Replies

Discover all the news since the protests began on June 10th, go to:

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

We Replaced Patrick Leahy's Brains With Folger's Crystals. Let's See If Anyone Notices!

Donate Here By Secure Server

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com

STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD-
It is in the breaking news sidebar!

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread

Live Thread Ping List | DoctorZin

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

Press Anxious About Nuclear Talks

October 05, 2003
BBC News
BBCi

As Iran announced on Saturday evening that it was prepared to sign, under certain conditions, an additional protocol allowing tougher inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Iranian papers were split over what action Tehran should take.

While Iranian representatives said they were optimistic about resolving the IAEA's concerns, some papers feared none of the options left for Tehran would solve the nuclear issue.

Indecision

A commentary in the centre-right Entekhab said that although it expected Iran to sign the additional protocol, "accepting this protocol will create some problems for us, but not doing so is not without its consequences either".

It called on Iran's leaders to clarify what guarantees Tehran would obtain if it signed up to the additional protocol, or, if Tehran decided not to do so, what precisely its reasons were.

The divisions within Iran were highlighted by the English-language Iran News: "Some believe Iran must not join the protocol because it would pave the way for further pressures... it is argued [that] we had better clarify the situation from the start and resist further demands."

The paper noted the fear among some Iranians of the country losing access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

However, it went on to say: "Another group says that Iran must accept the additional protocol so as not to give any excuses to Western countries, especially Europe.

"They believe the move will also prove the transparency of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities. After doing this, Iran can expect to receive facilities related to nuclear energy."

Arguing that access to nuclear technology was Iran's "inalienable right", a commentary in Etemaad noted that Iran's contemporary history was "full of agreements signed by men in power with foreign governments, most to the detriment of the Iranian nation".

The national interest

Several papers called on Tehran to consider carefully what was in Iran's national interest and not allow internal political divisions to harm the country.

Etemaad declared that national interests should be the "hallmark" of the behaviour of Iran's foreign ministry.

"Had the forgotten national interests been heeded earlier, we could have solved many problems. But better late than never," the paper said.

It advised Tehran not to repeat the memory of "despicable agreements" signed in the past.

"If political parties and government officials take the national interest into consideration, and make their decisions independent of their political differences... they will have achieved a formidable task," said a commentary in Entekhab.

The reformist Shargh complained that divisions within Iran were leading to a "democracy of chaos". It called on Tehran to find a single voice with which to address the world.

The American hand

A few papers focused on what they saw as US pressure driving the IAEA to act against Iran.

"It seems as if the great powers, and the US especially, have decided to prevent by any means Iran's access to nuclear power, even for necessary and peaceful purposes," the reformist Aftab-e Yazd said.

"Nobody should doubt that we cannot think of resorting to military confrontation to dissuade America and ensure the failure of its efforts and those of its allies," the paper warned.

Describing Iran's decision to discuss the additional protocol with the IAEA as a "positive move", Mardom Salari called on IAEA officials and the European Union to "appreciate the new development".

The paper argued that if Iran had taken this decision earlier, it would have "prevented the EU moving closer to the US position against Iran".

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3165012.stm

Iranian Woman Faces Execution in Official's Death
By NAZILA FATHI

Published: October 5, 2003

TEHRAN, Oct. 4 — An Iranian woman accused of killing a police chief in southern Iran who she said tried to rape her has been convicted and is to be executed, the Shargh newspaper reported Saturday.

The woman, Afsaneh Noroozi, 32, who has been in jail since 1997, said during her trial that she stabbed the chief of police intelligence on the island of Kish in self-defense when he tried to rape her. The police chief, whose name has not been made public, was a friend of Ms. Noroozi's family, and she was at his house as a guest.

Her lawyer cited in her defense an article in Iran's Islamic penal code that allows citizens to take proportionate action to defend "life, honor, chastity, property, or freedom."

The newspaper reported that the final ruling, confirmed by a high-level court in August, was delivered to Ms. Noroozi in prison in the southern city of Bandar Abbas last week. Sentences are usually carried out a few days after the ruling is delivered.

Human rights workers and advocates for women's rights have condemned the ruling, saying that it is a violation of the right of a woman to defend her honor.

Three women who are members of Parliament recently sent a letter to the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, asking him to send the case to a different judge.

The only person who can grant clemency now is Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Amnesty International has recorded 83 executions this year in Iran.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/05/international/middleeast/05IRAN.html?ex=1065931200&en=b4ce7eb7e47dc69c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Iran Rejects any Links to Missing Navigator Arad

October 05, 2003
Ha'aretz
DPA

Teheran - Iran on Sunday again rejected any links to the missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad and further denied any swap plans.

"There has never been any connection between Arad and Iran and there is not now either," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi said in a news briefing.

The spokesman was referring to press reports that Germany would mediate in swapping Arad with one Lebanese and two Iranian militants.

Germany had once been involved in a similar operation when in July 1996, the then German secret service chief Bernd Schmidbauer visited Teheran for secret talks over the exchange of prisoners and corpses between Lebanon and Israel.

Arad was captured by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim militiamen in 1986 after he had to abandon his plane over south Lebanon. Israel says he is held in Iran, a charge Iran has always denied.

There had been various reports that Arad would be exchanged for three Iranian diplomats and one photographer of the official Iranian news-agency IRNA who were abducted in 1982 when they came across a Lebanese paramilitary troops' checkpoint.

Although there has been no information about their fate since then and all four were believed dead, Iran believes that they are still held in the Atlit prison in northern Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=347113&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Inside Al Ansar

October 05, 2003
Newsweek
Babak Dehghanpisheh

Taha Mahmud remembers thinking he was going to die. He was thrashing through knee-deep mountain snow toward his last hope of safety, the Iranian border.

High overhead in Iraq’s sky, U.S. warplanes homed in on him and nearly 120 other Islamic radicals belonging to the Qaeda-linked Kurdish group Ansar Al-Islam. American bombs and missiles had already obliterated Ansar’s stronghold in the valley below. While Mahmud wondered whether to risk being shot by Iranian border guards, a pair of American bombs solved his dilemma. Two thunderous explosions sent him staggering into Iran, his path traced by blood from his shredded left knee. “Only Allah saved me,” Mahmud says.

Most Kurds were glad to think Mahmud and his cohorts were gone forever. For 18 months Ansar had waged a fratricidal jihad against its secular Kurdish neighbors instead of helping them fight Saddam Hussein. After the U.S. assault on its enclave last March, the group seemed to vanish. Tehran still insists that none of Ansar’s 900 or so fighters were allowed into Iran. Hundreds of them managed to get in anyway, welcome or not. Now they’re sneaking back across the border to continue their battle against the West. L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, estimates that “several hundred” Ansar fighters have returned since spring. “They’re a very dangerous terrorist group,” he says, “and that’s a lot of terrorists.”

Ansar infiltrators are already prime suspects in some of the deadliest terrorist strikes against Americans and their allies in Iraq. The attacks include the Aug. 7 truck bombing outside the Jordanian Embassy and the Aug. 19 destruction of the United Nations’ Baghdad headquarters. The former Qaeda associate suspected of masterminding the Jordanian Embassy bombing, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, remains on the loose. And Ansar’s founder, the man known as Mullah Krekar, makes no secret of his enthusiasm for holy war even as he fights efforts to deport him from Norway (box). Increasing evidence suggests that Ansar fighters are joining forces with Baathists and members of Al Qaeda. In one such case, a suspected Qaeda operative was caught with 11 surface-to-air missiles in Ar Ramadi, west of Baghdad; he told investigators he had trained with Ansar members to use the weapons against Americans.

Dozens of Ansar foot soldiers have been captured in recent months and are being interrogated by U.S. and Kurdish intelligence officers. The prisoners who were made available to NEWSWEEK presented an unsettling picture. The young men themselves were a diverse lot, not unlike the rank and file of any fighting organization. But they described a group that has mutated and adapted since being forced out of its former base in Iraq, and whose leaders have an implacable hatred of America.

U.S. and Kurdish security officials say roughly 300 Ansar militants are holed up in small Iranian towns along the border. The group seems to be recruiting new members in Baramawa, a Kurdish refugee camp inside Iran, and the fighting force is said to have been reorganized into small units of 10 to 15 members, each headed by an “emir.” Most captured operatives have been unarmed. Before leaving Iran they were told only where to go for further instructions, usually a shop or house near the border where they would be sent on to another meeting place. Only after several stops would they receive weapons and specific orders for an attack.

Military analysts in the region aren’t sure how much help Ansar is getting from Iranian officials. Tehran gave at least tacit support to the group before expelling Krekar in 2002 as a conciliatory gesture to Washington. Now Iranian police stage frequent sweeps of the border towns, arresting and quietly expelling any members of the group they catch. Nevertheless, some of those expelled have been given weapons upon departure, and some continue to use Iran as a sanctuary. “It’s not like Ansar has set up an office in Tehran. It wouldn’t be good for the Iranian government to be linked with them,” says Sgt. Bill Fleck, 33, a member of the 101st Airborne Division who has interviewed numerous detainees. “But it seems like the Iranians have decided to contain them near the border.”

That’s as much as the group needs to continue its operations. Mariwan Hussein, 20, spent about four months hiding out with other Ansar members there after the Americans drove them out of Iraq. His superiors sent him to join four other fighters at a house in the border town of Marivan. He says there were as many as 30 such houses in town, some holding 10 or 15 members. Plainclothes agents raided his house one day and arrested four other Ansar members, but Hussein got away. He says he changed houses three times to avoid arrest before his superiors sent him back to Iraq in late August. Kurdish security officials caught him with a crate of pistols on —Aug. 24. During the interview with NEWSWEEK he giggled wildly, then stopped himself. “Ansar fighters aren’t afraid of anything,” he declared, staring straight ahead.

That’s what their leaders say. Yet Sangar Mansur, 19, found out they were lying. He lived with his father and two sisters in Biyara, a village near the Iranian border, when Ansar fighters arrived in the fall of 2001. The group’s Taliban-style restrictions were harsh: no smoking, no jeans, no music. The punishment for drinking was 100 lashes. But when Mansur was invited to join the group, he accepted. “It was hard to say no,” he says. “I’m the eldest son, and joining Ansar made life easier for my family.” He grew his hair and beard to blend in with the other fighters, who included not only Iraqi Kurds but Saudis, Turks, Afghans, Iranian Kurds and Chechens. Still, he noticed that the foreigners rarely mixed with the Kurds—a habit that was driven home when the Americans started bombing. The Arab leaders ordered the Kurds to stand and fight. Then they fled. Mansur turned himself in to Kurdish authorities. He says he’s sorry he had anything to do with Ansar: “It was a big mistake.”

Mahmud doesn’t claim to be sorry. When he stumbled down the snowy mountainside, Iranian border guards packed him off to a detention cell with more than 100 other Ansar fighters. A few days later he was driven to a military hospital where surgeons spent two hours working to repair his knee. Two weeks later the Iranians took him and roughly 300 other Ansar men back to the Iraqi border. The fighters were given weapons, blankets, food and a warning: “Don’t come back.” As he started toward home, he could see some members of the group doubling back, following other mountain trails into Iran. The border guards watched without trying to stop them. Mahmud didn’t get far before a Kurdish patrol picked him up. He says he was headed home to see his wife. His captors say he was sent back to Iraq on a suicide mission. If so, he’s safely behind bars now. But hundreds of fighters like him are not.

With Mark Hosenball in Oslo
NEWSWEEK - Oct. 13 issue

http://www.msnbc.com/news/976017.asp

Israel Strikes Islamic Base in Syria

October 05, 2003
The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli army attacked an Islamic Jihad training base in Syria in retaliation for a suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant that killed 19 people, the army said in a statement Sunday.

The raid was carried out by warplanes and hit the Ein Saher camp near Damascus, Israel radio reported.

The army said the attack, which occurred late Saturday or early Sunday, targeted a base deep in Syrian territory used by several terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The attack came several hours after a Palestinian woman wrapped in explosives entered a beachside restaurant in Haifa during the busy lunchtime hour and blew herself up, killing 19 people, including four children.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for that attack.

"Following the attack, the army has started operating against those behind the attack, those who support (terror) and those who use the strategy of terror in order to harm citizens of Israel," the army said in a statement.

Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group responsible for many attacks against Israel, enjoys support from other countries, including Iran and Syria, the statement said.

"Syria is a state that supports terror, that constantly tries to frustrate efforts to bring calm and stability to the region and gives cover in its territory and capital to the terror organizations that act against Israeli citizens," the army said.

"Israel will not accept the rules of the game that the terrorists are trying to dictate, and will act with determination against all who harm its citizens, in accordance with the right to self defense and defense of the state," it said.

On April 16, 2001, Israeli warplanes blasted a Syrian radar station in Lebanon, where Syria is the main power broker, killing three Syrian soldiers. That strike was the first in five years against the Syrian military and came in retaliation for an attack by Syrian-backed guerrillas in which an Israeli soldier was killed.

Syria closed the offices of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad after the U.S. invasion of Iraq out of fear it could be the next nation targeted by the United States.

The United States had been pushing Syria to act further and expel Hamas and Islamic Jihad leader, but Syria has refused.

Western diplomats say Syria is loathe to be seen as betraying the Palestinian cause, and it also does not want to give up one of the few bargaining chips it still has in negotiations with Israel.

http://www.iht.com/articles/112409.html

Sentimental Journey

October 05, 2003
The Middle East
Cyrus Kadivar

For many thousands of Iranian who were forced to leave Iran following the fall of the Shah in 1979, the Rifa'I mosque in Cairo has become a place of pilgrimage. In a conversation with THE MIDDLE EAST, Empress Farah Pahlavi spoke candidly of her husband's final days.

The kelidar or holder of the key to the Rifa'i Mosque is a fifty-three year old disabled man with protruding eyes and wrinkled face that breaks into a smile at the sight of visitors. Mahmoud Abdul Hafez takes great pride in his ancestral role as he hobbles around with the help of his stick, opening the creaky wooden doors to the royal crypts, many of which are damp and poorly lit by ancient hanging lamps with Arabic verses.

For the Iranian exiles flocking to the Rifa'i mosque the most important key Mahmoud holds is the one with which he unlocks their past. For those embarking on the sentimental journey to the mosque, there is a sense of undertaking a sort of pilgrimage.

The sight of the mosque is reassuring. Overshadowed by the Grand Mosque of Sultan Hassan and dominated by the Citadel, the Rifa'i mosque is situated in an area covering 1767 square meters and flanked by four massive columns. Pointed arches divide the royal mosque into three porticoes. Two marble columns, one white and the other dark green, stand at the sides of the great dome. Once past the guarded metal gates the shady grounds are lined with eucalyptus trees in pots that flank the massive stairways leading up to the mosque and into the prayer hall with its minbar decorated with mother of pearls.

Commissioned by the mother of the Khedive Ismail as a dynastic mosque that would house, in addition to the Sufi relics, the tombs of the royal family, its construction was painfully slow and eventually halted completely in 1880. After 25 years of inactivity work on the mosque resumed when Abbas Hilmi entrusted Max Herz Bey, the Austro-Hungarian architect, and his Italian assistant Carlo Virgilio Silvagni, with the enormous task. Most of the materials were imported from Europe. Finally inaugurated in 1912, the mosque came to represent a turning point in the cultural and political history of Cairo.

Beyond the latticed wooden frames that separate the grand prayer hall from a smaller one reserved for ceremonial visits and graced by seven Persian carpets donated to the mosque by grateful Iranian exiles, is a large door beautifully carved in oriental style. Behind it, lies a vast marbled room.

The lights from above cast a sombre glow illuminating the multicoloured carved stones that pattern the inner walls. To the right of the mausoleum stands the former Iranian flag emblazoned with a fierce lion holding a sword with a rising sun behind its back. In a niche is an open Koran set in an inlaid wooden case.

On the marbled floor beside an enormous silk carpet lies a pale green tombstone carved with the imperial coat of arms and an inscription in Persian words that reads: His Imperial Majesty, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran.

After more than two decades of theocratic rule in Iran nostalgia for the monarchy is increasing steadily. For those Iranians who find themselves in this mausoleum there is a poignancy for an emperor who reigned for 37 years during which Iran was an island of stability and progress in a volatile part of the world.

The Shah left his homeland on 16 January 1979. In Aswan, Egypt, President Sadat received him with open arms. It was the only real welcome he would receive over the next 18 months as he searched for a secure exile for his family. America, which had advised him to leave Iran, would not accept him and Britain, Germany, and France also turned their backs, anxious not to upset the ayatollahs.

Cast adrift by his former allies, the Shah was forced to travel from Morocco to the Bahamas, Mexico, New York, and finally to Panama where he narrowly escaped being extradited to Tehran by revolutionaries baying for his blood. By the time the Shah accepted President Sadat's offer of refuge in Egypt, he was a dying man.

At Cairo Airport President Sadat and his wife Jehan were on hand to offer a state welcome to the exiled monarch and his empress. Even after 23 years the sad memory of those days has not faded for generations of Iranians.

Seated on a floral sofa in the main salon of one of several residential palaces where she is staying as a guest of the Egyptian government, the Shah's widow is grateful for all the hospitality she receives. "In Egypt," she says, "we always know that we are among friends."

In a conversation with The Middle East, Empress Farah Pahlavi spoke candidly of her husband's final days. She recalled the night she was summoned to his bedside at the Maadi military hospital near the Nile.

Surrounded by his family and loyal members of his entourage, the emperor had passed away on the morning of 27 July, 1980. "At the end it seemed as if His Majesty had resigned himself to rise above all the betrayals and pettiness of life," she remembered. "As for myself I had to take care of so many things that I did not even have time to mourn."

At 65, Empress Farah is an elegant and stoical figure whose presence continues to attract the loyalty of Iranian exiles across the globe. She has never forgotten that hot day in Cairo when she walked behind the Shah's flag-draped coffin during a three mile journey that was to carry the emperor's mortal remains from the Abdeen Palace to a "temporary" grave at the Rifa'i Mosque where once upon a time the embalmed corpse of Reza Shah, Mohammed Reza Shah's father, had also been deposited pending reburial in Iranian soil.

"His Majesty had great ambitions for his people," she says. "I became his wife and Queen at a time when everything in our country was taking off at great speed. We worked very hard to bring a better life for everyone. After the tragic events in our country I owe it to him and my compatriots to honour his memory. I believe that light will triumph over darkness and that one day my husband will be buried in his own homeland."

The day after our conversation, Empress Farah laid flowers at the tomb of the late President Sadat, in what has become an annual event. Later at sunset, the Empress and Jehan Sadat attended an Islamic memorial service at the Rifa'i mosque. As usual, many Iranians travelled from afar to be with them. In the mausoleum, four golden candlesticks had been placed around the Shah's tombstone. The Empress knelt and placed a kiss on the soft stone, her eyes closed in prayer.

The day after the ceremonies the mosque seems quiet. The rooms are scented with jasmine and filled with flowers sent from Iranians around the world. Hanni, Mahmoud's son, reminds visitors of Egypt's links with Iran. "King Farouk's sister, Princess Fawzia was once married to the Shah of Iran," he says pointing to the white stone belonging to Egypt's last king whose resting place is in a chamber adjacent to that of the Iranian monarch.

The large wooden doors to the royal crypts are shut with several turns of the key. Mahmoud was 30 years old when he buried the Shah in an underground chamber located a few feet beneath the tombstone. He is convinced that Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was a ‘good king' who died in peace and that his soul is with other ‘good kings' history has not always treated with the respect they commanded in life.

The Middle East
October 2003
Issue 338

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=10&d=05&a=6

Judiciary fiercely denies death of jailed dissident

AFP - World News
Oct 5, 2003

TEHRAN - Iran's judiciary has dismissed as "pure lies" rumours of the death in custody of jailed journalist and political dissident Mohsen Sazegara, the official news agency IRNA reported. The statement from the proscution office said speculation that Sazegara -- on hunger strike according to some reports -- had died were "lies", "rumours" and being circulated by those "seeking to provoke tensions by giving a dark image of the prisons".

The prosecution office said the dissident was in "good health" and "in full physical and mental health." The office for Tehran, headed by hardline judge Said Mortazavi who is best known for his closure of dozens of pro-reform papers, also denied Sazegara was even on hunger strike and warned newspapers against "publishing lies". Sazegara, who played an active role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has since become critical of the authorities.

He was arrested in June, during a wave of student unrest in Tehran. An author of virulent open letters, he was also arrested in February for challenging the current political regime and calling for a referendum, but was released in a few days after starting a hunger strike.

Reformist newspapers on Saturday reported that fears were mounting for the health of Sazegara and cited rumours of his death. Both the Nasim Saba and Shargh newspapers reported the rumors. According to the man's brother and one of his lawyers, reports are circulating that he has been admitted to a heart unit at the Baghiatollah hospital, affiliated with the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Shargh quoting close relatives as saying Sazegara, who suffers from serious heart problems, has started a hunger strike, not only abstaining from solid food but also not taking any water or medication, of which he is in dire need.

In parliament on Sunday, reformist MP Rajab Ali Mazrui -- also the head of the Iranian press association -- warned that the regime could "not afford" another death in custody case, and requested the chamber appoint a committee to report on Sazegara's health.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2725.shtml

Iran: Public Prosecutor's Office says death of Sazgara is sheer lie

Payvand
10.5.2003

Public Prosecutor's Office in an announcement issued in Tehran on Saturday evening, rejected rumors on death of journalist Mohsen Sazgara at Evin prison as a sheer lie, IRNA reported.

The journalist and university professor Mohsen Sazgara was arrested last February. His Golestan-e Iran (Garden of Iran) newspaper was closed down last year shortly after hitting the newsstands.

The announcement published by the Public Prosecutor's Office further warned the press against publishing rumors, creating tension in the society and making disinformation about the prisons' status. It called on certain people and press, who always try to make crisis in the society, to move within the framework of laws and regulations and refrain from publishing false news and information.

The announcement further quoted the weekly report of Evin prison as saying that while certain press published the rumor of hunger strike, bad health condition and death of Sazgara last week, he was in a good health condition at Evin prison.

Meanwhile, the public relations department of the Public Prosecutor's Office stressed that the Prisons Organization rejects any rumor on Sazgara's hunger strike.

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/oct/1032.html

CHARGES AGAINST ARGENTINEAN JUDGE INNOCENTS IRAN

TEHRAN 5 Oct. (IPS)

The Islamic Republic on Sunday said it would not accept any mediation in its crisis with Argentine, following allegations that the Argentinean Judge that has accused Iran of having masterminded the 1994 explosion of the Buenos Aires Jewish Centre has coerced witnesses to accuse Tehran.

The explosion killed 85 people and wounded more than 300 hundreds.

Following an international warrant from Judge Juan Jose Galeano, Scotland Yard arrested last August Mr. Hadi Soleymanpour, Iran´s ambassador to Argentine at the time of explosion, in the northern city of Durham, where he is studying international politics at the city’s prestigious university.

Mr. Soleymanpour was released two weeks later on a record 750.000 British Pounds bail, with the London Court awaiting “more convincing documents” on the participation of the diplomat and other senior Iranian officials, including the former Intelligence minister, Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian in the explosion.

According to new press reports, Judge Galeano has paid 400.000 US Dollars to a key witness, the driver who took the explosives provided by the terrorists to AMIA, or the Centre for Jewish Solidarity, stopping however short of explaining where he got the relatively huge sum.

Other former Argentinean intelligence officers have also accused Mr. Galeano for having coerced them in accusing the Islamic Republic, the reports added.

“The accusations against Galeano shows that the whole issue is baseless and a political manipulation, as we have stated from the outset”, the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Sunday the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s senior spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as having stated.

Angry at the arrest of its diplomat, Tehran recalled briefly its ambassador form London and cut the remaining trade and cultural ties with Buenos Aires.

“Now, everyone can see by itself that not only we had nothing to do with the explosion, but also how the Argentinean Judiciary played in the hands of the Zionist entity (Israel) in making fabricated accusations agains the Islamic Republic”, Mr. Asefi told IRNA, adding that Iran would accept no mediation aimed at normalising Iran´s relations with Buenos Aires unless Argentine presents full and official apology.

The charges against Judge Galeano are in line with those made against Mr. Carlos Menem, the former president, accused by the press of having accepted a 10 million US Dollars bribes from the Iranians for shelving the case that was re-opened recently by the present Argentine President. ENDS DIPLOMAT ARRESTED 51003

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Oct-2003/diplomat_arrest_51003.htm

Khatami Receives New Envoy to UN

October 05, 2003
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
IRIB News

Tehran -- Iran's newly-appointed ambassador to UN, Mehdi Danesh Yazdi, here on Sunday called on President Mohammad Khatami before leaving on his mission.

At the meeting, President Khatami pointed to Iran's close cooperation with the UN in various fields and underlined the pivotal role of the world body in settling regional and international issues.

Turning to the need for reviving UN's role in establishing justice and promoting global peace, which has been considerably weakened, he invited the world community to dialogue, peace and coexistence to save the humanity from the nightmare of war and terrorism.

For his part, Danesh Yazdi submitted a report on the focus of his mission as well as the latest regional and global developments.

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=189635

Iran: U.S. Attitude Toward Tehran Hurting its Mideast Interests

October 05, 2003
The Associated Press
Ha'aretz

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Sunday that America is damaging its Middle East interests by not dealing positively with Iran, a country Washington accuses of developing nuclear weapons but wields considerable influence in the Gulf region.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters that the United States, "through its wrong approach, has denied itself the might and influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region."

"The United States should adopt a pragmatic and positive approach toward Iran and the region," Asefi said. "Under such circumstances, they will be able to solve their problems" in the region.

Asefi's comments come as the international community, led by the United States, pressures Iran to open up its nuclear facilities for unfettered inspections. Washington also accuses Iran of supporting anti-Israeli militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

America says Iran's nuclear program aims to produce atomic weapons. Tehran denies these claims, saying its intentions are to produce electricity, not nuclear bombs.

Asefi's remarks indicate an apparent softening of Iran's tone toward America, by suggesting the United States could benefit from Iran's regional importance if it dealt with the Persian state differently.

They may also be interpreted as an offering of Iranian support to America in its attempt to restore order in and reconstruct post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

The United States is worried about an Iranian-style Shiite Muslim clerical government developing in neighboring Iraq, and skeptical of Iran's influence on Iraq - where a majority of people are Shiites - and its political landscape.

Asefi said Iran is considering an invite to a donors meeting in Spain later this month to discuss Iraq reconstruction policies.

Iran has also welcomed the formation of a new Iraqi leadership and praised America's decision to close the offices of an armed rebel Iranian group based in Iraq. The U.S. State Department also closed the offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq's political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in Washington.

The Mujahedeen Khalq, which wages an insurrection against the Iranian government, based its fighters in Iraq and received support from the government of Saddam Hussein. In a standoff after the overthrow of Saddam, the U.S. military briefly bombed the Mujahedeen camps until the group capitulated and agreed to disarm.

Iran and America have had no diplomatic ties since 1979 when Iranian militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took its occupants hostage. Moves toward better relations received a setback last year when President George W. Bush described Iran as part of an "axis of evil," provoking condemnation from Tehran.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=347123&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Russian Defense Chief Claims No Danger From Iran Cooperation

October 06, 2003
The Associated Press
Ha'aretz

MOSCOW - Russia's defense chief reiterated Sunday that his country will not supply nuclear fuel for a power plant it is building in Iran unless Tehran agrees to return all spent fuel to Russia, the Interfax news agency reported.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov also issued Russia's latest assurances that it is demanding Iran comply with UN rules governing nuclear programs and that its cooperation will not enable Iran to develop nuclear weapons, Interfax said.

The United States fears Russia's US$800 million deal to help build Iran's first nuclear power reactor, for a plant in the city of Bushehr, will make it easier for Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

Russia has repeatedly denied the link but recently has taken steps to assuage the American concerns, including saying it will not ship nuclear fuel for the reactor until Iran signs an agreement on the return of spent fuel - which could be used for weapons development - to Russia.

"There will be no shipments of nuclear fuel to Bushehr until Iran signs a protocol on the return of spent fuel from the atomic power station to the Russian Federation," Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

He said it is "impossible to create nuclear weapons on the basis of the Russian technology provided to Iran" and - echoing officials including President Vladimir Putin - accused those who call on Russia to halt nuclear cooperation with Tehran of acting out of competitive interests.

He said it is in Russia's national interest to prevent technology that could help in a nuclear weapons program from reaching Iran. Russia and Iran are close to each other, with just a few hundred kilometers (miles) separating their border.

Ivanov reiterated Russian criticism of "double standards" over Iran, claiming that "several European states" have provided Iran with equipment in violation of nuclear proliferation regulations, including gas centrifuges for enriching uranium.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=347143&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Partial strikes of Teachers and their supporter students paralyse Iranian schools

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Oct 5, 2003

Partial strikes paralysed, today, many school classes in main Iranian provincial cities and in the Capital in prelude to a more massive strike that will be held tomorrow in most academies.

Many classes in cities, such as, Tehran, Khorram-Abad, Esfahan, Kermanshah, Hamadan and Abadan were closed as teachers and their students, supporting them, refused to attend the courses. These actions took place and will take place despite the official injunctions of the authorities and the Education Ministry's Intelligence Offices.

Sporadic gatherings were planned to take place, later in the day and on Monday, in front of many of the local offices of the Ministry of Education in main cities.

The teachers intended to size the "International Teacher's Day" in order to protest against the empty promises of the regime and the persistent repression in Iran.

Several teachers remain in jails or have been purged following the last 2 years actions and the murderers of 2 of their colleagues are still at large.

The 2 teachers were killed during a peaceful demonstration on January 25, 2000, and as Kofi Annan, visiting Tehran, was praising the Islamic regime for its Democratic progresses.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2733.shtml

Security forces attack the protest gatherings of Iranian teachers

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Oct 5, 2003

The Islamic regime's security forces intervened, today, in several Iranian cities, such as, Tehran, Esfahan, Khorram-Abad, Hamadan and Kermanshah in order to break the partial protest gatherings of Iranian teachers and their supporters mainly composed by students.

Several teachers and their supporters have been reported as injured or arrested in cities of Tehran, Esfahan and Khorram-Abad by brutal militiamen and plainclothes men carrying clubs and chains.

Slogans, such as, "Mass-oolin e bi kefayat, Khejalat, Khejalat" (Incompetent authorities, shame, shame), "Mass-oolin Ghargh e Nemat, Konnand Ma ra nassihat" (Authorities full of benefits, Are giving us Advise), "Mass-olin e bi liaghat, Estefa, Estefa" (Autorities with no attribution, resignation, resignation) and "mellat Gedai mikonad, Akbar Khoda-i mikonad" (People are mendicating, Akbar -Rafsanjani- plays God) were shouted while regime's men were attacking the protesters.

Most accesses to the "Ministry of Education" in the Taleghani (former Takh-e-Jamshid) avenue of Tehran as well as its local offices in turmoiled provincial cities were closed by the security forces in order to avoid the increasing number of supporters to reach the protesters.

Chase and run were reported from Tehran, Esfahan, Khorram-Abad and Hamedan as the regime's men were intending to arrest individuals calling on supporters to break the security belts and to help the demonstrators.

The today's demonstrations took place along with partial strikes in most schools as more wider actions are planned for tomorrow in front of the offices of the Ministry of Education, in Tehran, and its representations in main provincial cities.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2734.shtml

A SMOKING SCHISM?

AMIR TAHERI
NY Post
October 5, 2003 --

EVER since the liberation of Baghdad, many people had expected it: a theological duel between the two "seminary cities" of Najaf, in Iraq, and Qom, in Iran, over the leadership of the world's estimated 200 million Shi'ite Muslims.
The first moves in the duel have come from Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani in Najaf and Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi in Qom.

The issue that triggered it is neither theological nor political, but one of lifestyle: Does Islam permit the smoking of tobacco?

The question was put to the two clerics by the Iranian Students Association, a Tehran-based pro-reform movement. The answers show the two clerics to be poles apart in their understanding of theology and the role it should play in a Muslim society.

Sistani is the primus inter pares of Iraqi Shi'ite theologians. Under house arrest through much of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, and thus prevented from communicating with Shi'ites outside Iraq, Sistani was unable to use his position as the senior mullah of Najaf to project his vision of Shi'ism. With Saddam gone, he is now free to pursue his goal of rebuilding Najaf's position as a center of Ijtihad (theological rulings.)

Sistani was a pupil of the late Grand Ayatollah Abol-Qassem Khoi, regarded by many as the greatest of Shi'ite theologians of the last century. Khoi preached a quietist version of Islam and emphasized personal piety as opposed to political militancy. He insisted that clerics should not seek political power, but act as arbiters between state and society.

Shirazi is one of six mullahs appointed by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei as a collective "source of emulation" (Marja'a al-Taqlid).

He first made his name in the 1970s by claiming that Shi'ite theologians did not pay enough attention to the Koran, the Muslim fundamental text, and the hadiths, or sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad. He also criticized the Shi'ites' passion for visiting "holy shrines," many of them in Iraq. Shirazi's position prompted a charge of "Wahhabism" from his critics.

The rival fatwas on smoking reveal not only two schools of Ijtihad, but two visions of the role of religion in society.

Shirazi states categorically that smoking tobacco in any form and under any circumstances and by anyone is a sin. He uses the Koranic term haram (forbidden).

For Shirazi, anyone who smokes a cigarette could be regarded as "engaged in rebellion against Allah." It would be incumbent on every believer and the authorities of the state to restrain smokers and, if they persist, punish them.

The nature of the punishment is not spelled out. But, since imprisonment does not exist in classical Islamic jurisprudence, the punishment envisaged could either be flogging in public or death.

Shirazi bases his position on verse 195 of the surah, "The Cow," in the Koran, which tells Muslims not to lead themselves to destruction. (The verse has hitherto been interpreted as urging believers not to take suicidal action in war.)

Shirazi's style of Ijtihad belongs to a school that emphasizes al-naql (dogma) as opposed to al-aql (reason). Shirazi's fatwa is long, peppered with obscure theological terms and Arabic quotations, and thus not easily accessible to a majority of Shi'ites, especially Iranians who do not understand Arabic.

Sistani's fatwa is short and to the point: It states that smoking is not forbidden as such, but anyone who knows that it is harmful to his or her health should refrain.

Sistani does not bring the Koran, the Prophet and the imams into the debate. He regards the issue of smoking as one to be settled by human reason, medical knowledge and individual choice - not theological anathema and interdict. For Sistani, in most issues concerning human existence, "reason" must prevail over dogma.

The two schools of Ijtihad could lead to two different forms of social and political organization.

Shirazi uses words such as "must" and "obligatory": This means that the clergy should exercise authority over society through edicts that leave no room for individual choice and judgment.

That position is based on the claim that a majority of the faithful are incapable of knowing right from wrong: They are the mustazafeen (the enfeebled ones), who need the intercession of the clergy to avoid the fires of hell.

Shirazi's ideal society is ultimately Platonist: the government of the learned over an ignorant populace. Its Khomeinist version is known as walayt al-faqih, which means rule by the theologian.

Sistani, by contrast, uses such words as "recommended" or "preferable." He casts the clergy into the role of "ethical counselors" of society. The ultimate decision is made by the individual on the basis of his own reason, the most precious gift from God to man.

Sistani's vision is ultimately Aristotelian. His ideal society is one in which rulers are ordinary, but pious citizens.

Because the concept of an intercessor is alien to Islam, Sistani rejects the idea that an individual could escape the consequences of his deeds simply by following the clergy.

There are other differences between the two schools. Shirazi bases his fatwa on an interpretation of the past. Sistani, however, urges attention to the present and future state of medical knowledge.

For Shirazi, every issue under the sun is theological. Sistani, however, recognizes public and private spaces in which theology intervenes by invitation only, and then as one voice among many. In his view, science, politics, literature, art and culture in general are autonomous categories, not mere branches of theology.

More importantly, Sistani rejects the concept of "infallibility" (ismah) that, though alien to Islam, is a cornerstone of the Khomeinist claim to power.

The liberation of Iraq and the re-emergence of Najaf as a center of Ijtihad is the best news that Shi'ism has had for more than half a century.

Competition between Najaf and Qom could enrich Islamic theology and benefit both centers. This is one duel that should be welcome, because it is one of ideas.

E-mail: amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com

http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/604

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/7269.htm

Thanks, Zin. I Ate at Reza's in Chicago last week. Great food.

This thread is now closed.

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread

Live Thread Ping List | DoctorZin

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