Iranian Alert -- June 12, 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 Frees Internet Journalist on Bail

June 12, 2004
AFP
ABC News Online

An Iranian journalist, who was detained after he strongly criticised his former conservative political allies, has been allowed free on bail after spending four days in jail.

Student news agency ISNA reports that Abbas Kakavand had been charged with spreading false information, and was jailed pending trial.

The journalist told ISNA he has posted bail, which is set at 100 million rials ($US11,600).

Kakavand has been charged with spreading false information in an article he published on the Internet.

In the article he accuses powerful conservative figures of profiting from their positions.

Iran's judiciary, a bastion of the Islamic republic's religious right wing, is maintaining a tough crackdown on pro-reform writers.

Since 2000, it has closed down more than 200 publications.

Around 12 journalists are currently in Iranian prisons.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1130667.htm

Shirin Ebadi Barred From Representing Kazemi

June 12, 2004
The Globe and Mail
Associated Press with Canadian Press

Tehran -- Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi has apparently been barred from representing the family of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi who died in custody, a spokesman for her human rights centre said Saturday.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, one of four lawyers representing Ms. Kazemi's family, said an invitation from the court to attend a hearing next month did not mention Ms. Ebadi's name.

“That Ebadi's name is not among the list of lawyers invited for the next hearing means that the judiciary has barred her from representing the family at the court,” Mr. Dadkhah said.

In November, a criminal court had accepted Ms. Ebadi's request to represent Ms. Kazemi's family.

Judiciary officials and Ms. Ebadi were not available for comment Saturday.

Ms. Ebadi won the 2003 Nobel peace prize for her advocacy of human rights and democracy in Iran.

The two other lawyers invited by the court were Mohammad Seifzadeh and Abdolfattah Soltani.

Ms. Kazemi, a Canadian of Iranian origin, was arrested June 23, 2003, while taking photographs during a protest by families of prisoners outside a Tehran jail. She died nearly three weeks after the arrest.

Authorities had initially denied that Ms. Kazemi was killed, claiming she had died of a stroke. Later, however, a presidential-appointed committee found that Ms. Kazemi had died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage due to a blow to the head.

Intelligence Ministry agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi was charged with beating her to death. His trial opened last October but the second session has been postponed several times for reasons not made public.

Mr. Dadkhah, who is also a spokesman for the Centre for Protecting Human Rights co-founded by Ms. Ebadi, said the second session is now scheduled for July 17.

Ms. Kazemi's son, Stephen Hachemi, who lives in Montreal, said last month he believed Ms. Ebadi would be powerless to ensure justice for his mother and called on the Canadian government to get more involved.

He has repeatedly urged the federal government to pressure Iran to allow an independent Canadian court monitor to observe the trial.

Canada criticized the handling of the Kazemi case and threatened to impose sanctions. It withdrew its ambassador to Iran after Ms. Kazemi's body was buried in Iran against the wishes of her son and Canadian authorities. Canadian Ambassador Philip Mackinnon later returned to Iran and attended the opening of the trial.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040612.wiran0612/BNStory/Front/

Europe, Iran and the Nuclear Issue

June 10, 2004
The Economist
The Economist Print Edition

The hope in Europe that “soft power”, offering engagement in place of confrontation, would encourage Iran to give up its dangerous nuclear ambitions seems set to collide with hard reality. Buried in the details of a report next week to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), one of a damning series since Iran's 18-year deception over its nuclear programmes was uncovered last year, are several time-bombs.

The inspectors cannot know whether Iran has a secret nuclear-weapons programme; only secretive Iran knows that. But they do demonstrate that not all traces found of highly enriched uranium (the higher the better for military use) could have come in on imported machinery, as Iran still claims. Its interest in particularly sophisticated centrifuge machines for enrichment, they suspect, goes beyond the small “research” effort it now owns up to. And they are certain Iran bought its enrichment designs and parts from the same supply network as Libya, which now admits (while Iran does not) that with its uranium starter-kit came detailed bomb-building plans.

Iran still insists its nuclear programme is just for making electricity. But few believe that. Last October, Britain, France and Germany thought they had a deal that gave Iran a face-saving exit from the bomb-making business: they would hold off reporting Iran's nuclear transgressions to the UN Security Council, as the IAEA's board is legally obliged to do, if all uranium enrichment activity stopped, and Iran came clean about its nuclear past and co-operated fully with inspectors. And they offered technology trade, with Iran keeping the peaceful benefits of nuclear power, if it abandoned the uranium and plutonium processes that bring it close to nuclear break-out.

But Iran, it seems, was just playing for time. Its work with inspectors has increased, but so have the holes in its nuclear story. It is about to start building a heavy-water reactor that is too small for power generation but ideal for plutonium-making. It is preparing uranium feedstock for its centrifuges and still producing parts for them, despite a promise to stop. And western intelligence agencies suspect Iran is still hiding sites where other nuclear work has been done.

As the going gets tougher

Iran threatens “consequences” if the IAEA's board will not drop the issue: it hints it may restart its uranium enrichment machines, or it could quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as North Korea has done. And what would the Europeans do then? Little but belly-ache, Iran may calculate. If it is to be persuaded differently, and the NPT is to be saved from the shredder, Europe's soft power needs to be given a harder edge.

With 60% of its people under 30, many of them without jobs, Iran needs all the trade (some 40% of its imports come from the European Union) and investment in its oil and gas industries (much of it now coming from European and Japanese companies) that it can get. Sanctions, beyond those imposed for years by the United States, could therefore hurt Iran badly. As a first signal of their intent to get tougher, if Iran won't keep its side of the October bargain, Britain, France and Germany should join America in insisting that Iran's nuclear rule-breaking go directly to the Security Council, where international sanctions could be contemplated.

Iran would be livid if Europe flexed its trade muscle even in this limited way. But it also needs to be told clearly that any nuclear miscalculation it makes will carry a heavy price.

http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=2747761

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