Iranian Alert -- May 7, 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.

Iran Wants European, Russian Help to Enrich Uranium

May 07, 2004
Reuters
Paul Hughes

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran wants to team up with European states and Russia to produce enriched uranium, hoping that by involving them it can remove fears that it is developing nuclear arms, a senior official was quoted as saying Friday.

"Europeans are concerned about Iran's uranium enrichment program and feel distrustful toward it," Hossein Mousavian, secretary of the foreign policy committee of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

Iran says it wants to produce enriched uranium as fuel for nuclear power reactors. But many Western countries fear Iran could use the technology to make bomb-grade material and the United States says it has a secret atomic weapons program.

Iran and Europe "should jointly build trustful relations, including joint uranium enrichment programs," Mousavian said, adding that he planned to raise the idea with Britain, Germany and France in the next two to three weeks.

"We could, for example, start talking about setting up a consortium, which would include European countries and Russia, to work together on this program."

An official at Russia's Atomic Energy Agency, who declined to be named, was skeptical about the proposal. "Of course this is not necessarily just political chit-chat by the Iranian side at a time when their nuclear program is under so much scrutiny," he said." But we see it as something rather unlikely to happen, at least in the near future."

Under intense international pressure after revelations it has hidden sensitive nuclear research from the world for 18 years, Iran last year agreed to allow snap inspections of its nuclear plants and suspend uranium enrichment activities.

But Tehran insists it will not abandon its enrichment program and plans to restart it once doubts about its nuclear plans have been cleared up.

IRAN CONFIDENT ABOUT IAEA MEETING

The Foreign Ministry said Iran was confident of escaping censure at next month's U.N. nuclear watchdog board meeting.

"I am optimistic about the results of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) next meeting," the official IRNA news agency quoted spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.

"Iran will definitely not be condemned in the next meeting, because Iran has been cooperating with the agency transparently."

But several Western diplomats in Vienna said they expected IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to say Tehran had not been cooperating fully with the agency in the June report on Iran.

"This would require a strong resolution by the IAEA board," one diplomat said.

ElBaradei warned Iran Thursday the world would not wait forever for the Islamic republic to divulge the full extent and nature of its nuclear program.

Doubts remain about Iran's assurances of peaceful intentions, but diplomats privately acknowledge they have not found any "smoking gun" proving Iran wants atomic weapons.

"We have suspicions but no evidence and we're running out of leads to follow up," one said.

Another diplomat said even Washington acknowledged there was no prospect of the IAEA board sending Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council in June for possible sanctions.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Vienna, Masha Golovnina in Moscow)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5075589

Mocking Mullahs

May 06, 2004
The Economist Print Edition
The Economist

Disenchanted by their theocratic government, many Iranians enjoy the not uncommon sight of a gowned cleric standing helplessly at the side of the road, hailing taxis that refuse to stop. They make fun of akhunds, an impolite word for mullahs, and crack jokes about seminarians whose ambition is to parrot their teachers' every banality. Iranians have always chuckled in private.

Until April 21st, that is, when “Marmulak” (Lizard), a film that contains these and other impious jibes, came out in several Iranian cities. Kamal Tabrizi's comedy, about Reza, a fugitive criminal disguised as a mullah, is very funny. But it is also a taboo-breaker, which is one reason it has enjoyed the most successful opening in Iranian film history.

“Marmulak” punctures clerical self-esteem more comprehensively than any Iranian film since the ayatollahs took power in 1980. The film shows Reza, resplendent in gown and turban, flirting with a comely widow, picking the pocket of a Tehran swell and fluffing his lines after inadvertently becoming prayer leader of a small-town mosque.

Jumhuri-ye Eslami, a conservative newspaper, says that such scenes insult Iran's “religion, government and people”. Others, however, point to the success of Reza's idiosyncratic sermons in drawing worshippers to his mosque, and to his bent for pious deeds. “Marmulak”, they argue, may even draw some of the sting of popular discontent.

Although censorship is in theory controlled by Iran's reformist government, headed by President Muhammad Khatami, it is unlikely that “Marmulak” could have been made without support from some in the conservative establishment. Though the film is not being shown in two cities known for their piety, Iran's most senior ayatollahs have so far expressed their unhappiness in private; it is still possible that the film will be taken off the screens.

Having used their unaccountable powers to kill Mr Khatami's reform movement, conservative clerics have never been less loved. But cathartic irreverence has its limits. This week a judge upheld a death sentence (unlikely, say most insiders, to be carried out) on a free-thinking academic, Hashem Aghajari. His crime? Criticising the mullahs.

http://www.economist.com/World/africa/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2656841

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