Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year! 
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
Posted on 07/10/2004 10:11:43 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
The US media still largley 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.
We are now just a few days away from the anticipated July 9th demonstrations.
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.
DoctorZin
Iraqi PM to visit Iran
July 10 - Iraq‘s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is due to arrive in Jordan Sunday at the outset of an Arab tour, which is due to take him also to Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, diplomatic source said.
Allawi is expected to urge Syria and Iran to assume a tighter control of their borders with Iraq with a view to preventing infiltration of hard-line elements that reportedly attacked U.S.-led occupation troops in the country, the sources said./-
http://www.iranwpd.com/
Cool it
A case for Iran's nuclear energy program
July 8, 2004
iranian.com
Nima Kaseraie
http://www.iranian.com/Kasraie/2004/July/Nuclear/index.html
And what are we Americans to do with the threat of terrorism then, I am always asked. Perhaps, I say, the most effective weapon we can have against terrorism is to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life worldwide. One has to suspect that such poverty and its frustrated desperation can indeed be breeding grounds for international terrorism. Nuclear energy can help mitigate these deplorable conditions. Certainly we must do it with care and provide every barrier to misuse we can effectively employ, but the greater good is achieved if we use nuclear energy to close the gap between the haves and have-nots.
All this being said, if the US is intent on nonproliferation of WMDs, it must be fair and bring everyone under the spotlight, including Israel. Iran afterall, sustained thousands of casualties from chemical weapons during the war with Iraq.
As for Iran, in my opinion, it must realize that it is within her best interests to pull its nose out of the Israeli-Palestinain conflict and establish relations with the state of Israel. Iran afterall is the land of Cyrus The Great, Queen Esther, and Daniel the Prophet.
My wish personally is to one day see a socially pluralist and secularist Iran in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims, live side by side striving for a better Iran, similar to the days of Moorish Spain. Then I wouldn't have to go to such lengths to make a case for something as beneficial as nuclear energy. How unfortunate for us all.
Iran Army in New Clashes With Kurds
Agence France Presse
TEHRAN, 11 July 2004 — Iranian troops killed two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi border, Tehran dailies said yesterday, amid reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara’s behalf.
The latest fighting took place on Thursday near the town of Baneh, in the far northwest of Kordestan province, some 200 kilometers from the nearest part of Turkey, the papers said.
“These people had illegally crossed the border, ruined border villages and extorted money from residents,” the Hambastegi newspaper quoted an unidentified official as saying.
The new fighting comes hot on the heels of deadly clashes near the Turkish border between Iranian troops and the rebels from the former Kurdistan Workers’ Party, now known as Kongra-Gel.
Deputy Interior Minister Ali Asghar Ahmadi said two Iranian soldiers and eight rebels were killed in the June 28 clashes. A pro-Kurdish news agency said 16 soldiers and four rebels died. The Germany-based MHA news agency said Iranian security forces had launched “a comprehensive operation” against the former PKK late last month after the rebels abandoned a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Ankara on June 1.
Ahmadi is himself to travel to Turkey tomorrow to discuss joint moves to tackle armed groups holed up in the mountainous border region. Turkish defense sources have already hailed what they described as a “large-scale” operation against the former PKK by the Iranian Army.
Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying yesterday that Iranians should design a national costume of which they can be proud but should not take their lead from the pages of Western fashion magazines.
Conservatives have recently launched a crackdown on young women who flout Islamic dress codes by wearing figure-hugging coats and allowing hair to spill out from under their headscarves.
But Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, said there was no need for panic. “The young people in this country are pure believers and joyful and are very interested in Islam,” he was quoted as telling young people in the western city of Hamadan.
The Sharq daily said he returned to the idea of a national costume which he floated years ago. “Arabs, Indians, Indonesians and Africans have their own costumes and they are proud of them,” Khamenei said.
“I say sit down and design a national costume ... But I am not saying that it should be something dating back to 500 years ago,” he added. “I am saying if you want to cut your hair short, if you want to change the way you put on make-up, if you want to change the way you walk — then do it.”
“If fashion designers in Europe and America design a kind of clothes for men and women in their fashion magazines, should we copy them in Tehran, Mashhad and Hamadan? That would be bad,” he said. “Cultural mimicry is a big danger, but don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to fashion, variety and innovation.”
Meanwhile, two Iranians convicted of murder have been hanged in Fuman, in the northern province of Gilan, government newspaper Iran reported yesterday. The first man, named only as Arshadollah, had set a house afire in 1997, killing three members of a family, two men and a woman, the newspaper said.
The second man, named as Mohammadali, had killed a man in 2000. Murder, armed robbery, rape, apostasy and serious drug trafficking are all punishable by death in Iran.
http://www.aljazeerah.info/11n/Iran%20Army%20in%20New%20Clashes%20With%20Kurds.htm
Tight Security Paid off
Jul 10, 2004, 06:30
Tehran Police Hail Peaceful Protest Anniversary
9 July 2004 --
General Morteza Talaie, the commander of the Iranian capital's police force, said that 8 July was what he called a "totally normal" day, despite what he said had been an extensive campaign in the "counterrevolutionary media" highlighting the anniversary. Police in Tehran say they are pleased that a key anniversary of student unrest has passed quietly.
On 8 July 1999, pro-democracy students clashed with police in cities across Iran after a police crackdown at an earlier student protest. One student died and hundreds of other people were injured in the violence.
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_2885.shtml
Sightseeing? You mustn't miss smugglers
New York Times - By Otto Pohl
Jul 10, 2004
Khasab, Oman: The Iranians come at daybreak, buzzing across the green water in small boats packed with goats. They deliver their livestock to Omani traders, idle away the hot midday hours and, as darkness sets in, return to Iran, this time loaded with cigarettes, tea and clothing.
Aside from the starkly beautiful rocky fjords, tourist attractions are scarce on this remote tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
Watching the Iranian smugglers come and go is about the best local travel operators can muster. "We do it as part of the city tour," said Abdul Khalique Ahmed, the managing director of Khasab Travel and Tours. "People like to see the smugglers."
The boats speed across the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane that connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea and beyond. About 15 per cent of the world's oil passes through this vitally strategic sea lane, closely guarded by the US military.
But the goat and cigarette trade, running perpendicular to the oil tankers, is the only commerce the locals care about. It is said to represent over half of the economy here on the Musandam peninsula, a small outpost of Oman.
The trade is illegal in Iran but legal in Oman, which means that the Omani government collects taxes and grants de facto visas to the Iranians, as long as they do not stray far from the port or stay overnight.
The smuggling started after Iran closed its borders after the 1979 revolution, and exploded after the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.
These days, however, traders like Abdullah Sadani, a 33-year-old Iranian, complain that reform in Iran is ruining business.
An import deal that Iran signed with international cigarette companies in 2002 has decimated that trade, which was by far the largest and most lucrative.
Between 50 and 80 boats currently make the crossing each day, perhaps a quarter of the number two years ago, merchants say. Sadani earns only a few dollars a day, while a large load of cigarettes could have made him up to $30 a few years ago.
Sitting in a cafe near the port, Sadani, grizzled by sun, cigarettes and several days of beard growth, explained that despite the lower pay this was the only way he could support his wife and four children back in the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Kong.
Over the years, he said, he has been robbed by pirates, shot at by the police and occasionally forced to dump his cargo overboard to avoid arrest.
Problems with the Iranian authorities are solved in time-honoured fashion. "Baksheesh," Sadani said emphatically, using the Persian word for tip or bribe while making a circular motion with his hand over his head.
Like other traders, Sadani carries a cell phone with two SIM card phone chips, one for Iran and one for Oman. He switches chips halfway through the journey, so spotters on the Iranian side can easily reach him on his return trip to warn him of police activity.
Cigarettes are still smuggled to avoid the taxes the Iranians levy on the newly legal trade, but other products, including tea, clothing, soft drinks and electronics, have gained importance.
Goods worth $250,000 to $500,000 cross the strait each day, in the estimation of Munavvar Shuaib, a manager at Abdul Fatah Mohammed Noor Trading in the centre of Khasab's small marketplace.
At the height of trade, two or three years ago, volumes were up to five times that. Even at that reduced level, it is an enormous amount of business to the roughly 30,000 Omanis who live in the region.
Largest and most lucrative trade
* The smuggling started after Iran closed its borders after the 1979 revolution, and exploded after the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.
* Between 50 and 80 boats make the crossing each day across the Strait of Hormuz carrying goods worth $250,000 to $500,000.
* Problems with the Iranian authorities are solved in time-honoured fashion - 'Baksheesh', a Persian word for tip or bribe.
* Cigarettes are still smuggled to avoid the taxes the Iranians levy on the newly legal trade.
* The trade is illegal in Iran but legal in Oman.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7032.shtml
Who is Ebadi?
July 11, 2004
Iranian.ws
Samira Mohyeddin
In the wake of the United States attack on Afghanistan and the Taliban regime, an Afghani woman, Dr. Sima Samar, was present during George Bush's state of the union address. She was lauded as a women's rights activist on capitol hill, and subsequently was appointed as minister of women's affairs in the new Karzai government.
Less than three months after her appointment, Dr.Sima Samar resigned because she recognized that her post was meaningless and that she could do more on her own than trying to work with the government of Afghanistan. Two years has passed since the so-called liberation of Afghani women and not much has changed in the lives of the women of Afghanistan.
The world tour of Nobel peace prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, has come to an end, without any significant rebuke by the so-called activist of the Islamic Republic's atrocious human rights record. From country to country, Ms. Ebadi reiterated the only message she could that human rights and Islam are compatible. In every one of her speeches she quoted Sadi and Rumi, she spoke of the colours of the rainbow, birds, and clouds. She told her audiences that democracy is a flower that has to be slow to bloom;that has to be coaxed to bloom. Shirin Ebadi is attempting to do what Islamists like Muhammad Abduh in the eary 1900's tried to do: how to be a preservationist and a reformer. A difficult and futile task, Ms. Ebadi's track record so far has received a failing grade from the Iranian community.
Ms. Ebadi has not one a single high profile court case in Iran, all of her so-called clients are either dead or perishing somewhere in Iran's jails. Now Ms. Ebadi is heading back to Iran to defend Mr. Ibrahim Yazdi. The same Yazdi who helped promulgate and bring to frution the same despotic regime that millions of Iranians are facing today.
The only thing that the Nobel committee did when it awarded the prize to Ms. Ebadi, was give the green light for the European Union to escalate its trade with Iran, trade that numbered more than four hundred million dollars last year.
Ms. Ebadi has become Iran's answer to Deepak Chopra; someone should tell her that Iran has enough poets and puppets, what we need are individuals who are committed not to the preservation of Iran's theocracy, but those who are willing to challenge the foundation upon which the system rests. The Iranian people have spoken: Ms. Ebadi is Nobody!
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_2897.shtml
Iran Majlis Give Go-Ahead on Uranium Enrichment
Jul 9, 2004, 20:43
Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission on Tuesday gave the go-ahead on resumption of uranium enrichment activities, said the rapporteur of the commission.
"The project will be discussed thoroughly in the commission next week," Kazem Jalali told. Iran enriches uranium to produce fuel for Bushehr power plant which is to come on stream by 2005. Iran is a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and signed additional protocol to NPT in December 2003 which grants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the right of intrusive inspection of all its nuclear sites.
Tehran Declaration was a reward from the European partners in return for Iran's signing up to the additional protocol according to which they had promised to back Iran's transparent nuclear program. France, Britain and Germany undertook to provide Iran with advanced technology to go ahead with its nuclear program which focuses on generating electricity by setting up atomic power plants. Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is for civilian application and authorized the IAEA to monitor its national program as per the international criteria.
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_2882.shtml
Rumor has it. Since Shiites opened up Karbala and Najaf for pilgrimage under the watch of …, 2.6 million Iranian man and women have crossed the borders into Iraq from Iran. Little over a half a million has returned and the remainder is rumored to be half composed of Ghotz Army. This army is a sleeper cell type organization under the watch and direction of certain ayatollah from Iran. Hotels and markets and businesses in Najaf and Karbala are being bought by these individuals in an alarming rate and are paid for in cash. Similar events have been happening for some time across the border to the east in Afghanistan. During Noruz, where usually shortage of cash is a common event, mullahs gathered equivalent of over 3Billion US dollars by selling hundreds of thousands of cell phones in a short 10-day period to the Iranian populous, add copper money from a sale to China in the same period and these monies were routed to Southern Iraq. Ironically, Persian teachers did not get their paychecks and went on strike due to the regimes lack for finances and some government offices were subjects of the same after the Persian New Year. Rumor has it.
I have heard similar reports. I believe the mullahs need to create a civil war in Iraq. A free Iraq will spell the end of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Though she neglected to mention Zarathustra (Zoroaster), who probably had just as great an influence on her country as Khomeini.
Didn't you post some articles awhile back on Iranians who were celebrating Nowruz in defiance of the Iranian military/police?
I don't remember the exact details, but it struck me as being a very bold move at the time.
The Clerics in Iran aren't Iranians because they hate Iranian history pre-600 A.D. Iran. That's why they consistently get labeled as Arabists in Persian ideology-- in fact, they hate Darius, Cryus, Xerxes and anything to do with Persian heritage and culture.. Unfortunately, there is no ethnicity Iranians hate more than Arabs and that's exactly what the Mullahs emphasize even though they try to say their such strong patriots.
The only solution is to eradicate them....
Despite the brash, false bravado of Khomeini, he was a fundamentally scared, weak individual.
If anyone back then had mustered up the courage to resist his brutality, then we might not have to be engaging in such morose conversations.
Bump!
TORTURE: RSF Condemns Trial of Intelligence Ministry Agent on Anniversary of Photojournalist’s Death in Custody
Radio Farda Newsroom
July 9, 2004 - In a statement marking the first anniversary of the death in custody of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, the Paris-based press freedom advocacy group Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF) said it suspects that “senior Iranian officials implicated in this murder will remain unpunished and that a scapegoat will be convicted in order to put an end to a case that is embarrassing for the regime.” RSF identified Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi, who had reportedly been present at Zahra Kazemi’s interrogation, as one of the officials evading punishment in the case.
“We nonetheless hope that the trial due to take place on July 17 will shed full light on this killing and that our Canadian section, which is still awaiting visas, will be able to attend as observers, the RSF added in the statement.
“Certainly everything is quite disappointing,” spokesman of RSF’s Canadian chapter Tanya Churchmuch tells Radio Farda’s Toronto correspondent Maryam Aghvami. “I feel that in the past year we have not advanced at all, and we are still in the first square.”
Kazemi died of head injuries she suffered during interrogation in the Evin prison, after being arrested for taking pictures of prisoners’ families rallying outside.
http://www.radiofarda.com/en_article/2004/7/d4ece290-a8b6-43ed-ae47-4b49f4668235.html
Qum Clerics Condemn Violent Killings of Foreigners
July 10, 2004 - In a statement signed by 100 Qum Shiite clerics, violent killings of foreigners by armed Iraqi insurgents were condemned as “barbaric murders,” and contrary to Islamic teachings. Ahmadreza Ahmadpour, who signed the statement, tells Radio Farda’s broadcaster Mahmonir Rahimi that “our motive for signing this statement was to preserve the religion, because, unfortunately, very violent and unreasonable acts are being perpetrated in the name of religion, creating a violent image of Islam.”He adds, “We believe that a country’s destiny should be decided by that country’s people, and foreigners have no right to interfere.”
http://www.radiofarda.com/en_news/2004/7/10/d716995b-ba03-41a6-85f8-612a0a66dea3.html#d716995b-ba03-41a6-85f8-612a0a66dea3
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