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 07/17/2004 9:01:07 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.
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
Iran mullah-run judiciary bans two pro-reform newspapers
Jul 17, 2004, 20:38
AP
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_2967.shtml
Iran's mullah-run judiciary on Saturday ordered two pro-reform newspapers to close temporarily. The bans on Jomhuriat and Vaghay-e-Ettefaghieh were to be temporary, but it wasn't clear when exactly they would be allowed to resume publishing. In the past, newspapers generally have not reappeared after temporary bans.
Vaghay-e-Ettefaghieh was ordered closed for publishing propaganda against the state, insulting officials and publishing lies aimed at disturbing public opinion, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. It did not give details.
Vahid Pourostad, a member of the paper's editorial board, told The Associated Press the ban had taken him by surprise. He said he did not know exactly why his paper was shut down.
Newspaper executives at Jomhuriat could not be reached for comment Saturday night and office phones went unanswered
Regime change in Iran now in Bush’s sights
By Jenifer Johnston
PRESIDENT George Bush has promised that if re-elected in November he will make regime change in Iran his new target.
Bush named Iran as part of the Axis of Evil along with North Korea and Iraq almost three years ago. A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that military action would not be overt in changing Iran, but rather that the US would work to stir revolts in the country and hope to topple the current conservative religious leadership.
The official said: “If George Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran.”
The Iranian government announced this weekend that it had successfully eradicated all al-Qaeda cells operating in the country, but the statement comes as leaked reports from the US September 11 Commission show definite links between Iran and the September 11 terrorists.
The final report from the cross-party inquiry, which is examining the origins of the September 11 attacks, is believed to contain concrete evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran.
Time magazine reports that at least eight of the hijackers, who lived in the US for months before the attacks, passed through Iran between October 2000 and February 2001 apparently with help from the Iranian authorities.
Known al-Qaeda members also seem to have been allowed to cross in and out of Iran freely across the Afghan border, with Iranian border guards being told not to stamp the passports of al-Qaeda operatives, harass them or hinder their ability to travel freely.
The report is thought to hint that Iranian officials were ordered to assist al-Qaeda operatives with any travel needs.
The September 11 Commission report will, however, stop short of stating that Iran was aware of the plans for the September 11 attacks.
Tehran has always officially denied helping members of al-Qaeda escape from Afghan istan in 2001 when the Taliban regime fell.
State television in Iran yesterday showed the country’s intelligence minister announcing the capture of a number of al-Qaeda supporters.
Ali Yunesi said: “Iran’s intelligence apparatus has identified and arrested small Iranian deviate branches of the al-Qaeda group.” There was no clarification on how many people had been arrested or charged.
Yunesi warned that Iran would take a tough line against militants using Iran as a base. “Those who seek to misuse the safe situation in Iran will face serious consequences,” he said.
The Iranian government says it has arrested and repatriated hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects in the past two years in a display of willingness to bring terrorism in the Middle East under control.
A suspected Saudi al-Qaeda militant, Khaled al-Harbi, who appeared in a videotape with Osama bin Laden, gave himself up in Iran last week, and was flown back to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
On Friday US officials said the next stage of the September 11 Commission’s report would be available this week.
There was embarrassment for the Bush administration last week when it emerged a tight deadline was being pushed for the capture of Osama bin Laden to generate headlines during the Democratic Convention when presidential rival John Kerry will be grabbing the limelight.
Pakistani security forces have apparently been given deadlines to capture bin Laden that are before the US general election in November, according to US sources.
http://www.sundayherald.com/43461
Mullahs Atomic Shopping Cart Deepens
Jul 16, 2004, 23:40
Reuters
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Western diplomats say recent intelligence reports show Iran has been attempting to buy items that could be used to build nuclear weapons -- a charge Tehran dismisses as baseless.
The diplomats cited European customs information and intelligence gathered in the Middle East showing Tehran had tried to buy, among other things, high-speed switches that could potentially be used in a nuclear weapon and high-speed cameras the Iranians might use to test a nuclear explosion.
"They appear to be working on the planning for a high-speed nuclear implosion device," the diplomat said, adding that Iran had also been experimenting with "high explosive that would be appropriate for the core of a nuclear weapon."
A senior U.S. official told Reuters in Washington that these procurement efforts were part of an effort that has been going on for a long time. He declined to confirm the specific items mentioned, but said they were not "all new" to Washington.
"This is an ongoing procurement process. I fully believe that they're still at it, but I can't say that there is some new list that they're out buying right now," the official said.
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_2961.shtml
Iranian court told Canadian was tortured to death
18 July 2004
TEHRAN: Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured to death in Iranian custody, her tearful mother has told a court after the trial resumed of an intelligence agent accused of the killing.
"There were burns on my daughter's chest, her fingers and toes and nose were broken...she was tortured to death," Ezzat Kazemi told the court yesterday after a nine-month delay in proceedings.
The case has strained Iran's relations with Canada, prompting Ottawa to withdraw its ambassador this week, and has exposed deep rifts between President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government and the hardline judiciary.
The intelligence agent, Mohammad Reza Aqdam, has denied a charge of what the court calls the semi-intentional murder of Kazemi, a 54-year-old of Iranian descent who was arrested outside Tehran's Evin prison last July for taking photographs.
The charge, lesser than murder or manslaughter, carries a possible penalty of up to three years in jail and the payment of blood money to the victim's family.
The judiciary initially said Kazemi died of a stroke, but a government inquiry ordered by Khatami showed she received a heavy blow which split her skull, causing a brain haemorrhage. She died in hospital 10 days after lapsing into a coma.
INTERROGATION
During more than 72 hours in Evin prison, Kazemi was interrogated separately by police, judiciary and Intelligence Ministry officials.
"I have complaints against all of those involved in her arrest and murder," said Ezzat Kazemi, adding she wanted other people brought to justice in the case.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, representing Kazemi's family at the trial, accused the judiciary of ignoring evidence pointing to other suspects, including a judiciary official named Mohammad Bakhshi.
"She was hit on the head by Bakhshi shortly after she was arrested," Ebadi told the court.
"After being beaten, she fell and could not walk," said Ebadi, adding: "Why has this not been mentioned in the case?"
Ebadi demanded the case should be sent to a higher court and called for many senior officials, including Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi, to appear as witnesses.
Tehran's Deputy Prosecutor Jafar Reshadati denied any judiciary involvement in Kazemi's death, but Ebadi and Canadian officials believe the intelligence officer is being used as a scapegoat to protect senior judiciary officials.
In a sign of rifts between the government and judiciary over the case, Khatami and the Intelligence Ministry have suggested the charge against Aqdam is politically motivated.
Khatami, now in his last year in office, has faced constant opposition from powerful hardliners who have resisted his efforts to improve civil rights and the rule of law.
Canada announced the withdrawal of its ambassador on Wednesday after Tehran rejected Ottawa's request for three Canadian observers at the trial.
The Dutch ambassador to Iran, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, and a British diplomat attended the court hearing.
Canada briefly recalled its ambassador last year when Iran ignored the wishes of Kazemi's son for her body to be returned home for burial. She was buried at her birthplace in south Iran.
"They forced me and threatened me to accept to bury her here. Is this Islam?" Ezzat Kazemi told the court
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2975391a12,00.html
Encyclopedia on Iranian women published
Tehran, July 18, IRNA -- The first encyclopedia on Iranian women was published on Saturday.
The sponsor of the work titled 'Iranian women' was the Women Partnership Center affiliated to the Presidential Office which supported the project in cooperation with the Great Persian Encyclopedia Foundation affiliated to the Ministry of Sciences, Researches and Technology.
In the two-volume book, a short report on the situation of Iranian poetesses, women artists, writers, journalists and politicians has been presented.
The encyclopedia contains around 2,200 topics about distinguished women in the history of Iran.
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/jul/1123.html
Women's repression increases across Iran
SMCCDI (Information Service)
July 17, 2004
The increase of women's repression, by the Islamic regime,
has lead to more sporadic clashes and arrests in the recent
days as the victims are intending often to resist the new
wave of governmental harassment. Women are arrested,
flogged or "forced to put their legs in bags full of
cockroaches" for the non observance of the mandatory veil
imposed by the regime's militiamen deployed in main public
areas.
The arrested, often young girls, are in most cases forced
to pass a "virginity test" and are kept for 24 hours after
their files are completed without any contact with their
families unaware of their fates.
Orders have been issued to the notorious General Ghalibaf
in order to confiscate drivers licenses and not issuing
passports for any female with a poor veiling history.
Shops displaying modern female closing or businesses and
restaurants admitting "bad veiled women" are fined or
forced to close.
It's to note that the Islamic regime, in a Machiavellian
advanced preparation for another reformist scenario which
shall start with the future Islamic Presidential Elections
of 2005, intends to make Iranian women to regret having
boycotted its last sham elections and ridiculizing the
so-called reform policy. Such psychological trick is backed
by the well known gender discrimination which is one of the
main pillars of the backwarded Islamist ideology
considering "females as half a man and source of bad
temptation".
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7149.shtml
Iran linked to Sept 11: report
05:51 AEST Sun Jul 18 2004
AFP - The September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan, media reports said.
Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden's camps between October 2000 and February 2001.
And, according to Time, the report says Iran at one point proposed collaborating with al-Qaeda on attacks against America, but bin Laden declined, saying he did not want to alienate his supporters in Saudi Arabia.
Newsweek said the Iranian finding in the commission's report is based largely on a December 2001 memo discovered buried in the files of the US National Security Agency.
The memo, according to Newsweek, says "Iranian border inspectors were instructed not to place stamps in the passports of al-Qaeda fighters from Saudi Arabia who were travelling from bin Laden's camps through Iran."
Time said commission investigators "found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border," a practice they said dated back to October 2000.
Iranian officials, Time said, issued "specific instructions to their border guards ... not to put stamps in the passports of al-Qaeda personnel and otherwise not harass them and to facilitate their travel across the frontier."
"The new discovery about Iran's assistance to al-Qaeda," said Newsweek, "is among the most surprising new findings" in the 500-page report compiled by the non-partisan commission.
The New York Times said the commission report would also recommend creation of an intelligence czar, a cabinet-level post that would take power from the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Council and the Pentagon to oversee intelligence gathering said to have been lacking before and after September 11.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=5523
Facing fresh US allegations, Iran claims it has dismantled al-Qaeda groups
AFP - World News (via Yahoo)
Jul 17, 2004
TEHRAN - Iran's intelligence minister announced that his services had smashed al-Qaeda operations in the country, amid fresh allegations from the United States the clerical regime has been cooperating with Osama bin Laden's network.
"The intelligence ministry has identified and dismantled all the Iranian branches of the al-Qaeda movement," Ali Yunessi was quoted as saying.
"We have stopped the terrorist acts of al-Qaeda. If we had not done so, we would have had security problems," he added.
Yunessi gave no further details.
But his statement coincided with US media reports that the September 11 commission in Washington has concluded Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan.
Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from bin Laden's camps between October 2000 and February 2001.
The commission's report says Iran at one point proposed collaborating with al-Qaeda on attacks against America, but bin Laden declined, saying he did not want to alienate his supporters in Saudi Arabia, according to Time.
Time said commission investigators "found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border," a practice they said dated back to October 2000.
And Newsweek quoted former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke as saying "there were lots of reasons to believe (al-Qaeda) was being facilitated by elements of the Iranian security services. The best evidence we had of state support (for al-Qaeda) was Iran."
Iran has frequently been accused of harbouring and not cracking down on the group. Iran, which was hostile to Afghanistan's Taliban and Al-Qaeda, has fiercely denied allegations that it is supporting the group.
In 2003, Iran confirmed it was holding senior al-Qaeda members, but has refused to identify them.
Diplomatic sources and Arab press reports have pointed to the possible presence in Iran of the movement's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Gaith, and its number three, Saif al-Adel, as well as bin Laden's son and Al-Qaeda heir, Saad.
And in February, Spain's top anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon alleged Al-Qaeda had a "board of managers" operating in Iran.
But the Iranian government has responded by criticising what it sees as a failure by US troops in Iraq to crack down on the People's Mujahedeen, the main Iranian armed opposition group, which Washington considers a terrorist organisation.
It has said the detained group members could go on trial here, but that the process could take years.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7147.shtml
Iran will pay economic price if continues nuke programmes
Press Trust of India - Report Section
Jul 17, 2004
WASHINGTON - Maintaining that Iran has not given up the quest to acquire a nuclear weapon through dual use technology, the US has said if the country doesn't give it up, it will pay an unacceptable economic price.
"It is not an idle threat. Most of the world wanted to look the other way on Iranian programme. But President Bush focused on it and the US made it a matter of importance in its agenda with Russia, which was building nuclear plants in Iran," Secretary of State Colin Powell said.
He indicated that the US considers both Iran and North Korea vulnerable to economic sanctions.
"We were able to provide information to the IAEA, as did others, that we have finally discovered in a way that is indisputable that Iran was moving in that direction. Iran was hiding things and moving towards acquiring a nuclear weapon."
Observing that the country has enough oil to take care of all of its energy needs and a good part of the world's energy needs for a long time to come, the US Secretary of State said, "it is our considered judgment that whatever civilian purpose it might have had, it had a principal purpose of moving them towards the development of a nuclear weapon."
"This is a nuclear weapons programme," he said adding "they went out of their way to hide facilities, to deceive the international community as to what was happening."
The Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Britain got engaged in this on behalf of the EU and got commitments from Iran that it would be forthcoming and stop all this activity, Powell said.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7142.shtml
Palestinian problem - ''strategic issue for Iran''
Al Bawaba - Report Section
Jul 17, 2004
Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel Saturday termed the Palestinian problem as a "strategic issue for Iran," stressing the 7th Majlis would do its utmost to support the "brave but oppressed Palestinians."
In a meeting with Palestinian Ambassador to Tehran Salah Zawawi, Haddad Adel said Iran regards the Palestinian issue as the symbol of struggles of the Islamic world against the West's atrocities, IRNA reported.
He added the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the need of bringing down the illegal wall being built in the Palestinian territory was a big victory for the Islamic world and the Palestinians.
"The US and the Zionist regime`s refusal to accept the (ICJ) ruling indicates their lack of commitment to international regulations and their dual standards regarding international issues," he said.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7138.shtml
Bump!
Are Iran and Al Qaeda vying for influence in Yemen?
At least 200 dead in Yemeni battle against radicals.
By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
BEIRUT, LEBANON - Could Yemen follow on the heels of Afghanistan and Iraq as the third major venue in the war on terrorism?
A bloody Islamist insurrection in the mountainous north which has cost more than 200 lives and a statement from an Al Qaeda group vowing to turn Yemen into a "quagmire" for the US would suggest that the remote country at the tip of the Arabian peninsula is gearing up for conflict.
But instead of an Al Qaeda campaign against the US and the Yemeni government, a conflict in Yemen may involve a power struggle between militant Sunnis and Iranian-backed Shiites, analysts say.
Al Qaeda despises the Shiite branch of Islam as much as it hates the US. Therefore, analysts say, Iran may back Shiite groups to counter the spread of Al Qaeda's influence in Yemen, which would threaten the country's traditionally moderate Zaidi Shiite population.
"I don't think Iran will allow Al Qaeda to set up a base in Yemen which could threaten the Zaidi Shiites," says Nizar Hamzeh, professor of politics at the American University of Beirut.
On July 1, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, an Al Qaeda affiliate, released a statement vowing "to drag the United States into a third quagmire, that is after Iraq and Afghanistan, and let it be Yemen, God willing." The brigade has previously claimed responsibility for the March 11 rail bombings in Madrid as well as numerous attacks in Turkey and Iraq.
With the US military presence in Yemen minimal it seems unlikely that Yemen would become a venue for the war on terror. However, Yemen is the most populated and poorest country in the Arabian peninsula, with unemployment as high as 40 percent, making it fertile recruiting ground for Al Qaeda.
In October 2000, a suicide bomb attack killed 17 US sailors and damaged the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden. The same year, the oil supertanker Limburg was damaged in an attack thought to have been carried out by Al Qaeda just off the Yemeni coast.
"Thousands of jobless and hopeless Yemeni youths are an easy target for transnational and domestic extremist groups," says Abdullah al-Faqih, professor of politics at the University of Sana in Yemen. "Furthermore, Al Qaeda may also benefit from the Yemeni government's inability to effectively control some remote areas in the far north and in the long coastal area."
Yemen is a potentially convenient refuge for Al Qaeda militants fleeing a crackdown in Saudi Arabia. Large stretches of the Yemen-Saudi border remain undefined and run through desert and mountainous terrain. Still, the Saudi and Yemeni authorities have increased security cooperation, with the former laying a concrete-filled pipe along the frontier to impede illegal infiltration.
"More important, tribes along the borders have come to realize the heavy cost they may incur in case they harbor such elements" says Professor Faqih.
The Yemen government is sharing intelligence with the US, has expelled foreign Islamists, tightened up visa restrictions, and arrested militants.
At the end of June, authorities shut down all unregistered religious schools, seen as breeding grounds for Islamic militants. That decision appears to be connected connected to a violent insurrection waged for the past month in Saada, a mountainous northwest province. The revolt is led by Hussein al-Houthi, an anti-US Shiite cleric who runs a religious school and heads a group called Al Shabab al-Moumin, the Youthful Believers.
"It is imperative to make a distinction between the ongoing clashes in northern Yemen and Al Qaeda's various groups and leaders," says Faqih. "Al Houthi's group and Al Qaeda may share a common anti-American tone, but "Houthi hates Al Qaeda more than he hates the state."
Houthi's rebels have been flying the flag of the Iranian-backed Hizbullah organization and the militant cleric has been paying his followers $100.
"This is a huge sum. Where does he get all this money? Who is the party financing him and to what end?" asked Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in an interview last week with Lebanon's Al Mustaqbal newspaper.
Hizbullah has denied any involvement with Houthi, saying the party's policy "is not to intervene in other country's affairs."
The Zaidi Shiites are thought to comprise about one third of Yemen's population of 20 million with the moderate Shafi Sunnis making up the rest. Although the Shafi Sunnis historically have been tolerant of the Shiites, that could change if Al Qaeda grows, says Professor Hamzeh.
"It seems that Al Qaeda has been successful in radicalizing the Shafi Sunnis," he says. "I can definitely see a future clash between the Zaidi Shiites and the newly mobilized Shafi Sunnis."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0713/p11s01-wome.htm
Controversial Kazemi Trial Halted In Iran
18 July 2004 -- Iran's judiciary today abruptly ended hearings into last year's killing of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, triggering protests from lawyers of the victim's family.
What prompted the judges to halt the session was not immediately clear.
Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, who represents Kazemi's family, walked out of the courtroom in protest.
Earlier today, western diplomats and journalists were barred from attending the trial of the security agent accused of killing Kazemi.
The 54-year-old freelance photographer died from a brain hemorrhage a year ago while in custody for taking pictures outside Tehran's Evin prison. The security agent blamed for her death has pleaded not guilty.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has said he believes the man is innocent and blamed the conservative judiciary for failing to look for other suspects.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/07/3b821da9-4830-4263-8ede-cf7292458d71.html
Iran says Sept 11 plotters may have passed through
Sun 18 July, 2004 09:45
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has acknowledged that some al Qaeda members involved in the September 11 attacks on the United States may have passed through the country shortly beforehand.
U.S. government sources have said a bipartisan commission's report this week on the September 11 attacks will mention that some of the hijackers transited through Iran on their way to the United States.
"We have long borders and it is not possible to fully control them," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference on Sunday when asked about the commission's report.
"It is normal that five or six people who cross the border illegally over a period of five or six months may evade our attention. The same happens on the border between Mexico and the United States," he added.
Asefi noted that Iran had tightened its border control since the September 11 attacks.
"It happened before September 11 and who knew that September 11 was going to happen?"
Iran denies U.S. accusations that it has collaborated with and harboured al Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. The hardline Islamic movement was overthrown in a U.S.-led war at the end of 2001.
Tehran has arrested and deported hundreds of al Qaeda suspects in the past two years and says it is holding some senior members of Osama bin Laden's network.
On Saturday it announced it had smashed a ring of Iranian al Qaeda supporters.
"Iran has shown it is against terrorists and extremism and is serious about confronting terrorists," Asefi said.
He said news reports tying Iran to al Qaeda were part of a U.S. cover-up to deflect attention away from its failings in Iraq.
"The more we approach the U.S. (presidential) election the more we will witness such news propaganda," he said.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=549006§ion=news
Islam apologist Ebadi takes over Kazemi case in Iran
Jul 17, 2004, 20:45
Islam apologist Shirin Ebadi and her selected three-man team will take over today's controversial murder case of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.
"I will be the attorney for Mrs. Kazemi's mother as well as her son Stephan," Ebadi told the students' news agency ISNA before the trial, which will be her first following last year's Nobel Prize win.
The Kazemi case is not only filled with ambiguities over the real culprit or culprits but also overshadowed by a political crisis between Teheran and Ottawa following Canada's withdrawal of its ambassador last Wednesday.
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_2968.shtml
Iran Bars Diplomats, Foreign Press From Kazemi Trial
July 18, 2004
Agence France-Presse
news.com.au
Iran's hardline judiciary today prevented foreign diplomats and the press from attending the trial of an agent accused of the killing in custody of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi.
As the morning hearing started Canadian ambassador Philip Mackinnon, Dutch ambassador Hein De Vries as well as senior diplomats from the French and British embassies were kept outside the Tehran tribunal.
"It is a great shame. We were told we did not have the necessary permit to attend. We are in contact with the Iranian foreign ministry about this," one of the diplomats said.
Journalists working for foreign news organisations were also barred.
The controversial trial resumed yesterday after a nine-month gap, and journalists and diplomats had been permitted to attend.
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10173807%255E1702,00.html
Iran Protest Arrest of its Nationals
July 18, 2004
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
IRIB News
Baghdad -- Iranian embassy in Baghdad protested to Iraqi officials about the arrest of 14 Iranian nationals in Baghdad. Iraqi officials announced last week that they have arrested 85 foreigners in Iraq in addition to 14 Iranian nationals and accused them of sabotage.
The arrests were given wide coverage in Baghdad-based newspaper, As-Sabah, while there is no evidence to accuse the Iranians of sabotage.
After the collapse of Saddam Hussein, forging documents has been a routine in Iraq and certain press echo baseless charges against Iraq's neighbors for their own reasons.
http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=207490&n=35
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