Iranian Alert -- DAY 20 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Live Thread Ping List | 6.29.2003 | DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

The Iranian regime has been threatening a major crackdown on the protesters. In just 9 days (July 9th) the people of Iran are planning massive demonstrations events and strikes. On this date, 4 years ago, the regime brutally attacked peaceful student demonstrators while in their dorms. The result was the loss of life and liberty of hundreds of students, many of which are still unaccounted for.

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a country. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Please continue to post your news stories and comments to this thread.

Thanks for all the help.

[DoctorZIn]

Iran Is Trying to Curb Porn and Politics on Web

June 29, 2003
The New York Times
Neil MacFarquhar

TEHRAN — It is sometimes called Iranian porn. It appears on certain Web sites that specialize in mocking the Islamic Republic's puritanism, featuring women with hair tumbling out of their head scarves or exhibiting deep décolletage at family gatherings.

Such sites have been officially labeled depraved recently, joining a host of other political, social and truly pornographic online destinations in Iran's first attempt to restrict Internet access.

"After the limitations put on newspapers and other mass media, they understand that people are looking for news on the Internet," said Reza Parisa, the director of an association of Internet service providers. "So of course, the government wants to limit access to the Internet, too."

But like much of the regulation in Iran, the line between what is acceptable and degenerate, legal and illegal, remains fluid, so the crackdown has prompted a cat-and-mouse game between the conservative hierarchy and Iran's younger generation, which is growing ever more technically proficient.

Even those who support filtering Internet content suspect that the effort is doomed, like earlier bans on videotapes and satellite television. The government is bound to lose, they say, as the almost 50 million Iranians under age 30 seek to have more fun.

"The intention is to filter or stop sites with immoral content or that contradict our social values," said Hussein Shariatmadari, the publisher of the newspaper Kayhan, which often reflects the views of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "In fact, these sites are readily available. It's like removing a ladder leaning against a building so a bird won't fly off the roof."

The crackdown started this spring with the arrest of a popular Internet journalist, since released on bail, and the distribution to Iran's 300 or so Internet service providers of three lists of sites to be blocked.

No service providers objected publicly to the first two lists, which contained over 100,000 pornographic sites originating outside Iran, Internet specialists said. But the third list, of about 94 sites, caused a stir because it contained a number of sites from both inside and outside the country that criticize the government on political and social grounds.

"To start with, they are focusing on pornography and Web sites that speak out against Islam and the mullahs," Mr. Parisa said. "The government is very sensitive about that."

It is particularly sensitive at the moment because some officials in the Bush administration and in Congress have vowed to underwrite efforts to destabilize the government. The ruling clerics have a history of limiting any liberalization at times when they feel threatened.

A sudden jump in Internet access over the last couple of years is believed to have made officials here more concerned about the Internet as a tool that could be used against them. Iran now has an estimated three million Internet users out of a population of around 65 million, Mr. Parisa said, the vast majority using it solely for e-mail and chatting.

Sites that mock the clergy — they might refer to a leading ayatollah as "His Mullah Highness" — are among the most popular here. One new site, set up outside the country by an exile political party, posts photographs contrasting the somewhat glamorous court of the late shah with the drab public face of the ruling theocracy.

"Beggers & Servants," reads the caption of one picture of clerics before the revolution. "Rulers and Masters," says the caption underneath the current ruling pantheon.

There has also been an explosion of Web logs. Service providers estimate that roughly 50,000 such personal diaries are published in Farsi, discussing topics ranging from art and movies, to music, computers and everything else. Web specialists say that among the 10 most visited sites, at least 6 either feature nudity or offer links to other sites that do.

One popular Web log, called Faheshe, or "whore" in Farsi, features the memoirs of a former prostitute detailing her downfall. The site also promotes links to interviews with other prostitutes, one saying that clerics tend to frequent the same women and that some give their patronage the patina of legality by reading the vows that Shiite Islam provides for short-term marriages.

None of the Web logs have been blocked thus far.

The political sites are perhaps more worrisome for the government than the online pornography. Many of the journalists who founded liberal, reformist newspapers that have been banned by the conservative-run judiciary have started Web sites that use much bolder language than the print media and have proven harder to shut down.

This spring, 135 members of Parliament wrote an open letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, suggesting that it was time for Iran to reform and to do more to reintegrate with the world.

They cited an old line from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini about drinking a cup of poison at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, a suggestion that trying times require distasteful, drastic measures. Not a single newspaper published the letter — it is unclear who ordered them to refrain — but it was widely available on the Web.

When protests erupted in Tehran and around the country in mid-June, the newspapers offered limited coverage. Eventually the Culture Ministry even barred journalists from attending the demonstrations. But student Web sites kept the country informed with nearly blow-by-blow accounts of events each night.

Newspapers have reported on the rough guidelines on Internet use that the Justice Ministry plans to promulgate. A report in the newspaper Iran listed 20 kinds of online activity that would be considered possible violations, including publishing articles that insult Islamic values, Iran's leadership, top clerics or the ideas of Ayatollah Khomeini, the revolutionary patriarch.

Sites that promote gambling, smoking or drug addiction will also be outlawed, the account said, and the judiciary will create a special department to investigate and prosecute Internet offenses.

Service providers complain that they do not have the means to buy the expensive filtering equipment needed. Internet specialists believe that the government might have obtained some highly effective American equipment — getting around the ban the United States has placed on such exports by purchasing it through European subsidiaries.

For reformist legislators in Parliament, the sudden interest by the ruling clergy in the Internet prompts concern that broader restrictions may lie ahead.
"What is important is not to interfere with the free exchange of ideas in the society," said Elaheh Koulai, one of the outspoken women in Iran's Parliament. "There is a fear that this kind of filtering will expand to the circulation of information, not just limit things that go against our legal and cultural norms."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/29/international/middleeast/29IRAN.html

[piasa]

That's an interesting article...

[piasa]

The Shining Path may have been defeated in Peru, but it still has a big office in one of Teheran's poshest streets. The main Columbian terror group, FARC, operates several front companies based in Teheran.

Very interesting indeed.

[nuconvert]

I read with disappointment, the follow-up on Chehregani.What an ego! To think of oneself as that important that you alone can turn the tide of an entire country. We should have known better. I hope they stop him at the Iranian border and prevent him from entering the country.
I have noticed an increase in media coverage. Headline News last night showed the photo of the 4 hunger strikers you had on this site yesterday I believe.

[nuconvert]

Sorry. The Mp's staging the 48 hr sit-in. (not hunger strike)

[DoctorZIn]

SMCCDI: Tense situation among military forces stationned in Esfahan

SMCCDI (Information Service)
June 29, 2003

The situation is very tense among the regime's military forces stationned in Esfahan following the last wave of deadly clashes and the issuance of a new open letter by Ayatollah Jallaledin Taheri.

In this new letter, Taheri denounces the repression and praises the Iranian students and nationals in their quest for freedom and better life.

Several officers of the Milita have ben arrested or muted and many of the local Bassidj groups, known for their support of Taheri have been disarmed and their assult gus confiscated by a the Special Intelligence Unit of the Pasdaran Corp.

The regime fears that these bassidjis who were, a day, recruited among the local residents may chose to use of their guns in any future unrest against the regime itself, especially now, that Taheri has issued his latest public letter.

It's to note that Taheri was a till a year ago, an ardent supporter of the regime and was a day a close friend to Rouh Ollah Khomeini, the founder of the regime. He shifted position, last year, following the bloddy repression of the city's residents by issuing a first letter critisizing publicly the current Supreme leader.

http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/cgi-bin/smccdinews/viewnews.cgi?category=5&id=1056912480

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

[nuconvert]

"Where they could face execution" ... Just as long as they don't "escape".
Thanks for sending this.

[the Real fifi]

I think we are, indeed, getting closer to a tipping point. Isn't Esfahan where the revolt against the Shah began?

[firewalk]

Thank you for the updates
bttt

[McGavin999]

A mountain area, Alamout -- the base of Hasan Sabbah, the famous and legendary leader of the "feda’iyan", or "assassins" or "hashishins" – is a highly protected military site, one of the regime’s most secret missile installations being based there.

It was a true story? Alamout, I had always thought it was a fairy tale.

[DoctorZIn]

This just in...

It appears that the Islamic Republic of Iran is now worried about both the secular pro democracy students and among the Islamic faithful. Ayatollah Jallaledin Taheri, one of the highest ranking ayatollah’s in Iran (higher in fact than the supreme leader of the regime), is continuing to support the student protests. The regime is so worried by this development that they are now disarming the radical “Basji” forces in some cities, fearing that the Basji forces may choose to follow their leader and support the students.

In order to keep demonstrations on the universities to a minimum, the regime is preparing to remove all but "approved" students from their dorms during the next week or two. These "non approved" students are being driven from their homes on campus.

It has been confirmed that the regime plans on calling martial law three days before and after the July 9th date. It is worth noting that not only are the protesters calling for demonstrations on that date, but also strikes. Therefore, even if the regime keeps protests from happening, they cannot so easily stop the strikes. The strikes can bring the country to a halt in day.

On a sad note, to give you an idea of the desperation of the people, some of the poor are selling their kidneys to feed their families. Not just a kidney, but both. Thus they are dying to provide for their families.

On a lighter note, we have been hearing reports that people are throwing hay in front of Mullahs as they walk down the streets. It is done as an insult, because it is what one would do to horse of mule traveling the streets.

I will report in again as I receive these reports.

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

BTW, visit my web page:

http://www.freerepublic.com/~doctorzin

I would appreciate your feedback.
If you have a website and would like to create a link to my website, I have a banner available (like the one found at the beginning of today's thread). Email me and I will send you the code.

[McGavin999]

BUMP, let's keep this on top.

[DoctorZIn]

Iranian officials admit importance of Student protests

IPS ^ | 6/29/03 | IPS
Posted on 06/29/2003 3:35 PM PDT by freedom44

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/937732/posts?page=1

[dixiechick2000]

This is good news! Well, all except the part about the kidneys...that's very sad,

If Taheri supports the students, does that mean there are other mullahs who support them, as well?

[DoctorZIn]

If Taheri supports the students, does that mean there are other mullahs who support them, as well?

Yes, a growing number of clerics want a change because the corruptness of the regime is leading the masses away from Islam. They see the writing on the wall and want change. The same is true in Iraq.

[dixiechick2000]

Excellent! That is wonderful news!

Thank you for explaining that to me...

[Peach]

Selling kidneys - so sad, so desperate. How I wish the charitable organizations were stepping up more - cell phones, $$, food, anything and everything is needed.

[Peach]

Great web page; love the picture which so clearly reflects the desire for freedom - reaching for each other and the sky.

President Bush is right - nearly EVERYONE wants freedom. We're so very lucky in America.

[the Real fifi]

Dr Zin--I check for your posts several times a day and post the most important stuff on another board.

[DoctorZIn]

Where do you post them?