Iranian Alert -- DAY 22 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Iran media spotlight Iran-UK spat

BBC Monitoring Services
June 30, 2003

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's trip to Tehran was dominated by the nuclear issue, as he urged Iran's leaders to sign an additional protocol allowing tougher inspections of its nuclear facilities.
But the country's media seemed more interested in the state of Iran-UK relations, after last week's diplomatic row over remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on recent student protests.

The differences between British and Iranian policy over Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East are the focus of an Iranian radio commentary on the visit.

"On the whole, it must be said that the talks between Mr Kharrazi and Mr Jack Straw in Tehran demonstrated that a clear division of opinion remains between the two countries."

Fence-mending

The English-language Tehran Times put a more positive slant on the visit.

It believes that, unlike Iran-US ties, Tehran-London relations have improved "despite all their ups and downs".

But the paper is in no doubt that Mr Straw's visit has been "a tough one" following Tony Blair's remarks in which he said the recent anti-government demonstrations in Iran deserved Britain's support. Iranian officials condemned the remarks as interference in the country's internal affairs.

"Blair has spoilt the game. Straw is expected to mend fences," it says.

The conservative Resalat warns Mr Straw that the UK Government's "strong diplomatic stances" could damage ties with Iran.

"If Jack Straw is bearing an intemperate message we remind the British that, from now on, there is a clear link between their stances and their interests in Iran," it says.

US puppet?

The extent to which Britain agrees with the US over Iran also interests the press.

Several newspapers are divided over whose interests the British foreign secretary is representing - London's or Washington's.

The hardline Jomhuri-ye Eslami believes Mr Straw's visit illustrates that "London has turned into a political clown that only repeats America's words in order to receive something in return".

This view is disputed in the centre-right Entekhab.

"Straw's visit to Iran does not amount to a step by the US to solve the problems between the two countries, nor is Britain playing the mediator," it says.

He has come to Tehran to "make demands" on behalf of the UK Government, according to the paper.

"This creates an opportunity for Tehran to voice its demands decisively, in exactly the same way that they raise their demands."

The reformist Etemaad believes Mr Straw has Europe's interest at heart.

"If Europe loses Iran as it did Afghanistan and Iraq, it effectively has to give up the Middle East or pin its hope on this strategic region within the limits of America's will."

24 students arrested by militant forces in the north western city of Tabriz. The arrestes were not a legal action, according to sources at university of Tabriz.

Thanks for the updates.

Now where are the protests going?

I have no information at this time. News sources have dropped significantly.

some sources say that some high-rank officers of the Armed forces have been arrested because of their role in the recent protests in Tehran. The regime does not trust their military. This has its roots in the revolution to over throw the Shah. Because of this the regime has created numerous paramilitary forces in the country loyal to the regime. These paramilitary forces are very large and rival in size the military and are better trained than the military. The regime fears a civil war and is attempting to purge the military of its pro democracy sympathizers. So things are rather dicey at the moment.

Iranian Revolution 2003
National Review Online ^ | June 16. 2003 | Michael Ledden

Posted on 07/01/2003 4:15 AM CDT by Khashayar

ou never know what will provide the spark for revolution. The most you can expect from a good analyst is the recognition of what the Marxists used to call a "revolutionary situation," but the crucial ingredient is impossible to measure (which is why the so-called social scientists have never been very good at predicting revolutions). It can only be sniffed out, and the revolutionaries are the first to know. They smell rot and fear coming from the corridors of power. They smell tell-tale odors coming from the undergarments of the doomed leaders. And they sense a wavering of will, a growing pattern of panicky response.

Those odors are beginning to waft through the air of the central squares of Iran's major cities, and have stimulated the people to an increasingly open challenge to the reigning mullahs. There have now been six consecutive nights of demonstrations all over Iran, and although Western reporters there are on a tight leash — the regime has banned all journalists and photographers from the sites of demonstrations, so the "reports" are almost always based on second-hand information — and although there do not seem to be any Western reporters covering events outside Tehran itself, several facts are dramatically clear.

First, the demonstrators are not just "students" (the word itself is rather misleading in context, since many of them are in their thirties or forties). Some estimates reckon that up to 90 percent of the demonstrators are non-students.

Second, the regime is flustered, and misjudged its response. It reminds me of Gorbachev's ham-handed response to demonstrations in Lithuania towards the end of the Soviet era. He sent in just enough soldiers to enrage the Lithuanians, but not enough to put an end to the protests. The mullahs in Tehran did just the same, unleashing the most unruly and undisciplined members of the vigilante security forces, the Basiji. But the demonstrators fought back effectively, which was an enormous boost to the morale of the democratic forces. As of Sunday night, the regime had sent in some of the shock troops of the Revolutionary Guards, who were more effective, but the situation may well have gotten out of hand.

Third, the brutal assaults on the demonstrators (female students were hurled out of dormitory windows, and survivors were beaten savagely as they lay on the street) provoked the police to intervene against the Basiji, showing once again that the regime cannot count on its own security personnel to put down the freedom movement. This is one of the prime reasons for the smell of fear coming out of the mullahs' mosques and palaces.

Fourth, and perhaps most important, the anti-regime demonstrations are not limited to Tehran. On Sunday night, for example, the biggest demonstrations to date — anywhere in the country — reportedly took place in Isfahan (where my informant said virtually the entire city was mobilized against the regime), and other protests were staged in Mashad, Shiraz (where three distinguished scholars were thrown in jail last Thursday, following an extorted "confession" from a 14-year old) and Ahvaz. This is doubly significant, both because it shows the national character of the rebellion, and because Isfahan has historically been the epicenter of revolutionary movements (and indeed some of the harshest critics of the regime are in and from Isfahan).

Fifth, the leaders of the regime are acting with open incoherence. While Supreme Leader Khamenei and Information Minister Yunesi accused the United States of financing the uprising, strongman Rafsanjani publicly offered assistance to America in fighting terrorism. He announced that Iran had abundant information on various terrorist groups (now there's a real revelation for you) and would be willing to share it with us in exchange for a friendlier attitude. Put in simple terms, he's negotiating for his survival. Meanwhile, the speaker of parliament, Mehdi Karrubi, demanded that Yunesi document the regime's claim that Iranian officials had been paid off by the Americans, and threatened to impeach the information minister if he didn't carry out an exhaustive investigation. To be sure, Karrubi is a mere figurehead, but his willingness to openly and melodramatically challenge the regime speaks volumes about the determination of the opposition and the contempt held for the leadership.

Sixth, there is mounting violence against the regime. We are no longer talking about purely peaceful demonstrations. The protesters know they are going to be attacked with guns, clubs, knives, machetes and chains, and they are responding with Molotov cocktails and guns of their own. In some of the recent street fighting, the demonstrators strung wires across the streets to bring down the Basiji, who were on motorcycles.

The regime is in a real jam. The mullahs know the people hate them — even the timorous correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor in Tehran says that 90 percent of Iranians want democratic change, and 70 percent want drastic change — and they also know that their own instruments of repression are insufficient to deal with a massive insurrection. Many leaders of the armed forces have openly said they will side with the people if there is open civil conflict. Members of some of the most powerful institutions in the country have said that they believe more than half of the Revolutionary Guards will support the people in a frontal showdown. Ergo, the mullahs have had to import foreign thugs — described as "Afghan Arabs" in the popular press — to put down demonstrations.

On the other side of the barricades, the pro-democracy forces seem to have passed the point of no return. They know that if they stop now, many of them will be subjected to terrible tortures and summary execution. Kamenei and Rafsanjani are not likely to embark on a domestic peace process. Just as they have sensed the rot within the regime, the mullahs are desperately sniffing the air for similar odors from the university areas and the homes and offices of the other leaders of the insurrection.

As usual, President Bush has been letter perfect in his praise for the freedom fighters and his condemnation of the repression in Iran. And the State Department spoke in similar terms through its spokesman, Richard Boucher. It would be good if Secretary Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage, threw their prestige openly behind democracy (and hence regime change) in the next few days. There has been considerable criticism — which I have joined — of the administration's lack of a formal Iran policy, but it seems that the president himself has clearly formulated it. He should now ensure that the whole choir is chanting from his hymnal.

Part of the reason for the failure to agree upon an explicit endorsement of Iranian democracy is a lack of good information from inside Iran, and a consequent lack of accurate analysis. At this point, there is nothing that can be done about the failure of the intelligence community to obtain an accurate picture of the forces in play within Iran. It is not to be blamed on the current CIA, or on its personable leader, George Tenet. The truth is that the United States has had rotten intelligence on Iran ever since the run-up to the 1979 revolution that removed the shah and brought the awful mullahs to power. But even so, there is no excuse for the misunderstanding of revolutionary change that dominates the thinking of the intelligence and diplomatic communities.

The spooks and dips believe that democratic revolution in Iran is unlikely because the revolutionary forces have no charismatic leader — no Walesa, no Havel, no Robespierre, no Jefferson — and without revolutionary leaders, revolutions do not occur. Our deep thinkers fear that if we supported the rebels, we would risk a replay of the abortive uprisings in Poland and Hungary in the 1950s and 1960s.

But Iran today is not at all comparable to Central Europe half a century ago, or for that matter to revolutionary France of America in the 18th century, or Russia on the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution. In all those cases, the revolutionaries were a distinct minority, and only a combination of dynamic leadership and foreign support could bring down the regimes. In Iran today, the revolutionaries constitute the overwhelming majority of the population, while the tyrants only glean minimal support. Thus, the Iranian people hold their destiny in their own hands. They share a common dream of freedom, and need only transform it into a common mission to liberate themselves.

Finally, our analysts should be more modest when they pronounce on the lack of revolutionary leaders in Iran today. The democracy movement has been growing for years, and has clearly attracted mass support. That does not take place without good leadership. The leaders are there, we just don't know their names and faces. But if we stick to our own guiding principles, and support the democratic revolution under way in the streets of Iran — and if the revolutionary momentum is as strong as it now appears — we will get to know them soon enough.

Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/938563/posts

Thank you for the clarification. Is it true that the government had to hire a lot of foreign soldiers because they don't trust their own people enough?

Is it true that the government had to hire a lot of foreign soldiers because they don't trust their own people enough?

Yes, they have brought in large numbers of Arabs from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and even Afghani's. All of which most Iranians consider an insult. The exact number are unknown to me, but apparently they are in large numbers because I have heard many reports that these forces are speaking Arabic not Farsi.

Neat banner!

Thanks for the ping!

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TEHRAN, Iran - Iran is using advanced U.S. technology to block web sites containing pornographic material and others run by opposition groups, an official said Tuesday

Iran Cracks Down on Banned Web Sites

SMCCDI: "Mercenaries of US Imperialism and Sionism" to be executed

July 1, 2003

Many families are in a very desperate situation with the official news of the hand over, by the Islamic Judiciary, of their detained relatives to the special Invesigation unit of the Information (Intellegence) Ministry).

Such transfer is more alarming coupled with the calls of several official clerics to "Punish all arrested Mercenaries of the US Imperialism and Sionism" and confirm the SMCCDI report published last week stating about the decision made within the regime leadership to execute several of demonstrators in order to break the popular will to riot.

Already, several detainees have been put under torture in order to make false confessions about their collaboration with US Intelligence and one of them, Bagher Parto, has passed away following heart failure.

Several others are subject to same harsh treatements inflicted by the tortionars of the Intelleigence Unit of the Pasdaran Corp.

The regime is in a despererate need to demonize the protesters and to avoid the join of rural people to the mouvement seeking its end.

http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/cgi-bin/smccdinews/viewnews.cgi?category=5&id=1057082259

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Iran MPs end sit-in protest

7.1.2003 -

Four members of the Iranian parliament have abandoned a sit-in they staged at the parliament building to protest against the arrest of students during and after anti-government demonstrations.

The four reformist deputies began their protest on Saturday.

The main focus of their complaint was the violent way some of the students were arrested and the fact that some are being held by the hardline judiciary and not the normal agencies.

Those immediate objections have now been defused by an agreement involving both sides of the house, which is dominated by reformists but has an influential right-wing minority.

A bipartisan committee set up by the house speaker negotiated an agreement with security and judiciary officials.

It states that all students, without exception, are to be handed over to the intelligence ministry, which normally deals with such cases.

Open trials

Assurances were also given that any students facing charges would be given an open trial, with defence lawyers acting on their behalf.

One of the four MPs described this bipartisan agreement as important and unusual.

It covered students arrested both during and after the disturbances which shook the capital Tehran and other Iranian cities for 10 days in mid-June.

Some of them were student leaders who did not take part in the street protests. Their supporters accuse the judiciary of carrying out a wave of pre-emptive arrests in order to deter any possible demonstrations on 9 July.

That date is the fourth anniversary of a raid on a student dormitory by police and right-wing vigilantes in Tehran which triggered several days of street riots.

Iran's public prosecutor said 4,000 people were arrested during the disturbances around the country, and half of them were still being held.

Student groups have expressed fears that their arrested colleagues may be subjected to physical and psychological torture in order to extract confessions.

The authorities have banned any rallies or meetings to mark the 9 July anniversary either on or off campus.

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en30640&F_catID=&f_type=source

I'm just now catching up!

Thank you both for your posts!

HUNGER-STRIKING WIFE OF JAILED IRANIAN JOURNALIST HOSPITALIZED.

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 123, Part III, 1 July 2003

Soheila Hamidnia, the wife of journalist Mohsen Sazgara, was
hospitalized on 27 June, the "Hambastegi" daily newspaper reported on 28 June. An anonymous source said her condition resulted from her hunger strike and mental stress that were brought about by the ailing of her husband and her son Vahid. Hamidnia had just visited the Prosecutor's Office at Evin Prison to inquire about her family members when she was told that she must report to the prison in 48 hours, "Iran Daily" reported on 28 June. BS

I thought AdmSmith said this wouldn't happen.?

A Profile of Revolutionaries

By Pejman Yousefzadeh
techcentralstation.com | July 1, 2003

The ongoing revolts and demonstrations in Iran are finally capturing the attention and interest of the media, and the Bush administration -- which has decided to come down strongly in favor of the Iranian dissident movement. Protests both within Iran and outside of it have helped expose the brutality of the Iranian regime, brutality that international organizations are decrying.

It is not easy to take one's life into one's own hands, as the protesters are doing night after night, and risk injury, arrest, and even death at the hands of the regime's thugs. They take these risks to protest the totalitarian and incompetent manner in which the regime has made Iran a pariah among nations by fomenting terrorism and Islamic fundamentalist movements. And they protest the way in which the regime has run the country's economic and social structure into the ground. All of this is clear from the news reports that we receive out of Iran, and is enough to make the dissident movement inside the country worthy of our support and best wishes.

But it may be helpful to learn more about the nature of the dissident movement -- about who helps constitute the movement, where their motivation comes from, and what intellectual influences propel the movement along. So here is a thumbnail sketch of Iran, and of the people who may very well bring down a theocracy.

First of all, Iran is a young country, thanks in large part to the Islamic government's constant efforts to encourage a baby boom, and thanks to the early tendency of Iranian mullahs to discourage the use of birth control devices. According to the CIA World Factbook, nearly a third of the country is under 15 years of age. Those who are 15-64 years old make up over 63% of the population. The franchise in Iran is given to those 15 years and older, so the large youth contingent possesses a powerful voice in determining Iran's political future. Given their desire to see political reforms instituted in Iran that would bring about a more democratic society, as well as revitalize the relationship between Iran and the West (especially the United States), the Islamic regime may very well have sown the seeds of its own destruction by encouraging the recent high birth rates.

Young Iranians have many influences that encourage them towards adopting democratic values. One is the Internet. Weblogs have become an immensely useful source for Iranians in search of information that has not been filtered by government censors. Other Internet sites devoted to the cause of Iranian democracy, and the Internet in general, help influence Iranians in their political views, and thus help determine the direction of the protests. Iranian efforts to establish a substantial Internet presence -- efforts that have even led small villages such as this one to establish an Internet page -- will allow for outsiders to gain a greater understanding of Iran's closed society, along with an understanding of the nature of the Iranian dissident movement, and how to help it thrive. Iranians are enthusiastic users of the Internet, a fact that the Iranian regime has finally begun to notice with its newfound attempts to censor and restrict Internet content inside Iran.

Iranians are also receiving valuable information from National Iranian Television (NITV), as well as cultural programming from Radio Farda (the organization's Farsi-language website is here), and the Voice of America's Farsi language service. NITV has become increasingly influential in shaping the national mood in Iran. The Iran Democracy Act, currently pending in Congress, promises to fund satellite television and opposition groups with as much as $57 million. In this way NITV may be able to remain financially viable while not having to require subscriptions from Iranians to its satellite television service, and may be further empowered to frustrate the satellite jamming activities regularly undertaken against its broadcasts by the Islamic regime.

Iranians are increasingly -- and strongly -- in favor of enhancing their country's relationship with the United States, with some going so far as to hope for American military action against Iran, once the United States was finished defeating the Ba'athist regime in Iraq. The days of "Death to America" may be passing, with more and more Iranians looking to the United States as an estimable role model in their own struggle to modernize and reform their country. To be sure, some Iranians remain wary of gharibzadegi, or "Westoxication" as the phenomenon is commonly referred to in English. But many other Iranians believe that their country will benefit from closer ties to the West. It should therefore surprise no one that instead of hearing "Death to America" out in the streets, the mullahs are increasingly listening to chants of "Death to the Taliban -- in Kabul and in Tehran!"

This then is modern day Iran -- a country whose people are determined to bring about revolutionary change. Indeed, such a need for change is part and parcel of the country's history -- as it struggles to finally realize the dream held by millions of Iranians of a democratic and pluralistic society that is a respected member of the international community.

Lest the hardliners in the Islamic regime believe that they will be able to ride out the protests against them in the long run, they need only consider the following passage in Amir Taheri's biography of Ayatollah Khomeini to realize that in the long run, the regime is doomed:

But Iran in the past eighty-five years or so, the life span of [Khomeini], has also been an extremely unruly nation. In that period it has been ruled by two dynasties and six kings before the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Of the six kings of Iran in the period under study, one was assassinated and another died a broken man under the pressure of a constitutional revolution. All the other four were either forced to abdicate or were dethroned. Every one of them died in exile. Not a single one is even buried in Iran today.

Taheri wrote his book in 1985, while Khomeini was still alive. Currently, Khomeini defies the historical trend Taheri describes by remaining buried in Iran. But graves can always be dug up, and institutions brought down. And it appears that modern Iran is increasingly moving to do just that in its attempt to replace totalitarianism with democracy, and to cease the support of international terrorism in favor of joining with the international community to further enhance regional and global security and stability.

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=8592

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LOL, great article Doc. It looks like the model Iran should use is having a president elected by the people with a set term. That way they don't have to worry about deposing kings :o)

More and more the Iranian people sound just like us!

Everyone please feel free to use this banner. Save and upload to your own sites whenever possible to save my bandwidth ;^)

Great Banner... I will let others know about it.

DoctorZin

Iranian Alert! URGENT: New Public executions lead to violent clashes in Khoozestan

Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran ^ | 7.1.2003 | Press Release
Posted on 07/01/2003 4:43 PM PDT by DoctorZIn

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/938930/posts