Iranian Alert -- May 8, 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 Actively Supports Terrorism

May 07, 2004
VOA News
Editorials

The following is an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government:

Iran is the world's "most active state sponsor of terrorism.” In its latest "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, the U.S. State Department says that in 2003, Iran's "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security were involved in the planning of and support for terrorist acts." The report says Iran backs terrorist groups that target Israel and harbors senior members of al-Qaida.

Cofer Black, the U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism, says that the Iranian government’s many security agencies do much more than collect information:

"They have and develop relationships with terrorists and terrorist groups to be in a position to command and control terrorist actions in response to national command authority."

Ambassador Black says that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as Hezbollah, are among the terrorist groups that have received financial and logistical support from the Iranian government:

"They are the ones that provide the weapons and armament that are funneled to Hezbollah to kill innocent people, sent through Syria. They provide safe haven to leadership elements of the al-Qaida organization who, very likely, are in contact with their operatives overseas that are planning and attempting to execute attacks against innocent men, women, and children."

Ambassador Black says the U.S. takes Iranian support for terrorism seriously:

"These guys are very dangerous. They operate globally. They have killed people. They take actions that directly impact innocent men, women, and children."

The people in charge of the Iranian government, says Ambassador Black, "need to consider their future and what it is that Iran is going to stand for." That means, among other things, ending Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism.

http://www.voanews.com/Editorials/article.cfm?objectID=D943E0AB-B758-4FC1-877AAF58570A8BDC&title=5%2F7%2F04%20%2D%20IRAN%20ACTIVELY%20SUPPORTS%20TERRORISM

Quietly, U.S. Prepares For Israel Strike on Iran

May 07, 2004
Middle East Newsline
MENL

WASHINGTON -- The United States has been examining the prospect that Israel will attack Iranian nuclear facilities in an attempt to prevent the Islamic republic from completing an atomic bomb as early as this year.

U.S. analysts and government sources said the Bush administration has discussed the prospect of an Israeli air strike at several levels of government. They said the issue has been examined in terms of the diplomatic, military and security implications for the United States, particularly its military presence in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region.

The issue of Iran's nuclear weapons program was discussed by President George Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the latter's visit to the White House on April 14. The sources said the two men were alone during the brief discussion in an effort by the president to gauge a likely Israeli response to the completion of an Iranian nuclear bomb.

"It would be intolerable for the Middle East if they [Iran] get a nuclear weapon," Bush said after meeting Sharon.

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/may/05_07_2.html

Mistakes Mustn't Halt March

May 07, 2004
The Baltimore Sun
Michael Rubin

WASHINGTON -- Now is not the time for the United States to withdraw from Iraq. Stung by the damage done by revelations that American personnel abused detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush spoke on Arab television and was unequivocal: "People in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent." He pledged to punish the soldiers involved.

Across the Middle East, officials condemned the United States. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, for example, said the incident was proof that the United States had a "systematic plan to torture Iraqis, to kill them, to rape them." Syria's official daily, Ath-Thawra, called the abuse "proof" that torture is widespread in Iraq. Hundreds of Iraqis protested in front of Abu Ghraib prison, demanding the release of all prisoners. In Iran, Syria and Egypt, newspapers called for American withdrawal from Iraq.

But there could be nothing worse than a U.S. pullout.

Professors and pundits may say that the sky has fallen, but Iraqis have a broader perspective. They may forgive the actions of a few soldiers. While the American media focus on car bombs and prison abuse, in the year since liberation, Iraqis have also watched thousands of soldiers and contractors repair schools, repave roads and revitalize the electrical grid.

There's no doubt that the prison photos are devastating. But they are not a deathblow to Mr. Bush's call for a fundamental transformation of the Middle East. Iraqis respect Mr. Bush for his willingness to address them. The president has juxtaposed himself with every ruler in the Arab world.

Iraqis often acknowledge that from Jordan to Morocco, kings and presidents remained silent in the face of Saddam Hussein's crimes. Even U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, while undersecretary-general of the Arab League, said nothing as Mr. Hussein slaughtered Kurds and Arabs alike.

Iraqis ask where Arab leaders were when Mr. Hussein's Baath Party raped women, maimed men and filled mass graves. "Officials of the former regime did not even try to apologize. Bush's attempt to repair the damage is a good thing," a Baghdad teacher told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Democracies acknowledge mistakes and correct them. Dictatorships cover them up. The way forward lies in American transparency.

As the United States brings the perpetrators to justice, Mr. Bush should challenge regional regimes to do the same. For example, he should demand that Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed el-Bashir bring to justice those soldiers who, according to Human Rights Watch, in recent weeks have massacred blacks and committed mass rape and ethnic cleansing in Sudan's Darfur province.

Even as Arabic channels condemn the United States, Mr. Bush should demand they investigate the plight of Fathi Eljahmi, a Libyan democracy advocate. Two days after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns visited Libyan strongman Muammar el Kadafi, Libyan security arrested Mr. Eljahmi. Both the White House and the Arabic media remain silent despite reports that Libyan security forces have tortured the dissident.

Mr. Bush should also demand that the Arab media investigate the plight of Aktham Naisse. Syrian police detained Mr. Naisse on April 14 for circulating a petition calling for democracy. In his court appearance eight days later, witnesses said Mr. Naisse's hand and leg were broken. Nor has the Arab League demanded an investigation into the Syrian regime's detention and torture of dozens of Syrian Kurds, arrested after the last pro-democracy demonstrations in March.

Iran should back its rhetoric with substance. Mr. Bush should hold Iran accountable for its treatment of 75-year-old journalist Siamak Pourzand.

Imprisoned for more than a year after demanding democracy, Mr. Pourzand was tortured by Iranian police and forced to confess to imaginary crimes on state television. Denied medical care, his weight dropped to 121 pounds. Last month, he suffered a heart attack. He is fortunate, though.

Iranian security arrested photojournalist Zahra Kazemi on June 23. Beaten in custody, she fell into a coma and died. The Iranian government refused to make her body available for autopsy. No one has been prosecuted for her murder.

A small number of soldiers and contractors have soiled the reputation of thousands of American servicemen and women. The Coalition Provisional Authority has freed 24 million Iraqis from a terrible dictatorship; despite our mistakes, Iraqis will not forget that.

We should not abandon Iraq because of the actions of a few individuals. Nor should we abandon the oppressed throughout the Middle East. It is that that would be most unforgivable.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.iraq07may07,0,1723681.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

We Have Great Relations with Tehran Despite U.S. Hostilities with Iran: Zibari

TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) -- “Despite the U.S. branding Iran as part of the “axis of evil” and contrary to their wish, we are having the best relations with Tehran. We are also striving to develop our ties,” said the Iraqi interim government’s Foreign Minister Hushiar Zibari, reports said on Saturday.

“Iraq’s cooperation with Iran will continue powerfully and at all levels,” added Zibari in an interview with the daily Asharq Al- Awsat.

Referring to the presence of the occupation forces in his country, the Iraqi interim foreign minister asserted that continued presence of foreign troops in Iraq is not embarrassing.

Zibari denied any role of the Israeli Intelligence Service “Mossad” in Iraqi affairs but said that foreign intelligence services work in any country in the world.

Describing the recent bombings in Karbala and Kazimayn as horrendous carnages, he attributed the killings to the extremist elements whose aim is to create tribal division, block the road to freedom and democracy as well as sow discord among the Iraqi nation.

He further noted that all the clues show that the Al Qaeda terrorist network and relevant organizations have had hand in the blasts.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/8/2004&Cat=4&Num=003

2 Alleged Leaders of Tehran 1999 Riots Granted 5 Day Absence from Prison

05 May 2004
Iran Payvand News

In Iran, two alleged student leaders of the July 1999 Tehran riots have been granted a five-day leave of absence from prison.

Family members of brothers Manoochehr and Akbar Mohammadi told VOA News that the brothers are in need of medical attention. Over the years, the brothers have said they have been tortured in prison.

They have already served four years for allegedly participating in the 1999 violent student uprisings that followed the storming of a university dormitory by security forces. One student died in that raid.

Manoochehr Mohammadi was allowed out of prison once last year. During his furlough he spoke with foreign press and as a result, an additional year was added to his 14-year prison sentence.

Lawyers for two other prominent activists, jailed journalists Akbar Ganji and Abbas Abdi, have told VOA that their clients have also received furloughs. The two were imprisoned on political charges, unrelated to the 1999 riots.

http://www.payvand.com/news/04/may/1044.html

Iran Will Not Oppose OPEC Production Rise

Reuters
Sat May 8, 2004

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's OPEC governor said on Saturday he expected oil prices to remain high for the next three to four months but Iran would not oppose a production increase when the oil group meets next month.
"It seems we will not see a drop in oil prices in the next three or four months," Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told the reformist Sharq daily. "The market is not facing a supply problem now. The increase in the reserves of oil consuming countries indicates that."

Kazempour said a move to increase production would be pandering to the United States, which has complained that high oil prices were hampering the world economy.

"If OPEC decides to boost its production by one million barrels per day, such a decision must be viewed as political, to escape from the pressure of U.S. propaganda," he said.

NYMEX June crude settled at $39.93 on Friday.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said high-flying oil prices have nothing to do with OPEC but are stoked by Middle East political tension and U.S. refining problems.

"The oil price increase is not related to OPEC," he was quoted as saying on state radio.

"Instability in the Middle East...and technical problems in U.S refineries are among the factors that have pushed prices," he added.

Zanganeh repeated his view that there were 3 to 3.5 million barrels of daily oversupply in the market buoying reserves.

Last Saturday he said this level of oversupply could deflate oil prices suddenly.

Iran, with its population of some 66 million, is a traditional OPEC hawk.

OPEC next meets in Beirut on June 3.

Zanganeh also reiterated his view that he favored oil prices at $28 per barrel, seeing no need to change the OPEC price band.

OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro has said OPEC was considering raising the $22-$28 target band.

Nigeria has said it should be lifted to $25-$32, but top OPEC power Saudi Arabia has said it is content with the current range.

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=5079772

Iran Army Shuts Tehran's New Airport on First Day

Sat May 8, 2004
Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's armed forces closed Tehran's new international airport on its first day of scheduled flights on Saturday, the joint-armed forces said.
Security fears were cited in a statement carried on the official IRNA news agency, but that may refer to a dispute involving the foreign consortium that built and was to have run the Imam Khomeini airport, 30 miles south of Tehran.

State airline Iran Air took over the new airport's operation from a Turkish-Austrian consortium Tepe-Akfen-Vie (TAV) on Friday.

"Unfortunately officials at the airport ignored the security measures...on not deploying foreign groups at this vital center in the country," the joint-armed forces statement said, although Iran Air is now in charge at the airport.

The airport has proved controversial with the conservative press rallying behind domestic airlines that said TAV had not prepared it to international standards.

Before the airport was to open, two local airlines said they would refuse to transfer their flights in protest at a government decision to hand over operation of the airport's only existing terminal to the TAV consortium.

"We are not flying from an airport run by foreigners," Ali Abedzadeh, director of state-owned Aseman Airline, was quoted as saying by Economic Hayat-e No daily on Wednesday.

The joint-armed forces were not immediately available to comment, but said in the statement they allowed only one of six planned flights from Dubai to land before shutting the airport.

"The airport was closed until further notice," the statement said.

The flights were diverted to the old Mehrabad airport in central Tehran, a Mehrabad spokeswoman said.

The head of Iran's Aviation Organization told the ISNA students news agency he opposed the closure.

"The security forces have no right to close the airport and it is illegal in terms of both domestic and international laws," said Hassan Hajalifard, adding one of the flights had been diverted to the central city of Isfahan.

Iran has said it intends to move all international flights to the $475 million airport by the end of July 2004.

The new airport was inaugurated 30 years after the project was conceived.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5080400

Officials beaten up by families of the Martyrs

SMCCDI (Information Service)
May 8, 2004

Several officials and members of their families were beaten up,during an official visit, by families of the combatants killed during the Iran-Iraq war.

The unprecedented incident happened as Mehdi Karoubi, the Islamic Parliament's Speaker, and several members of the regime and their families were participating in an official meeting held at the "Hejab" (veil) Sport Facility located in center Tehran. The officials were addressing the audience on the situation of the country and on the vertue of "Wearing Hejab" (the mandatory veil rejected by millions of Iranian women).

The wife of a killed Militiamen stepped toward the podium and pulled off her veil in sign of protest against the regime and Karoubi's speech leading to the brutal intervention of his body guards.

Many among the participants retaliated to the brutal intervention by attacking the regime's security agents, the Speaker, other officials and even their wives and daughters while trying to rescue the maverick woman who was accusing Karoubi and the regime of being the cause of all existing problems.

Several were injured, including Karoubi's daughter, and other were arrested by the regime's agents.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/smccdinews/article/publish/article_4212.shtml

Iran Blocks Adoption of Agenda for UN Conference

May 08, 2004
AFP
Khaleej Times Online

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran Friday blocked the adoption of an agenda for a review conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that must be held next year, diplomatic sources said.

A preparatory meeting, held this week at UN headquarters, ended Friday with an agreement on some minimal procedures but without an agenda for the conference.

“Iran almost single-handedly managed to block the adoption of an agenda in the hope of avoiding the conference devoting too much attention to the behavior of those of its members suspected of being proliferators,” a diplomat told AFP.

“The United States showed toughness, but Iran did not display any flexibility,” said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The United States has accused Iran of trying to obtain nuclear weapons and of misleading inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who monitor Iranian nuclear installations, which, according to Teheran, pursue peaceful aims.

“Technical preparations for the conference will undoubtedly be slowed down a little,” the diplomat said. “But the failure to adopt an agenda this week should present an insurmountable obstacle.”

Participants of the preparatory meeting decided that the review conference will proceed at UN headquarters in New York on May 2-27, 2005, under the presidency of Brazil.

Signed in 1968, the NPT limits possession of nuclear weapons to countries that had them at the time of the treaty’s signing.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2004/May/middleeast_May223.xml&section=middleeast

Those Sexy Iranians

May 08, 2004
The New York Times
Nicholas D. Kristof

If, as the poet Philip Larkin observed, sex began in 1963, it has finally reached Iran over the last year.

True, girls and women can still be imprisoned for going out without proper Islamic dress. But young people are completely redefining such dress so it heightens sex appeal instead of smothering it.

Women are required to cover their hair and to wear either a chador cloak or an overcoat, called a manteau, every time they go out, and these are meant to be black and shapeless. But the latest fashion here in Shiraz, in central Iran, is light, tight and sensual.

"There are some manteaus with slits on the sides up to the armpits," said Mahmoud Salehi, a 25-year-old manteau salesman. "And then there are the `commando manteaus,' with ties on the legs to show off the hips and an elastic under the breasts to accentuate the bust."

Worse, from the point of view of hard-line mullahs, young women in such clothing aren't getting 74 lashes any more — they're getting dates.

"Parents can't defeat children," Mr. Salehi mused. "Children always defeat their parents."

And that's what Iran's baby boomers, a wave of 18 million people 15 to 25 years old, are doing. They will transform their country, just as baby boomers in the West changed America and Europe. I don't think Iran's theocracy can survive them, for I've never been to a country where young people seem more frustrated.

The regime's problem is that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini exhorted Iranians to have more children, and they responded — today, 60 percent of the country's population was born after his Iranian revolution. And these young people are determining social mores and carving out a small zone of freedom for themselves.

In one sense, the relaxation in clothing requirements is superficial, and some Iranian women have scolded me for asking them about head scarves when they are more angry about discrimination in divorce, child custody and inheritance rules. But the clothing rules affect every woman every day and raise the central question in Iran's future: should a few aging male mullahs still determine the most basic and intimate elements of every Iranian's life?

From that vantage point, it looks to me as if the revolution is sputtering. The mullahs are refusing to accept real democracy, but they are giving in to popular pressure in some areas. The draft is immensely unpopular among young men, for example, so this year the hard-liners shortened the service requirement. More important, individual Iranians are reclaiming their individuality and their autonomy — and how they dress is the best measure of that.

The morals police no longer order women to cover up stray hairs. These days, the fashion is for brightly colored, glittery see-through scarves, worn halfway back on the head.

"It's possible head scarves will be gone in another year or two, the way things are going," said Amir Suleimani, a scarf salesman in the Tehran Bazaar. "God willing."

No wonder conservative newspapers in Tehran denounce Iranian women for strolling around "nude."

The baby boomers include Saghar Tayebi, a 17-year-old in Isfahan who wore a tight manteau with high slits, embroidered jeans and a red headband. Her mascara was hefty and her lipstick bold, and her sleeves were rolled up to reveal lots of bracelets. Lots of hair escaped her scarf. But when I asked her whether she dreamed of wearing Western-style skimpy clothing, she looked aghast.

"We totally reject that," she said indignantly. "We don't want that freedom."

Conversations with young people like Saghar suggest that youths want to remain good Muslims, and that some are happy enough in an Islamic republic — but that, above all, they want to laugh and love. Many are not overtly political, nor sure exactly what kind of government they want, but they do know that this isn't it.

"We want fun," declared Tannaz Haj Hosseini, a 20-year-old university student who was out with her boyfriend in Tehran. "There's no joy here."

I protested that her nail polish and see-through scarf — not to mention the boyfriend — underscored the progress in Iran. A few years ago, she would have been lashed.

"I don't compare myself with 10 years ago," she said. "I compare myself to what I could have and don't."

Ayatollahs, look out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/opinion/08KRIS.html

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