[DoctorZIn]

It is now the eighth day of protests...

In 1999 there were 4 days of protests that led to the July 9th crackdown of the students. Many students were killed and hundreds are either still in prison or missing. This is why you are hearing the Iranian people want to remember the July 9th event with massive protests and STRIKES!

So eight days of protests is a huge accomplishment already.

This time is different, however. This time it is not just students protesting. Now over 90% of the protesters are typical working class Iranians. The movement is much broader based.

There are even reports of Iranians going door to door raising funds for the workers who are going to strike soon. If the strikes happen, it will cripple the country and it will force rapid change.

I will continue to post articles and news from my direct contacts here. Please encourage others to do the same.


If you want on or off my Iran ping list, please Freepmail me.

[DoctorZIn]

Regime forced to postpone universities year end exams
SMCCDI (Information Service)
June 16, 2003

The Islamic republic regime has been forced to postpone the universities year end exams as the students have announced their decision to ban any participation in the tests.

The move shows more and more the increasing gap between the Islamic republic and thousands of students who knowing that they won't have any future with such regime have decided to carry a mass action intending to ridiculise more the theocratic institution.

Source: SMCCDI

http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/cgi-bin/smccdinews/viewnews.cgi?category=5&id=1055829151

[DoctorZIn]

You might enjoy hearing this...

Tonight I was speaking with a student in Tehran and she told me "whomever u talk to, blesses Bush and they feel much better emotionally and feel that there is a hope."

They want to believe the world is watching and that the Mullahs will collaspe under the pressure.

Keep emailing the media about these stories.

[DoctorZIn]

Here is an interesting piece...

June 16, 2003, 10:10 a.m.
Mullah Crossroads
National Review Online (an excerpt)

State faces a decision about direction of policy toward Iranian mullahs.

With the departure Friday of the State Department's leading cheerleader for engagemen
t of the Iranian mullahs — and the continued demonstrations of thousands of students protesting those same leaders — Foggy Bottom is at a crossroads. Choosing a different path — one of supporting the cause of freedom in "axis of evil" nation Iran — is unlikely, however, as most of State's professional diplomats back the failed policy of "engaging" the oppressive regime.

http://nationalreview.com/mowbray/mowbray061603.asp

[DoctorZIn]

Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran has just released a letter to:

His Excellency Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations
New York, NY 10017


Your Excellency:

For the seventh consecutive night, the people of Iran have courageously defied the harsh repression of the ruling clerics and have expressed their legitimate demands for freedom and democracy in Iran via nonviolent methods.

I have first hand information that these demonstrations have faced brutal crackdown and scores of people have been arrested. International news reports, from Iran, also substantiate the fact that government supported militia have fired upon pro-democracy demonstrators. This brutal crackdown is in conformity with the clerical regime's announced policy of ruthless measures against any protester demanding freedom and democracy in Iran. The use of violence against defenseless civilians and mass arrests is a cause of great concern to me and my compatriots worldwide.

The international community is rightfully alarmed by reports of violence against my compatriots and their mass arrests. However, it should use any and all opportunities to call upon the clerical regime of Iran to adhere to the principles of human rights, cease its violence, and release all those who have thus far been arrested.

The clerical regime of Iran is a signatory to the United Nation's charter and, as such, is obligated to fully respect the basic rights of the people of Iran. Iranians have the right to self expression and the right to implement their political wishes through free elections and a national, transparent referendum.

I urgently ask your Excellency's good offices to utilize all its available resources to prevent the further loss of innocent lives and to energetically support the rights of the people of Iran in their legitimate demand for self determination. The Islamic regime of Iran must be held accountable for its violations of human rights against the people of Iran and its failure to comply with the UN charter.

With best regards,


Reza Pahlavi


NOTE: I doubt whether Koffi Annan will do anything, but it may encourage the protesters and embarass the UN.

DoctorZin

[visualops]

some links-
http://www.iranexpert.com/
http://www.tehran.com/s/persiadaily/
http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/bal-ed.iran17jun17,0,7627495.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/2003/06/17/news/world/6104457.htm
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/06/17/2003055598
http://www.dawn.com/2003/06/17/int1.htm

[TigerTale]

Free Persia bump.

[ewing]

July 9 sounds like a big day for the Iranian people , great job keeping us abreast and informed on the situation!

[Travis McGee]

Thank you so much for your posts!

[ellery]

Cross-link below -- Doc, do you know anything about this group? Are they good guys or bad? Did france help the student movement with this, or hurt it? I just want to get my facts before I build up an even bigger head of steam at our newest enemy, france.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/930406/posts
France Detains Members of Iran Opposition
AP ^ | 06/17/03 | ELAINE GANLEY

PARIS - Masked and heavily armed French police raided the offices Tuesday of an Iranian opposition group accused of links to terrorism, rounding up 165 members and seizing $1.3 million in American currency, the government said.

On the orders of France's leading anti-terrorism judge, some 1,300 police poured into the streets and blew down doors of offices of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran early Tuesday in a vast sweep of sites north and west of Paris.

[DoctorZIn]

"Anti-regime protests must not destabilize Iran" Russia says

MOSCOW, June 16 (AFP) - Russia said Monday it hoped that six days of student-led anti-regime protests in Iran would not destabilize the political situation in the Islamic republic.
"We hope that the internal political situation is not destabilized in Iran," Interfax quoted foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko as saying.

Yakovenko said that Russia was closely monitoring the violence, while noting that the demonstrations were "Iran's internal affair."

"We are saddened that the political disputes are leading to violence and bloodshed," Yakovenko added.

Iran lashed out Monbday at the United States -- which has welcomed the demonstrations -- and sent a "vigorous protest" over Washington's "interference" in its internal affairs.

Separately, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov called on the IAEA governors to take a "measured and non-politicised" decision after receiving the report on Iran by its director general Mohamed ElBaradei.

"We believe the reaction of the council of governors to this report must be measured and non-politicised, and take all aspects into account," he said, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

"The reaction should correspond to the parts of the report where it is a matter of activities discovered in Iran that were not known by the IAEA previously," he said.

ElBaradei said earlier in his report to the 35 IAEA governors, the body's regulatory body, that Tehran had "omitted to mention certain of its nuclear activities."

Iran, which is building its first nuclear power plant with Russia's help, is suspected by some countries, including the United States, of secretly working on a nuclear weapons program. It insists the plant is purely for civilian purposes.

Washington has been pressing the IAEA to condemn the program.


Source: Iranmania

[DoctorZIn]

France to invest 650 M$ in Iran
SMCCDI (Information Service)
June 16, 2003

The French government has pushed for more investments in the Iran of the Ayatollahs. These new investments are for a package of 650 Millions of dollars.

France is known to be one of the main backers of the Clerical leadership and suporter of the rule of repression in Iran. This country is also known for having avoided the trial of several of the hit squads members of the Islamic regime who killed several Iranian opponents placed under its protection.

Many Iranians are hoping to put an end to the economic presence of this country as soon as they will overthrown the theocracy.

Source: SMCCDI

http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/cgi-bin/smccdinews/viewnews.cgi?category=5&id=1055855726

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

[DoctorZIn]

SMCCDI (Information Service)
July 17, 2003
Tens of demonstrators were injured and arrseted in the clashes which rocked the western City of Hamedan.

Special units of the regime came into action, yesterday evening, to smash the protesters who had gather near the university which has been at several occasions the scene of bloody crackdowns.


Source: SMCCDI

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

[DoctorZIn]

News from within Iran has been thin today only because the regime is gettng better at shutting down comunication. But I expect to hear more soon.

I will keep you posted.

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

[DoctorZIn]

Here is a firsthand account from one of the protesting students....

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

The Blood of Iranians, Fighting our way to Regime Change

June 17, 2003
The National Review Online
Koorosh Afshar

TEHRAN, IRAN — During the past few nights, we Iranian youth have been agitating — at great risk to our lives — to remove the 24-year-old plague that has stricken our homeland. Our goal is to topple the theocratic regime of the mullahs. Our opponents are barbarian vigilantes — members of Ansaar-e-Hezbollah — who are backed by heavily armed Iranian riot police.


Westerners may have difficulty imagining what these people are like. In fact, it's quite easy: Simply remember the Taliban. The only difference is that they don't wear Afghani clothes.


In the past few nights, my peers — and our mothers and sisters — have poured into the streets of our city. Some of us have been arrested and many have been injured by the ruthless attacks of Ansaar-e-Hezbollah. These people attack whomever they see in the streets with tear gas, sticks, iron chains, swords, daggers, and, for the last two nights, guns.


It has become almost routine for us to go out at night, chant slogans, get beaten, lose some of our friends, see our sisters beaten, and then return home.


Each night we set to the streets only to be swept away the next dawn by agents of the regime. Two nights ago, on Amirabad Street, we wrote "Down with Khomeini" on the ground. Before long, the mullah's vigilantes attacked us on their motorcycles. They struck a female student before my eyes so harshly that she was no longer able to walk. As she fell to the ground, four members of Ansaar-e-Hezbollah surrounded her, kicking her. When I and two other students threw stones at them so that they would leave her alone, they threatened us. We escaped into a lane and hid in a house whose owner, an old lady, had left the door open for us. A few minutes later, we saw the young lady being carried away by riot police, her feet dragging on the ground, her shattered teeth hanging out of her still-bleeding mouth.


At least three of my best friends have been detained; nobody knows anything about their fate.


Yesterday I heard that the prosecutor of Tehran has announced that most of the detainees are hooligans with criminal records. What sort of criminal record does he mean? Perhaps the crime of walking with a person of the opposite sex? Of wearing Western clothes or playing a cassette in the car?


I was just talking to a friend who lives in a dormitory called Allammeh tabatabayee. He told me about what happened three nights ago when Ansaar-e-Hezbollah attacked the dormitory:


It started just before 10 P.M. We were chanting slogans against the regime, specifically the so-called leader. At first we were behind the gate of the dorm, inside the yard. When we went to the highway in front of the dormitory, a group of around 100 riot police arrived and started throwing stones at us. We retaliated from the roof of the dormitory building. At 2 A.M. Ansaar arrived.


They got shields from the police and entered the dormitory. There were about 600-700 of them — armed with swords, sticks, daggers, iron chains, and tear-gas guns — to 700 of us students, mostly in pajamas. We had run out of stones to resist any longer….


They entered the dormitory and shot tear gas, sending all the students fleeing to their rooms; then they entered the buildings, and started kicking in and breaking down the doors....


They were shouting "Rahbaraa az maa bepazir" — "Leader accept this from us." They captured my roommate and tried to stab him in the stomach with a dagger. He managed to grab the blade of the dagger, holding it tightly in his hands. His attackers pulled it out and struck him on the back. He now has a wound 15 centimeters long and 3 centimeters deep. As a result, he has been hospitalized, his thumbs almost detached from his hands....


Three attackers found an unlucky student alone in his room. Two held his hands at his sides while a third sodomized him with a dagger, inflicting a wound 12 centimeters deep. The student was taken to a Shariati hospital and bled for hours. He is still fighting for his life....


In another room, a student jumped from a third-floor balcony to the ground when he saw the tip of an attacker's sword breaking through the door to his room....


I visited the dormitory myself. The blood spots were still there. The doors were mostly broken. But we will continue to shed our blood, if that is what it takes to obtain the freedom we seek.


— Koorosh Afshar is a pseudonym for a student in Tehran. His name has been changed for his protection.

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

[poindexter]

In 1979 it was the "students" who took over our embassy. How long until these "students" are chanting "Death to America" in the streets again?

I'm from Missouri on this one....

[DoctorZIn]

This just in...

We are hearing that Rafsanjani the former president and major player in the regime, met last night with his leaders re their next step. It was reported that the Basji (the thugs trying to put down the protest) are getting exhausted and can not keep up their efforts. They may give them a rest for a few days and then try to clap down hard.

There are also reports that Rafsanjani wants to kill (sacrifice the life of) Khamenei (their glorious leader) and replace him so they can stay in power.

There are reports the leaders are selling their foreign investments to get cash incase they need to leave quickly. The broadcasters are asking people in the banking system to report to them their efforts so they can instruct them what to do next. The broadcasters are asking people to withdraw their funds from the banks to keep the regimes leaders from walking away with it.

Also, the LA based Iranian broadcasters into Iran are a story people need to now more about. People from Iran call in for advice and instructions and the broadcasters give them very specific advice on who to target and how. People will call in the license # of a car full of Basji and the broadcasters alert the Iranian public to be on the lookout for the car and attack it. They produce maps to show where the Basji are traveling and telling them point to intercept them and where they are living. People are going to these homes and torching them.

They give names of people in various cities and encourage people to attack them. It is amazing. I wish you could hear their broadcasts in English.

Their broadcasts are in Farsi but they show pictures of what is going on. If you would like to see the broadcasts go to:

http://www.azaditv.com/L_B_2.htm

The people of Iran keep calling, thanking Bush and begging people to do anything they can to put pressure on the regime. Call the media for instance, attend demonstrations like those in LA and the upcoming event of July 9th in Washington DC.

I just heard a Basji who called into the broadcast and told the people to disobey the government. He has converted.

I could go on and on but you get a flavor of the efforts.

Perhaps we could ask the media to interview these broadcasters. They are articulate, intelligent and very informed.

I wish these broadcast stations would post their stories on the net but they appear too busy just handling the faxes and phone calls from Iran.

BTW, I know this may make me sound like crazy, but as I reported yesterday, my computer keeps getting attacked and I am forced to reboot the system before I can post. Yesterday the intruder was from Russia and I am told this has happened to others doing this work.

So there may be breaks between some of my reports.

I will post again, soon. I have another call coming in.

[FairOpinion]

Picture from protest on BBC News:

Tehran students say they want a change of government

[ellery]

AM, for some reason this important thread is not showing up in searches or on the sidebars...is there a way that can happen? Thanks.

[DoctorZIn]

The Shah's son Reva Pahlavi is on FoxNews right now!


"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."