Montazeri said in a statement faxed to Reuters. Significantly, Montazeri called on Iraqis to support Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the Iraqi Shii community's most widely respected religious leader. "It is rational that under Ayatollah Sistani's direction and through a union of Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds who are all Muslims, a stable government should be established in Iraq," Montazeri said. Shii religious leadership spans political boundaries. By implicitly endorsing Sistani, Montazeri undercut the legitimacy of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who seeks to be the region's most preeminent political leader. It is ironic that, while even Iran's religious community struggle for freedom from Iran's clerical regime, American and British diplomats inadvertently empower the region's most populous dictatorship.

The devil may be in the details but, in the Middle East, details are important. There is a fierce competition between Qom, the spiritual center of Iran, and Najaf, the spiritual center of Iraq. Muqtada al-Sadr may be holed up in Najaf, but Iraqis questions why Washington would show such insensitivity to Iraqi nationalist inclinations by reaching out to Iranians rather than the Iraqis themselves. After all, Najaf's community leaders have twice before since liberation expelled Muqtada al-Sadr from their city without U.S. assistance. While Sistani speaks of his opposition to the theological concept upon which Iran's clerical regime is based, London and Washington undercut his and our interests by lending the Iranian government legitimacy in Iraq which even the Iraqi population is not willing to offer. Rather than fulfill the president's policy of supporting Iraqi liberals and democrats, our Iraqi allies are standing by while we reward their antagonists.

There has been great progress in liberated Iraq. Electricity has rebounded. The Coalition, in partnership with Iraqis, has started reconstructing the educational infrastructure after years of Baathist neglect. More affluent individuals among the silent Iraqi majority have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in new businesses, confident that the age of dictatorship has ended. Iraqi families, long uncertain as to the fate of their loved ones, now have closure as mass graves are uncovered and remains processed. Students no longer need join the Baath party to attend university. According to the Guardian of London, one-out-of-six Iraqis fled during the reign of Saddam Hussein; now, many return to restart their lives. The Islamic Republic continues to hemorrhage her best and brightest who, unwilling to partake in the charade of Iranian elections, vote instead with their feet. The United States should not be embarrassed of its principles, nor should we compromise them.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rubin200404150836.asp

TEHRAN BLAMED ON THE AMERICANS THE KILLING OF ITS DIPLOMAT IN BAGHDAD

TEHRAN 15 Apr. (IPS)

Iran condemned the assassination of one of its diplomat in Baghdad, attributing it indirectly to the Americans that, in the words of the official spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, "with their silly occupation of Iraq, they have plunged the nation, the region and the world into chaos".

Mr. Khalil Na'imi, the press and cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad was shot dead early this afternoon by unknown assailants as he was driving near the Embassy's compound in the Haifa Street, sources at the Embassy said and confirmed by the official news agency .

This is the first time that an Iranian diplomat is assassinated in Iraq, where colleagues from Spain, Turkey and other nations had been targeted before.

The diplomat was killed as Tehran, on request from Britain, has dispatched a five-member diplomatic mission to Baghdad to mediate between the Americans and Shi'a and Sunni militants fighting them in cities and localities situated north and south of the Capital controlled by either Sunni or Shi'a militants.

An identified source from the Iranian Embassy in the war-ravaged Iraqi capital said the assassination was the work of "people who do not want see Iraq finding peace and stability" and did not rule out the possible connection between the murder of Mr. Na'imi and the Iranian peace mission, headed by Mr. Hoseyn Sadeqi, the Head of the Persian Gulf and Arab Department of the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry.

"The chaos, the blood shed in Iraq and the violence out there are all the fruits of foolish American policy in the region and Washington's approach to terrorism", commented the Iraqi-born official Spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry Hamid Reza Asefi.

Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karroobi, the Speaker of the Majles also blamed the Americans and like Mr. Asefi, called on the "occupation" forces to get out "the soonest possible" and hand over the administration to the Iraqi people.

Asked about the Iranian peace mission, Mr. Karroobi said Iran has "strong influence" in Iraq and "it is normal that we do out best to restore peace" in the neighbouring nation "with which we have traditional bounds".

Mr. Sadeqi told correspondents that he was awaiting order from Tehran to whether carry out his mission or pack and go back to Iran, as the most important part of his efforts was to meet Hojjatoleslam Moqtada Sadr, the young Shi'a cleric who started the last round of violence.

Accused of the murder of another cleric last year, Mr. Moqtada who is now hiding in a sacred shrine in Najaf announced yesterday that he would obey the higher religious authorities and disband his Mahdi Army, transforming it into a political party.

Mr. Na'imi was killed in his car hours after Sunni captors shot dead a young Italian they had captured last week with three others while freeing three Japanese hostages and a French cameraman.

So far, there are still 40 foreigners at the hands of groups fighting American forces and their allies.

ENDS IRANI DIPLOMAT SHOT 15404

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Apr_04/iranian_diplomat_shotdead_15404.htm

Iran Has Hand in Iraq Violence

April 15, 2004
United Press International
Roland Flamini, Chief International Correspondent

WASHINGTON -- An Iranian government delegation was in Iraq Thursday apparently to help negotiate an end to the Shiite insurrection. The group was led by Hossein Sadeghi of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, and its mission was reported by the Iranian official news agency IRNA, thus bringing out into the open Tehran's covert interest in shaping the course of developments in its chaotic neighbor.

The two countries share a common religion -- Shiite Islam -- and Iran's main lines of communication are religious, which in Iran is synonymous with political, but not in Iraq - yet in any case. The visiting Iranians will consult with Iraqi clerics, and members of the Iraqi Governing Council, IRNA said, but makes no mention of meetings with U.S. officials.

Washington broke off diplomatic ties with Iran after Iranian revolutionaries occupied the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 American staff members hostage for 444 days. But since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, back channels of communication have been opened as each side has striven to reassure the other. On the U.S. side, this has meant calming the Iranian regime's nerves that it might be next in line for an American incursion. On the Iranian side, it meant trying to dispel U.S. suspicions that the regime is plotting with fundamentalist groups in Iraq's Shiite majority to set up an Iranian-style, essentially anti-American government controlled by its clerics.

The Iranians have indicated that contacts with Washington have recently broken down. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Wednesday that while there had been "dialogue" with the United States about Iraq, "currently it has stopped because we felt we were going nowhere. The Americans give promises, but don't keep their promises." Kharrazi gave no details -- the admission of contacts in itself was unusual enough -- but one known disputed incident was the recent U.S. decision to expel the Iranian charge d'affaires in Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi. According to Arab sources, the Americans believed that he headed Iranian intelligence in Iraq.

There is also escalating disagreement over cross-border traffic. Every day between 14,000 and 15,000 Iranian pilgrims travel to Iraq to visit Shiite shrines. Under pressure from the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, the newly formed Iraqi police have imposed tighter screening at the Iran-Iraq frontier to block access to suspected intelligence agents, guerrillas, members of the Quds (Jerusalem) Unit of the Revolutionary Guards, and other undesirables who could foment more mayhem in Iraq.

In reality, some of the more aggressive members of the Bush administration, flushed with the military success of the Iraq invasion and unable to find the weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein was supposed to have stashed, did talk seriously of tackling neighboring Iran, which did have a nuclear program. But Britain, France, and Germany quickly stepped in and persuaded the Iranians to submit to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran, on the other hand, has sent mixed signals about its interest in Iraq, reflecting the deep divisions in its own government. It is widely believed that the ruling fundamentalist ayatollahs are fanning violence, bloodshed and chaos in Iraq. Why? Safa Haeri, writing in the Asia Times says the Iranian regime "is vehemently afraid of the emergence of a democratic Iraq on its troubled borders, and for that reason is pulling every string at its disposal."

In this scenario, one of the strings is Moqtada Sadr. For a long time the fiery Iraqi Shiite cleric who is behind the Shiite insurrection against U.S. troops was lukewarm towards Iran, but Arab diplomatic sources in Washington said he became a fierce supporter of an Iranian style Islamic republic in his own country after visiting Iran last year and receiving promises of financial and military support from the regime in return for giving the Americans as much trouble as possible.

Iranian reformers led by President Muhammad Khatami have favored support for the more moderate approach of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Iraqi Shiite majority opinion. Sistani is opposed to violence because he believes that the Shiites, who make up more than 60 percent of the total Iraqi population, have numbers on their side and will eventually gain control in a free election. Iran's two-track approach, though growing out of rivalry rather than cooperation, has its advantages for Tehran, which still is not certain what to make of the situation.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most powerful cleric after the spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a former two-term president, said in his weekly sermon Friday that the U.S. occupation of Iraq was both "an opportunity and threat, for this wounded giant, blessed with all the huge possibilities it possesses, can take very dangerous actions that would cost itself and others dearly. But if it is taught a lesson (in Iraq), neither the United States nor any other superpower would ever think of engaging in military adventures by occupying other nations."

In other words, a U.S. failure in Iraq would be a lesson for the superpower, but the risk is that the fallout of that failure could endanger Iraq's neighbors and the region as a whole.

In his sermon Rafsanjani -- himself once considered a reformer -- did not endorse Moqtada Sadr's tactics and the violence it has produced in Iraq, but had words of praise for Sadr's Mehdi Army as a movement of "enthusiastic, heroic young people" who "contribute to the security of the nation."

The Arab sources quoted earlier give Iranian agents some of the credit -- if that's what it is -- for creating a Sunni-Shiite alliance against U.S. forces, something U.S. authorities had predicted would never happen. But the sources said that cohesion could backfire for Tehran because it signaled that Iraqi nationalism was not dead.

"Every Iraqi -- every Arab -- is aware that Iranians are not Arabs, even if they do share the same religion," one of the sources pointed out. "In the Iran-Iraq war, (Ayatollah) Khomeini thought Shiite troops in the Iraqi army would not fight against fellow Shiites, but they did. Ultimately, what Iraqi Shiites want to do is run the show, not hand it to the Iranians."

On Thursday, unknown gunmen shot dead a diplomat from the Iranian embassy in Baghdad as he was riding in his car in the Iraqi capital. It was not known whether the killing was linked to Iranian mediation efforts, but the Iranians are learning to their cost that involvement has its price, no matter on whose side.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040415-083635-8764r

Arab Recession and Rise of Iran

April 15, 2004
Al-Hayat
Salameh Nematt

Two days ago, the American President tried hard to convince Americans of something that was supposed to be evident: Iraqis love freedom and democracy, and are convinced of them; and the ferocious resistance you are seeing in Iraq today, is not the stance of the majority. Bush tried hard, because Americans, after what happened and is still going on, have become suspicious of the fact that Iraqis really want this "donation" coming from Uncle Sam. Is it possible that military force is the only means to impose democracy that most Iraqis want?

One of the paradoxes that stemmed out of the Iraqi scene after the recent bloody events, is that the American political path, which is parallel to the military, has become a matter of investing the same power that Washington tried to marginalize in the new Iraq, since the ousting of Saddam Hussein's regime: Iran and the religious leadership allied with it. The confirmation of Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, that Washington asked Tehran to interfere in order to calm the situation, after it asked for the help of Ayatollah Sistani, is a rational result; for the lack of any other political reference that the American administration could rely on. Note that Washington did not ask for the help of the Arab League or any neighboring Arab country, not because it does not wish for them to interfere, but because it knows that none of these countries possesses enough power or reliability to interfere efficiently. This, if it does not consider that its interference might harm the situation more than help it.

It might be efficient for the concerned Arab countries to review their policies, in order to benefit from the mistakes of the past, which made a country like Iran become an essential regional player in an Arab country, although it is constrained by its internal conflict between reformists and conservatives. While it is possible to understand the situation of the current Arab paralysis vis-à-vis Iraq, as a natural result for the stand of Arabs against the war, without presenting practical alternatives, in addition to the unannounced alliance of some of them with the former regime; it is not understandable for Arab diplomacy not to be mobilized today, in order to enter in a direct and efficient way in this stage, for the known reasons. But there seems to be no attempts of the style of having Arab officials on the level of Foreign Ministers, visiting Baghdad in order to consult with Iraqis groups, about what could be done in order to help building a new Iraq. Arab governments seem to be content with declarations about their care about the unity and independence of Iraq, without doing anything in order to help it achieve this unity and that independence. Waiting until the establishment of an elected Iraqi government, means waiting until after the formation of the new Iraq, which will be too late. Instead of Arab countries getting mobilized in order to give legitimacy and veracity for the Ruling Council by supporting its stances, some of them worked in an organized way on restricting its representative veracity and legitimacy, on the basis that it is not an elected council. The result is that an authority like Sistani and an enthusiastic young man like Moqtada Al Sadr have become the reference for the establishment of a free, independent, and democratic Iraq, in coordination with the occupation forces!

http://english.daralhayat.com/OPED/04-2004/Article-20040415-ef7c914a-c0a8-01ed-0029-bea333814d65/story.html

Myers: Foreign Fighters Still Infiltrating Iraq through Iran

April 15, 2004
VOA News
Kerry Sheridan

A top U.S. military official visiting Iraq says foreign fighters are still infiltrating Iraq through the borders of Syria and Iran and that additional resources may be needed to stabilize the country.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said "we know for a fact" that Syrian and Iranian insurgents are crossing the border into Iraq to destabilize the situation.

The general, who on Wednesday began a surprise visit to Iraq to assess the fighting between coalition troops and Shiite and Sunni Arab resistance, told a news conference that he believes many insurgents are angry about the success being made toward Iraqi self-rule.

“And I think it is that success which is driving the current situation, because there are those extremists that don't want that success,” General Myers said. “They see this as a test of wills a test of resolve against those who believe that freedom and self-determination against those that prefer a regime like we saw previously in Afghanistan, or perhaps a regime like we saw previously in Iraq. I think it is their frustration that has generated a lot of the situation we have seen now as well.”

Some 2500 coalition troops are surrounding the holy city of Najaf, where the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is said to be located. U.S. forces have vowed to kill or capture him for inciting violence against the coalition. An Iraqi judge has issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last year.

An Iranian diplomat was shot to death in his car Thursday, shortly after an Iranian delegation began attempts to mediate between the cleric and U.S. coalition authorities. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the killing was most certainly linked to the visit.

Meanwhile, an Italian hostage was executed by his captors, marking the first killing of a hostage since a recent spate of kidnappings began targeting foreigners inside Iraq.

Three Japanese hostages were set free after seven days in captivity and threats that they would be burned alive if Japanese forces did not leave Iraq.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=394989E7-5CC0-421B-89D87AF35150A5FD&title=Myers%3A%20%20Foreign%20Fighters%20Still%20Infiltrating%20Iraq%20through%20Syria%2C%20Iran&catOID=45C9C78D-88AD-11D4-A57200A0CC5EE46C&categoryname=Mideast

Fairuza Balk is Persian - has starred in many films http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000103/bio

Fairuza!" her father exclaimed as he saw her blue eyes (that's "turquoise" in Persian); Fairuza Alejandra Balk had just been born, May 21, 1974. Her father Solomon Feldthouse was a traveling musician, and her mother Cathryn Balk was a belly dancer. Her parents split up soon after. Fairuza grew up just north of San Francisco on a commune-type ranch. Her mother later found some work in Vancouver, it was there that Fairuza got her first acting job in a TV-movie, at age 9. Two years later, it was off to England; Fairuza attended the Royal Academy of Ballet, the Ramona Beauchamp Agency and the Bush Davies Performing Arts School. Fairuza would work for Disney for a while; at age 11 she was chosen from out of 1,200 girls to play the part of Dorothy, starring in "Return to Oz" (1985). A year later she would star as, prophetically enough, "The Worst Witch" (a harbinger of her breakout role in "The Craft" 10 years later). Fairuza and her mother remained in London until 1988, then headed to Paris where the 15-year-old Fairuza starred in "Valmont." The next year they returned to Vancouver where Fairuza enrolled in high school. But, despite being a movie star, Fairuza was shy in class; she ended up doing correspondence courses. Back in Hollywood, Fairuza starred in a string of movies, including "Gas Food Lodging" (1992) for which she received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress. Following further TV and film work, the beautiful Fairuza, now 5'3" and 100 lbs, achieved cult status with her starring role as a teenage witch in her signature movie "The Craft" (1996). This movie gave Fairuza her greatest fame; (in real life, she owns a Wiccan shop, "Panpipes Magickal" in Hollywood). The same year she appeared in "The Island of Dr. Moreau, " in which she did some belly dancing, and attracted the attention of Lancashire, England-born costar David Thewlis; it was rumored that they were dating. They did 2 more movies together: "American Perfekt" (1997) and "Great Sex" (2000). Fairuza was the love interest in the wildly popular flick "The Waterboy" (1998) and had a major role in "American History X" (which is in IMDb's Top 250 movie list). With a half dozen movies for 2000, Fairuza is much in demand. Her interests are: writing poetry and stories; playing the guitar; singing (her main enjoyment); and dancing. Fairuza lives in Venice, CA, and has an apartment in New York City. As befits a Wiccan, she has 5 cats (familiars?), named: MoMo, Scout, Oscar, Sweetpea Poteet Tennessee, and Mouse.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.