Iranian Alert -- June 27, 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.

This just in from our friends at ActivistChat.com...

The Following is a Top Secret Memo from inside the Islamic Regime in Iran.

More specifically, these are instructions from the Supreme Leader's Intelligence Office to Operational Unit 43 calling for increased levels of support and cooperation with Al Qaeda!

Following the document in this email you will find a temporary translation, with some caveats, which will be updated as better translations surface.

Working Translation... Translation in progress..

From: Head of the Supreme Leader's Intelligence Office (Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri)

To: The head of the Operational Unit 43.

re: Orders of the Surpreme Leader -----?

With Prayers and Greetings,

With the best wishes for your success and victory, and for all the brave and honest employees of your office, especially in an attempt to eliminate any confusions about supporting future Al Qaeda plans, I will repeat the Supreme Leader's commands that fighting oppression worldwide, which is led by the US and Israel is the primary purpose and destination of our Islamic regime in addition to damaging their economies, delegitimizing the political aspirations of these united enemies of the Islamic regime, and endangering their security, which requires greater care and awareness in all operations. Also, in analyzing future negative propaganda from this alliance he further stated that this united front has limited (?) further internal security and collaboration with foreign allies, so all future operations should occur under the direct supervision and protection of this office. It was also arranged that future meetings about the elimination of negative operational obstacles that prevent the realization of plans and progress, especially in increasing collaboration with Al Qaeda fighters' network and Hezbollah, should focus on united discussions for the achievement of the same objectives. In closing I would like to convey the Supreme Leader's great satisfaction and full protection for the future operations of this office, and with an understanding of your critical duties, he emphasized that nothing should be overlooked or left undone that could have irreversible effects in collaborating with Al Queda, which is abbreviated in the current relationship of "Moghneyeh and Al Zawahiri".

Signed
Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri
Head of the Supreme Leader's Intelligence Office

http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2951

Islamic republic delegation shocked by special appearance at Crans Montana Forum

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jun 27, 2004

The members of the official delegation sent by the Islamic republic regime to the "Crans Montana Forum" (Switzerland) were shocked, on Saturday, by the special appearance of Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran, who made a powerful speech in reference to "Risks of Doing Business with the Islamic Republic".

The meeting was a three days workshop and debates on various issues affecting the World and Global Economy including the "Prospects for Iran" which started on Thursday with a welcoming ceremony and ended yesterday. Many international dignitaries from various countries and entities along with high rank officials of powerful or multinational companies, such as, Total S.A. (the French Oil company doing business with the Mullahcracy) were part of the forum.

The regime's team was composed by several high rank officials attached mainly to the Bonyad Foundation, qualified as Mafia by Iranians, and of Iran Khodro. Many participants had amused looks toward the Islamic republic's delegation, showing signs of "malaise", during Mr. Pahlavi's speech which was in reality targeting their policies and illegitimate goals. The French Total's team was seeming not happy neither by the appearance and the content of the speech.

The event can be qualified as an unprecedented hard slap in the face of the Islamic republic's diplomats and financial circles who are seeking to sell most of Iran's National assets in order to buy some more European support and time by hoping to avoid the fall of their illegitimate and unpopular regime. Reza Pahlavi's speech was also a public warning to those who, like the French governants and businessmen, are continuing to bet on the ill horse which is the shaky Iranian theocracy.

Such audacity seems to be able to calm part of the increasing criticism made by some Iranian opponents who are looking for a more active role of Mr. Pahlavi in the Iranian Freedom Process. It's to note that despite all braveries made and heavy prices paid by the Iranian people , the lack of an active leadership, trusted by the majority of Iranians, has been so far the main cause for the unsuccess of Iranian secular opposition which is seeking to overthrow the Islamic regime. An increasing number of Iranians, especially among the youth, do trust Mr. Pahlavi and the Prince's traditional supporters, who are seeking the establishment of a Constitutional Monarchy following a referendum process, along with different factions of Iranian republicans believe that the he should play a much more active role. They're all looking that he helps them by voicing up their aspirations and to become a strong catalyzor for a democratic change in Iran.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_6820.shtml

Condoleezza Rice on 'Fox News Sunday'

June 27, 2004
FOX New
Transcript

The following is a transcribed excerpt from 'Fox News Sunday,' June 27, 2004:

Joining us now from Ankara, Turkey, to discuss events in Iraq and the NATO summit is National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Dr. Rice, good morning.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Good morning.

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS: Tell me, if you can — obviously you got a favorable reaction from the European nations there, who will of course be the main element in NATO at this summit — what is it you expect that NATO will now be prepared to do to support our mission in Iraq?

RICE: We have been getting a very favorable reaction from European nations, all saying that, with the U.N. Security Council resolution, it's time for everybody to pull together and support this new Iraqi government, as it tries to build a stable and secure Iraq.

And I believe that NATO, there is a very good chance that — permanent representatives have, in effect, said so — that we will get a very positive answer to Prime Minister Allawi's letter requesting training assistance for the security forces of Iraq. I think he will also get a strong political commitment that the countries of NATO understand that the future of Iraq is important to them.

HUME: When you say a training mission, can you give a sense of the dimensions of that, where it will take place and, above all, how many Iraqi forces NATO nations might be able and willing to train?

RICE: Well, I don't know what the details will be, Brit, because what will happen is that, of course, they'll have to sit down with the Iraqis, look at the Iraqi plans for how many forces they need over what period of time.

General Petraeus, who is there doing the training for the United States, will also be involved in those discussions.

But NATO will urge that this all happen on a very urgent basis, that this isn't a long planning exercise, that really they're in a phase of looking to quick implementation of these plans.

I should mention, NATO, as such, doesn't have a training mechanism, so of course the training will be done largely by member states. But I think you'll see this happen rather quickly.

HUME: One presumes this will have to take place in Iraq, right?

RICE: I think there's probably room for both. We would like to see — most of the training will need to take place in Iraq, and in fact that's what Prime Minister Allawi requested. But it's not inconceivable that there are some kinds of forces that could be trained outside the country.

There are some training activities going on now, for instance, for police in Jordan. There are some activities going on in the UAE. So it's possible that there could be some training outside of the country. But probably most of it should take place in Iraq.

HUME: The level of violence remains high. Another explosion in Baghdad this morning. Does this threaten the handover and, also, the reconstruction? How much of this can you stand?

RICE: It's absolutely obvious that those who have no future in the new Iraq and the foreign terrorists are trying to derail this political transition. But Prime Minister Allawi and the Iraqi government have been very strong in saying that they are not going to succeed, that they are going to proceed. We are going to proceed with the handover to the Iraqis.

The Iraqis have also made very clear that security is going to be a very high priority, that they have measures that they believe that they can take, including bringing back some pretty sophisticated, pretty well-trained security personnel.

Yes, there are people who are trying to derail this, but we can't let that happen.

As to the reconstruction, they are also trying to deprive their fellow Iraqi citizens of the benefits of electricity, of the benefits of the oil exports that go directly, of course, to the Iraqi treasury. So yes, they're trying to derail that.

And on some of the essential services, there have been attacks that have slowed the reconstruction, slowed the repair of the electricity and oil. But it continues, and we're going to continue to press through, and so will the new Iraqi government.

HUME: Who are these sophisticated and well-trained security personnel of whom you speak?

RICE: Well, I think that the Iraqis believe that there are some people who have security training from the army and who can be brought back. Some have already been brought back. General Petraeus is looking at some of these people, and has been for some time.

But the Iraqis want everyone to know, and indeed the Iraqi government continues to say, that while they want to invite some trained personnel back, they are as concerned as everybody that people with blood on their hands not be brought back. They recognize that the future of Iraq cannot be built on the pillars of the worst of the old Baath Party.

And so, they're quite willing and quite capable of vetting people, but they believe that there are probably more trained personnel that can be brought back who are not yet engaged in the security forces.

HUME: Former Vice President Gore said here in Washington the other day that the president is intensely misleading the American people by continuing to aggressively and brazenly assert a linkage between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Newspaper headlines on the 9/11 Commission staff report have suggested the same thing.

And basically the idea is, here in Washington anyway, that you keep saying that there's this linkage between Iraq and Al Qaida that doesn't exist. How do you respond to these accusations?

RICE: Well, first of all, the administration has been very clear that this is not about Saddam Hussein or Iraq's operational control and direction of Al Qaida. It is not anyone's contention that somehow Saddam Hussein directed 9/11.

But we know that going back for more than a decade, there have been contacts and connections between security personnel from the Iraq security services and Al Qaida. We know that they provided expertise in bomb-making, in document forgery.

We know that Zarqawi, who is the face of terror today in Iraq, was operating out of Iraq and, by the way, himself, was known to be from time to time in Baghdad. His network operated out of Baghdad, the very network that led to the death of Mr. Foley, the U.S. aid worker.

So it's simply not true that there was no contact, that there were no relationships between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein. I would say that, yes, it wasn't operational control, but there was some facilitation of what Al Qaida was trying to accomplish.

And from our point of view, given the Bush doctrine about harboring terrorists and facilitating terrorists, and given that Saddam Hussein, not just with Al Qaida, but a wide range of terrorists, Abu Nidal, Palestinian rejectionists, paying $25,000 to Palestinian suicide bombers — Saddam Hussein's regime was a sponsor of terrorism. It's been noted in State Department reports for years and years and years. It's been noted in U.N. Security Council resolutions. It's simply not accurate to say that this was not a regime that helped terrorists.

HUME: You say you never asserted an operational connection or at least operational control. What do you suspect?

RICE: Well, I can't — you know, I can't speculate. I do know that there have just been a number of contacts, high-level contacts, over a number of years.

But you don't have to have operational control of Al Qaida or operational direction of Al Qaida in order to help Al Qaida. Helping them with document forgery or with bomb-making is helping Al Qaida. Supporting Palestinian rejectionists and paying $25,000 to suicide bombers is 180 degrees from the interests of the United States and peace in the Middle East.

The fact is, Brit, Saddam Hussein was a threat. His regime had used weapons of mass destruction, continued to seek to make weapons of mass destruction, had the capability, the intent, the knowledge and the know-how to do it. He'd attacked his neighbors. We'd gone to war against him in 1991. We'd gone to war against him again in 1998 because he'd refused to allow inspectors in. In 2003, the world finally said to him, "You really have to disarm or face serious consequences." He was firing at our aircraft in no-fly zones.

This picture that somehow emerges of a relatively benign Iraq is simply at odds with the entire decade and two years since his defeat in 1991. And that says nothing of the horrors that he committed against his own people.

So we need to get back to the picture here of what the United States and the coalition achieved. We overthrew one of the worst tyrants of the 20th century who was well into those activities in the 21st century. The Middle East is safer for it. America is safer for it.

And we should celebrate for the Iraqi people, that they're finally about to move toward a decent government, because heaven knows they suffered long enough under this bloody tyrant, as did the neighbors under the shadow of his threats.

HUME: It is also being argued now, Dr. Rice, in Washington and elsewhere, that, while we were doing what we've done in Iraq, that Iran, which has just this week said that it's going to go ahead and create the centrifuges which are necessary to the creating of a nuclear bomb, and North Korea have moved steadily forward on their plans to have nuclear weapons.

What about that, particularly what about Iran and what happened this week?

RICE: Well, it is true that Iran is a dangerous state. And we have been, the United States, the most aggressive and the most certain about our views that the Iranians are trying to acquire undercover civilian nuclear production, trying to acquire military uses for nuclear power, maybe even nuclear weapons.

And that's why we've been the leaders in working with the IAEA, working with the Europeans to try and make certain that the Iranians know that they really only have two choices: One is cooperate, the other is face isolation. So we've, by no means, been ignoring the Iranian problem.

The United States, of course, has also worked with the Russians to try and get the Russians be more careful about what kinds of technology they transfer to the Iranians.

It's a very tough situation, but we believe that this is one that still has a diplomatic solution within sight.

But the Iranians, every day, demonstrate why the United States has been so hard on them and why the president put Iran into the axis of evil when he talked about Iraq, North Korea and Iran back in his State of the Union address in January 2002. We've been very clear that these rogue states that seek weapons of mass destruction are a danger.

HUME: I just have one quick question — I know you have to go — and that is Sudan. Secretary Powell is going there. What do we expect to be able to do? The allegations, of course, that it's worse than starvation; it's genocide in parts of that country. What about it?

RICE: Well, we have been very active with the international community in getting a lot of attention to that region. A USAID mission is going out there. Of course, Secretary Powell's trip will call attention to the really, really difficult situation there.

We're working with others, with the Libyans, to try to get a third route for supplies to get in to Darfur. And we've been putting a lot of pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the Janjaweed militia from doing the horrible things that they're doing in that region.

This has been a preoccupation, Sudan, for the president going back to the beginning of his administration. And as a result, we've made a lot of progress between the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the SPLA in the south.

But we now really have to turn our attention to Darfur, and that's why Secretary Powell is going there. We've committed more than $100 million for the humanitarian and relief efforts in Darfur, and there is probably more to come.

HUME: Dr. Rice, thank you very much.

RICE: Thank you very much, Brit.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123860,00.html

U.S. Seeks U.N. Sanctions Against Iran

Fox News - Report Section
Jun 27, 2004

WASHINGTON — U.N. sanctions may be the appropriate response to Iran, after the government in Tehran announced Sunday that it plans to continue its centrifuge construction for a nuclear program opposed by the international community, U.S. officials said.

"Iran needs to come clean and fully cooperate with its international obligations," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters travelling with President George W. Bush to a NATO summit in Istanbul.

"We have expressed concern within the IAEA about the need to consider sending this matter to the Security Council of the United Nations and I think this latest move may only serve to convince others of the need to seriously consider that step," he added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran will not begin enriching uranium, the process of injecting gas into centrifuges, but it has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency, Britain, France and Germany of the country's intention to resume construction on the centrifuges -- a move critical to building a nuclear bomb.

"We declared to IAEA and the three countries that we are prepared to resume work as of June 29th," Asefi said at a news conference.

Asefi said Iran's program is aimed at generating nuclear power, not creating weapons.

"We have been very clear about this so there is nothing to worry about. What we are looking for is the peaceful use of atomic technology, which is in fact our basic right," he said.

The United States says Iran has spent years hiding a military program. Satellite photos of Iran's nuclear sites, recently obtained by Fox News, have raised serious questions about Iran's intentions.

On "Fox News Sunday," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Iran is a dangerous state that has been trying to "acquire military uses for nuclear power, maybe nuclear weapons" for a long time.

"The Iranians demonstrate every day why the United States has been so hard on them and why the president has put them in the 'axis of evil,' when he talked about Iraq, North Korea and Iran back in his State of the Union address in January 2002. We have been very clear that these rogue states that seek weapons of mass destruction are a danger," Rice said.

Rice added that the United States has been working with the IAEA and European nations to make certain the Iranians know" they only have two choices — to cooperate or face isolation.

Just days ago, the IAEA accepted a draft resolution crafted by European powers that criticized Iran for not cooperating with U.N. inspectors. Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani said Iran has cooperated, but Britain, France and Germany did not live up to promises they made in February to close Iran's nuclear dossier at the IAEA and help it obtain advanced nuclear technology if the country stopped enriching uranium.

Iran suspended uranium enrichment last year under international pressure. Asefi said Iran will remain committed to that suspension, though Rowhani suggested that Iran was reconsidering its suspension in response to Europe's neglect.

Asefi and Rice both said that a dialogue could continue despite the change in Iran's plans.

"Concerning building and assembling centrifuges, we declared to the IAEA and Europeans that we will do that according to regulations, under IAEA supervision," he said, adding that Iranian and European experts plan to discuss Iran's program in the coming days.

Rice said the United States is working to get other nations, particularly Russia, to stop transferring technology to the Iranians.

"It is a very tough situation, but we believe it is one that still has a diplomatic solution within site," she said.

Foreign policy analyst John Loftus told Fox News that the "diplomatic solution" could involve preventing trade out of Iran and North Korea, which intelligence sources say has been sending enriched uranium to Iran.

"We're going to use a little persuasion. In the last week, virtually every carrier group in the United States Navy has been ordered to put to sea and they're heading in two directions — one for the Arabian peninsula and the other into the Pacific. Now, just by coincidence, the largest maritime exercise in military history, RIMPAC, Operation Pacific Rim, will take place off the coast of Hawaii in August. There will be ships from eight countries involved," he said.

"In August, they will have finished their exercise and they'll be within easy sailng distance of the Korean peninsula. So, we're not going to invade Iran. We're not going to invade North Korea, but we may blockade them. Think of it as Cuba light, where our ships will stand far off from shore."

Fox News' Julie Kirtz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_6825.shtml

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