Posted on 11/26/2004 4:40:11 AM PST by DoctorZIn
The US media has finally discovered Iran. For the past few years the media has largely ignored 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
PS Check out our blog.
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei and chairwoman Ingrid Holl from Canada, from left, wait for the start of the 35-nation board of governors meeting on Iran's nuclear program and South Korea's past secret nuclear experiments, on Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004, at Vienna's International Center. (AP Photo/Rudi Blaha)
The Associated PressVIENNA, Austria Nov 26, 2004 — Delegates for the U.N. nuclear agency worked to resolve a dispute over Iran's interpretation of a freeze on uranium enrichment as they prepared to deal with another matter South Korea and its illicit plutonium and uranium experiments.
Unlike South Korea, the issue of Iran threatened to drag on into the weekend, which would force an extension of the International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting past its planned close Friday.
A report summarizing 18 months of IAEA investigations says the agency remains unable to determine if nearly two decades of Iranian nuclear activities were purely peaceful or if the government had a weapons agenda.
But the main issue is Iran's interpretation of its deal with the European Union to freeze all activities linked to uranium enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel and the material for the core of atomic warheads.
Diplomats said Iran continued to demand on Friday that it be allowed to operate some centrifuges although the EU says the Nov. 7 deal mandates a suspension of all activities related to enrichment, including running the machines that spin gas into fuel-level or weapons-grade uranium.
One of the delegates, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described Iran's stance as an attempt at arm twisting to wrest concessions on the language of a resolution on how to police the freeze. Tehran wants any text stripped of indirect allusions to a "trigger mechanism" that would enable the board to ask the U.N. Security Council to deal with violations of the suspension pledge.
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei also suggested the two issues were linked, telling reporters he hoped the Iranians would reconsider "once they get an agreed resolution."
"I'm optimistic things are moving in the right direction," he said as the meeting reconvened.
Hossein Mousavian, the chief Iranian delegate, told The Associated Press that his country "is committed to suspension," as he headed into a meeting with EU negotiators. Asked about the terms, he said, "that's what we need to talk about."
Diplomats said the Americans who insist Iran wants to make nuclear weapons were unhappy with the draft of the resolution, which makes no direct reference to the possibility of a Security Council referral.
The last-minute Iranian push fed fears that Tehran may not be keen to ease concerns about its nuclear agenda.
Still, Iran's new demands did not signal an immediate danger because thousands of centrifuges must operate for months to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear warhead.
The Europeans say the deal committed Iran to full suspension of enrichment and all related activities while the two sides discuss a pact meant to provide Iran with EU technical and economic aid and other concessions.
The proposed deal also commits Iran to a pledge not to reprocess plutonium which it would be able to do in several years time, once it completes work on a heavy water reactor in the city of Arak.
With the EU deal envisaging a light-water reactor for Iran from which extraction of weapons-grade nuclear material is difficult diplomats said the Europeans hoped that Iran would not complete its heavy water facility.
On the issue of South Korea, delegates said the overwhelming sentiment was to issue a statement of rebuke.
South Korea earlier this year revealed that it conducted two nuclear experiments, in 1982 and 2000, that produced minute amounts of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium, but an IAEA report says there was no evidence they were applied to an arms program.
The delegates from Europe and Asia, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the statement could stop short of letting Seoul off the hook by holding out the implicit threat of being referred to the U.N. Security Council should ongoing IAEA investigations reveal new, serious violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
While the IAEA viewed the South Korean violations as "a matter of serious concern … we are also saying that we have not seen any continuation of these experiments," ElBaradei said at the start of the board meeting Thursday.
Y.J Choi, South Korea's deputy foreign minister, told the board "mistakes have been made" but insisted scientists involved in the experiments did not notify the government.
ReutersNov 26, 2004 — By Louis Charbonneau and Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran backed down in the face of fierce international pressure on Friday and dropped its demand for changes to a key agreement designed to reassure the world that Tehran does not want nuclear weapons.
Last week, Iran promised the European Union it would halt all activities related to uranium enrichment, a process that creates atomic fuel for power plants or weapons, in a bid to neutralize the threat of economic sanctions.
But the ink on the hard-won accord was barely dry when Tehran demanded an exemption for some 20 enrichment centrifuges for research purposes. Western diplomats said this was impossible and could only deepen suspicions that Tehran has a secret weapons program, as Washington alleges.
"They (Iran) have agreed to drop the demand and (the EU) are awaiting confirmation that a letter has been given to (U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei) confirming this," the diplomat told Reuters. A second Western diplomat confirmed it.
The head of the Iranian delegation to this week's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors meeting, Hossein Mousavian, said agreement had been reached, but still needed the final stamp of approval from Tehran.
He had said earlier in the day that the 20 centrifuges were "not important" and reaffirmed his commitment to the deal.
"We are fully committed to a suspension of enrichment and related activities," Mousavian told Reuters.
He said the EU deal did not cover centrifuge research and development, but European diplomats said such research was clearly banned under the agreement suspending enrichment.
Asked what broke the 3-day deadlock over Iran's request, which had threatened to torpedo the entire agreement, one diplomat said: "It was (the EU's) hard stance. The Iranians just gave up."
EU, U.S. INFURIATED BY IRAN'S REQUEST
Western diplomats in Vienna said the request to amend the terms of the freeze had infuriated not only the European Union, which is offering Iran a large package of political and economic "carrots," but also Washington, which despite Iranian denials has long accused Tehran of trying to build an atomic bomb.
Some Western diplomats said they thought Iran was only using the requested exemption as a bargaining chip, and would drop it if the final resolution was soft enough on Tehran.
But others said the Iranians might be serious about keeping the centrifuges operating, and noted that a similar deal in October 2003 collapsed when the Iranians resumed production of centrifuge components.
One non-proliferation analyst describe the deliberations at the IAEA headquarters as "depressing," and said he doubted whether the EU's incentives would ever persuade Iran to give up its enrichment program.
"The Iranians know that to get all the incentives the EU has offered, the U.S. has to be on board," said Jon Wolfsthal, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think-tank. "But this administration has decided to sit this one out. And an abstention here is a veto."
Diplomats said Washington was unhappy with both the EU-Iran deal and the latest draft resolution circulated by France, Britain and Germany, but would not block them.
Wolfsthal said an embargo on Iranian oil or military strikes could force Iran to give up its quest for a nuclear weapons capability, but both were ruled out at present by the high price of oil and the drain on U.S. military resources in Iraq.
In a Nov. 15 report summarizing his two-year probe of Iran's nuclear program, ElBaradei declared that Tehran had not diverted any of its declared nuclear material to a weapons program, but did not rule out the existence of secret nuclear activities that U.N. inspectors had not uncovered. (Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan)
EU Stands Firm on Nuclear Freeze, Iran Backs Down
ABC News
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1288711/posts?page=22#22
DoctorZin Note: It appears Iran has decided they needed to buy time. But lets see if the letter arrives as expected.
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TEHRAN, 26 November 2004 — The head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards yesterday accused the United States of financing rebel groups fighting the Islamic regime and seeking to spark ethnic unrest along its borders, the state news agency IRNA reported. “With its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States is seeking to plot and create insecurity inside Iran and wants to encourage ethnic problems in our country,” Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi was quoted as telling a gathering of the Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer wing, the Basij militia. “In Iraq, the Americans have taken the hypocrites under their wings,” he said, referring to the exiled armed opposition group the People’s Mujahedeen - now confined to camps in neighboring Iraq and listed by the US and European Union as a terrorist group. He alleged that the United States was also supporting “counter-revolutionary groups” including the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran and the Komala, a Kurdish-Maoist group. The two groups have bases in neighboring Iraq, but Iran and Iraqi Kurdish groups are believed to have reached an accord that the Iranian Kurdish groups keep away from the Iranian border. But the United States, Safavi said, “is giving them money to create insecurity in Iran.” And he claimed that “in Afghanistan, the Americans have brought together Iranian rebels to create insecurity in Sistan-Baluchestan,” Iran’s far southeastern province and home to a large ethnic Baluch minority. “But the Americans should know that they will carry all hope of dominating Iran and causing insecurity in Iran to their graves,” Safavi told the gathering. |
The Islamic regime, in a public relations move in furthering terrorist interference and aiding insurgency in Iraq, announced that on December 1st a special ops unit will be formed.
The announcement was made by Mohammad-Ali Samadi, the director of the public relations division of the guards of the Islamic Republic´s Global Martyr´s brigade. Mr. Samadi, calls the unit "a beckoning" and considers this to be a testimony to the Supreme Leader of the regime, Khamenei´s directive.
He added that this call-to-arms, will take place simultaneously with the unveiling of a plaque commemorating "the operations against American invaders" on December 1st at Beheshteh Zahra Cemetary in Tehran. Registration for volunteers for suicide missions will also be taking place on the same date provided that the volunteers are able to provide proper documentation and identification.
He doesn't paint a very palatable picture toward the Muslim faith with that statement.
Iran Tehran, Nov. 25 - New information has come to light over the sudden death of a 14-year-old schoolboy in western Iran, who died after being flogged for “eating in public” during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.Have you tried to Google "Arabian Gulf" lately? Try It....Then click the first result......
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=arabian+gulf
Below is a copy of a petition on this site......http://www.persiangulfonline.org/
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To: National Geographic Society
Dear National Geographic Editors,
We the undersigned, through this letter, protest your irresponsible and unscientific actions.
This letter is in concern of publication of a map by your organization, which, according to all international organizations, is fraudulent and distorted, and its publication guarantees the violation of undeniable international legal rights.
It is a proven scholarly fact that the name of the Persian Gulf is a genuine name, with historical roots, and using any fraudulent names such as the “Arabian Gulf”, and islands “Occupied by Iran” is in fact inducing political animosity.
We did not expect National Geographic, as a prestigious international scientific institution, to ignore the proven obvious, and damage its own reputation on the basis of political intentions, and thus create an atmosphere of public mistrust in its content, and hurt the national pride of the millions of Persian speakers while doing so.
While announcing our disgust at such a heresy, we demand an immediate editorial review and correction of this publication by the National Geographic.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Sign Petition here..........
http://www.persiangulfonline.org/
If the Iranian people are righteous then they should support and understand the need for a strike on the Nuclear Sites. I know people want their sovereignty and have pride, but this is a situation in which that has to placed aside for them. Their government oppresses them so they should not rally behind it when it is struck by the forces of liberty.
He's a khomeinist
At the end of the day America must be protected. When the Irannian nuclear sites are bombed and destroyed, if the Iraninan people become anti-American I am sad to say it is their loss.
A US occupation of a hostile Iran would be our loss as well.
It may come to that, but we should stand with the Iranian people first. I thought the US supported people seeking freedom and true democracy.
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