Iranian Alert -- DAY 36 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Manley to Iran: Send Canadian's Body Home

July 15, 2003
Ottawa Citizens
Robert Fife

Deputy Prime Minister John Manley warned yesterday that Canada's relations with Iran could be seriously jeopardized if it does not return the body of a slain Montreal photojournalist and explain how she died while in custody in Tehran.

Mr. Manley told reporters Canada has been steadily seeking improved relations with Iran, particularly with the government of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the death of Zahra Kazemi.

But Mr. Manley made it clear that Iran will be putting its relationship with Canada back on a rocky footing if it does not return Ms. Kazemi's body and explain her death. In recent years, both countries have worked hard to repair the damage caused when Canada helped spirit U.S. diplomats out of Iran following the 1979 seizure of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Tehran by Iranian militants.

"It's a serious issue and it will be put in that context with the Iranian authorities. ... This will be a setback if we can't resolve it," he said. "We believe the family, of course deserves, a full explanation for what happened. The body should be returned."

While using strong diplomatic language, Mr. Manley also conceded part of the problem may lie with the hardline Muslim clerics who control the judiciary, army and secret service agencies and oppose the reformers backing Mr. Khatami's efforts at liberalization.

"There have been a number of free and open elections, but those elections are not the only sources of government authority in that country, and that is one of the causes of our concern," Mr. Manley said.

"But there has been indication on the part of the people of Iran, as they have demonstrated in two elections in a row now, that they want to see reform and they want to see liberalization, and hopefully the country will be able to move in that direction."

Neither Mr. Manley nor the Iranian embassy in Ottawa was able to provide detailed information on what is happening in Tehran to assure Ms. Kazemi's body is returned.

Mr. Manley also would not comment on reports that the Canadian Embassy was slow in helping Ms. Kazemi after she was arrested.

Iranian Ambassador Mohammed Mousavi has returned to Iran, and officials in the embassy said they didn't even know whether Ms. Kazemi's body has been buried or is still in a morgue.

However, the embassy official said Mr. Khatami is determined to find out the truth of Ms. Kazemi's death, and noted the story has received front-page coverage, at least in reformist papers in Iran, including the Iran Daily.

Ms. Kazemi, 54, who worked for Camera Press Institute, was arrested while taking photos from the Evin prison compound north of Tehran, where families of those under arrest were staging a demonstration June 23.

The Iran Daily said Ms. Kazemi suffered a stroke during interrogation and died in hospital. Ms. Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, believes his mother was beaten into a coma and wants her body returned to Canada and examined by independent medical experts.

Mr. Khatami has assigned four cabinet ministers, including the interior minister, to clarify every aspect of the woman's death, including who was responsible for it.

As foreign affairs minister in 2001, Mr. Manley ended a longstanding Canadian policy of keeping its distance from the Islamic fundamentalist regime of Mr. Khatami, a moderate reformer who was elected in 1996 and who has in recent years showed signs of warming to the West.

Government officials said they had "conflicting information" about the whereabouts of the body of Ms. Kazemi, previously thought to have been buried in Iran.

The body is probably still at the Forensic Institute in Tehran, Canadian Reporters Without Borders president Tanya Churchmuch said.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Reynald Doiron said Canadian officials are trying to confirm the body's location while Philip MacKinnon, Canada's ambassador to Iran, is raising the issue "at the highest levels."

It was reported Monday that Ms. Kazemi's remains might have been buried when her mother, who lives in Iran, signed papers permitting her interment. Ms. Kazemi's son, Montreal resident Stephan Hachemi, said yesterday he believes his mother has in fact been buried in Iran. Mr. Hachemi has hired a lawyer and is calling on Iran to explain how and why his mother died.

Robert Fife is Parliamentary bureau chief.

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/story.asp?id=1587CFC7-217A-4163-9716-DB27E95D6352

Dissidents seek to apply more pressure on Khamenei

Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com

TEHRAN, July 15 (AFP) - A group of 350 Iranian dissidents has written an open letter to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanding a major reform of the clerical regime and the freeing of all political prisoners.

"The judiciary needs to undergo fundamental changes. One of the main reasons of general discontent is the unjust manner of the judiciary in the arrests, prosecutions and trials," said the strongly-worded declaration, the latest in a series signed by reformists, liberals, journalists, intellectuals and several clerics.

"Political prisoners, journalists and students must be immediately freed and the newspapers which were banned without due process must be allowed to start their activities again," it said.

The signatories also targetted the Guardians and Expediency Councils, two unelected legislative oversight bodies that have frequently blocked reforms passed by the reformist-held parliament.

They said the bodies "lack a public base and do not have an appropriate view of peoples' problems".

Among the signatories to the letter was Zohreh Aghajari, whose brother, pro-reform dissident Hashem Aghajari, was sentenced to death last year on charges of blasphemy after he questioned the right to rule of clerics.

He is currently awaiting a revision of his sentence.

Other signatories were close allies of embattled pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami, members of the banned-but-tolerated Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), journalists, and prominent academics.

Also on the list of names that followed the five-page letter were relatives and supporters of top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was initially tapped to replace revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader but fell out of favour and then spent five years under house arrest.

The letter said the nearly 25-year-old Islamic republic was facing three major crisis, concerning its legality, public participation in elections and efficiency.

"Resorting to violence, suppression and authoritative methods will only intensify these crises," the letter read.

"You have always related the general discontent to economic corruption, poverty, discrimination and high prices, whereas the roots of the problem lies in the growing gap between government and nation," the letter said.

It nevertheless attributed Iran's economic crisis to "the existing political deadlock and presence of an economic Mafia".

Also Tuesday, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri issued his own statement, calling on officials to turn to their own people instead of allegedly seeking covert negotiations with the United States.

"Unfortunately we are witnessing that the officials are covertly sending people outside Iran to negotiate with the United States, at a time when they are not ready to come to terms with their own people and listen to them," Montazeri said in a statement released by his office.

"If they are afraid of the US, then they should comply with people's demands to win their support, it is only then that the US cannot topple the regime that has its own people's support," he said.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17005&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Just as it is idiotic to accept the Clinton era formulation that it is not operating under state-sponsorship.

The list of states that sponsor AQ is not a short one and not limited to the "usual suspects" either...

Loral (Bernard Schwartz) to File Chapter 11

Posted by RinaseaofDs
On 07/15/2003 10:27 AM PDT with 4 comments

Fox News Website ^ | 7/15/2003 | RinaseaofDs
Chapter 11 couldn't have happened to a more corrupt CEO NEW YORK — Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (LOR), a satellite maker and operator, said Tuesday it filed for bankruptcy and sold half its business amid a protracted slump in telecommunications markets."

This may play a role in the Cuba story.

Loral (Bernard Schwartz) to File Chapter 11

It may only become a question of who didn't Loral sell their technology to...

I was referring more to the fact that this has been going on for 10 days and no one has "fixed the problem".
Supposedly the FCC is working on this. Sounds like Loral's been very distracted with their own problems. Where's the media coverage? What's going on at Loral now or whoever they sold their business to? Anyone doing anything about that satellite to keep Cuba from targeting it for whatever purpose it or Iran wants?

Well you've been busy today! Lots of reading to catch up on. The journalist may just be the thing that turns the trick, especially if Canada remains strong about demanding the body back.

Hellloo?

I'm still sending out emails.

How about a run-down on your interview for those of us who can't seem to get paltalk to work? Maybe when there are more people here?

Loral was one of the biggest DNC supporters out there, their CEO Bernard Schwartz donated over $4 million to Clinton. Loral is also the one who gave sensitive missile technology to the Chinese, and got a pass on it from the Clinton administration. These are some pretty dirty folks, and it's interesting that their satillite is involved in this. It may be only a coincidence, but then again, it may not. I would not put it past Loral to have sold the jamming technology either to Cuba directly or to the Chinese who sold it to the Cubans. Something to look into and may just be why the government is so silent on this.

Clinton gave everyone permission to sell what they wanted. I think it's just a coincidence though that it's Loral's satellite. They just happen to be the one that the American/Iranian stations are linked to.

Iranian officials say she fell ill after her interrogation started and died of "a brain attack."

a brain attack? That's a new one.
Sounds a lot like "shot while escaping."

It is a quagmire for Mullahs inside Iran.

From your lips to gods ears.

Sooner or later, they will be drowned in this self-made quagmire.
Just sit back and Watch how they destroy each other in this "family fight".....!
Well, Any updates about Satellite Jammings?

http://www.iiaf.net/history/commemorates.html
This link shows the brutality of the Regime.

...How about a run-down on your interview for those of us who can't seem to get paltalk to work?...

We had a great time. There were a lot of Iranians calling in, more so than non-Iranian Americans. For the most part we were in agreement on the issues. Some were worried that Reza Pahlavi was going to restore the Monarchy, while others expressing their love of him.

One called me an agent of the CIA. .... LOL …I wish.

Probably the most important thing I took away from the show was the attitude that many Iranians hold that the US was the key to their future. Conspiracies are a common conversation among many Iranians. I hope that they can learn to put these conspiratorial fears behind them and become more pro-active in learning to make their case to their elected officials. They need to learn how our system works and work it. This will be important for a post Islamic Iran as well.

The host of the show wants me back. I will let you know when and if we do this.

Probably the most important thing I took away from the show was the attitude that many Iranians hold that the US was the key to their future. Conspiracies are a common conversation among Iranians. I hope that they can learn to put these fears behind them and take a more pro-active role in making their case to their elected officials. They need to learn how our system works and use it. This will be important for a post Islamic Iran as well.

The host of the show wants me back. I will let you know when and if we do this.

One called me an agent of the CIA.

AH HA!!! Just as I suspected all along.

U.S. Condemns Cuba for Jamming Satellite Signals to Iran

July 15, 2003
The Associated Press
Sandra Marquez

A U.S. government agency on Tuesday echoed what Los Angeles-based satellite television station providers who transmit news to Iran have been saying for days: Cuba appears to be jamming their signals into Iran, where pro-democracy protests have been raging.

While Cuban authorities have long jammed U.S. government programming to their own country just off the coast of Florida, blocking transmissions to a third country in a distant hemisphere would be unprecedented, said Kenneth Tomlinson, who oversees the Voice of America as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

"This has ominous implications for the future of international satellite broadcasting," Tomlinson said by telephone from Washington, D.C.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors issued a resolution Tuesday calling on the State Department and Federal Communications Commission to lodge a formal protest with the Cuban government for "this unwarranted and wrongful interference."

A Cuban government spokesman in Havana did not return a call for comment from The Associated Press.

Iran's Islamic government has accused U.S.-based satellite stations of stoking unrest by providing unfiltered information into a country that does not otherwise have a free press.

Iran itself can't block the programming because the signals must be jammed over the Atlantic Ocean, where the satellites are positioned.

U.S. officials believe Iran contracted with Cuba to do the job this month, on the eve of the four-year anniversary of large-scale student protests, "to block the flow of news in a period of time when they obviously thought they were going to lose control of their own people," Tomlinson said.

He said an interference signal jamming the satellites has been tracked to a facility near Havana -- a claim based on information provided by the satellite service providers.

"This putting together networks to block international communication is wrong and I think in the long run will mark these states as outlaw states," Tomlinson said.

Azadi Television is one of four Los Angeles-based satellite television stations whose broadcasts into Iran were reduced to black static for days from July 6-13. The jamming continues on an intermittent basis.

Kayvan Abbassi, whose family opened the station six months ago, said operators have tried several times to avoid the jamming by changing their signal, but to no avail.

"The first time it took them five hours to jam it," said Abbassi, whose station's name means "freedom" in Farsi. "Yesterday, it took them minutes."

Another station, Pars Television, transmits to Iran on the same satellite as Azadi, but on a different transponder. As a result, Iranian viewers can still see its programs in some cities -- or at least hear the audio portion, said Reza Ansari, the station's marketing manager.

As a show of solidarity, Pars recently allowed Azadi to beam some of its programming on Pars' signal. Ansari said both stations share the goal of opposing the Iranian government.

"They don't want our programs to be watched by the Iranian people," Ansari said. "Everything we say is against the Iranian government and that is not good for them."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/07/15/state2159EDT0174.DTL

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

Doc, You won't continue?

What's the next step after comdemnation? Destruction.

...Doc, You won't continue? ...

What do you mean?