Posted on 10/16/2004 9:14:14 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
The US media still largely 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.” As a result, 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. In fact they were one of the first countries to have spontaneous candlelight vigils after the 911 tragedy (see photo).
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
Oct. 16, 2004 21:34
Iran said Saturday it would reject any proposal depriving it of the right to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel, part of a package Washington's European allies are proposing to avoid a showdown over Iran's nuclear program.
The European countries notified the United States on Friday that they intend to offer Iran a package of economic concessions and technological assistance next week in the hopes of persuading Tehran to permanently give up its uranium-enrichment program.
The US administration withheld its approval of the overture.
"Iran will not accept any proposal which deprives it of the legitimate right to the cycle of (nuclear) fuel," state-run television quoted Hossein Mousavian, a top nuclear official, as saying.
However, Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran would study any proposal that would end concerns over Tehran's nuclear program as long as it respected Iran's right to enrich uranium.
The key European powers agreed with the US administration at a three-hour State Department meeting Friday that the package would be Iran's final chance to avert a showdown at the UN Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions, a US official said.
Diplomats close to the talks said the European package of incentives included fuel for Iran's civilian programs and a trade arrangement with the European Union.
The US government has lacked the necessary votes on the Security Council to impose sanctions because Britain, France and Germany were negotiating with Tehran in search of a compromise.
While the Americans didn't endorse the offer to Tehran, they also did not try to stop the Europeans from going ahead with it, said the US official, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity.
Last month, the IAEA's board of governors unanimously passed a resolution demanding that Iran freeze all work on uranium enrichment, including uranium reprocessing and building centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
The IAEA will meet November 25 to judge Iran's compliance.
Iran has said the agency has no authority to ban it from enriching uranium, a right granted under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. However, while not prohibited from enrichment, Iran faces growing international pressure to suspend such activities as a good-faith gesture.
Defying the IAEA call, Mousavian told the AP earlier this month that Iran has converted a few tons of raw uranium into a hexafluoride gas, a stage prior to actual uranium enrichment.
Uranium hexafluoride gas is the material that, in the next stage, is fed into centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel to generate electricity, and enriched further can be used to manufacture atomic bombs.
Iraqi police arrest 135 infiltrators from Iran |
| www.chinaview.cn 2004-10-17 05:51:43 |
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BAGHDAD, Oct. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi police have arrested 135 Afghanis and Pakistanis who infiltrated from the Iraqi-Iranian border, the Al Sabah Al Jadid newspaper reported on Saturday. "Border guards forces, a department of the Iraqi police, carriedout a search campaign in villages and border areas with Iran and arrested 135 infiltrators carrying Afghani and Pakistani nationalities," a police source was quoted as saying. The interim Iraqi government has accused Iran of being behind many of sabotage and explosions in Iraq and of interfering in Iraq's internal affairs. Mohamed Al Shahwani, head of the Iraqi intelligence, has recently accused Iran of recruiting elements of the Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, headed by Abdelaziz Hakim, to carry out sabotage acts and assassinations of intelligence members. He has also accused 27 people working in the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad of coordinating spying operations and assassinations in Iraq. Enditem |
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Navy’s four ships and a submarine reached the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on Friday as part of a goodwill and training tour of the Persian Gulf.
The Iranian First Naval Zone commander, Pakistan’s Ambassador Iqbal Ahmad Khan and Naval Attache Captain Khalid Saeed welcomed Pakistani guests, said a message from Pakistan’s Embassy in Tehran on Saturday.
The Pakistan Navy ships, PNS Mohafiz, PNS Shujaat, PNS Larkana, PNS Kalmat and the Agosta submarine Sa’ad reached Bandar Abbas on October 15 after visiting Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. During their three-day visit to Iran, the Pakistan naval staff will interact with the Iranian Navy besides playing sports and sight seeing.
Iran says it won't stop enriching uranium |
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TEHRAN - Iran said yesterday it would reject any proposal to halt uranium enrichment, a step European Union diplomats are proposing to end a row over whether Iran is reaching for atomic weapons. |
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EU diplomats have said they are seeking U.S. and Russian support for a deal that would ask Iran to give up uranium enrichment in return for technical and economic assistance. |
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Posted Saturday, October 16, 2004
PARIS, 16 Oct. (IPS) Almost two months after having hanged a 16 years-old girl, the ruling Iranian ayatollahs are to commit another human crime by condemning another young girl to stoning.
According to Iranian and foreign press, Zhila Izadi, a 13 years old girl from the north-western city of Marivan had been condemned to death by stoning after being found that she had been pregnant from her 15 years-old brother.
The independent Iranian online newspaper “Peyke Iran” (www.peykeiran.com) that had first revealed the news last week reported on Saturday 16 October 2004 that the girl has given birth two weeks ago in prison.
While Zhila as been sentenced to stoning, her brother, jailed in Tehran, is to receive only 150 lashes, in accordance with Islamic laws.
Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian outspoken lawyer and human rights activists who became the first Iranian and Muslim female to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Award for 2003 disclosed the news about the case of Zhila Izadi during her recent tour of Scandinavian countries.
The circumstances under which Zhila became pregnant from her brother is still not known, but independent Iranian sources outside the country said it was the father, a devout Muslim, who informed the authorities about the “disgrace” the young girl had caused the family.
Human rights activists in Denmark said though Zhila’s sentence had not been confirmed yet, but the fear is that, with the family’s approval, she faces the same faith as that of Ms. Ateqeh Rajabi, the 16 years-old girl hanged in public by the judge, a cleric, who condemned her on charges of prostitution.
“A court in Marivan has condemned Zhila to death by stoning and the family, which is very fundamental, has agreed”, confirmed Ms. Nahid Riazi of a Copenhagen-based human rights group that fights to the rights of women, adding that the young girl had been separated from her new born baby after the birth.
Ms. Rajabi was publicly hanged on a street in the city centre of Neka in the northern province of Mazandaran, on 15 August, for "acts incompatible with chastity".
Faced with domestic and international outcry of dismay, the authorities said the young girl was “mentally incompetent”.
However, informed sources revealed that Ms. Ateqeh was sentenced to death after, during the "trial", she expressed outrage at the misogyny and injustice in the Islamic Republic and its Islam-based judicial system.
“The lower court judge was so incensed by her protestations that he personally put the noose around her neck after his decision had been upheld by the Supreme Court”, the sources reported.
The execution of Ateqeh Rajabi was the tenth execution of a child offender in Islamic Republic recorded by Amnesty International since 1990.
Amnesty International is alarmed that this execution was carried out despite reports that Ateqeh Rajabi was not believed to be mentally competent, and that she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer at any stage.
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is bound not to execute child offenders. Both treaties provide that capital punishment shall not be imposed for offences committed by persons under 18 year of age at the time of committing the offence.
Though it is possible that the Iranian authorities reject the stoning sentence, but it remains that the accused could very probably be condemned to death, human rights sources said, calling on the international community to put pressure on Iranian authorities to save Zhila from death.
The news of Zhila's possible stoning come at a time that the ruling conservatives have increased dramatically crackdown on the very limited social liberties, including more drastic measures on women accused of not respecting islamic codes of dressing and arresting more journalists and intellectuals.
ENDS IZADI 161004
Where can we donate to do the most good?
Contacting the media internationally, to make them cover this story might be the best way to help.
www.georgewbush.com
The Bush administration yesterday refused to back away from its demand that Iran be referred to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program next month, even as European allies said they will offer Tehran a deal next week.
The European Union will present Iran with one last chance to suspend its effort to enrich uranium, which can be used to make atomic bombs, in exchange for economic and trade benefits, diplomats said after an eight-nation meeting at the State Department.
"The EU-three indicated they will be presenting their idea to Iran next week," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in reference to Britain, Germany and France, which have taken the lead on the Iran nuclear issue.
The benefits package would include access to imported nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, as well as lifting of some EU economic penalties and opening of trade opportunities with the Islamic republic.
"The United States listened carefully to the EU-three explanations of their approach, and the EU-three agreed to inform us of the results of their efforts," Mr. Casey said.
But he said the Bush administration continued to insist that, at its next meeting on Nov. 25, the board of governors of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should send the case to the Security Council.
"The United States has long made clear its views that Iran's confirmed non-compliance with safeguard obligations must be reported by the IAEA board to the U.N. Security Council," Mr. Casey said.
At its last meeting in September, the board gave Iran until Nov. 25 to suspend the uranium-enrichment program.
European officials said at yesterday's meeting that they still hope to convince Tehran to comply before the deadline.
"The U.S. position is a bit different from ours," a senior European diplomat said after the State Department session with officials from the Group of Eight (G-8) — the United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
"No government changed its position today," he added.
The three-hour meeting ended without a statement or decision.
"We did not decide on a new course of action," a U.S. official said.
The administration did not endorse the EU's benefits package. Even though U.S. officials said they told the Europeans to "go ahead" with it, they did not hide their belief that Tehran will not comply.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said earlier this week that the European Union cannot force Iran to give up its right to enrich uranium. "It is wrong for them to think they can, through negotiations, force Iran to stop enrichment," he told a conference in Tehran. "Iran will never give up its right to enrichment."
But diplomats at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, were quoted by Reuters news agency yesterday as saying that Iran may be willing to comply if, along with a long list of benefits, it receives an assurance that it will not be attacked.
Diplomats said such a guarantee was not discussed at the G-8 meeting, where the United States was represented by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
PARIS - France and its G8 partners should call for a complete suspension by Iran of its advanced uranium enrichment programme, the French foreign ministry said on Saturday.
"Time is of the essence. France will continue to work with its partners and the Iranian authorities... towards the complete suspension by Iran of its enrichment and reprocessing activities," the ministry said in a press statement.
A November 25 deadline for Iran to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands to suspend uranium enrichment work is looming, with the possibility that Iran may be referred to the UN Security Council and face sanctions if it misses the deadline.
Britain, France and Germany told the United States on Friday at a G8 meeting in Washington that they would offer Iran incentives to try to persuade it to halt uranium enrichment activities which they fear are linked to a plan to build nuclear weapons.
The Europeans are hoping the inducements will satisfy the US, which backs a tougher line against Iran.
However Iran has since said it will reject any European proposal for a complete cessation of its work on the nuclear fuel cycle. It has said, however, that it would be willing to consider further "confidence-building" measures and extending a suspension of uranium enrichment.
"As well as leading this joint effort, we recognise the right of any state to use nuclear energy in accordance with the (nuclear) Non Proliferation Treaty," the French statement said.
It added that the Washington G8 meeting had "shown the intensity of the efforts made to try to reach a solution by diplomatic means."
"These efforts will continue in the weeks ahead with the aim of reaching an agreement between now and the meeting" of the IAEA on November 25, the statement said.
Under the terms of an accord signed late last year with Germany, France and Britain, Iran pledged to suspend uranium enrichment activities and accepted unannounced inspections of its nuclear facilities.
However, it has since resumed work on centrifuges key to the enrichment process and back-tracked on its commitment to allow snap inspections, claiming the Europeans have not held up their end of the deal.
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TEHRAN: An Iranian man convicted of a series of robberies has had four fingers on his right hand amputated in public, the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper reported yesterday. The man, who was only identified as Hamid H, was reportedly caught by locals in the southwestern city of Ahvaz while he was out on a burglary in September 2003. In Iran, thieves are usually only sentenced to amputations if they repeatedly offend.
BTTT
TEHRAN: An Iranian soldier has been charged with killing a party-goer during a raid on an illegal mixed-sex gathering, the student news agency ISNA reported yesterday. Security forces raided the party in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, and one soldier opened fire, shooting dead one of the guests. "The soldier has been arrested and charged with intentional murder," a judicial official said. Parties attended by both men and women are forbidden in the Islamic republic and are often raided by security forces. Offenders can be fined or sentenced to lashes.
In an interview, made today, with the well respected Anooshirvan Kangarloo of Voice of America TV (VOA), the SMCCDI's Coordinator, Aryo B. Pirouznia, slammed the Islamic republic's repressive stands and praised the Iranian teachers and nurses in their struggle based on Civil Disobedience Movement's methods.
Pirouznia criticized, as well, Senator Kerry for his rejectable stands on the Islamic regime and his statements intending to legitimize a corrupt and falling regime.
The program (VOA's "News & Views" of 10/16/04) will be re-aired tomorrow morning, Iran local time, and can be seen on at the following link till 12:00 PM US EST by visiting: http://www.voanews.com/real/voa/nenaf/fars/pers1700v.ram. The audio-video interview can be seen from the minute 12':40'' of the program. It will be transferred after 12:00 PM to the VOA website's archives section.
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