Iranian Alert -- September 13, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movment in Iran from being reported.

From jamming satellite broadcasts, to prohibiting news reporters from covering any demonstrations to shutting down all cell phones and even hiring foreign security to control the population, the regime is doing everything in its power to keep the popular movement from expressing its demand for an end of the regime.

These efforts by the regime, while successful in the short term, do not resolve the fundamental reasons why this regime is crumbling from within.

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Please continue to join us here, post your news stories and comments to this thread.

Iranian Media Reject Nuclear Ultimatum

September 13, 2003
BBC News
BBCi

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution requiring Iran to prove it is not pursuing a secret nuclear programme by 31 October has provoked an angry response in the Iranian media.

Iranian observers were unanimous in arguing that the UN watchdog was not acting in good faith, but responding to pressure from the West - in particular, the US.

A commentator on Iranian state radio said the resolution ignored a report by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei on Iran's co-operation with the agency.

"It proves that Western countries are exerting pressure simply for their own political ends and without seeing Iran's co-operation with IAEA," the commentator said.

The West's aim, he added, is to put a brake on Iran's technological and economic development by preventing it from using nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

"Western countries simply want to act on the basis of their own interests and prevent the legitimate activity of other countries in the nuclear domain."

Some, such as the centre-right daily Entekhab, directly blame the US for the IAEA ultimatum, which may lead to Iran being declared in breach of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"This will be the result of months of efforts by the United States to apply pressure on the international community to impose sanctions against Tehran," the paper says.

A report on Iranian state TV went even further, arguing that the IAEA decision proves it is guided by US policy.

"In truth, the meeting of the IAEA's board of governors was a negative turning point which has transformed this agency from a neutral supervisor to an organisation under the influence of America's political wishes."

However, Tehran will remain defiant in the face of what it sees as attempts to deny Iran the right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology, the TV added.

"This nation and the Islamic establishment will not allow the world's bullying and hegemonic powers to stop Iran's scientific development and the improvement of its general condition."

The hard-line Jomhuri-ye Eslami sees only one way to resist US pressure.

"The political and illegal treatment of Iran's peaceful nuclear programme by America and European countries has proven the bitter truth that, in today's world, the only way for countries wishing to maintain their independence to survive is to become powerful."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3106168.stm

Allies Show Off Maritime Security Skills

September 13, 2003
The Associated Press
Mike Coder

On board HMAS Success -- Japanese coast guardsmen slid down ropes from a helicopter to a cargo ship Saturday, during a high seas exercise showing rogue nations that the world is serious about preventing the transport of weapons of mass destruction.

The maneuvers on the Coral Sea allowed the United States, Japan and Australia to fine tune moves to intercept ships suspected of carrying the deadly armaments.

The exercises served as a special warning to North Korea and Iran because of the relatively advanced stages of their nuclear weapons programs, a senior U.S. official said recently on condition of anonymity.

Code-named "Exercise Pacific Protector," the maneuvers were the first by members of the 11-nation Proliferation Security Initiative, PSI, developed earlier this year by President Bush.

"It sends a message to all those who may for one reason or another contemplate the transfer of weapons of mass destruction," Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said after watching the operation off his country's east coast. "There is a committed global effort across the world that is going to make every effort to stop them."

An Associated Press reporter aboard the Success watched as the armed boarding party secured the ship's bridge, arrested its crew and minutes later told navy and customs ships surrounding the freighter and three helicopters buzzing overhead they had control of the entire ship and its cargo.

The exercise involved two Australian navy ships, the supply ship HMAS Success and the frigate HMAS Melbourne, along with Japanese-based U.S. destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur and the Japanese Coast Guard ship Shikishima. A French marine patrol aircraft also took part in the initial aerial hunt for the suspect ship.

On Saturday, South Korea's national Yonhap news agency cited a report in North Korea's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, criticizing the initiative.

"This joint military exercise is a military operation that comes before the U.S. military attack against us," Rodong said. "This is a military provocation."

Once the armed and masked Japanese had conducted an initial search, U.S. Coast Guard troops boarded the freighter from a small boat to check for chemical weapons.

The American ship USNS Private Franklin J. Phillips was used to pose as a fictional Japanese-flagged freighter transporting illicit chemicals.

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

"Because of the fact that North Korea has been a very ready marketer of its missile technologies and because it is talking about moving further down the nuclear weapons path we do have a fear that one day North Korea might get into the business of selling weapons of mass destruction or their precursors," Hill said. "We would not want to see North Korea do that."

Lawyers from the 11 nation group are investigating what legal powers they have to carry out interceptions like Saturday's exercise, Hill said.

"The operation has got to be within the law and reaching a consensus between the 11 countries about the principles of law is not easy," Hill said.

The nations already have met twice to discuss the initiative and Hill said it was important to get other countries involved in the process.

More maneuvers are planned for later this year in Europe, although an exact time and location have not yet been announced.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/6765355.htm

Follow-up to previous CAIR articles.

Bad CAIR day: Ex-staffer pleads guilty to terror charges, Senate asks questions on 9/11 anniversary
The Center for Security Policy | September 13, 2003

The second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was a bad day for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been struggling to overcome its reputation as a front group for Islamist terrorists.

Senators at a September 10 terrorism and homeland security hearing ripped into CAIR for its ties to the Hamas suicide bombers.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, on the same day CAIR’s former community affairs director pled guilty to committing bank and visa fraud while running an Islamic charity that the US calls a front for associates of Osama bin Laden.

CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad canceled his appearance as a witness at the hearing, held by Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security Chairman Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Awad hid behind a written statement on which the Senators could not cross-examine him.

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) assailed CAIR for “having intimate connections with Hamas, a group that receives substantial funding from Saudi Arabia and subscribes to Wahhabist teachings,” and criticized the group for not showing up. Said Schumer, "I wish they had taken us up on our invitation so they could explain themselves."

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called CAIR “unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect.” He said he hoped that in future terrorism hearings, “mainstream groups of Muslim Americans that are fully supportive of our war on terrorism” would be invited to testify.

The hearing was the second in a planned series that Senator Kyl has designed to explore how Wahhabi money and direction is building a terrorist infrastructure in the United States. He called for the government and all Americans to “improve our ability to ‘connect the dots’ between terrorists and their supporters and sympathizers.”

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