Free Republic

Top News Story Iran press reports Kurdish riots By Frances Harrison BBC News, Tehran The Iranian media has reported more disturbances in Kurdish areas of the country after several days of riots. Two people were wounded on Monday when "hooligans" caused disorder in the town of Oshnavieh, the hardline newspaper Jumhuri Islami said. But Kurdish journalists report that three people were killed on Monday and seven died in previous days. Kurds are saying the unrest is a sign of frustration over the denial of minority rights in Iran. Chief among these is frustration over the denial of the right...

Top News Story Havel Joins Bush, Sharansky in Plea for Ganji's Life BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun July 25, 2005 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/17463 WASHINGTON - A new letter from Iranian dissident journalist Akbar Ganji, authenticated yesterday by his wife, predicts that if he dies, his death will "water the harvest of freedom."Also, a former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, has joined President Bush; a former Soviet dissident, Natan Sharansky, and European Union leaders in calling for Mr. Ganji's unconditional release from prison by the Islamic Republic. This newspaper has called Mr. Ganji, who has become a symbol...

Top News Story Alliance of Iranian Students For the past eight days, the city of Mahabad, dominated by Kurdish ethnic groups, was the scene of bloody clashes between defiant freedom-demanding demonstrators and the Islamic Security Forces. Martial Law has been virtually declared in this city. Hundreds of young residents have been arrested and many have been tortured. Today, 23 July two severely wounded youth have been transferred to the public hospital where they are under intense care. Much of the public have closed businesses and gathered in protest in front of the city's prison. Last week in the city...

Top News Story The Washington Post ignores Al Qaeda Leaders Iran connection An Excerpt: Craig Whitlock, Washington Post: Experts Say Radicals In London, Egypt May Have Followed OrdersThe back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East. READ MORE DoctorZin:The Washington Post fails...

Top News Story Martial law declared in Mahabad, tension is striking high KURDISTAN, July 22 (DozaMe.org) - 13 days after the killing of Shivane Qadri, demonstrations are raging on in the city of Mahabad in eastern Kurdistan (northwestern Iran). Two more Iranian soldiers have been reported killed by demonstrators. The Iranian government has now declared martial law and curfew in the Kurdish city. Demonstrators who defy the curfew are still protesting on the streets. A clash on July 18 between Kurdish demonstrators and Iranian soldiers has left two soldiers killed. For the first time after 10 years, the Iranian...

Top News Story Iran Is Considering Pardon for Ganji BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun July 21, 2005 WASHINGTON - Dissident Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji may be pardoned for the remaining six months of his jail sentence, Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, said.A pardon for Mr. Ganji would prove the efficacy of an international campaign in recent weeks demanding his unconditional release from prison. President Bush, E.U. leaders, and an Israeli politician and a former Russian political prisoner, Natan Sharansky, have called for the hunger-striker's unconditional release, as have human rights organizations and Western...

Top News Story Family visits jailed Iranian Ganji in hospitalIranMania: A member of the committee following up the condition of Akbar Ganji said Ganji’s family visited him at Milad Hospital. Issa Saharkhiz also told IRNA: “After the original ban was lifted, Ganji’s family managed to visit him at the hospital at 22:30 on Monday.“ ... Saharkhiz noted that on Sunday night Ganji was in critical condition and he was transferred to Milad Hospital from Evin Prison. “When Ganji’s family visited him, he was being fed intravenously,“ he said. READ MOREPlus two other important updates: Releaseganji.net published an interview with...

Top News Story Iranian opposition tracking, killing senior military officers Tuesday, July 19, 2005 Iran's opposition is targeting senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Iranian opposition sources said several senior officers of the IRGC have been tracked in major cities, including Teheran. The sources reported the killing of several officers of the IRGC and the Basij militia.On July 14, an IRGC colonel was stabbed to death in Teheran, Iran's media said, according to Middle East Newsline. The sources said Col. Morteza Moinfar, commander of the Quds Force, was killed by several unidentified assailants. The Quds Force has been...

Top News Story Ganji Is Near Death in Iranian Prison, a Dissident Reports BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun July 18, 2005 WASHINGTON - Akbar Ganji's 36-day hunger strike has nearly cost the Iranian dissident his life, according to a writer recently released from the Tehran prison that holds Mr. Ganji, whom President Bush and European Union leaders have demanded the mullahs set free.In a telephone interview from Tehran, a former political prisoner who was released temporarily from Evin prison at the end of June, Amir Abbas Fakhravar, told The New York Sun that Mr. Ganji's...

Top News Story Iran police chief authorises use of bullets Sat. 17 Jul 2005Iran Focus Tehran, Iran, Jul. 16 – Iran’s new police chief today called on the forces under his command to deal “decisively with criminals” and use live bullets if necessary. “When a policeman is sent on a mission, his mind must be focused entirely on getting the job done”, Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam said in the first flag-raising ceremony he attended after moving to his new command last week. “Using bullets is not the first way of dealing with criminals, but sometimes it is inevitable....

Top News Story Iran-Shahr The Strange Death of Iranian Islamism Political Islam, at least in its contemporary form and content, was born in Iran, under the auspices of Khomeini, Ali Shariati, and a 1960s-intelligentsia (1). "To make communist rule secure in the USSR for the indefinite future", Soviet leadership under Gorbachev made "a strategic decision". However, operating in a world of increasing openness, glasnost and perestroika, from within a system designed to be closed, "set the ball rolling toward the system's collapse" (2). Pursuing the same objective of lasting rule and learning maybe from their defunct Soviet predecessors, the...

Top News Story Free Ganji Ganji's Second Letter to the Free People of the World Akbar Ganji, FreeGanji.blogspot.com: [Disclaimer: there are many quotations of other thinkers in the following letter. Unfortunately references are missing from the Farsi text of the letter published on the internet. We have translated the quotes back into English from Farsi, so they might not match word for word with their original. We will try to amend this in future revisions.] This candle is dying out, but its voice will not Today, Sunday July 10, 2005 exactly 30 days have passed since I started my...

Top News Story Kofi Annan Claims Ignorance on Iran Dissident ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun July 14, 2005 WASHINGTON - As three senators joined President Bush's call for the Iranian regime to release dissident journalist Akbar Ganji from prison, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, yesterday refused to comment when pressed, claiming ignorance on the matter.When asked by a New York Sun reporter if he would speak out on behalf of Mr. Ganji in light of the president's statement Tuesday, Mr. Annan said, "I don't know enough about the case, so I'd prefer not...

Top News Story Standing With Ganji New York Sun Editorial July 13, 2005 One evening not many years ago, we fell into a conversation about the heroes of the Cold War with Stephen S. Rosenfeld, who had recently retired as editorial page editor of the Washington Post. When we proffered the name of President Reagan, Mr. Rosenfeld cocked an eye and offered in return the name of Sakharov. Mr. Rosenfeld didn't gainsay Reagan's achievements. But it was important, he said, to remember that being a hero was much harder when one risked being thrown into the dungeons.We thought of...

Top News Story Freepers: Join the President and call for the release of dissidents in Iran DoctorZin reports, 7.12.2005: Special Report: Thousands of Iranians defied their government today and demonstrated in Tehran in support of an Iranian political dissident Akbar Ganji. Remarkably, he has defied the Iranian government, saying he is willing to die if he is not immediately and unconditionally released. Today, he is on his 31st day of a hunger strike. The regime was out in force and there were clashes with the security forces. Dr. Corsi and Ken Timmerman both provided reports. See photos here and...

Top News Story Reuters TEHRAN, July 12 (Reuters) - Iranian police beat dozens of protesters with batons on Tuesday at a demonstration to call for the release of Iran's most prominent jailed journalist. About 150 people, mostly students, had gathered in front of Tehran University chanting "political prisoners must be freed" when dozens of police moved in to break up the protest. The rally was in support of Akbar Ganji, an outspoken critic of the Islamic state's clerical leadership who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2001 for articles he wrote alleging links between senior officials and...

Top News Story Do the London Bombing's Lead Back to Iran? Today, the Sunday Times reported that the top suspect in the London Bombing is Mustafa Setmariam Nasar. If this proves true it spells more trouble for Iran. Nick Fielding and Gareth Walsh, The Sunday Times UK reported: THE terrorist believed to have organised last year’s Madrid train attacks is emerging as a figure in the hunt for the London bombers. Spanish security sources are said to have warned four months ago that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian, had identified Britain as a likely target. Coded commands from...

Top News Story IranVaJahan Commemoration of the July 99 student uprising in Iran has become an annual event for the opposition to the mullahs inside and outside Iran. Today, the commemoration in London had a broader message however in the aftermath of the London bombings. The first demonstration was held outside the Embassy of the Islamic Republic in Kensington. A one minute silence was held in memory of Thursday’s victims of the indiscriminate bombing attacks in London. Speaker after speaker emphasised the global threat of the Islamic fundamentalism and the need to establish a global front to combat it....

Top News Story Islamic Republic News Agency: EU Calls on Iran to Release Ganji The European Union has made "urgent representations about Akbar Ganji, a political prisoner detained in Iran", according to a statement issued Friday night by the EU's British Presidency. He is believed to be seriously ill and reportedly in need of urgent medical attention, it said. READ MORE DoctorZin:We have been getting phone calls saying that Ganji is now in a coma. A new website in support of Ganji is now in operation. It has some interesting ideas. Check it out. Update: International demonstrations around the...

Top News Story Iran's President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Complete Bio - In His Own Writing 1 July 2005: Is the president-elect of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the hostage-takers at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979? The Northeast Intelligence Network called upon its Farsi-language resources to help determine the answer to this question. Sure enough, the answer is readily found on the official website of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, written entirely in Farsi, and complete with images. The website includes various documents from Ahmadinegad’s campaign where he claims "I Can Control the Americans - I Have Experience Doing It".In one particularly...