Iranian Alert -- July 3, 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.

In Iran, the Staying Power of the Press [Excerpt]

July 03, 2004
The Washington Post
Karl Vick

TEHRAN -- The time does not appear auspicious for launching a newspaper in Iran.

In the country that the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders calls "the Middle East's largest prison for journalists," those dailies still available on newsstands brim with courtroom accounts of less fortunate publications, their editors summoned to the dock by the religious government that has closed more than 100 papers in the past four years.

At last month's meeting of the official press committee, a government monitoring board that includes representatives of Iran's news media and of its ruling clerics, a senior mullah named Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei threw two sugar bowls at an editor, then came around the table and bit him on the shoulder -- drawing blood, said the editor, Isa Saharkhiz, who pulled down his shirt to show the scab.

"There's no security for me," Saharkhiz said, "and therefore none for the press."

So why is Emadeddin Baghi, a veteran of three years in prison and seven shuttered papers, beaming as he goes about the business of launching an eighth publication?

Jumhuriyat, coming Sunday to newsstands up and down the sycamore-lined streets of Tehran, illustrates both the core resilience and the discreet new trajectory of the progressive impulse in Iran, where politics is not what it used to be.

"After all this repression, it would be a sign of hope to people," said Baghi, from a corner of a crowded table in a room swarming with young reporters. "We are still alive. We are still trying.

"We want to show that such a thing is still possible here."

The newspaper is arriving just when the reform movement in Iran is giving every appearance of being on the run, if not actually finished.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24440-2004Jul2.html?nav=rss_world

Nuclear Weapons in the Mideast

July 03, 2004
Arab News
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid

I wasn’t sad the day Israel destroyed the Iraqi Tamouz reactor 20 years ago, and I will be a lot happier if the remaining reactors in Iran and Israel are also destroyed. How can a region full of idiots and ripe with disagreements keep such destructive weapons safe?

The Iranians give paltry excuses, saying that the reactors produce cooking fuel and water reservoirs. We would be also stupid if it didn’t occur to us that they were in fact producing nuclear bombs by which they can threaten neighboring countries.

It is unlikely that a country with a wealth of cheap oil would build expensive reactors that require rare technology and are dangerous to maintain just to produce electricity when it could easily do so using the available diesel for a quarter of the price and in huge quantities. They are trying to convince the world that the enriched uranium will not be used to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Only idiots would believe that. Others want to convince us that the purpose of any nuclear weapons would be to create a balance of power with Israel and not to threaten Arab countries. This is dubious because Iran has never been a front in the confrontation with Israel and never will be. Mind you, I do agree that nuclear arms controls must apply impartially, meaning the whole region beginning with Israel should be cleared of all nuclear weapons.

Iranians will be much safer if Mohammed El-Baradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, succeeds in transforming these nuclear towers into tourist sites or grain stores for cattle and save locals from the danger of leakage and radiation. The Iranian people will save billions of dollars if their government abandons this huge military project, which can only mean poverty and destruction for Iranians and would destroy us all.

In order for international dialogue to make any sense we must insist on ridding Israel of its nuclear arsenal, which is a threat to the region and the world and only encourages other countries to acquire them too. Israel justifies its huge arsenal as self-defense against the forest of monsters in which it lives. But if the forest goes up in flames, Israel will either get burned by the fire or the nuclear dust that will radiate. At the moment we live at the mercy of extremists in countries like Israel and Iran, whether they came to power democratically or by other means.

If the world could rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction now that Saddam and his hypothetical arsenal are gone, it would avert a great evil. Acquiring banned weapons is no longer impossible, no matter how hard the IAEA agents try. The fact remains that what the IAEA is doing in Iran is great work and greatly benefits the region. It is in the interest of our brothers in Iran to accept that too.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=47777&d=3&m=7&y=2004

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Warn Britain Over Sailor Spat

July 03, 2004
AFP
Yahoo News

TEHRAN -- Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards have hit back at Britain in the spat over last month's detention of eight servicemen, describing as illogical London's claim the unit had not entered Iranian waters.

The spokesman of the Islamic republic's ideological army, General Massoud Jazayeri, said "it is possible that the illogical statements by British officials will have other consequences".

His comments, made to the Iranian news agency ILNA, were confirmed by his office. The official did not elaborate on what the other consequences could be.

The six marines and two sailors were detained for three days in Iran last month, during which they were paraded blindfold on television and forced to publicly apologise for what they called a "mistake".

Iran insists that the boats were intercepted only after they entered Iranian waters on the Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides southern Iraq from Iran.

But after the released unit was debriefed, British officials said it appeared they were "forcibly escorted" over the maritime border by Iranian troops.

However, Britain is unable to prove its contention unless it receives the six Royal Marines and two sailors' boats and sophisticated GPS navigational equipment, confiscated by the Revolutionary Guards.

The incident has come amid a more general downturn in bilateral ties, with Britain co-sponsoring a resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency several days before the arrests that heavily criticised Iran for failing to cooperate fully with an investigation into its nuclear programme.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1538&ncid=732&e=4&u=/afp/20040703/wl_uk_afp/iran_britain_iraq_boat

Iran: Campaign to Recruit Suicide Bombers Spreading

July 02, 2004
BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring Middle East

Iranian domestic media and opposition websites have provided new details about Iran's ongoing campaign to recruit suicide bombers and have suggested the campaign is spreading throughout the country. Media have also reported statements by Iran's leaders encouraging the suicide bomber campaign.

On 9 June, the weekly Ya Lesarat , the organ of the Iranian Ansar-e Hizballah [supporters of Hizballah], published an extensive report on the 2 June meeting organized by the General Staff for Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign to recruit "martyrdom seekers."

According to the weekly, a Majlis deputy from Tehran, Mehdi Kuchekzadeh, spoke on the martyrdom culture and "declared his readiness to become a martyr seeker."

The paper said General Salami, deputy commander of operations at the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Joint Chiefs of Staff Headquarters, appeared in full military uniform. He declared that the "Global Arrogance [the US and its allies] would come to its knees in the face of martyrdom operations, despite its technological superiority."

Ya Lesarat also reported that "charismatic" speaker Hasan 'Abbasi, the director of the Centre for Doctrinal Studies of Security Across Frontiers, an IRGC Imam Hussein University institution, gave the "most effective" presentation. According to the weekly, 'Abbasi said: "The West needs to know that we cannot stop our youth, and there will remain no security for the Jewish and Christian worlds . . . We will not and cannot stop the disruption of the present order." Before his departure, Dr. 'Abbasi "filled out the form to become a martyr."

Ya Lesarat also reported that IRGC General Sa'id Qasemi and Hojjat ol-Eslam Hamid Sabzevari addressed the gathering. Sabzevari spoke on the "religious basis and justification for seeking martyrdom." In addition, the weekly interviewed Mohammad 'Ali Samadi, an organizer of the campaign, who characterized the campaign as "global" in nature, embracing "all Islamic movements and both Shia and Sunni Muslims," and identified the "US, Israel, and their lackeys" as the targets of the "martyrs."

The 9 June Ya Lesarat also carried an interview with Mrs. Foruz Raja'eifar, the director of the recruitment campaign. A former US Embassy hostage taker, Raja'eifar stressed that "through this event, we are sending a message both to the Islamic world and its enemies." Raja'eifar is the editor of the hardline publication Sobhe-e Dukoheh , directed by the prominent Iranian Hizballah figure Masoud Dehnamaki. Raja'eifar had also expounded on the campaign in a 2 June interview with Hamshahri, the daily of Tehran Municipality. In that interview, she stressed the need to "adopt martyrdom-seeking as a strategic struggle, educate the Iranian youth until it becomes a fundamental cultural movement, and defend its religious and legal basis." She added that martyrs "don't lose anything but gain God's Paradise and eternal joy."

ILNA also carried a report on the 2 June meeting, pointing out that IRGC deputy commander Salami spoke on "martyrdom and military and security strategies," while Hasan 'Abbasi addressed "martyrdom as the last weapon." It also reported the presence of IRGC General Sa'id Qasemi (4 June).

Media Report Campaign Spreading

Since the 2 June meeting, Iranian media and opposition websites have offered further insights into the campaign to recruit suicide bombers. According to the opposition website R ouydad , located at www.rouydad.info , the General Staff for Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign issued a statement on 18 June declaring that they are ready to move like "burning arrows targeting the heart of Americans." The statement added that "Iranian Muslim youth have their own special method to respond to the enemy."

The opposition website Peiknet suggested that posters for the campaign, which it said "involves the Basij and Hizballah elements," have been appearing at Shiraz University campus. The posters announce a campaign to recruit bombers by the Basij forces, headed by an individual named Puryazdanparast ( www.peiknet.com, 23 June). The poster reads: "It is a short distance to Karbala" and "registration for martyrdom operations." Pictures of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon are featured on the poster.

Opposition websites are carrying the application to register to become a suicide bomber. The application provides options for attacking Coalition forces in Iraq, Israel, and author Salman Rushdi, condemned to death by Imam Khomeyni in 1989 for writing Satanic Verses. The first reference to the General Staff for Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign was observed in February when, according to the daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami , the group offered a ,000 reward for the "killing of British novelist Salman Rushdi" (16 February).

Leaders Support Suicide Bomber Campaign

Opposition websites have also reported Iranian leadership support for the campaign.

-- The Gooya news website reported that Hashemi-Rafsanjani spoke about "the capacity and preparation of mosques for organizing Kafanpushan [literally shroud wearers, those ready to be martyred]" at the same meeting where a member of the General Staff for Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign "referred to the Japanese kamikaze during WWII and stressed that they should have targeted the civilians" ( www.gooya.com, 22 June).

-- The opposition website Peiknet reported on 8 June that Mayor of Tehran Ahmadinejad is one of the principal forces behind the campaign. [In recent weeks, a number of conservative dailies, including Resalat , have been widely promoting Ahmadinejad as the next President of Iran.]

-- Reporting on the suicide bomber recruitment campaign, the Rouydad website wrote that "Mohammad Mohammadi Golpaygani, the chief of staff of Leader Khamene'i, declared at a mosque in the western Province of Ilam that the Leader has soldiers in the four corners of the Earth who are ready to sacrifice their lives for him, and some of them live in the United States" ( www.rouydad.info , 14 June).

In an unusual move, the 13 June Keyhan , the hardline semi-official daily directed by Hussein Shariatmadari, representative of Leader Khamene'i, carried an unsigned editorial which called for a decisive stance against the West, similar to "Imam Khomeyni's handling of the Salman Rushdi affair." It added, "It is not right to think of defense and ignore operating deep in their land . . . and waging Islamic resistance." The editorial stressed that "we need to make them understand that we can disrupt their security, not necessarily with military action but with Basij [mobilization but also a reference to the Islamic militia in Iran] and concentrated effort . . . we can challenge them deep in their homeland." Encouraging action on the part of the "lovers of Velayat [Leader Khamene'i]," Keyhan urged them to get their cue from "his hints" [eshareh: love-glance] and not wait for his orders and "assignment of duties to the detriment of the religion, nation, and country." [Editorials in Kehyan are usually signed by Hussein Shariatmadari or his deputies.]

Source: Iran press review from BBC Monitoring in English 30 Jun 04

http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/

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