Iranian Alert -- April 18, 2004 [EST]-- IRAN LIVE THREAD -- "Americans for Regime Change in Iran"

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.” 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. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.

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.

Iran: US "Iron-fist" Policy Scuttles Efforts To Calm Iraq

April 18, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
AP

TEHRAN -- Iran said Sunday that America's "iron-fist" policies and the lack of security in Iraq had undermined Iranian efforts to bring calm to the country and it would no longer cooperate with Washington on those endeavors.

Iran sent a diplomatic delegation to Iraq in an effort to improve security but foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the team did not make the contacts it had hoped, and blamed the U.S.

The latest setback to Iranian efforts came after an Iranian diplomat was killed in Baghdad Thursday, causing Iran to distance itself from mediation efforts to end a standoff between Iraqi militias loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and U.S. forces.

"From the very beginning of the crisis, Iran tried to help ease tension but ... Washington's employment of an iron-fist policy further complicated the situation," Asefi said.

He was apparently referring to the increasing use of force by the U.S. military, which laid siege to Fallujah last week after the killing and mutilation of four U.S. civilians.

He also said America's policies caused the failure of the mission of an Iranian diplomatic delegation to Iraq last week.

He said Hossein Sadeghi, a top Iranian foreign ministry official, failed to meet with al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric.

"We couldn't meet Sadr or Ayatollah Sistani ... because of lack of security," Asefi said.

The spokesman said that, although Iran's influence was limited, without its efforts the situation in Iraq "would have been even more complicated," but said Iran would not cooperate any longer with the U.S. over Iraq.

"It's natural that we can't cooperate with occupying forces unless occupiers give administration to the United Nations so that power is transferred to the Iraqi people within an acceptable timetable," he said.

"We consider the U.S. one of the countries creating the crisis. So, there is no talk of cooperation but announcing opinions and warnings so that it gets out of this situation," he told reporters.

Iran said Wednesday it had ended negotiations with the U.S. about how to bring calm to Iraq because they were going nowhere. However, it said it was positively responding to U.S. demands through Switzerland to help improve security.

But Iran distanced from its position after its diplomat in Baghdad, Khalil Naimi, was assassinated by yet unidentified gunmen.

Iran, whose population is mostly Shiite Muslim, is worried about a possible U.S. attack on the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where Sadr is believed to be staying. Najaf is the site of the tomb of Ali, the most important Shiite saint.

U.S. commanders have vowed to "kill or capture" al-Sadr, but have so far limited their actions to small skirmishes on the outskirts of the city.

In his Sunday press conference, Asefi said the situation in Iraq was "very disappointing."

"Due to wrong U.S. policies and its lack of knowledge about the region and the Iraqi people, the situation is very disappointing. The problem in Iraq won't be resolved through intimidation and killing," Asefi said.

"The best option is for occupying forces to leave Iraq for the Iraqi people," he added.

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2004041810240000&Take=1

WHAT IRAN WANTS

By AMIR TAHERI
NY Post

April 18, 2004 -- WHILE Washington is looking for ways to adjust its strategy in Iraq, Tehran seems to be preparing to "settle scores" with it by preventing the emergence of a pro-American regime in Baghdad.
The Iranian leadership appears confident about its chances to call the shots in Iraq. To test the waters, Iran on Wednesday dispatched its deputy foreign minister, Hussein Sadeqi, to Iraq with the mission to negotiate an end to the stand-off between the U.S.-led Coalition and gangs of Shiite rebels in Baghdad and Najaf.

For almost a quarter of a century, Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime had been a threat to Iran's Khomeinist rulers. Saddam had failed to topple the Khomeinists with an eight-year war in which he had the support of Western powers - including, at one time, the United States.

In the last 12 years of his rule, the Iraqi dictator had been unable to pursue his duel with the mullahs of Tehran in a serious way. Nevertheless, the mullahs continued to consider Saddam as a strategic enemy who, given another chance, would resume his campaign against them.

Thus it is no exaggeration to say that Tehran was as glad as Washington to see Saddam go. But his removal created another, potentially more dangerous, threat to the Khomeinists: the emergence in Iraq of a democratic system in which the Shiites would play the central role.

The Tehran leadership know that Iraq has the potential to create such a system - but also that it cannot be built overnight. The mullahs also know that U.S. commitment is the key factor in deciding whether Iraq will build a new democratic state or plunge into chaos, civil war and (possibly) disintegration.

So the Tehran mullahs have been asking, "When will the Americans cut and run?" The question was raised by the leadership in Tehran days after the entry of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in Baghdad. Today, it is being asked with even greater urgency.

The first attempt at an answer was made by Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's "Supreme Guide," only days after the Ba'athist regime had been toppled. He predicted that the loss of 500 U.S. soldiers would force America to "escape from Iraq post-haste."

Since then, the Khomeinist leaders have refrained from that type of numbers game. But they remain confident that the United States will be driven out of Iraq "humiliated and chastised." To achieve that, they have devised a strategy of destabilizing Iraq without provoking direct confrontation with America.

A rare insight into Tehran's thinking was offered April 9 by Hashemi Rafsanjani, a mullah often regarded as the Khomeinist regime's "strongman." In a sermon on the campus of Tehran University, Rafsanjani ignored religious themes to focus on "the imminent settling of scores between America and Iran."

"The weaker the U.S. becomes, the stronger [our regime in] Iran," he said. "We have some scores with America that must be settled one day." Rafsanjani based his analysis on the premise that the United States has already failed in Iraq and presented 32 "reasons" to back that claim. "The U.S. has been exposed as an empty drum," Rafsanjani said. "The Americans are wondering what to do: Stay [in Iraq], or cut and run?"

He praised Saddam Hussein's "strategy of distributing arms among 6 million Iraqis" on the eve of the war. "These people have enough arms and ammunitions for six months," Rafsanjani claimed. That indicates Tehran's belief that various armed groups in Iraq will be able to maintain a level of insecurity in Iraq right to the eve of the American presidential election in November.

Rafsanjani also praised the group known as the Jaish al-Mahdi (The Messianic Army) led by Muqtada Sadr, a junior mullah of Iranian origin, as "passionate young men with epic courage." He also revealed that Iran has created an Iraqi branch of the Hezbollah (Party of God) in Iraq. "The [Iraqi] Hezbollah was fighting a resistance against Saddam," Rafsanjani said. "And today it has an iron-like organization."

Word that Iran had created an underground branch of the Hezbollah in Iraq is of special interest. It shows that the Khomeinist leaders, while supporting mainstream Iraqi Shiite opposition groups, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Ad-Da'awah (The Call) Party, had made sure to have another Shiite card up their sleeves.

One aim of the troubles provoked by Muqtada Sadr may well be to wreck U.S. efforts to promote a unified Iraqi Shiite front as the central plank of a future Iraqi state. Tehran knows that the Iraqi Shiites, if united, would no longer need Iranian patronage - and might emerge as an ideological rival to the regime in Tehran.

Iran has practiced the policy of never putting all its eggs in a single basket on other occasions. In early 1980s Lebanon, Tehran split the Shiite community by creating the Hezbollah against the Amal movement. Then, in the 1990s, Tehran encouraged two breakaway factions in Hezbollah itself.

In Afghanistan, Tehran balanced support for various groups so as to prevent them from uniting with a strategy that might reduce the importance of Iranian patronage for each. At one point, Iran was supporting both Ismail Khan, the "emir of Herat," and the Hazara groups nibbling at the area under his control.

In Tajikistan, Iran split the Islamist movement into three factions before making a deal with the neo-communist government in Doshanbeh.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States, for reasons of its own, destroyed the two regimes that Tehran regarded as its own most dangerous ideological enemies in the region. Now Tehran's ambition is to emerge as the kingmaker in both Kabul and Baghdad.

The Iranian analysis is simple: The Americans do not have the political stamina to stay the course in Iraq. Negative polls could force President Bush to withdraw his troops into bases in the Iraqi desert, allowing the cities to fall under the control of Iraqi armed groups.

In such a scenario, pro-Saddam groups would seize control of the so-called Sunni Triangle while Shiite groups beholden to Iran would dominate central and southern Iraq, leaving the Kurds cantoned in their two mountainous enclaves.

The Tehran leadership is also certain that John Kerry, if elected, will abandon Bush's plans for a "democratic" Middle East. "The United States has become vulnerable," Rafsanjani told his cheering audience in Tehran. "The Americans do not know which way to turn."

Behind the scenes of revolt in parts of Iraq lies the broader picture of the war that various brands of Islamism have waged against the United States for almost a quarter of a century.

Tehran leaders believe that the U.S. defeat in Vietnam enabled China to establish itself as the rising power in Asia. They hope that a U.S. defeat in Iraq will give the Islamic Republic a similar opportunity to become what Rafsanjani calls "the regional superpower."

The Khomeinist mullahs believe that an American defeat in Iraq will destabilize all Arab regimes, leaving the Islamic Republic as the only power around which a new status quo could be built in the region. "Here is our opportunity to teach the Americans a lesson," Rafsanjani said.

Well, that might also work the other way round.

E-mail: amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/22782.htm

Eurabia's plan for the destruction of Israel

http://www.freethoughts.splinder.it

Europe has decided to not cancel its shameful Nazi-Fascist past.Indeed,it stands by those which more than 60 years ago used to visit the Nazi-troops and Hitler himself as a way to offer support for the Holocaust and the elimination of a human race from this earth.This Europe,which i like to call "Eurabia",forgot his own crimes and genocides except on some important occasions such as the Memory Day,when everyone remembers the horrors of the Shoa.On that special day,everyone,from the ultra-leftist to the far-rightist speaks of the "duty to remember and pray it never occurs again".Slogans as "Never again" are repeated by every mass media,yet they seem to ignore the fact that that "Never again" is becoming a "once again" right here in Europe other than in the Middle East.

The day after is the usual anti-jews idiocy.

They claim that "being against the Sharon's policy does not mean being against the Jews nor being anti-semite".

No,it means being anti-semite.Just look at the thousands of times which Europe and its coward rulers (sadly also our so-called "pro-american" rulers) condemns Israel for applying with facts and not only words its right to defend itself.There would be not such a condemnation if it happens that it's Sharon or some other israeli ruler to be killed!

Instead,the French De Villepin and the coward monkey Prodi and his followers at the EU Commission find the courage to say that yesterday's murder of the genocidal and nazi terrorist leader Rantissi is a "crime and violates the intl. law"!!

Well, what is this so-called intl. law ? Is it that of the International Criminal Court where most of the "judges" are arabs or africans?? Is it that of the U.N. whose main members are the world's most brutal tyrannies??Or whose Human Rights Commission's Chairman is Lybia??

I assume some things: Europe does not know how world politics work or it does but prefers to ignore.

At this point,it's right of the US President to refuse Europe and UN's participation in the more important world issues.

It's also very bad for Bush to accept an UN and EU role in Iraq.This only will contribute to worsen the situation.

The Palestinian Authority daily pays a lot of money the european "reporters" in order to say what he wants them to do.It also demands EU to be always supportive of the "inalienable rights of the Palestinians"..This policy has produced some dramatic results.Hamas and PNA supporters are freely allowed to march in the main european cities alongside their far-leftist and far-rightist supporters.

It also happens that on the day of Italy's Liberation from Nazi-Fascism (which was made thanks to the great contribute of the Americans' blood),that is on April 25, groups of the so-called "National Association of the Partisans" wave Palestinian flags and insult the jews present at the demonstration.

So, where does today's Europe stay? It stays on yesterday's complicits.It stays with today's Nazis.

What the European Leaders aim to? They aim to destroy Israel and if they would have the keys,they would open the camps of Aushwitz.

Fortunately the dead Hitler cannot resurrect.

This Holocaust is daily committed in various parts of the world, from the Middle East to the Nazi Europe and Asia.All with the bloody-thirsty money of the European Leaders.

And our taxes as well.

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