Posted on 10/11/2003 12:38:05 AM PDT by DoctorZIn
The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.”
But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.
There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.
The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations.
The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.
In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts.
Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.
This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough.
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. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.
I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.
If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.
If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.
DoctorZIn
PS I have a daily ping list and a breaking news ping list. If you would like to receive alerts to these stories please let me know which list you would like to join.
Sat Oct 11
By Christian Oliver
Iran's first Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, has exposed the battlelines between the nation's conservatives and reformists who exchanged fire in Saturday's newspapers.
Iran's conservatives accused the Nobel committee of pandering to the West's political agenda by awarding its Peace Prize to Ebadi. Ranged against them, reformists hailed her as a catalyst for change.
Ebadi, 56, is a thorn in the side of hard-liners and a vocal campaigner on women's rights who has taken on the defense of political activists -- cases others feared to touch.
While conservative-controlled state-run television and radio were still agonizing over how to broadcast the news, Iranian girls had seen Friday's award on U.S. satellite stations and were excitedly ringing each other and sending text messages.
President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government congratulated Ebadi.
Assadollah Badamchian, who heads the political branch of the conservative Coalition Party, was skeptical about the Nobel committee's motives.
"It is natural that somebody who calls herself a reformist and is supported by Powell, Blair and Bush receives this prize," he was quoted as saying in Saturday's newspapers.
Ali Yousefpour, president of the Muslim Journalists' Association said Ebadi's award echoed the prize given to Egypt's Anwar Sadat, loathed by hard-liners who accuse him of selling out to arch-foe Israel and sheltering the exiled shah.
"This award has been given those who work in the line of Western interests or against Islam," he was quoted as saying.
NO MENTION<> Though the reformist press splashed Ebadi's gentle smile across the front pages, conservative newspapers such as Resalat, one of whose editors dismissed the award as political, made no mention of her victory.
Other hardline periodicals tucked a few dismissive column inches in the back pages and the conservative Jomhuri-ye Eslami even confused her with another woman lawyer.
However, Ali Moazami, a columnist in the reformist daily Sharq, said the award would offer wind to the sails of the reform movement.
"It is an encouragement for those who want freedom to raise their voices," he wrote. "Everyone seemed to interpret it as a sign of cries being heard."
Another journalist who declined to be named hailed the decision as a message to Iran's reformists that they were not alone.
"I was so happy for Iran when I heard this news," he told Reuters. "This is the best signal for the opposition and the students." Students have often been at the forefront of pro-democracy protest in Iran.
The reformist-controlled official IRNA news agency carried a piece saying: "The award Iran received on Friday was one of the sweetest prizes in the history of the land." The phrase played with Ebadi's first name Shirin which is Persian for sweet. (Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Parinoosh Arami)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=3&u=/nm/20031011/wl_nm/iran_nobel_reaction_dc
Iranian girls had seen Friday's award on U.S. satellite stations and were excitedly ringing each other and sending text messages.
Let freedom ring!
Sat October 11, 2003
SIDON, Lebanon (Reuters) - Iran's ambassador to Lebanon said on Saturday Tehran had no information on a missing Israeli airman whose fate is overshadowing prisoner exchange talks between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah. Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbollah has been negotiating with Israel through German mediators for several months on exchange of four Israeli captives for some 15 Lebanese, dozens of Arabs and hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Hizbollah said on Friday a deal could be concluded soon, but the fate of an Israeli airforce navigator, Ron Arad, shot down over Lebanon in 1986, has cast a shadow over the talks.
Hizbollah denies knowledge of Arad's whereabouts, but Israel believes he is being held in Iran.
"The Israeli enemy is accustomed always to making such false accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran," Massoud Idrissi said. "We have denied this report and said that we do not have any information on the fate of the airman Arad," he told reporters during a visit to the southern port city of Sidon.
Several Israeli officials, media and pressure groups have said any prisoner swap deal should include Arad.
At the top of Hizbollah's list of detainees it wants freed are Hizbollah official Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid and guerrilla commander Mustafa al-Dirani, whose group first captured Arad.
Israel, which pulled its troops out of southern Lebanon in 2000 under pressure from Hizbollah, kidnapped Obeid and Dirani from their homes over a decade ago as bargaining chips for information on Arad.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RDNAXJT5M5TJ4CRBAEKSFFA?type=worldNews&storyID=3597374
Report: Israel has plans for strike on Iran nuke sites
By JPOST.COM STAFF
The German newspaper Der Spiegel reported Saturday that Israel has prepared plans for a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities in order to halt Iran's progress towards attaining nuclear weapons.
Der Spiegel reported that a special unit of the Mossad received an order two months ago to prepare a detailed plan to destroy Iran's nuclear sites. According to the paper, the Mossad's plan is ready and has been delivered to the Israeli Air Force, which will carry out the strike.
The newspaper said its source is an IAF fighter-bomber pilot, who said the plan to take out Iran's nuclear sites was "complex, yet possible." The paper added that Israel knows Iran has six nuclear sites, all of which would be attacked simultaneously by Israeli jets.
The paper added that the Mossad believes Iran has reached an advanced stage in its nuclear program and is capable of producing enriched uranium, a vital ingredient of nuclear bombs. The report went on to say that three of Iran's nuclear sites were totally unknown to the outside world.
The paper said Israeli defense officials told Der Spiegel that if the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors visited those three sites, the Iranians would have "something to worry about because they have something to hide."
Israel has long sounded the alarm regarding Iran's nuclear intentions and has hinted over recent years that it might strike Iran's nuclear facilities at Bushehr and elsewhere, just as it hit Iraq's reactor at Osirak in June 1981.
'We think that next summer, if Iran is not stopped, it will reach self-sufficiency and this is the point of no return. After this self-capability, it will take them some two years to make a nuclear bomb,' OC Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash) announced on TV Channel 1 two in August.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the IAF has devoted the bulk of its procurement funds in the past decade to strike at Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile facilities. Generals and Israeli leaders have openly declared that the tens of billions of shekels spent are to extend its reach for just this possibility.
An extremist Islamic regime which has publicly vowed to destroy the Jewish state, Iran is intent on developing the bomb. Stopping this is a daunting challenge for Israel's miltary establishment.
Iran has warned Israel against any military attack on its nuclear sites, saying Israel would pay a very heavy price if it did.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1065862092797
Report: Israel adds nukes to its submarines
By JPOST.COM STAFF
According to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times, Israel has modified American-supplied cruise missiles to carry nuclear warheads on submarines, giving it the ability to launch atomic weapons from land, air and beneath the sea, senior US and Israeli officials were quoted on Saturday by the paper.
"The previously undisclosed submarine capability bolsters Israel's deterrence in the event that Iran develops nuclear weapons," the LA Times report said.
Two Bush administration officials described the missile modification and an Israeli official confirmed it. All three spoke on condition their names not be disclosed, the paper added.
The Americans said they were disclosing the information to caution "Israel's enemies at a time of heightened tensions in the region and concern over Iran's alleged ambitions."
Israel will not confirm or deny that it possesses nuclear arms.
According to the LA Times, "the consensus in the U.S. intelligence community and among outside experts is that Israel, with possibly 200 nuclear weapons, has the fifth- or sixth-largest arsenal in the world."
In 1999 Israel bought and received three Dolphin-class diesel submarines from Germany. With a traveling range of 4,500 kilometers, these vessels have the ability to launch cruise missiles, and can remain at sea for up to a month.
The attempt to arm them with nuclear missiles was first disclosed in a book published in June 2002 by the Carnegie Endowment. The Washington Post published an article about the effort a few days later.
The LA Times reported that recent interviews with officials in Washington and Tel Aviv provided the first confirmation that Israel can now deliver nuclear weapons from beneath the sea.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1065862092398
Iranian Women See Ebadi As Feminist Force By BRIAN MURPHY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran
Nine years ago, sociologist Saeed Madeni was jailed for three months for writing an article about Shirin Ebadi's campaign for women's rights.
"Feminism was considered as bad as atheism at that time," Madeni said Saturday, a day after Ebadi became the surprise winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Some limits on Iranian women have been rolled back since Madeni's arrest. But Ebadi's new international stature is considered a powerful tool to strike at more barriers - including laws that stripped Ebadi, Iran's first women judge, of her right to preside in court.
"This is an important moment for Iranian women," said Madeni, a researcher at a state-funded institute. "It could be a real turning point. I think Iranian reformers always expected a man to lead them, but it turns out differently."
The Norwegian Nobel Committee's selection of the relatively unknown lawyer-activist over others, including Pope John Paul II, was widely interpreted as a message to the Islamic world to expand women's roles on all levels.
"I am so happy I can't control myself," said Parvin Ardalan, an activist who has often joined Ebadi in challenges of Iran's ruling clerics. "This prize will push the Iranian women's movement to a brighter future."
The 1979 Islamic Revolution wiped out the Western-style of life and ambitions that were available to Iranian women. But even the most conservative clerics recognized that Iran's culture would not tolerate the heavy restrictions imposed in nations such as Saudi Arabia.
Slowly, Iranian women have made advances as the theocracy answers to the influence of reformers. The clerics have ceded ground on social issues, while making no concessions that would erode their political power.
The 290-member parliament has 11 women. Earlier this month, Iran's first women police officers joined the force.
Rules on the required coverings for women in public have been eased: hair pours out from under head scarves and the formless coat, known as the manteau, once favored by Iranian women has been largely replaced by shorter and tailored knee-length coverings.
But many doors remain closed.
A woman needs her husband's permission to work or travel abroad, and a man's court testimony is considered twice as important as a woman's.
Jobs such as judge and posts with the ruling inner circle are for men only. The powerful Guardian Council, which vets political candidates and interprets laws, has indicated women are barred from becoming president. But that interpretation could be challenged by Ebadi's supporters if momentum builds for her candidacy to succeed President Mohammad Khatami in 2005.
Ebadi has argued for a new interpretation of Islamic law that embraces democracy and equality before the law.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan saw a direct connection between the Nobel decision and demands for a greater voice for women.
"I hope this award will also underscore the importance of expanding human rights throughout the world and also how women speak out and insist on their rights," Annan said Friday.
The new Nobel laureate is scheduled to return to Tehran from Paris on Tuesday. Khatami's office - which has praised the award - said top government envoys would greet her.
The response from the hard-liners controlling the real power has ranged from indifference to harsh denunciations.
Conservative newspapers either ignored the news or published small items - in contrast to the banner headlines in the reformist press. State radio and television mentioned Ebadi at the tail end of their broadcasts.
"The prize is a support for secular movements, and against the ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution," said Hamid Reza Taraqi, a former lawmaker and member of the hard-line Islamic Coalition Society.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/oct/11/101104565.html
NATIONAL IRANIAN AMERICAN COUNCIL
www.niacouncil.org
Washington DC, October 9, 2003 – As the days creep toward the October 31 deadline for Iran to comply with IAEA protocols regarding its nuclear status, "Iranologist" Ray Takeyh finds himself frequently called upon to characterize Iran's outlook and policy alternatives with regard to nuclear development. Today as a guest of the South Asian Studies department at John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, the National Defense University scholar fit his analysis of issues of nuclear weapons and terrorism into a sketch of the trajectory of Iran's foreign relations since 1979 (and the isolation of the decade under Khomeini), which he sees as "a halting process of transition from a revolutionary state to a pragmatic state," though the process of "graduating" is "neither absolute nor comprehensive."
He thinks that the Iranian approach to non-proliferation, terrorism and changes in the political landscape of its neighbors has increasingly reflected and will demonstrate, to some extent, an awareness that direct confrontation with the United States is not a risk the state can afford.
On Iran's self-limitation of relationships with Al-Qaeda or saboteurs in Iraq, for example, Takeyh pointed out how a cautious outlook, if not rhetoric, may be required in this era of an American doctrine of military intervention as a preventative measure for both proliferation and terrorism: "Flirting with terrorist organizations can not just get you condemnation, but a visit from General Sanchez." In fact, he said, even directly after September 11, Hizbollah leadership was called to Tehran with a message of, "This better not be you!" Takeyh also revealed in the question and answer period that Iranian conservatives have secretly sent representatives to study the China model: political passivity for economic rewards.
Takeyh, Director of Studies at the Near East and South Asian Institute of the NDU, posits that a realization of the necessity for some form of relationship with the United States has affected Iranian policy especially in the past two years, though he stipulated, "We can't really speak of Iranian government; we have to speak of Iranian governments." He implied that the "perplexing impasse" on certain issues between conservatives/hard-liners and liberals/reformists Additionally, Takeyh pointed out that while the American instinct is to interact with other regimes based on package agreements that incorporate all areas of overlapping concerns, the Iranians would prefer what he calls "compartmentalized pragmatism," relations with the United States on certain issues where there exists a coincidence of interests, such as a stable Afghanistan, which led them to participate cordially in the Bonn and Tokyo conferences on the matter.
As well, Iran's policies on issues that have historically been guided by their religious ideological cores have seen significant shifts as the need for economic growth and some friends in the international community outweigh them. For example, Takeyh cited the example that though Iran's longstanding and tried relationship with Hizbollah remains intact and problematic, the policy of opposition to a Palestinian-Israeli peace has been narrowed to opposition of an American-brokered peace. The shift in part represents a following of Saudi Arabia's lead, with which (as early as 1995) the Iranian government prioritized a relationship over support for Shi'a dissidents in Saudi Arabia, though it is a state that Khomeini spent pages of his will denouncing.
The pattern of non-involvement in Shi'a minority rights can be observed most places except for Lebanon, says Takeyh, such as in Kashmir, because of the primacy of Iran's relationship with Moscow, and even in Iraq, though Iran does hope to have interlocutors (though not necessarily representatives) in the future government. Additionally, he marks Khatami's election as the beginning of active Iranian interests in trade and international dialogue with members of the European Union and India, for example, with whom efforts to establish a viable commercial relationship based on their purchase of Iran's natural gas continue.
With respect to non-proliferation compliance, Takeyh believes that there is a real debate going on in Iran now, for "this is not an issue that breaks down on pragmatist and conservative/hardliner." Outlining three schools of thought on the issue, he predicted that Iran will sign the additional IAEA protocols in the next couple of months, approaching but not crossing the threshold (as India has done), he says. The first school of thought, in favor of developing nuclear weapons, uses the "dangerous neighborhood" argument, which Takeyh considers somewhat difficult to support. Iraq was formerly a threat because of its chemical weapons programs, but no longer, Pakistan is less frequently cited because the relationship is murky and it is a fellow Muslim country, and Israel is most accurately characterized as a condition conflict in which both parties use proxies-Iran acts through Hizbollah and other such pro-Palestinian groups, and Israel acts through US-imposed sanctions.
The second school of thought on nuclear development advocates going forward with a program under IAEA auspices, during the three-to-four-year window it takes to implement full monitoring, and the two years it would take them to complete your survey, but negotiating and splitting the coalition on the US side all the while. Finally, some of those Takeyh refers to as pragmatists or reformists take the position that for Iran to possess nuclear weapons would only exacerbate its strategic vulnerabilities, resulting in further isolation and commercial weakening. Among most views there is some consideration of the national pride, the question of why some states may have nuclear weapons while Iran is told they should not be among them.
In the future, then, Takeyh sees coalitions shifting based upon Iran's relations with the United States, and an Iranian interest in the security architecture of the post-war Persian Gulf because it is crucial for access to the international petroleum market. Hardliners will continue to desire isolation, because under its conditions internal concessions are not needed as "you can talk about external threats, external enemies which you yourself created."
Ray Takeyh recently published an article in the journal entitled National Interest including many of the themes of this talk, and has written a soon-to-be-published book, Receding Shadow of the Prophet: The Rise and Fall of Radical Political Islam. He has written extensively on various international issues and was previously a fellow at Yale University in International Security Studies.
http://www.niacouncil.org/pressreleases/press125.asp
According to the testimony of three Iranian exiles, Ron Arad, unable to walk, was held until at least three years ago in a small and secret prison cell in northern-Teheran.
The Hebrew news site Ynet contains a detailed account of the testimonies of the three Iranian exiles who said they saw Ron Arad. According to the picture drawn by the three - which is being treated respectfully but cautiously by Israeli intelligence - Arad, unable to walk, was held at least until three years ago in a small and secret prison cell in northern-Teheran.
The testimonies of the three Iranians, which were gathered at different times over the past three years and mostly within the last three months, tell many heretofore unknown details of Ron Arad's tribulations over the past ten years. In mid-'94, the Iranians purchased him from Mustafa Dirani, who took cruel control of him in Lebanon, has since been captured by special IDF forces, and is now being held in Israel.
The Iranians brought him to Hizbullah headquarters in Lebanon, and later took him to Iran for a security interrogation. Arad was dressed in an Iranian Revolutionary Guard uniform and placed on a well-guarded truck bound for Damascus.
One source said that while still in Syria, a cruel operation paralyzing him at his knees and down was performed on him, in order to prevent him from trying to escape. He had apparently tried to do just that while still in Lebanon. The operation left Arad bound to a wheelchair. He was flown from Syria to Iran, held in various tightly-guarded buildings, and underwent some long interrogations sessions. No details on the interrogations were provided.
About five years ago, he was transferred to the prison in which he was seen three years ago and in which he might still be today. Each cell in the complex is 20 square meters in area, with no windows but with an air conditioning system. Two 24-hour video cameras are installed in each room, and the prisoners are taken out - one at a time - to breath fresh air twice a day.
One source said that he once asked Ron how he was doing, and received a short reply in Arabic, "with maybe a word in Hebrew as well." Arad was hospitalized at least twice because of heart problems.
Ron Arad was described as very thin and gaunt, with a sad and hollow expression, and as one who underwent tremendous hardships but has strong standing power.
Israeli sources say that the report has "more than an iota of truth."
A rally on behalf of Ron Arad will be held Thursday evening, October 16, at 19:30 at the Tel Aviv Museum Plaza in Tel Aviv.
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=50937
Iran's Regime
by Robert W. Tracinski (July 3, 2003)
Article website address: http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2902
Summary: The reasons for toppling Iran's theocracy are far stronger--and more certain--than the reasons for invading Iraq.
The Bush administration has been right in recent weeks to focus attention on Iran--but not because of the threat that Iran might build nuclear weapons. Iran is the source of a much more powerful weapon of mass destruction that has already been unleashed against the West: the ideology of Islamic theocracy, with its tactic of state-sponsored terrorism.
And we must confront this threat now because we have an opportunity to strike at the very heart of Iran's regime by supporting its repudiation by its own citizens.
Iran has long been the leading ideological and material source of terrorism. The Ayatollah Khomeini was the first to develop a systematic theory of modern Islamic theocracy--a totalitarian fusion of mosque and state that is nearly identical to the philosophy later espoused by Osama bin Laden. Under the theocracy founded by Khomeini, Iran has been a systematic exporter of the ideas and methods of terrorism, backing international terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Most important, Iran was the first Islamic regime to strike systematically at the United States, from the seizing of our embassy in Tehran in 1979--to the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983--to the kidnapping of Americans in Lebanon through the 1980s--to Iran's probable involvement in the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996--to its sheltering of al Qaeda leaders responsible for the latest anti-American bombing in Saudi Arabia. For almost a quarter of a century, Iran has been at war against the United States of America.
The most dangerous precedent set by this not-so-secret war is the fact that America has refused to fight back. Every administration since 1979 has followed a policy of appeasement, from trading arms for hostages to the State Department's recent "secret" negotiations with the mullahs.
Iran's rulers use terrorism as a tactic because it allows them to wage war against America without suffering the consequences of a real confrontation with a powerful foe. But this only works because we have chosen not to respond.
Now, however, we have been given an unprecedented opportunity to strike at the heart of the mullah's power. When the Soviet Union fell, the world discovered that no one hated Communism more than those forced to live under it. Similarly, no one in the Middle East hates Islamic theocracy more than the young people of Iran. For four years, Iranian students have held mass protests in the streets. These protesters are openly fighting for the right principles: the idea of a secular government with freedom of speech and separation of mosque and state.
Despite arrests of opposition leaders, the rebellion is growing--and it has been emboldened by America's invasion of Iraq. A reporter with McLean's, a Canadian newsmagazine, recently traveled across Iran and heard one message: "they would welcome American troops if they were sent to remove the leadership." A young female student told him: "We want more freedom. We want the freedom to speak our minds, and we think America can bring this to us."
These demands for freedom are more than loose talk. The Iranian dissidents have set July 9 as the date for a massive general strike to protest against theocracy--an event that could initiate a showdown with the regime. This opportunity is too important, and the threat from Iran is too urgent, to allow for a moment's delay. It is crucial for Congress and the administration to provide immediate material, diplomatic, and moral support for the Iranian rebels.
But we dare not depend on these unarmed dissidents to overthrow the mullahs on their own. We cannot abandon them to an Iranian equivalent of the Tiananmen Square massacre. We must be prepared to use our overwhelming military might to destroy Iran's theocracy.
The reasons for toppling Iran's theocracy are far stronger--and more certain--than the reasons for invading Iraq. President Bush has described America's military victory in Iraq as the "turning of the tide" in the War on Terrorism. But supporting the rebellion against the mullahs would be more than a military victory. It could decisively turn the ideological tide in the Middle East. Helping to establish a secular government on the ruins of a theocracy would provide a vivid demonstration of the failure of Islamic fanaticism--and a model of a free, prosperous, secular society.
This is the main battle in the War on Terrorism, and it is about to commence. America only needs to decide whether we will choose to fight it.
About the Author: Mr. Tracinski is a fellow, writer, teacher and analyst with the Ayn Rand Institute and speaks regularly at conferences and on college campuses about the philosophy of the late novelist Ayn Rand.
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