Iranian Alert -- June 9, 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.

'Big three' attack Iran atomic plan

Reuters in Vienna
Wednesday June 9, 2004
The Guardian

France, Britain and Germany circulated a toughly-worded draft UN resolution yesterday attacking Iran for its sluggish cooperation with the atomic energy watchdog.

It calls for continued inspections and urges "Iran to take all the necessary steps on an urgent basis to resolve all outstanding questions".

The draft does not mention reporting Iran to the security council for possible sanctions, which Washington says would be justified given Iran's 18-year cover-up of its uranium enrichment programme, capable of making material for atom bombs.

Still, western diplomats on the International Atomic Energy Agency board said most members would accept the text - including the US, which claims that Iran is developing nuclear arms.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Iranian officials were not available for comment, but its foreign ministry has said it had done everything necessary to clear up concerns.

The draft said the board "acknowledges Iranian cooperation", even including military sites, but "cooperation has not been complete, timely and proactive".

The text "deplores" Iran's decision to delay the IAEA's March inspection of sites connected with the advanced P-2 centrifuge project, which Iran had failed to mention in an October declaration it said was a full picture of its programme. The EU's "big three" also noted "with concern that the agency's investigations have revealed further omissions in declarations previously provided by Iran".

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1234618,00.html

Nuclear-armed Iran would be more vulnerable, top official says

TEHRAN, June 9 (AFP) -

Iran would be less safe if it acquired nuclear weapons because it cannot hope to match the arsenals of existing nuclear powers such as Israel and the United States, the Islamic republic's former envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog was quoted as saying Wednesday.
"Suppose we have a nuclear weapon, our nuclear weapon of course will not be as good as those developed by the Russians, nor will it be able to compete with the nuclear weapons of Israel and by extension of the US," Ali Akbar Salehi told Iran Daily.

Furthermore, Salehi emphasised that Iran "has absolutely no problem with India or Pakistan". "A country like Iran cannot have prestige by acquiring nuclear weapons.

I think a country like Iran would raise more threats against it, and not get security, by having nuclear weapons," he argued. "We cannot buy more security by having nuclear weapons, only invite more threats against ourselves," said Salehi, whose tenure at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was marked by increasing suspicions that Iran is seeking the bomb.

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of using an atomic energy programme as a cover for the development of nuclear weapons, a charge Iran angrily denies.

Salehi, who was Iran's envoy to the IAEA for five years up to late last year, did however stress in the interview that civil nuclear power was a matter of national prestige.

"If a country has access to the cutting edge nuclear technology, it can be proud," said the former envoy, now a top advisor to the regime on national security and nuclear issues.

"Take Switzerland which has about six million people. Can one compare this country with the volume of knowledge and technology it has with another country that can hardly feed its people but boasts that it has a nuclear bomb," Salehi told the paper.

The IAEA's board is to hold a fresh meeting on Iran next Monday, amid fresh concerns the clerical regime has been hiding important aspects of its nuclear programme.

http://www.iranmania.com/news/090604c.asp

Iranian Group Seeks Recruits for 'Martyrdom Operations'

June 08, 2004
Insight Magazine
Paul M. Rodriguez

The original recruitment appeal in Farsi.

Insight Online has obtained a shocking recruitment appeal seeking Iranians to commit suicide in deadly attacks on Israel, against American-led coalition forces in Iraq, and on U.S. citizens around the world. Obtained from an Iranian recruiting group, the deadly appeal is unmistakable and to the point.

It seeks recruits for martyr assignments as well as to assassinate Salman Rushdie, the novelist Ayatollah Khomeini condemned to death in 1989 after publication of Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses.

Reuters news agency reported June 5 that the group is known as the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign. It quoted the group's spokesman, Mohammad Ali Samadi, as saying "some 10,000 people have registered their names to carry out martyrdom operations on our defined targets."

Ali Samadi, according to Reuters, says the alleged independent group's targets include "mainly the occupying American and British forces in the holy Iraqi cities, all the Zionists in Palestine, and Salman Rushdie ... the only nonmilitary target for us because we believe his attack against Islam was much worse than a military assault."

Insight Online found the proposal on a Website where terrorists are being recruited. An English translation of a Farsi "job application" recruitment states:

In the Name of God

Preliminary Registration for Martyrdom Operations

I _____________, child of _____________, born 13_______ [Islamic calendar], the City of: _________________ proclaim my preparedness for carrying out martyrdom operations:

___ against the occupiers of the holy sites [referring to Najaf, Karbala, and other places in Iraq].

___ against the occupiers of [Jerusalem].

___ for carrying out the death sentence of the infidel Salman Rushdie.

Also, I would like to become an active member of the Army of Martyrs of the International Islamic Movement. Yes ____, No _____

Contact telephone:

Applicant's address:

Applicant's signature:

An expatriate Iranian who alerted Insight Online to this "job posting" said that while recruitment of young suicide killers has been going on for many years, and there have been terrorist conferences, this is the first time that such groups have circulated application forms and done so publicly.

"It is extremely chilling and shows the contempt for civilized society that these radicals hold," a top Iranian monitor who asked not to be identified tells Insight.

Paul M. Rodriguez is the managing editor of Insight.

http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/05/28/World/Iranian.Group.Seeks.Recruits.For.martyrdom.Operations-684918.shtml

Middle East Reform to Top G8 Summit Agenda

June 07, 2004
Financial Times
Guy Dinmore

Reform in the Middle East will top the agenda at the Group of Eight summit starting on Tuesday at the exclusive Sea Island resort in Georgia, as leaders of the industrialised democracies seek to chart a long-term strategy to tackle what they see as the roots of Islamic extremism.

Diplomats hope a vote on a new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq in New York on Tuesday night will clear the way for the G8 to bring a sense of purpose to bear on the broader picture.

Although President George W. Bush's Middle East initiative has run into difficulties already - with several Arab allies declining to attend a summit luncheon - the White House said on Monday it was looking forward to a "very strong statement".

"As the president said, it [change] simply can't be put on hold any longer," Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser, told reporters in Savannah, far from the heavily guarded island resort.

"The idea that we were somehow buying stability by turning a blind eye to the absence of freedom has been exposed, and exposed in the form of extremism."

The initiative unleashed a wave of protests when it was unveiled in February, with Arab leaders furious at not being fully consulted and fearful that the US was about to impose its will on the region again.

Diplomats said the main European players, particularly France, had in effect wrested the initiative from Washington and reworked it to reflect the different dynamics among the countries it will address, from Mauritania to Pakistan.

Patrick Cronin, analyst with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said: "Conservative elements in the US are pushing democratisation in a more radical way, while the Europeans have a more economic approach. This debate will not be settled at Sea Island."

Various drafts have given what was originally called the Greater Middle East initiative a range of titles evolving into a "partnership for progress and a common future" in the "broader Middle East and North Africa".

The summit declaration, one of a dozen or so expected on issues ranging from a peacekeeping funding initiative to non-proliferation, will emphasise G8 support for the region's own initiatives. However, the US's isolation of Syria and Iran as "rogue states" illustrates the problems of trying to agree a common approach.

Six regional leaders accepted invitations to join the summit lunch on Wednesday: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen. Iraq's new president, Ghazi Yawar, will also attend. But several others, including Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia were kept away by what one US official called "the whole sourness of things" - namely the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal that is robbing the US of moral credibility and US support for Israel's crackdown in Gaza.

The Bush administration's fear that it might be losing the long-term war against Islamic extremism was voiced by Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, who said he did not know if "zealots and despots" were turning out new terrorists faster than the US could capture or kill them.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1086445483408&p=1012571727172

Sporadic clashes erupt in Khoram-Abad as Freedom Fighters are executed

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jun 9, 2004

Sporadic clashes erupted in the City of Khorram-Abad, on Monday, as three Freedom Fighters named "Safar Khovat-Siani", "Ali Irvani" and "Omid Davati" were hanged publicly under the false charge of "rape".

Tens of Khorram-Abadi shouted slogans against the Islamic regime and its leaders despite the presence of an impressionant security force deployment in the city and especially around the three areas of Shohada bridge and Shaghayegh and Great squares where each of these new victims of the Islamic regime were executed in order to increase the fear among the rebellious population of the city.

Sporadic clashes leading to the injuries and arrests of several demonstrators happened during the carrying and in the aftermath of these executions.

It's to note that Khorram-Abad has been scene of an increasing armed struggle against the regime forces and that the Islamic regime uses often labels, such as, Rapist, Drug Trafficker, Spy, Hooligan or Bandit in order to qualify some of its exasperated opponents. Such policy helps its European and Japanese partners, as well as the UN, to justify the continuation of their relations with a repressive and tyrannical regime vis a vis their public opinions.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_6543.shtml

Fresh clashes in Esfahan

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jun 9, 2004

Fresh clashes erupted in the City of Esfahan, this morning, as the Islamic regime security forces intervened in order to smash the peaceful protest action of tens of demonstrators in front of the Justice Palace.

Clubs and chains were used against the demonstratorswho were shouting slogans against the regime and its leaders while denouncing the official corruption leading to the banckrupty of the local Islamic Saving Funds.

Several demonstrators were also injured or arrested, yesterday, as they gathered in the Nickbakht avenue.

These new popular actions follow several weeks of unrests during which tens of demonstrators have been injured or arrested by the regime forces. The protesters had set banks on fire and smashed windows of several public buildings in retaliation to the regime forces' brutal attacks.

The residents are defying the security forces in order to show their anger against the Islamic regimes' empty promises to replace millions of Tomans (Iranian currency) that had been stolen from deposited assets. The rumor of the bankruptcy of the local Islamic funds has resulted on massive withdraws and is leading toward its collapse.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_6542.shtml

http://www.newsday.com/news/education/sbp/ny-sbp_newcomers_iran,0,1477996.story?coll=ny-sbp-headlines

No longer their parents’ Iran
Former monarchy of another generation is a far different nation following the Islamic revolution of 1979

BY RAMIN GANESHRAM

June 9, 2004

When Kayvon and Sassan Mesbah of Oyster Bay Cove visited their parents' birth country of Iran last summer, they were impressed.

"The culture is very lively and interesting," said Kayvon, 13. "... The new generation was becoming more westernized. It's evolving from what it's been since the Islamic revolution."

The largest U.S. communities of Iranian-Americans are in California and New York -- most around Los Angeles and New York City. Roughly 10,000 Iranians live on Long Island, many in the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay.

Ruled by the shah
The Iran into which the boys' parents, Mohammed and Nasrin, were born was a monarchy ruled by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, an American ally. But 25 years ago, in January 1979, the country underwent a bitter revolution after which Islamic fundamentalists emerged as the ruling power.

In the years since, many liberties, including political speech, have been restricted. Women are required to cover their hair, wear Islamic dress and are restricted from many jobs. For example, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, a judge before the revolution, was forced to leave the bench.

The teens' parents represent the most common Iranian immigration experience. Mohammed came here in 1958 to complete medical school, while Nasrin arrived for a visit in 1987, but met her future husband and remained. The largest influx of Iranians to the United States was in the years following the Islamic revolution. Previously most Iranians came here for higher education, often returning home.

Although Sassan Mesbah, 15, says many of his friends are confused about whether Iranians are Arabs, the people who settled Iran were tribal folk called Aryans. They were forefathers of a great Persian Empire that at its height in the 4th century B.C. spread as far as Greece to the west; Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia to the south; Afghanistan and part of central Asia to the east, and northern India. Invaded by Greeks, Arab Muslims and the French, the empire saw its borders dwindle to what they are today. (Iran is slightly larger than Alaska).

Persian innovations
The Persian Empire was the birthplace of many great achievements. The king's palace in the capital of Persepolis had indoor plumbing -- not widely available for another 3,000 years. The idea of a "pony express" delivering mail on horseback also originated in ancient Iran. Alcohol was first distilled in Persia, too.

"I'm really proud ... that our culture is so old and one of the first civilizations," said Sassan.

Kayvon and Sassan attend Farsi school to keep up with their parents' native language and celebrate the ancient holidays of their Muslim religion, as well as secular ones. Kayvon said his favorite holiday is Nowrooz, new year, celebrated this year on March 20. "When all my friends celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah, I always say that I can't wait for New Year's, which seems funny to them."

Recently, the brothers participated in a relief fund drive to help victims of the December earthquake in Bam, Iran, and of the railway disaster in Tehran, the capital city, in February.

Today, young people in Iran are finding ways to protest for democratic reforms.

Said Sassan, "I believe that young people there have ideas that are straightforward and true to what will make Iran a great country compared to what it has been since after revolution. I feel that since they [young people] make up most of population, their voices will be heard."

US Policy on Iran Contrary to NPT

June 09, 2004
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
IRIB News

Tehran -- Tehran MP Manoucher Mottaki said here Wednesday that the United States has explicitly announced its opposition to Iran's use of nuclear technology, stressing this policy runs counter to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"It is surprising that the United States, while supporting nuclear facilities and warheads of the Zionist regime in the Middle East, adopts such unwise policy against Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities in defiance of international regulations," he said.

"The United States lost its previous position in UNESCO, UN human rights and several other international organizations due to adoption of such political, dual and selective policies particularly during the past two decades," the 7th Majlis MP added.

"It seems Iran's dossier would not be closed completely in the next meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors regarding (IAEA Chief Mohamed) Elbaradei's report and total attitude of the board of governors," he stated.

http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=205694

The Region: Anti-extremist Strategy

June 07, 2004
The Jerusalem Post
Barry Rubin

Last week, I discussed how "solutions" have made things worse in the Middle East because their creators misunderstand the nature of the area's politics. But the region's dominant forces have also ensured the failure of the "clever" plans intended to address their grievances.

Virtually every state in the region is dominated by radical forces or ideas:

In Iran, Libya, and Syria, radicals control the regime.

In countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, regimes propagate radical ideas even if their actions are relatively moderate conservative.

In countries like Jordan and Morocco, governments are held hostage by radical forces which they usually seek to appease.

In every Arab state, the main opposition movement is not liberal democratic, but radical Islamist.

Radical regimes and revolutionary opposition groups are not seeking negotiated compromise solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict or such things as domestic reforms, closer cooperation with the West, or democratic systems for themselves.

Instead, like communist and fascist movements, they have a two-fold strategy:

1. Keep power at home through centralized control, blocking change, and using xenophobic demagoguery to blame problems on others.

2. Engage in a struggle to control the entire region and even, in the jihadist Islamists' case, the world.

But how can they hope to defeat overwhelming forces abroad? In fact, the regimes don't need to defeat America, destroy Israel, or expel Western influence to survive. They must merely convince their people that this battle is the highest priority. Keeping the struggle going is more important than achieving material gains or partial success because their program successfully substitutes hope of ultimate, total victory for the material betterment Westerners mistakenly believe is more compelling.

Looking abroad, their strategy is to wear down enemies by attrition and win over onlookers by propaganda. It:

Creates an intolerable situation of violence, suffering, instability, and complaint, to which adversaries respond with concessions and bystanders with sympathy.

Offers and accepts no compromise solution that might resolve conflicts but would also undermine their power, create domestic dissent, and end the struggle.

Ensures no one else makes such a dangerous compromise agreement, which would allow, say, a peaceful Palestinian state or stable Iraq.

Poses publicly as the victim of a situation they created while acting aggressively to weaken the adversary and provoke more concessions.

Makes but does not implement promises to ensure gains. No matter what they say, Iran is going to get nuclear weapons; Palestinian and Syrian leaders foment terrorism; the Egyptian and Saudi regimes will not stop anti-American incitement.

Encourages the adversary, which it portrays as imperialistic and evil but is in fact restrained and peace-seeking, to offers bigger concessions in an attempt to show its good intentions, end conflict, and ease suffering.

While the radicals view time, tension, hatred, and conflict as serving their interests, the other side thinks it can satisfy them and prove its own reasonableness by rushing toward peace. But the radicals will never be persuaded to cease their hostility.

Lets perspective victims criticize themselves for every real or imagined moral lapse. It does not reciprocate. Others may bemoan the suffering of the perpetrators' people; their own leaders will do nothing to alleviate it.

IS THIS a pessimistic assessment? No. Just like communists and fascists, radicals in the Middle East will lose. Their analysis of both their own societies and those of their enemies is wrong, their goals are too extreme, and the balance of forces is too much against them.

What does a strategy for defeating extremists and creating a more stable, peaceful, democratic, and progressive Middle East require? No fancy plans, instant solutions, or the kind of things that excite foundations and provide people first-class tickets to jet off to luxurious conference sites:

1. Patience. This is going to take a long time. Only after communism was defeated was it possible to reform the Soviet bloc or build democracies in Latin America. We are talking here of a historical epoch of 20 to 50 years.

2. Steadfastness. Only a willingness to wage a long-term struggle can succeed.

3. Fighting back by using everything from force to maintaining one's normal life.

4. Containing extremism by denying it victories, especially a chance to extend its rule to more countries.

5. Encourage alternative forces in the Arab and Islamic world, while understanding that outsiders' influence will be limited and transformation slow.

6. Tell the truth. Lies must be combated and struggle waged on the intellectual battlefield to combat the "useful idiots" (Lenin's term) and fellow travelers who echo the radicals' propaganda.

The battle against radical Arab nationalism and jihadist Islamism involves the willingness to fight for one's rights, to sustain that battle over a long time, to avoid appeasement, and to win possible allies. None of this is glamorous. But history will show that this is what the current era is all about.

The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) and Turkish Studies.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1086577713734

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