Iranian Alert -- DAY 47 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 7.26.2003 | DoctorZin

[BOBTHENAILER]

Thanks for the ping. This powderkeg is gonna blow, sooner or later.

[DoctorZIn]

Traders with 'Rogue' States May Face Sanctions

July 25, 2003
The Financial Times
Guy Dinmore

US and foreign companies are coming under scrutiny for their dealings with states deemed by Washington to be sponsors of terrorism, particularly Iran and Syria, but officials say the Bush administration is hesitating before tightening economic sanctions.

Pressure for action is mounting from various quarters, including pension funds and some US state treasuries, as well as pro-Israeli lobby groups and a vocal contingent in Congress.

Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and member of the committee on international relations, asked at one recent hearing why the US was prepared to go to war with Iraq but was not more active in applying economic tools to Iran.

"It's as if we are more willing to risk the lives of our servicemen and women than we are to inconvenience the corporate sector," he said of what he called the Bush administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards US firms trading with rogue states.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican and chair of the House sub-committee on the Middle East and Central Asia, is leading efforts to pass legislation that would tighten existing sanctions against Iran and Libya, and close loopholes that allow the foreign subsidiaries of US companies to do business with Iran.

The legislation would amend the 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (Ilsa) which empowers the president to punish non-US companies investing more than $20m in the energy sectors of the two countries. The European Union strongly opposed Ilsa and neither President George W. Bush nor his predecessor, Bill Clinton, has applied it.

The separate Syrian Accountability Act, also under consideration, would seek to check the growing business links between the US and Syria. Colin Powell, the secretary of state, used the act as a lever in his talks with Bashir Assad, the Syrian president, in May.

"Diplomacy has run its course with the Syrians and Iran," commented Yleem Poblete, staff director of the House sub-committee. "The sanctions regime will give our European allies a chance to join forces with the US short of military action."

More radically, Congressional staffers say there is also discussion of blacklisting foreign and US businesses involved with Iran with the intention of preventing them from securing US-funded contracts in Iraq.

Such a list was drawn up in the Pentagon this year but not implemented. US officials pointed out that Halliburton, headed by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president, has contracts with Iran through its foreign subsidiaries but was also awarded the main contract to run Iraq's oil fields.

As CEO of Halliburton, Mr Cheney lobbied the Clinton administration to ease sanctions on Libya and Iran. As vice-president, he led the National Energy Review which concluded in 2001 that the US should "level the playing field for US companies overseas" and recommended a comprehensive review of sanctions with consideration given to US "energy security".

The Bush administration is also resisting pressure to use Ilsa to punish foreign companies. Officials say they are comfortable at present with the co-operation of the European Union and Japan in applying joint pressure on Iran to open its nuclear programme to full international scrutiny.

Enforcing Ilsa, officials say, would lead to a damaging trade dispute over the legality of extra-territorial sanctions. Companies in the UK, Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan, all US allies in the war on Iraq, have interests in Iran's energy sector.

This week Mr Bush warned both Iran and Syria they would be held accountable for what he called their support of terrorists they harboured. Diplomatic relations and contacts with Syria continue, but the White House is still reviewing its policy towards Iran after breaking off direct talks in Geneva in May on the subject of Iraq.

"Will they enforce Ilsa? The answer is we don't know," said one executive of a European company with offices in Iran. "Things are racheting up, but it's difficult to know where they are going."

Roger Robinson, a former National Security Council official who heads Conflict Securities Advisory Group dealing with global risk assessment, says the worsening US-Iran relationship has heightened the perceived risk of doing business with states designated as sponsors of terrorism.

"We take note of a new security-minded consciousness among companies planning to enter Iran," he told the FT. "Relatively small amounts of equipment, technology and revenue flows can have an inordinately significant impact on share value and corporate reputation."

His company's database lists 400 publicly traded companies worldwide, including 35 major US corporations, that deal with "terrorist-sponsoring" countries, excluding Cuba. The US Treasury is one of his new clients.

Mr Robinson told the House subcommittee that it was primarily the "largest and most well-known companies in the world that have the risk appetite to conduct business with government sponsors of terrorism". Many of those firms are found in the retirement portfolios and mutual funds of millions of Americans, he added.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1058868181255&p=1012571727172

[DoctorZIn]

Three more journalists arrested in Iran

26.07.2003 17:00 UTC

Three more Iranian journalists have been arrested, press reports said Saturday. A wave of recent arrests has targeted the reformist press, since an outburst of virulent anti-regime protests in mid-June and July. The latest arrests bring to 27 the number of journalists believed currently to be detained in prison in Iran. Since 2000, Iranian authorities have suspended the publication of nearly 100 papers, most from the pro-reform camp.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_934404,00.html

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

[firewalk]

Thanks for keeping us updated

[DoctorZIn]

This just in from a student in Iran...

"Doc, hi
I got home a few seconds ago.
I saw many check points again in Tehran.
Revolutionary guards were visible among Basidj militias.
They check all cars and arrest youths. "

Things are apparently still tense there. I wonder how long they can keep this up.

DoctorZin

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

[DoctorZIn]

There's No Silencing Iran's Critics

July 26, 2003
National Post Canada
Peter Goodspeed

Debate suggests country ripe for revolution

When Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian photographer who was beaten to death by Iranian security officials, was buried in her hometown of Shiraz this week, she immediately became a martyr to a revolution that has yet to take place.

Internationally, her brutal murder was greeted with outrage, but in Iran, it has engendered a mixture of embarrassed disbelief and thuggish indifference.

That's because the country is already reeling. Twenty-four years after Iranians created a "government of God," the revolution that expelled the Shah in a fury of religious sentiment and anti-Western backlash is facing a huge crisis of legitimacy.

Iran is ripe for a new revolution, as debate swirls around the country over how much personal freedom can be allowed in the world's first Islamic theocracy.

A vicious political standoff between elected reformers and un-elected religious leaders who wield unlimited veto powers while controlling the state's security forces and the courts, has created an atmosphere of perpetual turmoil.

In recent weeks, thousands of political activists have been rounded up and packed into Iran's notorious prisons, where they are beaten and tortured.

Students and ordinary citizens took to the streets all over the country in protest. Parents of Iranian dissidents living abroad have been harassed. Children of reform-minded parliamentarians have been interrogated by religious militiamen and journalists have been arrested or had their newspapers closed.

For observers abroad, Tehran's apparent rush to obtain the capability to build nuclear weapons is creating unease, given Iran's reputation as a leading state sponsor of terrorism.

As a charter member of the "axis of evil," Iran touches every major security issue of interest to the United States, from weapons of mass destruction to terrorism, the Middle East peace process and the geopolitics of oil. Now, it looks as if it is about to become Washington's next major foreign policy crisis.

But Iran's domestic discontent could erupt at any moment.

As politicians and religious leaders argue over whether the Islamic clergy should have a monopoly on political power, ordinary people are becoming bolder in asserting their right to shape their country's future.

Articles are appearing in newspapers challenging the clergy's authority to have a final say in government and young people are defying tradition and strict Islamic social restrictions.

Western culture, in the form of banned books, music and movies, is creeping into a country that until recently relished its Islamic austerity.

Iranian teenagers talk of a raucous scene of fast-food joints, forbidden movies, furtive courtships and illicit parties. Socially restricted, disillusioned, full of anger and rebellion, they are desperately looking for relief.

Their discontent is a huge problem for the government, in a country where nearly two-thirds of the population is under 30 and more than half is under 21.

In the early days of Iran's revolution, foreign material was banned from movie theatres, foreign fashions were prohibited and bookstores were cleared of un-Islamic material.

There was even a brief attempt to prohibit the use of Western words in Farsi, banning them from public speeches, ads and books.

Women were ordered to cover up in chadors. Nail polish and cosmetics were banned, and those who showed too much of their hairline under their head scarves were publicly whipped.

The hajib, or dress code, is still mandatory for all girls and women over the age of nine in all public places.

Punishments range from verbal reprimands to 74 lashes with a whip to imprisonment for one month to a year.

Most forms of entertainment are severely restricted. Playing cards are banned, nightclubs are closed and religious vigilantes monitor personal behaviour.

Over the years, tens of thousands of Iranians have been arrested for "social corruption" and millions more have been warned about their behaviour.

On occasion, police in Tehran pull cars over to check if unmarried men and women are travelling together.

They also raid apartment buildings and use military helicopters to look for illegal television satellite dishes. They do not deter many middle-class families, who disguise their receivers as air conditioning units.

The religious conservatives insist they must defend Islamic cultural values, just as they defend Iran's borders.

But their regime, which came to power by smuggling in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's sermons on audio tapes and videocassettes, now feels threatened by technology and cultural contraband.

When the 1979 revolution shattered 2,500 years of monarchy in Iran, it transformed the Islamic world, injecting it with the political philosophy of Ayatollah Khomeini, an austere mystic who had the stern moral inflexibility of a messenger of God.

He replaced the laws of men with clerical rule and his own interpretation of the laws of God.

His legacy has been an anti-Western, inward-looking state with a deep religious outlook and an isolationist's suspicion of international relations.

The concept of clerical rule has been the backbone of the Islamic Republic.

To criticize the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, carries a maximum prison sentence of three years. If the criticism is regarded as an attack on the Islamic religion, it is punishable by death.

The Assembly of Experts, an elected body of senior Muslim theologians responsible for selecting the Supreme Leader, has ruled, "The word of the leader is final and it ends all disputes. This is a fundamental tenet of Islam."

As a result, Ayatollah Khamenei derives his authority not from the people, but from a concept known as Velayati Faqih (rule by an expert jurist), under which he is regarded as God's vice-regent on Earth.

When truth is absolute, there is no room for compromise. Accommodation of any sort is regarded as a betrayal of God.

As a result, Iran's politics stalemated.

When President Mohammad Khatami was swept in to power with 70% of the popular vote in the 1997 elections, he promised major political and social reforms.

The son of a leading ayatollah and a senior cleric himself, Mr. Khatami was once a close aide to Ayatollah Khomeini. In the early 1980s, he was credited with using his influence with Ayatollah Khomeini to save the game of chess, when extremists attempted to ban it on the grounds it was un-Islamic, even though it was invented by the ancient Persians.

Mr. Khatami has a reputation as a cultured, gentle man. He speaks English, German, Arabic and Farsi and wrote a book on philosophy that discusses the merits of Locke, Hobbes and Montesquieu. He insists democratic tolerance and pluralism have an Islamic core and the Prophet Muhammad's teachings rest on a need for dialogue and consent among the governed.

When he first ran for office, he received overwhelming support from young people and women as he talked of creating a "civil society" and striving to temper the revolutionary rhetoric.

Last year, Mr. Khatami proposed two bills designed to curb the mullahs' authority over the judiciary and the electoral process. He even threatened to resign if the bills were vetoed, saying they represented the minimum reforms he needed to carry out his role as President.

Since then, the Guardian Council, an unelected body that vets all legislation, has rejected both proposals, saying they run counter to Shariah law and the constitution.

With little to show for his reform efforts, Mr. Khatami's supporters are becoming increasingly critical of his performance and less tolerant of the religious leadership.

As the struggle over theology rages, it has swept up the rest of Iran in a political showdown over the amount of freedom of expression that will be tolerated.

Hardline clerics control the judiciary, the military, the police, the state broadcasting system, mosques and religious charities that dominate the economy. Despite constant public demands, they are unwilling to cede control of Iran's political agenda.

They regard calls for more public accountability and greater personal freedom as a direct assault on the foundations of the theocratic state Ayatollah Khomeini created.

And when they feel threatened, they do not hesitate to lash out violently at opponents, accusing them of being un-Islamic or influenced by Iran's enemies

The religious leaders have clashed constantly with the reform-dominated elected parliament. Theologians who oppose the clergy's growing role in politics have been jailed or placed under house arrest.

Journalists and political activists have also been swept up in repeated crackdowns.

Lately, the hardline religious conservatives have escalated their campaign of intimidation. Thugs have been used to break up reform rallies, new newspapers have been closed, journalists such as Ms. Kazemi have been beaten, jailed, tortured and killed.

There has also been a sharp increase in the number of public executions and floggings.

At one point early on in the struggle, General Rahim Safavi, the former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, declared bluntly: "Heads need to be rolled, tongues need to be cut and pens need to be broken."

This sort of thinking resulted in the creation in 1998 of a hit squad from the Ministry of Intelligence that assassinated five dissident writers.

In December, 2000, after reform newspapers exposed their activities, a secret military court tried 18 former ministry officials for the murders; 15 of them were found guilty.

But all members of the death squad were later released, when the religious-controlled Supreme Court overturned their convictions.

Still, Iran's reformers persist in demanding change. Their newspapers continue to run editorials against stoning, publish stories on the return of prostitution and suicide rates of young people.

Above all, they constantly criticize Iran's political system and call for sweeping social, political and economic reforms.

pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com

http://www.nationalpost.com/world/story.html?id=74D9D941-EB94-4FE8-8FA0-754786682A04

[DoctorZIn]

Iran claims having arrested five over death of Canadian
journalist in Iran

World News
Jul 26, 2003

TEHRAN - Five people have been arrested in connection with the death in custody of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, the public prosecutor's office announced, student news agency Isna reported.

The prosecutor's office issued a statement, quoted by Insa, which gave no details of the identities of those involved but stating they were being held in custody while the inquiry continues.

Relations between Ottawa and Tehran have been at a low ebb since the death of Iranian-born Kazemi.

She died in hospital on July 11 of a brain hemorrhage due to an unexplained blow on the head received while she was in custody in Tehran following her arrest for taking unauthorised photographs outside Evin prison.

Tehran's handling of the case, including refusing to repatriate her body to Canada, prompted a diplomatic incident which saw Ottawa recall its ambassador.

For the Canadians, there remains little doubt that Kazemi, 54, died following ill treatment during her time in detention.

On July 16, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi announced that she "had died of a cerebral hemorrhage after being beaten".

But the report of a board of inquiry concluded that the hemorrhage was the result of a fracture of the skull, without saying how it was caused.

Ottawa demanded that those responsible be put on trial and Kazemi's body be repatriated to Canada, where she had lived for the past ten years. It announced it was recalling its ambassador after Kazemi was buried Tuesday in her home town of Shiraz, at the request of her mother, according to Tehran.

The Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday lodged a formal protest with the Canadian embassy over what Tehran calls the "murder" of a young Iranian near Vancouver.

Keyvan Tabesh, 18, was shot dead by a Canadian policeman on July 14 and Iran has demanded that his killer be brought to justice.

Police in Port Moody, just east of Vancouver, said Tabesh had been killed on July 14 after charging at a police officer with a machete following another incident in which he attacked a car.

Iran's foreign minister Kamal Kharazi on Friday dismissed Canada's account of the killing of Tabesh as "incomprehensible" and called for Ottawa to provide a "convincing explanation" of how he died.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1420.shtml

[nuconvert]

It seems so many of these editorials and articles make it sound as though it's the reformers vs the mullahs. That the people want or would be satisfied with the reformers in power. They leave out the most important aspect to the "revolution".
I guess because Democracy is a dirty word.

[DoctorZIn]

The regime wants the world to see this crisis as the reformers vs hardliners. To do so "proves" they are a democracy, struggling between liberals and conservatives, something most people understand.

Most people do not understand that it is not a true democracy; the people cannot choose their candidates. Nor that most people do not support either the reformers of the harliners.

They want out of a theocratic government.

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

"Many Persian language sources confirm this news but there is no doubt that no one can ignore this fact."

Can you come up with a list of those other news sources that can confirm this story? Also, whether they got their confirmation from another news source, an anonymous person, Hamid, etc.

If you can come up with this, there may be a way to put pressure on news over here to report it.

[nuconvert]

Exactly. But the people writing these articles and editorials should know better. I think most of them do. They just don't want to report that the Iranians want a true democratic government. They're misrepresenting to all their readers, what the real story is. More emails are necessary to correct and educate them, every time they write a piece that leaves out the "D" word.

[nuconvert]

"Iran claims having arrested five over death of Canadian
journalist in Iran"

Good. Is one of them Mortezavi?

[DoctorZIn]

Iran's Nuclear Spokesman Resign

July 26, 2003
Saudi Press Agency
SPA

Tehran -- The spokesman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has resigned, the news service Fars reported Saturday.

Khalil Mussavi told Fars he had resigned last Wednesday but refused to explain the reasons for his sudden decision. He did not say who would replace him as spokesman.

http://www.spa.gov.sa/html/archive_e.asp?srcfile=565199&NDay=26/07/2003&wcatg=0

[nuconvert]

Hmmmmmmm

Soon to be arrested?

[DoctorZIn]

This Thread is Now Closed.

Join Us at the Iranian Alert -- DAY 48 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Live Thread Ping List | 7.27.2003 | DoctorZIn

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

[F14 Pilot]

www.akunews.org.
http://news.gooya.com
www.nourizadeh.com
www.iran-emrooz.de
Here are a few of those websites which confirm it.
Moreover, Prosecutor Mortezavi declared that , The Islamic militants arrested a spy for western medias and he swallowed the footage he made.
This was broadcasted by State Run TV station in Tehran.

[nuconvert]

"Moreover, Prosecutor Mortezavi declared that , The Islamic militants arrested a spy for western medias and he swallowed the footage he made.
This was broadcasted by State Run TV station in Tehran."

This is very good information. It helps to confirm the story of Hamid. Now we need confirmation that Hamid met with someone from CNN, or someone posing as a reporter from CNN. It could have been someone from the Regime posing as a reporter from CNN. Did he tell someone he had met with a reporter? Did anyone go with him? Did he mail the video to someone?

[F14 Pilot]

To: mjaneangels@aolcom; DoctorZIn; nuconvert

www.akunews.org.
http://news.gooya.com
www.nourizadeh.com
www.iran-emrooz.de
Here are a few of those websites which confirm it.
Moreover, Prosecutor Mortezavi declared that , The Islamic militants arrested a spy for western medias and he swallowed the footage he made.
This was broadcasted by State Run TV station in Tehran.


36 posted on 07/27/2003 12:33 AM PDT by F14 Pilot (If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

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To: F14 Pilot

"Moreover, Prosecutor Mortezavi declared that , The Islamic militants arrested a spy for western medias and he swallowed the footage he made.
This was broadcasted by State Run TV station in Tehran."

This is very good information. It helps to confirm the story of Hamid. Now we need confirmation that Hamid met with someone from CNN, or someone posing as a reporter from CNN. It could have been someone from the Regime posing as a reporter from CNN. Did he tell someone he had met with a reporter? Did anyone go with him? Did he mail the video to someone?



37 posted on 07/27/2003 7:05 AM PDT by nuconvert

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Some Posts to gain info on that case