Iranian Alert -- December 17, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD

The US media almost entirely ignores 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.” But 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.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

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.

Is Khobar Towers Testimony Being Silenced?

December 17, 2003
Insight Magazine
Scott L. Wheeler

A senior government official says the State Department is interfering with a civil lawsuit, creating setbacks for family members of victims of the 1996 bombing of a military barracks in Saudi Arabia.

The official, who spoke on condition that he not be named, told Insight that the State Department is taking "active measures" to prevent family members of some of the 19 victims of the Khobar Towers bombing from proceeding with a civil court case that alleges Iran sponsored the bombing and seeks a judgment http://www.insightmag.com/news/577844.htmlagainst the Islamic nation which the State Department itself lists as a country that sponsors terrorism.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh and the former head of the FBI's counterterrorism unit, Dale Watson, had been slated to testify in the trial and had even shown up in court to testify on one occasion but were told they couldn't appear, even though lawyers for the victims said they had received permission from the Justice Department for their testimony to go forward. In court, attorneys stated that there was another agency that had not granted permission and was holding up the testimony. The government official, who does not work for the State Department but who does have dealings with it on matters pertaining to terrorism, told Insight that State was the agency holding up testimony and attempting to prevent it from occurring altogether. "First they did everything they could to prevent Freeh and Watson from testifying," the official says, "and now they are putting pressure on the judge to dismiss the case."

A spokesman for the State Department said that "We reviewed the request without objection," but could not say when the Justice Department was notified of State's clearance of testimony by Freeh and Watson.

Another source close to the Justice Department told Insight that U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the boss of presiding judge U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson, was approached by the State Department and told that the Khobar Towers case was "still under investigation" and a "matter of national security" and that the case should be dismissed. When asked about allegations that the State Department applied pressure on the judge, a department spokesman told Insight, "We do not discuss ongoing cases."

Last Friday, after two weeks of hearing testimony, Robinson indicated her desire to dismiss the case even if Freeh and Watson are allowed to testify. "What evidence will be presented to make the trial worth holding over?" the judge asked attorneys for the families of the victims. Freeh and Watson both had concluded and previously had testified in other venues that Iran's assistance in the Khobar Towers bombing amounted to state sponsorship of the attack.

Robinson, however, raised questions over whether testimony of the two would divulge "classified" information. Attorneys responded that they only intended to pursue information provided by Freeh and Watson that already had been made public in other court depositions. The government official says that claims of national security in this case are "specious at best. This is about the State Department putting the interests of Iran and Saudi Arabia ahead of that of their own citizens." Testimony by the two former FBI officials is viewed as the cornerstone of the case for the family members and, according to several attorneys without an interest in the outcome of the case, would go well beyond the evidence necessary to win in a case where the defendant doesn't show up and put on a defense.

On Tuesday the court learned that the Justice Department had agreed to allow testimony from Freeh and Watson to go forward. However, family members of victims of the Khobar Towers bombing said they were disheartened by Robinson's statement about whether the family members who previously were scheduled to testify would be allowed to testify. Last week the judge told the victims' family members who had traveled at their own expense to testify at the trial to just "go home." Marie Campbell, wife of Air Force Sgt. Millard Dee Campbell, fighting back tears, told Insight, "It hurts a lot to have to prepare to testify about the loss of my husband" and then to be told "to just go home." Campbell says being involved with the lawsuit "may be the only justice we get" for the attack.

"My tears never stop," said Jennie Haun, wife of Air Force Capt. Timothy Haun, another Khobar Towers victim.

"We have so many things that make us suffer. Our loved ones were murdered and we only want what little bit of justice this provides," Haun told Insight. Haun also was scheduled to testify but says that after what happened in court yesterday she sees a chance for "a little bit of peace" slipping away.

Attorneys for the victims' families had no comment.

Scott L. Wheeler is a contributing writer for Insight.

http://www.insightmag.com/news/577844.html

Israel Urged to Stop Iran's Nuke Program

December 18, 2003
Middle East Newsline
MENL

HERZLIYA, Israel -- The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been urged to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program.

A senior Israeli parliamentarian regarded as a leading expert on Iran's strategic programs has warned the Sharon government that it cannot rely on the United States to stop Teheran's nuclear weapons project. The parliamentarian said Iran will achieve independent nuclear weapons capability over the next year.

"If we don't act by ourselves, then others won't do anything," Knesset member Ephraim Sneh told a strategic conference in Herzliya on Tuesday. "They will only do something if they know that we will act, providing no other alternative. This moment is approaching."

Sneh, a minister in previous Israeli governments, warned of Iran's nuclear capability as early as 1993 and helped draft policy that called for U.S. pressure to stop Russian technology to Teheran. He is a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee, which receives frequent intelligence briefings on Iran's nuclear weapons program.

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2003/december/12_18_2.html

EU Sill Troubled by Iranian Nclear Programme

December 17, 2003
AFP
Space War

HERZLIYA, Israel -- EU leaders remain deeply concerned about Iranian efforts to develop an atomic programme which could spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Wednesday.

"Iranian efforts to master the entire fuel cycle are extremely disquieting," he told a security conference in the Israeli town of Herzliya.

"We have from the very beginning made it unmistakeably clear to the Iranian side that the West will under no circumstances tolerate such a development," a stance based partly on concern for Israel's security, he added.

Fischer was one of three EU ministers who flew to Tehran earlier this year to persuade Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"It would be a nightmare not just for Israel but also for the whole region and indeed Europe if the Middle East were to acquire nuclear capabilities and thus face a nuclear arms race."

The subject of Iran was brought up earlier Wednesday in Fischer's talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the final day of a short visit to the region.

Fischer warned Tehran to comply with international demands for inspections, saying "the only thing that counts for us are verifiable facts."

Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, said earlier Wednesday it would probably be signing on Thursday an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty allowing for unscheduled inspections of suspect sites by the IAEA.

Israel is generally believed to possess nuclear weapons, the only country in the Middle East to do so.

http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031217133312.p5y4ow6o.html

US Says Iran's Signature on New Nuclear Inspection Protocol Not Enough

December 17, 2003
AFP
Space War

WASHINGTON -- Iran's expected signing this week of a new agreement to allow surprise inspections of its nuclear sites will not be enough to assuage US concerns about its atomic program, the United States said Wednesday.

The State Department said Iran's accession to the additional International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) protocol would be only one step in dealing with suspicions that Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

"We'd certainly welcome Iran signing of the additional protocol, but the signature is only one step toward resolving the remaining open questions about Iran's nuclear program," spokesman Richard Boucher said.

It is only one step "toward increasing international confidence that Iran's nuclear program will be limited to peaceful activities and that they will truly suspend all uranium enrichment-related and reprocessing activities," he said.

To fully convince Washington and the rest of the world, Boucher said Tehran would have to completely implement the provisions of the protocol and provide the IAEA will all the access it needs for the inspections.

Earlier Wednesday, the IAEA, which last month found Iran to have failed to meet all of its commitments to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Iran would sign the additional protocol on Thursday.

The United States accuses Iran of using its civil atomic energy program to mask nuclear weapons development but the IAEA has said there is no clear evidence to support that charge.

Iran vehemently denies the US allegations but had long resisted signing the additional protocol.

Tehran argued that inspectors could violate its national sovereignty and probe sites that are crucial to the defense of the country and demanded guarantees this would not happen.

But Iran finally gave in to IAEA demands after the agency threatened to refer its concerns to the UN Security Council, which would have left Iran vulnerable to sanctions.

That U-turn came in October during an unprecedented visit to Tehran by the foreign ministers of the European Union's big three -- Britain, France and Germany after which Iran agreed to sign the additional protocol, hand over full details of its activities and suspend uranium enrichment.

http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031217184909.01856sv0.html

Mofaz Talks of Eventual Nuke Raid on Iran

December 17, 2003
The Washington Times
UPI

TEL AVIB, Israel -- Speaking on Israel radio's Farsi language Shaul Mofaz promised to protect the environment from radioactive fallout if Israel destroyed Iran's nuclear ability.

Israel's Iranian-born defense minister Shaul Mofaz made the unique gesture of answering questions this week from listeners in Iran in their own language.

In a live broadcast over Israel Radio's Farsi-language service the questions came thick and fast.

Mofaz was six when his family emigrated from Iran to Israel. His knowledge of Farsi is rudimentary at best. But that didn't stop the Israeli defense chief from getting his message across to a stream of callers from the Islamic Republic who appealed to him for help on Israel Radio's Farsi service this week.

One caller from a city in central Iran asked when Israel and the Jews would finally repay their historical debt to Cyrus the Great and rescue the Iranian people from the dread ayatollahs, just as U.S. President George W. Bush had helped the people of Iraq and Afghanistan throw off their oppressors.

Mofaz, admitting he was not in the miracle business, wished the Iranian people success in their struggle for freedom.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20031217-032627-3518r.htm

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