Iranian Alert -- September 10, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD PING LIST

But those in attendance were quick to remind Pahlavi that his father was thought by many to be oppressive and that it would be difficult to generalize what the majority of Iranians want.

And this changes the situation and elevates the dialogue, how?

Only 33% want an Islamic government; a solid 60% say no. A vital detail: Shiites (whom Western reporters frequently portray as self-flagellating maniacs) are least receptive to the idea of an Islamic government, saying no by 66% to 27%. It is only among the minority Sunnis that there is interest in a religious state, and they are split evenly on the question.

This is refreshing. When the media portrays the conflicting sides in any nation, they always intimate that both have equally reasonable positions and that they should both be considered.

9/10/03
Iran President addresses Experts Assembly, invites factions to unity

President Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday stressed the need for officials to consider the lofty Islamic principles and called on them to use rational measures and practices to contribute to the progress and prosperity of the nation, IRNA reported from Tehran.

Addressing members of the Leadership Experts Assembly, he refereed to the vast facilities and created infrastructure in the country and said grounds are now favorable for reaching a comprehensive development.

He commented on the performance and programs of the government in the industrial, agricultural and job generating sectors and said the government needs the cooperation of the people and is not able to settle all the drawbacks on its own.

He said the government budget is not sufficient for the speedy growth of the national economy and creation of enough job opportunities to remove the unemployment bottleneck.

All national resources should get mobilized and concerted measures need to be taken to deal with the problems facing the country, President Khatami said.

The political, judicial and public security would drastically be effective in efforts to create a prosperous nation free of tension and based on popular trust, Khatami said.

Creation of the Forex Reserve Fund, adoption of single currency rate policy, reforming the tax legislation and attracting foreign investment are among the measures the government has undertaken to solve the problems, he noted.

Khatami said the factional tug-of-war between the political camps would intensify tension in the society. The factional disputes, he asserted, would overshadow the performance of the system and would create division in the ranks of the people and officials.

President Khatami called on the political camps to mull over the current sensitive circumstances in the country and try to adopt common stands to promote the unity in the face of foreign threats. Discriminatory behaviors and introduction of personal perceptions and viewpoints as public stand would compound the problems, he noted. A promoted rule of law would contribute to a strong unity and solidarity among the officials and people, he said adding that all formations and camps should express their viewpoints within the boundaries of law.

To attract the popular support, some factions give promises and pledges that they cannot realize, he said and added such measured pledges would make the people ask the government what it is unable to translate into action.

He touched on the seventh round of parliamentary elections and said a massive popular turnout in the elections would result in the frustration of the enemies of the Islamic Revolution and system. He said in a time when the enemies try to undermine Iran`s Islamic system, a massive participation of the people in the voting would disappoint them and would foil their ploys against Iran. The enemies are taking advantage of any possible opportunity to launch a psychological war against Islamic Iran and that is why the officials and people should keep vigilant, he said.

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/sep/1060.html

Bush Hopes World Effort Will Disarm Iran

By GEORGE GEDDA

WASHINGTON - A top State Department official said Tuesday the Bush administration hopes to focus the efforts of a U.S.-led international effort to halt commerce of weapons of mass destruction on the nations of North Korea and Iran.

North Korea and Iran are receiving the strongest initial focus because of the relatively advanced stages of their nuclear weapons development programs, said the senior official, briefing reporters on the condition that he not be identified.

According to the official, North Korea also is of particular interest to the United States because U.S. officials believe it exports and imports sensitive materials, reaping a double benefit from illicit trafficking.

The first phase of the Proliferation Security Initiative begins this Saturday with a four-nation training exercise in the Coral Sea off the Australian coast.

The maneuvers will include personnel and equipment from the United States, Australia, France and Japan.

The initiative came into being last Thursday in Paris. The 11 countries agreed to strengthen their capabilities to interdict suspect weapons by land, sea or air.

John Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control who attended the Paris meeting, told reporters there that the U.S. objective was "to dramatically reduce the international commerce in weapons of mass destruction, production equipment, precursor chemicals, all things related to weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems."

Given the magnitude of the challenge and that some components of doomsday weapons are the size of a grapefruit, the official said U.S. officials believe a 100 percent interdiction success rate is beyond reach.

Intelligence gathering, the official said, will be a key to successful interdiction.

Besides the participants in exercises this weekend, the PSI members include Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Britain.

The official said consultations are under way with countries such as China, Russia and South Korea as possible future members.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030909/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/weapons_proliferation_1

INVERT THE ROLES OF MAIN PLAYERS IN IRAQ TO SAVE THE NATION

By Safa Haeri, IPS Editor

PARIS, 9 Sept. (IPS) "The Iraqi people have the sad impression that they are taken as hostage by strategists devising planetary issues, such as fighting international terrorism or redrawing the map of the Middle East, using them as guinea-pig", according to a UN observer and scholar.

This cabalistic view of the way the Iraqi thinks about their situation under Allied occupation was expressed by Mr. Ghassan Salameh, a Lebanese who worked as a political adviser to the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN’s special Representative in Iraq.

A former professor of political science at the American University of Paris, Mr. Salameh escaped "miraculously" the car bomb explosion that destroyed the United Nations offices in Baghdad on 19 August, killing de Mello as well as another 23 people, most of them UN’s employees.

Addressing a packed press conference held on Monday at the Foreign Press Centre (CAPE) in Paris, he proposed to "invert" the roles played in Iraq by present actors as the best and more efficient way for saving Iraq from chaos and possible disintegration.

"The Iraqis must be put in the front seat, dealing directly with their affairs, and the Allied, plus the United Nations and other international agencies helping them from the behind", he suggested.

Coming back from a three months survey of the Iraqi situation, Mr. Salameh said though the present American-sponsored Iraqi Provisory Council does not represent all the components and parties of the Iraqi nation, -- which explain its unpopularity with the population by large --, yet it can be made credible if it could put forward crystal-clear plans for free elections.

As he was presenting his suggestions to the press, in Washington, US President George W. Bush, in a key speech, asked for help in Iraq from the United Nations and the international community, mainly his most important allies that opposed the war, namely France, Germany and Russia, pointing out however that the United States would continue as the main conductor.

"What Washington ought to do for being credible in Iraq and bring the Iraqi people to effectively back them is to present a clear-cut date for ending the occupation, otherwise it would be seen as an occupier and colonial force, uniting the Iraqis to put up resistance, as they do now", Mr. Salameh said, stressing that he was speaking on a personal position and not that of a UN official.

But this was exactly what was missing in President Bush’s Sunday speech, a clear strategy for restoring sovereignty to the Iraqi people.

"What the Iraqis want now and foremost is security, public services and a government and institutions that speaks for them", he said, based on extensive talks and meetings with the highest Iraqi religious dignitaries and political leaders.

For the time being, Salameh said, none of the three demands exist.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel", he added, observing that adding more troops to the existing ones would solve nothing until the Iraqis take more responsibility in running the affairs of their country.

He also blamed on "foreign elements" that "invaded" Iraq coming from neighbouring countries, thanks to the Iraq’s "porous" borders, but stopped short of naming any neighbours.

According to American and British sources, thousands of Iraqis serving with the Badr Brigades, the military wing of SAIRI and hundreds of Iranian special agents entered Iraqi during the very first days of Iraq’s invasion by the Allied forces.

The explosions of the Jordanian Embassy, the UN’s offices, the Assassination of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, the leader of the Iran-backed Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, as well as sabotaging pipe lines coupled with increasing attacks on Allied forces, are few examples of what Mr. Pepe Escobar, a senior journalist with the Hong Kong-based "Asia Times Online" internet newspaper describes as the "vietnamisation of Iraq"

For Mr. Salameh, though the present Provisory Council is not the best of the solutions, "for the simple reason that the people do not trust it", yet, taking into account the present circumstances, it can help improving the situation, provided it also shows it is provisory, help draw a secular constitution and is backed by international community, the Arab world and above all, its neighbours.

"However no Arab and no neighbour would ever accept to see Iraq becoming an example of a nation occupied by foreign forces under whatever pretext, being of restoring democracy or fighting terrorism", he warned.

[In an interview with Mr. David Ignatius, the former Editor of the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, published in "The Daily Star" of Beirut a day before, Mr. Salameh had suggested the merging of the existing governing council and cabinet.

"The two 25-member interim bodies are duplicative, with the heads of key political factions sitting on the council and their deputies typically serving as ministers. The merged body would be reduced to 20 to 25 people, and the United Nations would then recognise it as Iraq’s legitimate government", he proposed.]

"Whatever the Allied reasons for attacking Iraq, it belongs to the past. One has now to look forward, to address Iraqi people’s most urgent needs and this can be done only in case all the pros and the cons of the war joins hands and sent a unanimous, clear message to them.

Contesting the clichés that presented Iraq of the toppled dictator Saddam Hoseyn to the Nazi Germany politically of to the satellites of the former Soviet empire economically, Mr. Salameh stressed that the present situation was not "tenable" and could explode anytime, "no matter of how many foreign forces you have there".

"By wanting to fight terrorism at any cost, one has ended to encourage it to install itself in Iraq", Mr. Salameh pointed out without naming the United States.

"In any country, particularly if it is ruled by a despotic regime and its society is mosaic, when the central regime collapse, every one wants to become king in its own kingdom", the scholar and political analyst observed.

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Sept-2003/us_iraq_9903.htm

It has come to the Thread's attention that discrepancies appear in the following article posted 09/09/2003, 11:35 AM.

"Iran: anti-Government demonstrators arrested in June, July to be executed"

iranncrfac ^ | 9/8/03 | iranncrfac

Some of the people arrested during antigovernment demonstrations Iran in June and July have been executed, according to reports from inside the jails of the clerical regime...."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/978342/posts

The Khordad is no longer in business.
If anyone can confirm or deny this news story, please respond with proof from other sources. It is of utmost importance that we maintain truth and accuracy to the best of our ability.

Thank You.

"The official said consultations are under way with countries such as China,..."

Bush just initiated sanctions against China for dealing WMD's.

Thanks for the post nuconvert, I hope someone will be able to investigate this further. We need to maintain the integrity of the information posted here.

DoctorZin

How's This for an Answer?

WSJ, 9.10.2003

Blogress Karol Sheinin reports that an Iranian democracy activist named Banafsheh contacted the most prominent "antiwar" group asking them to take a stand against Tehran's thuggish theocracy. In an e-mail (quoted verbatim), Banafsheh describes the answer she got:

Recently I contacted a group called A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION which organizes marches. After having introduced myself and explained to them the situation in Iran (after 4 phone calls and messages) I was told that they won't help the Iranian activists and their friends in organizing marches against the Islamic Republic as they're afraid the Iranian student movement might be run by IMPERIALIST!!!!!

They claimed to be "intelligent" and very well informed though essentially they had NO IDEA what on earth I was talking about. They were not only unaware of the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic, they had never even heard that an organized group of hoodlums, called the BADR Brigade, trained by the KGB and Palestinians, armed and bankrolled by the Islamic Republic's ruling theocrats, were infiltrating Iraq to run a muck in killing American soldiers and destroy the future of Iraq! When I explained that the people of Iran are acting on their own but that encouragement from the PEOPLE of the west was crucial in holding anti-Islamic Republic demonstrations etc. (that's all I had asked them for: help in organizing demonstrations) the woman basically said that they won't help because their cause was to eradicate Imperialism! I explained that Iranian oil was being pilfered by member nations of the EU and other countries such as Japan, at which she replied: since we don't live in Europe or Japan, I cannot help! I guess imperialism is concentrated only in the U.S.!!!!! AND that Mullahs can't be "Imperialists!"

I then explained that Hossein Khomeini (Khomeini's grandson) is now one of the biggest opponents of the Mullacracy in Iran...She told me that he was probably being bought by Americans!!! In other words, she was convinced that there could be no dissent among the Mullahs themselves!!!!!

I told her about my father and other political prisoners in Iran (not to mention the number of people stoned to death, hung, assassinated, raped...), she thought for a moment and said that my father is probably a dissident and that the Islamic Republic was possibly justified in putting him in prison!!!!! I don't know, but doesn't that seem oxymoronic coming from someone working at an "activist/protestor" organization?????

Well, not really. International Answer is the brainchild of America-hating ex-attorney general Ramsey Clark. As we've noted before, this group makes common cause with every one of America's enemies, from Fidel Castro to Saddam Hussein to Kim Jong Il.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110003993

Banafsheh is a friend of mine and has stumbled on an interesting story. -- DoctorZin

"...they're afraid the Iranian student movement might be run by IMPERIALIST!!!!! "

LOL!

"I told her about my father and other political prisoners in Iran (not to mention the number of people stoned to death, hung, assassinated, raped...), she thought for a moment and said that my father is probably a dissident and that the Islamic Republic was possibly justified in putting him in prison!!!!!"

OUTRAGEOUS!!!! Wish I'D been on the phone with her!!
Maybe the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition needs some mail?
LOTS of it!

ElBaradei says needs full Iran help - diplomat

Reuters | Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Posted on 09/10/2003 7:44 AM PDT by JohnHuang2

VIENNA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog told his governing board that unless Iran fully cooperated he could not guarantee Tehran was not diverting resources to a weapons programme, a diplomat said on Wednesday....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/979577/posts

U.S. Cranks Up Pressure on Iran, UN Deadline Looms

September 10, 2003
Reuters
Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA -- The United States and more than a dozen allies pushed the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Wednesday to back a resolution that would give Tehran until October 31 to prove it has no clandestine nuclear weapons program.

Japan, Turkey, Britain, France and Germany joined forces with Washington and nine other nations by co-sponsoring a draft that demanded Iran demonstrate full compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the United States says Tehran has violated to secretly develop atomic weapons.

The toughly-worded draft resolution, expected to be voted on at Thursday's closed-door meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation Board of Governors, also called on Iran to "suspend all further uranium enrichment activities."

Iran's foreign minister warned that the Islamic republic, which denies having atomic weapons ambitions, would "review" cooperation with the U.N. watchdog body if its governing board came down too hard on Tehran.

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, told Reuters the decision of France and Germany to co-sponsor the resolution was clearly an attempt to ingratiate themselves with Washington after refusing to back the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"They are now taking Iran as a scapegoat to bring themselves together," he said, rejecting the idea of a deadline.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei appeared to support the U.S.-backed resolution when he spoke to the board on Wednesday, a diplomat told Reuters.

"If we're not getting immediate and full cooperation (from Iran), we might not be able to verify non-diversion," the diplomat quoted ElBaradei as saying at the closed door meeting.

If the IAEA board decided the agency was unable to verify "non-diversion" of nuclear resources to a weapons program -- as it did with North Korea in February -- it would have to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic and diplomatic sanctions.

"I would like to come to a conclusion (about the nature of Iran's nuclear program) by the next board meeting," ElBaradei said. The IAEA board is due to meet again in November.

IRAN THREATENS TO 'REVIEW' IAEA COOPERATION

Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told the IRNA news agency in Tehran that Iran would be forced to reconsider cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog if denied the right to a peaceful nuclear program.

"If the hawks gain the ground and ignore our legitimate rights for peaceful nuclear activities, we will be forced to review the state of play and the current level of cooperation with the agency," Kharrazi said.

A Western diplomat told Reuters that this kind of comment from Tehran was "blackmail."

The IAEA said in an August 26 report that inspectors had found traces of weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium at an enrichment facility at Natanz, arousing suspicions Iran might have been secretly purifying uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

Iran has said the traces detected at Natanz were found on machinery already contaminated before Iran purchased it from abroad in the 1980s. This explanation has met with skepticism inside and outside the IAEA.

The U.S.-backed resolution also calls on Iran "to promptly and unconditionally sign, ratify and fully implement" an NPT Additional Protocol granting the IAEA the right to carry out more intrusive snap inspections of its nuclear program.

Iran has not signed the protocol, though it has offered to begin talks with the IAEA about doing so.

(Additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna and Parisa Hafezi in Tehran)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3421331

Tel Aviv Worried About New Delhi's Ties with Iran

September 10, 2003
The Times of India
Indiatimes

NEW DELHI -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised the issue of Iran-India relations with Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a senior Israeli source said.

Briefing reporters, the source said that Israel was worried about the leakage of its military technology to a country it considered "the epicentre of terrorism". According to him, Iran along with Syria was supporting forces opposed to Israel with weapons and funding.

But, he added, "We got answers to the questions raised and we are satisfied with the answers."

The source said that the subject of Iraq was not discussed in detail. He skirted a question on Pakistan’s role as an epicentre of terrorism, saying he was not familiar with the situation there. However, the source insisted, "We are not fighting Islam, we are fighting agents of terrorism."

The source reiterated Sharon’s declaration at Tuesday’s state banquet that while Israel was willing to make "painful concessions" for a durable peace in the region, on the issue of security Israel would not make any concession "not now, nor in the future".

Asked whether there were any less violent options to Israel’s "eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth" tactics, the source said that in every war civilians were killed and "every casualty was a tragedy". But, he said Israeli forces never planned operations against Palestinian civilians, while "the other side" which sends suicide bombers to blast commuter buses had no such compunction. Israel, he lamented, was the only democracy that had to operate defence systems around its kindergarten schools because they were targets.

On the subject of cooperation in fighting terrorism, the source said that "cooperation did not mean that units of the Indian Army are going to fight in Israel or Israelis will fight here." He said that the discussions were on a concept such as the decision not to compromise with terrorism and which would then incorporate practical things like sharing information. Other issues, he said, were not discussed by the PMs. "They will be discussed by the secret services."

The source said that in his discussions with Vajpayee, Sharon had emphasised that relations between the two countries must stress reciprocity. In this context, Israel was more than pleased with India’s decision not to sponsor any more anti-Israel resolutions in the United Nations. Summing up, he said Israel was ready to learn from India, share knowhow, "ready to help and liked to be helped".

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=176277

Iranian Demand Holds Up Bushehr

September 11, 2003
The Moscow Times
Simon Saradzhyan

Tehran has made an unexpected and unacceptable demand that could derail Russian-Iranian cooperation on the Bushehr nuclear plant, a senior Nuclear Power Ministry official said Wednesday.

To address concerns that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, Russia has said it will freeze construction on the $1 billion plant and will refuse to supply fuel unless Iran agrees to return all of the spent fuel. Both sides in recent weeks have said that an agreement was close to being signed.

On Wednesday, however, Deputy Nuclear Power Minister Valery Govorukhin said Iran is now demanding that Russia pay for the spent fuel, Itar-Tass reported. Usually it is the other way around; countries get paid for receiving and storing spent fuel, he said.

Govorukhin chose to go public with Iran's demand as the board of directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna debated a U.S.-backed resolution that would find Iran in noncompliance of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it has signed.

The draft resolution -- put forward by the United States, Britain, France and Germany -- gives Iran until the end of October to prove that it is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. If Iran fails to meet the deadline, the IAEA would refer the issue to the Security Council, which would vote on whether to slap sanctions on Tehran.

The IAEA board was expected to vote late Wednesday or Thursday, a spokeswoman said by telephone from Vienna.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is designed solely for generating electricity, but it has avoided signing an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that would allow for comprehensive IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities without notice.

Govorukhin insisted the dispute was commercial and said both sides have agreed to start talks, Itar-Tass reported. Should Iran refuse to withdraw its demand, Russia would have to charge Iran a higher price to include the cost of buying it back, he said.

Alexander Pikayev, a security expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Iran might have concluded that it can produce fuel compatible with the Russian-made reactor itself -- and, thus, be deliberately making unrealistic demands in order to disrupt the deal altogether. If Iran used its own fuel in the power plant's reactors, it could then enrich the spent fuel to weapons-grade using one of the centrifuges that it possesses.

The IAEA has recently said that its inspectors found residue of highly enriched uranium on gas centrifuges at a nuclear facility in Natanz, about 300 kilometers south of Tehran, during an inspection in February. Iran said it imported the centrifuges and that they were "contaminated" with enriched uranium by a previous owner.

The decision to publicize Iran's demand during the IAEA debates may be an attempt to create international pressure on Iran to drop its demand and sign the agreement on the return of spent fuel, Pikayev and Ivan Safranchuk of the Center for Defense Information said.

Moreover, Pikayev said, it may be a sign that Moscow has decided to end its lucrative nuclear cooperation with Tehran altogether because of its own security concerns.

The Nuclear Power Ministry may have decided that it is time "to wash their hands" of Iran rather than continue cooperation with a country that avoids making its nuclear program fully transparent and draws constant fire from the United States, Pikayev said.

Safranchuk, however, said he believes the ministry will complete the reactor unless Iran refuses to sign the fuel-return agreement.

Earlier this month, the ministry said Iran had already reviewed a draft of the agreement and was ready to sign it. Officials said the agreement would be signed as soon as Russian government agencies finished reviewing it.

Govorukhin himself said in late August that the ministry intended to sign it within a month. Ministry officials said Russia should complete construction of the first reactor at the Bushehr plant in 2005 but may send the first batch of nuclear fuel to Iran as soon as this year.

During a visit to Moscow in July, Iranian atomic chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said he hoped the agreement would be signed soon.

"There are no vague points about the return of spent nuclear fuel," he said.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/09/11/001.html

"Funny in Farsi" Adds Humor To Iranian-American Experience

September 09, 2003
U.S. Department of States
Steve Holgate

Washington -- "When I was seven, my parents, my fourteen year-old brother, Farshid, and I moved from Abadan, Iran to Whittier, California."

So begins the highly acclaimed new book by the first time Iranian-American author, Firoozeh Dumas. Like most adventures stories, the book begins simply. Unlike most, it has no galloping horses or swordplay, no enchanted forests or imprisoned princess. "Funny In Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up in America" is, instead, a more adult adventure about negotiating the difficult transition from one culture to another, the task of respecting traditional values while becoming part of a new and highly modern society. It is about the great challenge of taking on a new identity without losing the old one.

In this brief and often laugh-out-loud memoir, Firoozeh Dumas tells about her life growing up in two cultures. In the early chapters of the book she shares with her readers the thrill as well as the difficulties of arriving in the United States in 1972 as a seven year-old schoolgirl, making a new home in a place that seems both a wonderland of Mickey Mouse and Barbie dolls and a baffling maze of strange customs and a new language. She speaks of the kindness of many new neighbors to an immigrant family from a place about which most of them knew little, if anything - though one man assured them, "I know all about Iran. I've seen 'Lawrence of Arabia.'"

The difficulties of grade school and her parents' struggles with the language of their adoptive country seem, as described by Dumas, both painful and hilarious. Her father, perhaps the strongest presence in the book, was a petroleum engineer who had come years earlier to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar and longed for the chance to return one day with his family. He never loses his sense of wonder at the endless opportunities and surprises that America has to offer. These surprises often seem less wondrous to his family, and his surprising inability to speak good English, even after his time there as a student, makes Firoozeh, for one, wonder if he had lived in some other United States that they had not yet seen. Nor does he lose his fascination for saving money in every conceivable way. When a family member visits, her father immediately offers to take him out to lunch, which turns out to be a stop by the local grocery story, where they graze on the variety of small free samples often offered on weekends in American grocery stores.

Despite his occasionally quixotic ways, he also possesses deep wells of wisdom. Years after their arrival in the United States he began to return regularly to Iran with his wife. Though they are far from wealthy by American standards, he uses his Iranian pension to help the needy in Iran and to enjoy a few luxuries. On his return to the United States after one such trip, Dumas asked him if it was difficult to come back after living so well during his trip to Iran. "But, Firoozeh," he replied, "I'm a rich man in America, too. I just don't have much money."

Her mother is a firm but quieter presence. Though fascinated by the game shows on television, she seems at first more skeptical of her new world. When American acquaintances lavish praise on young Firoozeh for her facility in translating both Farsi and English for her parents, her mother simply observes, "Americans are easily impressed."

The book takes Firoozeh through high school and college to her marriage with a young French immigrant, with whom she makes a new home in California, but never loses sight of her family. The book relates her father's boundless enthusiasm and optimism, her mother's more guarded appreciation of their new country, the reactions of her brother and a series of visiting relatives, until it is clear that the book is as much about them as her -- and most of all about their adventure together in making a life in their new country.

Not every experience is pleasant. During the revolution, Dumas says, she felt the sting of Americans' understandable but unreasonable anger toward everything Iranian. In more recent years, these emotions have faded and she observes a greater knowledge of the region among her American friends.

More remarkable even than Dumas' humorous and touching story is the way that it has touched American audiences. In a recent telephone interview from her home in Northern California she sounds exactly as her readers might hope, friendly, humorous and full of energy. The reaction to her book, she says, "has been phenomenal." American readers have loved the book and critics have praised it. Dumas, who recently returned from a promotional tour for the book, says that she has also received a flood of e-mails from around the world, particularly from the Middle East and Iran, who have read about the book and its reception. (It is not yet in Farsi translation, due in part to the fact that Iran does not belong to international copyright conventions.) "They are thrilled that this is a book about people, not politics," Dumas says. "I'm struck that people from all walks of life relate to it."

Naturally, Dumas says, Iranian-Americans have especially enjoyed the book. Iranians "have a very developed sense of humor that most Americans are not aware of," she says.

Dumas seems especially pleased that, through her book, "Iranians, Americans and others are being brought together by laughter." In the book, she says, "I wanted to show my respect for both cultures. I sincerely believe that we have something to learn from each other." Iranians, she says, "put emphasis on family. Things like hospitality and generosity are woven into our culture." But, Dumas says, "the thing that is great about America is that you can pursue your dream. I came here. I wrote a book published by the biggest publishing house in America because it was good." She laughs as she adds, "I am the American dream."

Dumas says that the inspiration of the book came from her father. "He was always a great story-teller. I felt like I grew up with him," she says, "So, when I had kids, I wanted my children to know why I am here, who I am."

Her father, she says, also had a dream, "He dreamed that someday he would return to America with his own children. And they, the children of an engineer from Abadan, would have access to the same educational opportunities as anybody else, even the sons of senators and the rich. It was a dream that my brothers and I were honored to fulfill." That education and the opportunities it has offered have allowed his children to follow their dreams and have helped him to realize his. With feet planted firmly in two cultures they all continue to follow their dreams.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=September&x=20030909161802namfuaks0.6079523&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html

Anonymizer Working on Iran Web Censor System

September 10, 2003
The Associated Press
Anick Jesdanun

NEW YORK -- A San Diego company that runs a system for evading Internet censors is working with the U.S. government to create a special service for people in Iran.

Anonymizer Inc.'s six-month contract with Voice of America's parent agency, International Broadcasting Bureau, calls for daily e-mail newsletters to Iranians with instructions in Farsi for accessing the free service.

According to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based media freedom group, Iran requires Internet service providers to block hundreds of news and other sites deemed illegal. Several providers have been closed for failing to install filters.

Anonymizer and similar proxies bypass filters by masking the sites users are trying to reach.

Theoretically, anyone in the world can access Anonymizer to reach blocked sites. But many governments and companies have learned to include Anonymizer.com on their filter lists.

So Anonymizer will frequently change its Web addresses and publicize them through its daily newsletter.

Lance Cottrell, Anonymizer's president, would not disclose the amount the government is paying for the Iran project.

Last year, Anonymizer provided a similar service in China, although it has been suspended pending additional funding.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030910/APF/309101067&cachetime=5

Anonymizer Working on Iran Web Censor System

September 10, 2003
The Associated Press
Anick Jesdanun

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/979381/posts?page=36#36

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American-Iranian September

September 11, 2003
Koorosh Afshar
Iran va Jahan

A new September is approaching. The world is getting prepared to stand still one more time to remember those who lost their lives on that disastrous day.

"Things will Never be the Same Here" was the title of an article I read in the following weeks of 9/11. This was the best way one could describe not only America but the whole world on the days to come.

These terrorist acts were truly acts of the evil against civility in the modern era which, unlike the past, had the potential to attract almost everybody's attention in the world. "Why unlike the past"? Since many of you might not know but as heartbreaking and unbearable 9/11 could be for the Americans, 9/10, as well as 9/11, is for the Iranians.

The reactions towards what happened on 9/11 were different in different parts of the globe but since the very happening of these evil acts, the youth of Iran sided with the Americans.

You might still remember that our youth, the new generation of the Iranians, we, were the only people among the Middle Eastern countries, while opposing the ruling mullahs, poured into the streets and held candle light vigils to show our solidarity with the Americans, quite contrary to the vile policies of our government. At the time this seemed quite sufficient to disclose to others as to how we felt about the 9/11 tragedy.

Removing the last excuse for the mullahs and also to dismiss any probable doubt regarding their role in these catastrophic events some links were found later which suggested that the mullahs of the Islamic Republic have very close ties with the "Al Qaida", as they previously had with other terrorist groups.

The irony is that while we shared the same pain and grief with the modern world on that day, I am afraid many of Westerners might not have known that September, points to a very bitter experience in the common memory of my nation too.

It was almost on these same days, nearly 15 years ago, that the old Devil of deadly wrath and fear, Ayatollah Khomeini, ordered his henchmen to execute thousands of prisoners of conscience (mostly political prisoners) in an unprecedented action not only in our contemporary history but also in our distant history. One might only be able to trace similar acts in the early centuries of the Arab incursion to Persia. The detestation for the Bedouin culture is obvious and raising day by day among the Iranians. I believe that lot of us are making fundamental reconsiderations in our religious beliefs. Our emphasis on being a non-Arab state (contrary to what the mullahs advocate) has deep psychological roots among the present generation of our nation.

It was during that time that lot of our mothers lost their only son or daughter. What made this an unbearable blow to our country was the fact that a considerable percentage of those (more than 15000 people) murdered then, were the elite of our society, the ones for whose education and training this ancient land had invested tremendously and had counted on their participation in the construction of her future – a future which never materialized.

And the mullahs knew it well. The gallant children of this great nation were summarily slaughtered by these shop-keepers of religion and in cold blood.

Right after Khomeini accepted the ceasefire (U.N. resolution 598) in 1987, an Iraqi based Iranian opposition group, which didn't (and still does not) have a popular support in Iran, initiated an attack which proved to be a loss for the group as hundreds of them were murdered brutally. This gave Khomeini a good reason to quench his never ending blood thirst by ordering all the political prisoners to be executed throughout the country.

Another demagogue, Ayatollah Montazari, who was supposed to be Khomeini's successor, has written his memoirs in the recent years. There is a chapter in his book in which he describes how he had written to Khomeini suggesting him not to execute the virgin girls captured as political prisoners because it was "against the teachings of Islam". In response to Montazari's suggestion, Khomeini, then, issues a fatwa in which he authorizes the interrogators and the guards (consisting of the members of the regime's intelligence, the guardians of revolution to temporarily marry the girls (Islamic Sighe') and deflower them the night before their execution. In his fatwa which was later released Khomeini says: "I hope that you will win Allah the Almighty's satisfaction with your revolutionary anger and grudge in carrying out this order..."

Try to imagine the feelings of that Iranian female student, still in her teens, captured merely for the ownership of a dissident paper and sentenced to spend 5 years in prison. Now, after passing 2 years of her sentence, after all those insults and tortures and persecutions they interrogate her one more time. A mullah tries her. He is the judge and the jury is himself. He sentences her to death. As she is still a virgin, in order to make her "eligible" to be murdered, she must get married to that filthy, bearded Haji that same night….

Morning comes. The Arabic words of Azan can be heard everywhere through the loud speakers. Her whole body is bruised and aching. She is bleeding, she hates herself. She is asked to wear that black veil, in her slippers they walk her to the saloon where she is to be executed. The thick blue ropes are hanging from the ceiling. She hopes it will be over sooner.
And...

It is over now.

Thousands of girls like her have been executed since the beginning of the Islamic Republic. Some of them hanged some of them killed under sadistic tortures of the interrogators and other agents of the ochlocracy - some of them are shot dead.

You can find many families in Iran who have lots of heart breaking stories to tell. Many of them still recall their reaction when they had gone to learn about their loved one and in return were given a few of her (or his) belongings and were required to pay money for the bullet with which their loved one was executed.

Needless to say that nobody knows where these people are buried. Under the pressure of the families of the killed prisoners, the regime referred to a few locations outside few cities as the mass graves for those lost ones. There are so many corpses buried there that in the past years, mostly during the winter time, there have been cases that rain or snow wash away the soil revealing the bodies which were buried on top of the other ones. Only to be covered by the bulldozers of the regime immediately.

The regime refers to these places "La'nat Abad" (meaning "damnville") or "Kaafarestaan" meaning "infidelville".

People call those places "Flower Gardens".

The same stories continue today. In our struggles in June and July of this year quite a few of us were captured. And history was repeated; only this time the person who was arrested, tortured, raped, beaten and killed was a 54 year-old-Iranian-Canadian-journalist who was captured while she was taking some photographs outside of a prison, here in Tehran. The mullahs didn't accept her family's request to have her remains returned to Canada. She was buried rapidly and before burying her some chemicals were injected to her corpse so that her body would deteriorate rapidly in order to leave in vain any attempts aimed at returning her remains to Canada and examining the cause of her death and also any traces of a rape.

My friends and I would like to thank you, American people, for your concern and also for the uplifting words of some of your statesmen, only, please remember that after all these years of pain and agony for all of us, the talk of reformist and non-reformist and elected and unelected in the Islamic Republic should be dismissed on the spot by all of us.

I can certainly name a few patriotic Iranians who have, and will remain inspiring to all of us in this struggle, but in such adverse times, I'm reminded of the eloquent words of Thomas Paine, when he said:

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Rest assured that our conscious, the conscious of the youth in Iran, approves our conduct.

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=09&d=11&a=3

pong

"- Asked to name one country they would most like Iraq to model its new government on from five possibilities -- neighboring, Baathist Syria; neighbor and Islamic monarchy Saudi Arabia; neighbor and Islamist republic Iran ; Arab lodestar Egypt; or the U.S. -- the most popular model by far was the U.S. The U.S. was preferred as a model by 37% of Iraqis selecting from those five -- more than Syria, Iran and Egypt put together. Saudi Arabia was in second place at 28%. Again, there were important demographic splits. Younger adults are especially favorable toward the U.S., and Shiites are more admiring than Sunnis. Interestingly, Iraqi Shiites, coreligionists with Iranians, do not admire Iran's Islamist government; the U.S. is six times as popular with them as a model for governance."

"- Our interviewers inquired whether Iraq should have an Islamic government, or instead let all people practice their own religion. Only 33% want an Islamic government; a solid 60% say no. A vital detail: Shiites (whom Western reporters frequently portray as self-flagellating maniacs) are least receptive to the idea of an Islamic government, saying no by 66% to 27%. It is only among the minority Sunnis that there is interest in a religious state, and they are split evenly on the question."

This is awesome, Dr.Z! Thanks!