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Iranian Refuses Guantanamo Review
August 06, 2004
BBC News
BBCi
An Iranian detained at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has refused to appear before a US military tribunal to review his case. He is the sixth detainee out of 11 to refuse to participate since the hearings began last week.
The tribunals follow a US Supreme Court ruling that the prisoners have the right to challenge their detentions.
Human rights groups have criticised the hearings because the detainees do not have access to lawyers.
Classified information
The 25-year-old Iranian's case was the only one to be heard on Friday.
He apparently relayed his decision through a military officer who was assigned to be his representative.
"He dropped out," the officer, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
"He said, 'I don't want to participate anymore'."
The US Defense Department said the man was accused of fighting for the Taleban in Afghanistan against US forces and its allies.
The hearing went ahead in his absence. AP said it lasted 13 minutes before reporters were asked to leave so classified information could be discussed in a closed session.
Earlier in the week three Yemenis, a Saudi and a Moroccan refused to appear at their hearings.
'Inadequate' process
On Thursday, the BBC's Nick Childs was one of a small group of reporters allowed to witness the appearance of two Afghan men at their hearings in a windowless, cramped room at Guantanamo.
The men, both handcuffed and shackled, admitted they were with the Taleban but said they never fought US forces. Their requests to call witnesses were denied.
This is the first time any of the 600 or so detainees, who have been held without trial or access to lawyers for more than two years, have been allowed any form of hearing.
Initial results could be given by next week, US officials say.
Human rights groups say the process is inadequate because the detainees are not allowed lawyers, and the three military officers sitting on each panel can not be considered to be impartial.
But the man overseeing the process, Gordon England, has defended the system, saying it derives from the Geneva Convention.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3543626.stm
NUCLEAR: Iran’s Drive to Gain Weapons: An American View
August 4, 2004 - “Britain, France and Germany want Iran to renounce, permanently and verifiably, all technology capable of making nuclear bomb fuel. In exchange, they offer an equally firm commitment to use outside suppliers to guarantee an adequate supply of uranium for civilian power reactors, the New York Times writes in an editorial. “For want of a better alternative, Europe is right to give Iran a little more time to change its mind. But the world cannot afford to wait long. Once the new centrifuges are completed, Iran's ambitions will become much harder to contain. If no agreement is reached soon, this apparent drive to build nuclear weapons should be recognized as a threat to international peace and security and taken up by the United Nations Security Council later this year,” it adds.
REGION: Khatami to Make First Visit to Azerbaijan
August 5, 2004 Islamic Republic President Mohammad Khatami is expected in Azerbaijan on Thursday for his first visit to Baku since he came to office in 1996 – a sign of the frigid relations between the two neighbors, which came near a full-blown military confrontation in July 2001 when Iranian coastal patrols shot at Azeri ships hired by British Petroleum for oil exploration in a disputed area.
ECONOMY: National Accounting Office Audits 1705 of 2000 State Enterprises
August 5, 2004 - Of the 1,705 state enterprises whose 2003-2004 books were audited by the national accounting office, 583 were losing money, 116 had no profit, and 1006 were profitable, a statement by the national accounting office, printed in newspapers on Wednesday, said, noting that more companies would have shown negative balances, if the auditors used measures other than the companies’ own statement to calculate their profit and loss. The statement did not give details on the amount of profits and the scale of losses, but state enterprises consume 65 percent of the government’s budget for a combination of investment and “loss assistance,” and the government’s downsizing efforts have met with political, bureaucratic and financial hurdles, Radio Farda’s Paris-based economic commentator Fereydoun Khavand says.
http://www.radiofarda.com/en_news/2004/8/5/54b3b904-8145-4d72-831d-7d1e50d0e05e.html#54b3b904-8145-4d72-831d-7d1e50d0e05e
Iraq President Warns Iran Against Interference In Home Affairs: Press
AFP: 8/7/2004
CAIRO, Aug 7 (AFP) - Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar advised neighbouring Iran not to interfere in Iraq's affairs, an Egyptian daily reported Saturday amid a growing war of words between the two countries.
"I would presume that our brothers in Iran are wise and thoughtful enough not to get bogged down in Iraq's problems and further complicate the situation," he told the government-run Al-Ahram daily.
"We want our relations with our neighbours to be based on mutual respect... We do not expect them to interfere in our affairs," Yawar said.
The premier nevertheless tried to douse the fire sparked when Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem al-Shaalan told the Washington Post last week he had seen "clear interference in Iraqi issues by Iran" and accused Tehran of working "to kill democracy" in his country.
Yawar said that Iraq maintained "friendly relations" with Iran and stressed it was "in the interest of Iraq and Iran that bilateral relations be balanced, healthy and positive".
Iran on Saturday called on US-led foreign troops assisting the government in Iraq to show restraint and respect the country's holy sites amid new fighting with rebel Shiite militia.
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=23966
Zarqawi has safe haven in Iran
WorldNet Daily - From Geostrategy-Direct.
Aug 7, 2004
Intel source says U.S. won't cross border to get him
BAGHDAD — Abu Mussib al-Zarqawi, regarded as the leading foreign insurgent in Iraq, is believed to be shuttling between Iran and Iraq.
Western intelligence sources said the United States has concluded that al-Zarqawi has not been in Iraq for more than a month. The sources said al-Zarqawi left the Sunni Triangle for the Iran-Iraq border and has been moving in an arc from Iran in the east to Syria in the west as he continues to relay orders, plan operations and transfer funds.
"Much of the time he is in Iran, where he has been given safe haven," an intelligence source said. "The United States won't cross the Iranian border to get him."
Sources said al-Zarqawi was last seen in the Iraqi town of Dour in the area of Baghdad on June 18, where he held a meeting with a senior aide to deposed President Saddam Hussein, Izzat Ibrahim Douri.
Douri, regarded as a major financier of the Sunni insurgency, reportedly gave the al-Qaida-aligned insurgent large amounts of weapons and equipment. From Dour, al-Zarqawi traveled to Iran and was said to have been in Marivan in northern Iran through late July.
Iran has been harboring a number of senior al-Qaida operatives including the son of Osama Bin Laden, Saad Bin Laden, and Seif Al Adel and Mustafa Setmariam Nasser, suspected of planning the train bombings in Spain in March 2004.
Al-Zarqawi has long benefited from Iranian help. He shuttled between Iran and Iraq on the eve of the U.S.-led war in 2002 and early 2003. After the United States drove Saddam from power, al-Zarqawi returned to northern Iraq and used Ansar Al Islam as a base to organize the Sunni insurgency against the coalition.
Over the past two months, the U.S. military has conducted a series of air strikes against suspected al-Zarqawi strongholds in the Sunni-dominated Iraqi city of Fallujah. But the sources said that al-Zarqawi was not in Fallujah during the air strikes.
On Aug. 2, Iraqi officials accused al-Zarqawi of masterminding the bombing of four churches in the Baghdad area. Fifteen people were killed in the series of attacks on Aug. 1.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39843
Israeli Attack On Iran To Stir Explosive Autumn
Palestine Chronicle - Report Section
Aug 7, 2004
"Military sources had said the raid would be carried out by long-range F-15I jets, overflying Turkey, with simultaneous operations by commandos on the ground.."
CAIRO - Israel could launch a massive strike at Iran's nuclear facilities in autumn, creating an explosive situation in the region with a possible fierce response from Tehran, Arab diplomats have expected according to a leading Arabic-language newspaper.
"Exploiting the November US presidential elections and the European concerns, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could order a strike at Iran's nuclear facilities, similar to the ones Israelis executed in 1981 against Iraq's nuclear weapons program", the diplomats were quoted by the London-based newspaper Al Hayat on Wednesday, August 4.
Iran's continued development of its nuclear program, Israeli plans to block it and the US-European decision not to allow the Islamic Republic to join the nuclear club "would bring in a coming explosive autumn to the Middle East," the sources added.
The revelation came two days after The Sunday Times quoted Israeli officials as saying that Israeli Air Force has completed military preparations for a "preemptive" strike at Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility and will attack if Russia supplies Tehran with rods for enriching uranium.
The rods, currently stored at a Russian port, are expected to be delivered late next year after a dispute over financial terms is resolved, the British paper reported.
Military sources had said the raid would be carried out by long-range F-15I jets, overflying Turkey, with simultaneous operations by commandos on the ground.
Two-way Response
As Israeli officials have said they will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, Iran warned of a disastrous retaliation that will "wipe Israel off the face of earth, in the words of the public relations head of the Revolutionary Guards, Commander Seyed Masood Jazayeri on July 26.
Al Hayat, a London-based respectable newspaper, said such a retaliation "could swing the decision-making balance in the hardliners' favor".
The daily quoted experts as saying that Iran has two fields for response to an Israeli attack: Iraq and southern Lebanon.
Tehran, experts expected, could move Iraqi Shiite groups to launch attacks against US occupation forces, already facing a hellish situation amid a bubbling cauldron of chaos and anarchy in the war-scarred country. They can also provide these groups with human and logistic support.
The Islamic Republic could also use Southern Lebanon, controlled by the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah which can not stand neutral regarding an Israeli attack on Iran.
However, experts said it will be hard for the resistance group to open a large-scale military showdown with Israel for "imbalance of power and fears this could spill over to a Syrian-Israeli confrontation".
The Hizbullah fighters have forced Israel to end 22 years of occupation of southern Lebanon in May, 2000. But Israeli army still seize the strategic Shebaa Farms there.
Israel's chief of military intelligence, Major General Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, reportedly told the Cabinet on Sunday, August 1, that Iran has supplied hundreds of Iranian-made missiles to Hizbullah, which can hit all of northern Israel and territory as far south as Tel Aviv, in addition to several dozen missiles that can reach the southern city of Beersheva.
Britain's Sunday Times this week quoted Israeli sources as saying that Israel is worried that a preemptive strike against Iran could provoke "a ferocious response," including attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, as well as Lebanese-based rocket attacks on northern Israel.
American Fears
The Arab diplomats said the United States, facing a hard brewing time in Iraq, seeks to escalate international pressures on Iran without use of force, which Washington fears could flare up the Iraq situation in consequence.
It is none of US President George W. Bush's interests to push American forces into a confrontation with Iran, the diplomats said.
"Bush is in the midst of presidential elections, in which he seeks to dissipate fears of voters seeking to hold him into account for deciding to go to war against the Iraqi regime on basis of misleading or unreliable intelligence," said the diplomats.
They also expressed relief over European efforts to defuse tension over Iran's nuclear program by encouraging Tehran to be " flexible and transparent to avoid international isolation or a military action".
"France, Britain and Germany still believe diplomatic efforts have not been exhausted yet, and channels of international laws should be first adopted away from military option," the diplomats added.
US diplomats have been reportedly working with European allies to bring the Iranian problem to the United Nations Security Council in hopes of imposing economic sanctions.
A report issued earlier this month by the Council on Foreign Relations asserted that the US should not let Israel act unilaterally against Iran.
The report, authored by former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Central Intelligence Agency chief Robert Gates, said: "Given the potential threat that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons could pose, the full range of alternatives - including military options - for confronting Tehran must be examined. Yet the use of military force would be extremely problematic, given the dispersal of Iran's program at sites throughout the country and their proximity to urban centers."
Iran insists it only wants atomic energy. And so far, its nuclear program is in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Israel, India and Pakistan are the only countries with nuclear facilities that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which was initiated in 1968 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons through inspections and sanctions.
It is widely known that U.S. intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to protect the country from any economic or military sanctions.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7510.shtml
'Fahrenheit 9/11` to premiere in Iranian cinemas
Tehran, Aug 7, IRNA
American filmmaker Michael Moore's widely popular documentary 'Fahrenheit 9/11` will soon be screened on Iranian movie theaters, a head of the institute which runs the country's cinemas said in Tehran on Saturday. According to the broadcasting manager of the Farabi Cinematheque Foundation, Manuchehr Shahsavari, 'the (screen) rights of the movie has been bought' and work has started to prepare it for release.
The documentary, which has already made history by earning more than 100 million box office dollars in Canada and the United States, takes US President George W. Bush to task for the invasion of Iraq and his handling of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
It also bashes Bush for an erosion of US civil rights in the wake of the US-led war against terror and an alleged link between the Bush family and Al Qaeda terror network leader Osama bin Laden.
'Fahrenheit 9/11` begins by recounting the events of the last presidential election, which was decided in Florida. Many Americans believe that the Bush campaign stole the election from Al Gore by disenfranchizing black voters in the Sunshine State.
Bush won the election in Florida by 537 votes after a lengthy recount that eventually wound up in the US Supreme Court.
The movie that cost six million dollars to make and could not initially find a distributor after Walt Disney Corp refused to release it, is the first documentary ever in top spot at the US box office.
In just three days, 'Fahrenheit` smashed the $21.6-million-record for ticket sales for a documentary set over a nine-month run by Moore's Oscar-winning `Bowling for Columbine`.
The documentary which won the prestigious 'Palme d`Ore` at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, has evoked global welcome across the world people because of its plucky exposure of American politics and Bush's antics.
Moore seeks to provide the American electorate and the rest of the world with facts regarding US decision to invade Iraq, while vowing to 'liberate` it, and presents a harrowing future, if Bush is allowed to stay in office for a second time.
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/aug/1057.html
U.S. WARNS TURKEY AGAINST IRAN DEAL
ANKARA [MENL] -- The United States has warned Turkey against transporting Iranian natural gas to Western Europe.
Turkish sources said the Bush administration has warned Ankara that any energy deal with Teheran worth more than $20 million would trigger U.S.
sanctions against Ankara. The sources said the administration was careful not to make its warning public.
The U.S. warning was said to have been relayed in July on the eve of a summit between Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and Iranian leaders in Teheran. The sources said Washington did not disapprove of Iranian gas supplies to Turkey under a 1996 accord, which took place before the formal launch of Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.
Erdogan defended his efforts to forge an energy pact with Teheran, saying this was required for Turkish and regional stability. In the end, Ankara and Teheran could not agree over the price for the Turkish transport of Iranian gas to Europe.
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/august/08_08_4.html
U.S. official suggests Japan should reconsider Iran oil deal
WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. government official said that Japan should reconsider its oil development deal with Iran and obtain oil from Libya instead. Iran is suspected of resuming construction of centrifuges to enrich uranium, while Libya announced last December that it will voluntarily dismantle all its weapons of mass destruction programs.
The official was referring to an agreement that Japan reached with Iran in February on an oil development project in Azadegan, southern Iran, one of the world's largest oil fields. The comment apparently reflects Washington's increasingly tough stance toward Iran. (Kyodo News)
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=9&id=307735
Zahedanis Disrupt Executions and Fight Back!
Clashes in Zahedan
Aug 6th
Peykeiran
Yesterday, Zahdan was very tense, the regime had announced on radio and TV that they would be executing 5 young Baluchis, on Thursday, at 5pm at the intersection of Amirolmomenin and Imam Khomeini streets. But the awakened Baluchis who have taken every opportunity to fight the regime, could not remain calm anymore after the first youth, a 25 year old, was publicly hung, and they exploded and started to attack the reimge by throwing stones, turning Zahedan into a street scene of Palestinians fighting the Israeli occupiers.
As the anti riot police stepped in, the city became quite chaotic. As I write this, 2 hours have passed since the hanging of the first youth, and the regime who was scheduled to hang 4 more, has settled for just one hanging, because of the severity of the situation. Clashs between the youth and the regime's forces continue from Imam Khomeini street to Sa'adi street and also Shariati, Beheshti, Kamarbandi, and Mir Hosseyni streets as well. It is quite possible that tonight Zahedan will have a tense time, because the youth who are completely fedup with these executions and recent harrassments have sworn vengence, and promised to steal away sleep from the butchors. During these clashes approximately 20 young and teenage Baluchis have been arrested, and several of the regime's forces have been injured from the stone throwing by the youth.
http://web.peykeiran.com/net_iran/irnewsbody.aspx?ID=17540
President Khatami: Iran can by no means tolerate attack on Najaf
Tehran, Aug 7, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami said on Saturday that under no circumstances Iran can tolerate any attack on holy cities such as Najaf.
Speaking to reporters at Mehrabad International Airport upon his arrival from Azerbaijan, he referred to US military attack on the holy city of Najaf in Iraq and said "I do not think that the occupiers will be able to solve their problems through aggressive means and this will only widen the gap between them and Iraqi nation."
All freedom-seeking Muslims respect Imam Ali (AS), he said adding that the assault is considered as violation of the faith and beliefs of Shi'ite Muslims around the globe.
He expressed the hope that security and stability would be restored to the war-shattered Iraq as soon as possible.
Pointing to his recent visit to Republic of Azerbaijan, he said signing of ten MoU's on political, economic, security, cultural and commercial affairs were among the achievements of the visit.
The Number and diversity of signed documents indicated the success of his visit, he said.
The two sides have created a peaceful atmosphere to help broaden mutual cooperation, he said.
Expansion of ties between Tehran and Baku would be to the benefit of both countries as well as all other countries of the region, he said.
Khatami described his negotiations with his Azeri counterpart as very fruitful.
Khatami, who headed a high-ranking economic and political delegation, met with senior Azeri officials and discussed ways to bolster cultural, economic and political ties.
The president delivered speeches at Azerbaijan's Academy of Science and Parliament and hold a meeting with the country's ulema and Muslim intellectuals.
Iran and Azerbaijan signed 10 documents for cooperation in various security, economic, transportation and cultural fields.
Khatami arrived in the historical city of Ganjeh on the last leg of his official visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan. While in Ganjeh, he visited the mausoleum of the 12th-century prominent Iranian poet Nezami Ganjavi as well as the Shah Abbas Mosque.
President Khatami and his entourage arrived in the Azeri capital of Baku on Thursday for a three-day visit at the official invitation of his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.
The Azerbaijan Republic is one of the five littoral states of the oil-rich Caspian Sea. To the south, it is bounded by Iran, to the west by Armenia, to the northwest by Georgia, and to the north by the Russian Republic of Daghestan.
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/aug/1058.html