Posted on 12/21/2004 11:13:30 PM PST by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Iran Atomic Work Breaks Spirit of Accord - Diplomats
By REUTERS
Published: December 21, 2004Filed at 5:37 p.m. ET
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran's decision to keep preparing raw uranium for enrichment, a step on the way to making nuclear weapons, breaks the spirit though not the letter of its pledge to freeze all such activity, diplomats said on Tuesday.
Under a deal Iran reached with three EU nations to freeze all enrichment activity as of Nov. 22, preparing ``yellowcake'' uranium for enrichment is strictly prohibited. But the accord allowed Iran to finish some limited uranium conversion work that it had already begun before the suspension took effect.
But Iran will now continue enrichment-related work until February, Western diplomats told Reuters.
Continuing the work that long ``would certainly violate the spirit of the agreement,'' a Western diplomat said. ``Iran has a legal basis for doing it, but it will not inspire much confidence in them,'' another diplomat said.
The State Department said if Iran was committed to suspension it would have sought to end uranium conversion efforts immediately.
``Iran's actions reinforce our view that further pressure on Iran is required -- including the pressure of reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council -- to bring Iran to make a strategic decision to abandon its pursuit of sensitive nuclear fuel-cycle capabilities,'' said State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper.
Iran's chief delegate to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said separately that Iran would press ahead with its nuclear program.
Western diplomats said this would include work broadly but not explicitly covered by last month's suspension accord.
``The Iranians have decided to continue UF4 (uranium tetrafluoride) production until the end of February,'' one diplomat told Reuters.
UF4 is a precursor to uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the gas that is fed into centrifuges which spin at supersonic speeds to purify it for use as fuel in civilian nuclear power plants or in atomic weapons.
Two other diplomats confirmed the report. One said Iran appeared to be exploiting a loophole in the promise it made to France, Britain and Germany to freeze enrichment activity.
``It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone,'' said one Western diplomat. Whenever there is a loophole in an agreement, the Iranians find it and use it to their advantage, he said.
The United States accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program, and has told the EU it believes Tehran has no intention of honoring its pledge to freeze enrichment work.
One Western diplomat close to the IAEA said the deal between the EU's ``big three'' and Iran actually permitted Tehran to convert an entire batch of 37 tonnes of yellowcake, with which it had been ``testing'' its conversion facility at Isfahan.
When Iran announced its plans to test the Isfahan plant in September, nuclear experts said that 37 tonnes of yellowcake could yield enough uranium for up to five nuclear weapons, if it was later enriched to bomb grade purity.
FIRST DEAL FELL APART
Iran first promised to suspend its enrichment program in exchange for a package of political and economic benefits from the EU big three in October 2003. The deal fell apart after Iran used a loophole in the agreement to continue producing and testing centrifuge components.
Earlier on Tuesday Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, told the official IRNA news agency that it was natural for Iran to continue with its nuclear program.
``It is natural that the Islamic Republic continues all its nuclear activities. Iran has only suspended the fuel cycle voluntarily, in the framework of its policy to build trust, without any legal obligations,'' he said.
Mousavian also said that Washington wanted talks with Tehran, with which it broke ties 24 years ago, to discuss a number of issues including Iran's nuclear program.
``The United States wants negotiations with Iran and definitely doesn't like having a mediator in between, even if the Europeans want to mediate,'' IRNA quoted him as saying.
Several Western diplomats said the idea of such talks was premature, but that Washington would have to join the negotiations if the EU3 plan to persuade Iran to abandon its enrichment program permanently was to work.
But the United States says Tehran cannot be trusted and refuses to participate in the negotiations, diplomats say.
Cold War Holds Lessons for Iran Regime Change
[Excerpt]
December 22, 2004
The Wall Street Journal
Reza Ladjevardian
Your Dec. 8 editorial "Democracy for Iran" correctly argues for the Bush administration to call for an (internationally monitored) referendum in Iran. Having seen the negative consequences of the 1979 Islamic revolution, the Iranian people have become leery of the sacrifices and uncertainties associated with any more revolutionary changes. The chaos and bloodshed in Iraq have also made them even more risk averse. A referendum is the most viable option, because disillusionment with Islamic fundamentalism has even spread to members of the regime itself. ...
Similar to the last days of communism in which there were more communist sympathizers in Latin America, Africa or Asia than in the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe, Islamic fundamentalism has been discredited in Iran , but not yet so in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc., because Iran is the only major Islamic country that was unfortunate enough to actually implement Islamic fundamentalism.
When the Soviet Union eventually imploded under its own weight of economic mismanagement and political repression, communism was discredited as an ideology, insurgency funds ceasing to flow from Moscow to third world Communist organizations and America becoming free of realpolitik fears of unintended consequences. The same applies to Iran and Islamic fundamentalism.
Our lessons from the Cold War are quite relevant today in the war against terrorism. Just as we supported the democratic dissidents in the Communist bloc, we need to help bolster Iran 's grassroots democratic movement and, thus, help expose the fallacy of Islamic fundamentalism as a political and economic ideology. A referendum is the way.
Reza Ladjevardian
Houston
Iran arrests 'US and Israeli spies'
(Filed: 22/12/2004)Iran has arrested more than 10 people since March for spying on its atomic projects, the intelligence minister has said.
Iran's Bushehr power plant Ali Yunesi claimed the spies had been working for America and Israel and said three of them were working within the state nuclear programme.
He told the Iranian news agency IRNA: "More than 10 spies have been arrested this year [Iran's year begins in March]; three of them staff of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran. They have been working for the CIA and Mossad and were arrested in Tehran and Hormuzgan."
He said the other detainees had not been working for a government body.
Israel and the United States accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charge, saying it needs nuclear power stations to meet booming domestic electricity demand.
A senior Israeli official said he knew nothing about the arrests but added he suspected the timing of the revelation was intended to whip up fears about a "Zionist threat" to distract from the mounting pressure on Iran.
The official said: "This is a way for the regime to bolster support at home. The last time they uncovered a 'great spy ring' was when they were under great pressure. This is always a good way for them to justify their policies at home."
Iran reached a deal with Britain, France and Germany to freeze all enrichment activities from Nov. 22 but Iran is taking advantage of a clause that permits Iran to finish some atomic work begun before the suspension took effect.
News Release
Escaped Journalists reveal the latest confession extraction techniques
December 20th 2004
The three journalist members of the Marze Por Gohar Party, who recently escaped Iran, gave a brief overview of the most recent methods of extracting confessions from journalists and political dissidents. In view of the recent “public confessions” by several Iranian bloggers, the recent revelations by Maryam Bahmanpour, who was a co-defendant in the famous Siamak Pourzand case in 2002, is of particular interest to those want a better understanding of the human rights situation in Iran, which is being currently occupied by the leaders of the Islamic Republic.
Please find below two links to documents pertaining to Ms. Bahmanpour
Link 1
Link 2
Ms. Bahmanpour described her own and her colleagues’ experiences during their detention for various journalistic activities deemed subversive by the authorities. She begins by explaining the interrogators’ obsessions with sexual and “immoral” issues, who generally demand extremely detailed recounts of the victim’s sexual history, especially from women, accompanied by physical torture and abuse. After building a greatly exaggerated, “criminal” sexual case against the victims and forcing them to sign the fabricated statements, they confront them with routine penalties for the sexual crimes, such as stoning, which is practiced in the Islamic Republic for adultery. The fact that the judge in journalist cases, Saberi Zafarghandi, is also in charge of adultery cases, and has already condemned numerous women to stoning, leaves no doubt as to the seriousness of the above threats in the minds of the hapless victims.
Subsequently, the victims are given an ultimatum to either confess to espionage charges or face the public humiliation and horrific penalties mentioned above. Given the circumstances it is not difficult to fathom which option the victims will choose. Upon extracting espionage, or espionage related confessions, victims are paraded in front of a show trail where they will beg for forgiveness and mercy following public (sometimes televised) confessions. It is noteworthy that the victims’ confessions in the adultery case will always remain open to future prosecution and therefore will always terrorize them and their families so long as the regime exists.
The international community should pay particular attention to these “confessions”, which must themselves be considered as crimes against humanity, just like the horrors of the Inquisition and the infamous Stalin trails.
In the near future, the escaped journalist members of the Marze Por Gohar Party, Maryam Bahmanpour, Mohsen Barghandan and Payam Taheri, will divulge more detailed accounts of the Islamic Republic’s inhumane and humiliating practices, via press releases and press conferences that will be announced soon.
For inquires in English please contact Babak Namdar at: 818.441.1660 or email news@marzeporgohar.org
For inquiries in Farsi please contact Ms. Parvaneh at: 310.473.4763 or email news@marzeporgohar.org
"The Shah was not a president, a mere ruler or head of state. He was a living manifestation of the continuity of our civilization.
"he was the living representation and the custodian of an identity that was balanced on three pillars: religious faith, national heritage, and political tradition. He was the personification and upholder of that trinity that provided Iranians with their unique sense of selfhood setting them apart from other cultures and civilizations.
" If watching old movies of the Shah makes Iranians break down in tears, it is because of a huge emptiness in their national soul that yearns for fulfillment and repair."
BUMP FOR FREEDOM!
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