[DoctorZIn]

To find all the links to all 41 threads since the protests started, go to:

[DoctorZIn]

Join Us at the Iranian Alert -- DAY 41 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Live Thread Ping List | 7.20.2003 | DoctorZIn

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[Valin]

Iran's Khamenei inaugurates new ballistic missile capable of striking Israel
Al Bawaba, the Middle East Gateway July 20 2003


Posted on 07/20/2003 9:52 AM CDT by knighthawk


Iran's supreme leader on Sunday inaugurated a new ballistic missile that brings Israel within range of the Islamic republic, praising the event as a key moment in the defense of the Palestinian cause.

"Today our people and our armed forces are ready to defend their goals anywhere," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a ceremony for the elite Revolutionary Guards carried on state television.

"This divine force has answered all threats, and we are witnessing today that this divine force is now doing the same for the Lebanese and the Palestinian people," he added in the ceremony to bring the Shihab-3 missile into service.

Television pictures showed Khamenei flanked by officers and other clerics, at least 1,000 troops in ceremonial dress, and three of the Shihab-3 rockets on what seemed to be mobile launchers.

The report said the Revolutionary Guards, who have their own air force, were also given some new but unidentified attack and transport helicopters as well as an undisclosed number of Russian-built Sukhoi-25 jets, according to AFP.

Yahya Rahim-Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, said in his speech during the ceremony in Tehran that his force was now "ready to defend Iran against any threat".

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/949379/posts

[DoctorZIn]

"IRAN WON'T TELL US WHO KILLED KAZEMI" BY AMIR TAHERI

NATIONAL POST
July 18, 2003
Who killed Zahra Kazemi? This is the question that Iran's President Muhammad Khatami is challenged to answer within the next week or so.

Zahra Kazemi was a 54-year old Canadian photographer of Iranian origin who disappeared in Tehran on June 23 while taking pictures of protestors in front of the Evin Prison where thousands of prisoners of conscience are held often without trial.

We now know that Ms. Kazemi arrived in Tehran in early June and was "tailed" by secret service agents from the first minute. When news of Kazemi's disappearance spread late last month, the authorities feigned ignorance and even tried one of their usual tricks of implying she had been involved in an illicit sexual escapade.

The regime was forced to abandon that line after more than a dozen witnesses came forward to attest that government agents had abducted Ms. Kazemi in broad daylight. A few days later, the Interior Ministry announced Ms. Kazemi's death, claiming, "internal bleeding" as its cause.

That claim provoked a chorus of denunciation even from elements of the regime itself. President Khatami ordered an investigation by the ministers of the interior, health, and security. The preliminary results of the investigation shows that the Canadian journalist died under torture and as a result of being repeatedly hit on the head with a blunt object.

"We know that Ms. Kazemi's death was not natural," says Muhammad-Ali Abtahi, an assistant to Khatami for media affairs. "She died of a brain hemorrhage caused by beating."

Abtahi tried to circumvent the real question: Who killed Kazemi? He claimed that no "serious hypothesis" could be formed at present. The Health Minister, Massoud Pezeshkian, went even further in trying to cover up the murder by rejecting Canada's demand to allow a Canadian medical team to carry out a post-mortem.

Ms. Kazemi is not the first journalist to be murdered by the Khomeinist regime. Between 1998 and 1999 a total of 18 journalists "disappeared" in various parts of Iran. Their dead bodies were eventually found and Khatami ordered a number of investigations into the circumstances of their death. But none of the cases were elucidated or brought to justice.

The Khomeinist regime started its life in 1979 by murdering journalists. In that year the Khomeinists executed the director of the country's principal news agency along with the publisher of a popular magazine, a prominent television commentator and the correspondent of the British Daily Telegraph in Tehran.

In the two decades that followed, the Khomeinists murdered 42 other journalists, disguising the deaths of some of them as accidents or even suicides. Rahman Hatefi, a Communist writer and editor, had his veins opened, and left to bleed to death in his cell in Evin. The murder was presented as suicide. The murder of Saeedi Sirjani, a nationalist writer, was presented as a fatal heart attack.

In some cases the victims were murdered in their homes, the whole thing being presented as crimes by burglars. Some of the victims had their throats slit and their heads cut off in the medieval punishment reserved for "enemies of Islam."

Tehran sources claim that the murders are carried out by hit squads operating on behalf of the Ministry for Intelligence and Security. Lebanese and other Arab Shiite militants, who were brought to Iran in the thousands after the Khomeinists seized power in 1979, mainly form these squads.

What is surprising in the Kazemi case is the ambiguous stance adopted by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Ottawa seems to be under the illusion that the enquiry ordered by Khatami may discover the truth and bring the murderers to book. This will certainly not happen if only because Khatami has no power to arrest and punish the assassins who are ultimately controlled by the "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei.

Canada should demand an independent enquiry under a Canadian lawyer and with the participation of Western lawyers and criminologists. Otherwise we shall never know who murdered Zahra Kazemi.

Amir Taheri is an Iranian; journalist and author; of 10 books on; the Middle East and Islam.; amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com.

© Copyright 2003 National Post

http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/476

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[Madcelt]

I must take the time to thank you for pinging me to the Iranian threads. The Ayotallahs (eye - ot- Allahs) have much to answer for. They have abused Iran as their personal "pocket book" and playground. They can resist, they can struggle to hold power. But for naught...they will lose. They have tried to hide behind God. Bad mistake. I wonder if God will be as "generous" in handing out judgement to them as they were to the people of Iran.

[Eala]

Just checking in briefly -- happened to see a news item a few minutes ago about the Cuban jamming. They made it sound like it just started. Fox news, I think??

[DoctorZIn]

This Thread is now closed.

Join Us at the Iranian Alert -- DAY 42 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Live Thread Ping List | 7.21.2003 | DoctorZIn

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