Free Republic

Top News Story Iran offers nuclear know-how to Islamic states 15 Sep 2005 11:36:22 GMT Source: Reuters (Adds British reaction, background) By Paul Hughes TEHRAN, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology, considered to be a front for bomb-making by Washington, with other Islamic countries, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on Thursday. The comments were likely to heighten Western concerns about Tehran's nuclear programme just ahead of a key meeting of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog this month which could decide to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for punitive action. "The...

Top News Story The Washington Times Unwelcome mat An Excerpt: Kenneth R. Timmerman, The Washington Times: Tomorrow, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly should order his men to escort the new hard-line president of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Kennedy International Airport, the minute he finishes speaking to the U.N. General Assembly at 3:10 p.m. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who took office in August after disputed elections, is not just any head of state. He has a terrorist pedigree that should make him an unwelcome guest in any civilized country, if having a terrorist "watch list" serves any purpose. But...

Top News Story Daneshjoo Iranian secularist opposition groups are gathering, in New York, to protest against the presence of the Islamic regime's President at the United Nations. These groups are forming the "Iran UN Protest 2005" (IUNP2005) Coalition which includes the National-Secular Party, Iran Society, Marzeporgohar Party, Alliance of Iranians (TX), National Iranian Congress, Social-Democrats, Iranian Council, Free-Thinkers, Pan-Iranist, Iran of Tomorrow and the SMCCDI as the main organizer of the action. Activists and members of IUNP2005 are flying or driving from several North American and European cities, such as, Dallas, Los Angeles, Paris and Toronto in order to...

Top News Story UN inspectors 'powerless to stop atom bomb plans in Iran'By Con Coughlin(Filed: 11/09/2005)The former head of the United Nations inspection team that is investigating Iran's nuclear programme has called on the Security Council to give it greater powers so it can determine whether Teheran is trying to build an atomic bomb.For the past six years Dr Pierre Goldschmidt, a Belgian nuclear scientist, has been in charge of the inspectors sent by the UN-sponsored International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, to investigate Iran's nuclear programme.   Dr Pierre Goldschmidt: 'Many serious omissions' Throughout that period the...

Ahmadinejad - A dangerous terrorist is flying into NY City next week.The following are a few reports on the arrival of the Iranian President's trip to the UN next week. Freepers need to join SMCCDI in their protest in front of the UN this next Wednesday - Friday! Iran Press News reported that Hamidreza Assefi, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran said: The U.S.'s refusal to grant a visa to the Islamic Republic's Parliamentary delegation to attend the world conference of international parliamentarians is considered exceedingly rude. Adding: The United States with this action has proven...

Top News Story US turns Iran screw, wants India to join WASHINGTON, VIENNA, SEPTEMBER 9: Asserting that seeking UN sanctions against Iran was a “reasonable option,” US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice today asked India, China and Russia to send a unified message to Tehran that it has to adhere to its international obligations on the nuclear issue. ‘‘Now we need leadership on this. The EU-3 (UK, France and Germany) led on this issue. The United States supported the EU-3 on this issue. But Iran needs to get a message from the international community that it is a unified...

Top News Story Iran readies for UN nuclear battle with EU, US By Louis Charbonneau BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran is working hard to gather allies to defeat a joint effort by the European Union and Washington to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council because of their fears it may be developing nuclear weapons. The 35 nations on the governing board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meet on September 19 to discuss Iran's nuclear program and the EU wants it to report Tehran to the highest body of the United Nations. EU and...

Top News Story Regime reveals anxiety in the face of U.N. Security Council referral One of the regime's newspapers, belonging to Mullah Khamnei, attacked Mohammad El Baradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, accusing him of purposefully targeting the Islamic regime. The newspapers protested that El Baradei's report could be the basis for the decision to refer the regime's dossier to the United Nations' Security Council. Ali Zaadsar, one of the members of the Islamic Parliament expressing anxiety regarding this matter, said: "El Baradei's report to the General Assembly will set the stage for our condemnation. Our...

Top News Story Transatlantic Divide Deep, Not So Wide, Poll Finds An Excerpt: Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times: Europeans and Americans have often starkly different views of each other and the world, but agree on some major issues such as promoting democracy and avoiding war with Iran, according to a survey being released today. ... About 74% of European respondents, compared with 51% of Americans, want their governments to help establish democracy in other countries. The breakdown in responses among Americans was 76% among Republican voters and 43% of Democrats, probably because the latter associate the "democracy promotion" phrase...

Top News Story Pessimism over Iran's nukes From: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Brussels September 07, 2005 THE European Union has lost hope that Iran will again suspend its uranium conversion activities or resume talks on its controversial nuclear program, a senior EU diplomat said overnight. The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Iran's decision to reject EU incentives, aimed at ensuring it does not develop nuclear weapons, and resume conversion work meant that the EU's role had virtually ended. "If the Iranians changed their minds and decided to restart the suspension or discuss restarting the suspension,...

Top News Story Infamous and Shameless Charlatans Akbar Ganji's wife, Massoumeh Shafii, in a radio interview called the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran “Infamous and Shameless Charlatans”; she said hopelessly: “the judiciary officials acted in contradiction to the agreement we arrived at together.” Shafii explained: “The regime actively manipulated my family into convincing Akbar to discontinue his hunger strike; they had also struck a deal with us, demanding that I refrain from any further interviews or public statements and they had promised that Mortazavi (pint-size Tehran prosecutor-general known for killing Zahra Kazemi among others) would also stop...

Top News Story Iran dissident journalist Ganji back in jailSun Sep 4, 2005 9:51 AM ET TEHRAN (Reuters) - Dissident Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji has recovered sufficiently from his two-month-long hunger strike to return to prison, Iran's Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad said on Sunday. Ganji, jailed in 2000 after writing a series of articles linking senior officials to the murder of political dissidents, was hospitalized in July when his health deteriorated due to a hunger strike aimed at pressuring authorities to release him. The outspoken reporter, whose plight brought comments of outrage and concern from the United States and...

Top News Story Iran Focus Tehran, Iran, Sep. 04 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the jihad against Israel must continue and be strengthened, Iran’s semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami reported on Sunday. “The only way to fight the Zionist enemy is to continue and increase resistance and jihad”, Ayatollah Khamenei said at a meeting on Saturday with secretary general of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Abdullah, the hard-line daily Jomhouri Islami wrote. Iran’s official policy is to call for the annihilation of the Jewish state. The country’s clerical rulers have been strongly opposed to Palestinian President...

Top News Story U.S., Europe Must Forge Broader Alliance, Says State's Fried The Washington File, Embassy of the U.S., London: America and Europe must work together to support democratic development throughout the broader Middle East, just as they supported the democratic aspirations of pro-democracy movements in central and Eastern Europe, says the State Department’s Daniel Fried. Speaking in Paris September 1, the day after attending a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity in Gdansk, Poland, Fried said the Polish people “achieved democracy through their own efforts, but they had support from abroad,” including from Western...

Top News Story Iranian President Gets Terror Law Exception An Excerpt: World News Tonight, ABC News:State Department says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a terrorist, but will grant him a visa anyway, ABC News has learned. The State Department has issued a legal finding that Ahmadinejad is ineligible for a U.S. visa because of section 212(a)3(b) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, which says anyone with terrorist ties cannot be granted a visa. But U.S. officials have decided to waive section 212, so that Ahmadinejad can get a limited visa to attend the United Nations General Assembly, which begins...

Top News Story See no evil? (Washington, D.C.): The leaking earlier this month of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) projection that Iran is a decade away from obtaining nuclear weapons - doubling previous official estimates - is, in some ways, more ominous than would have been a finding that the mullahs are about to get "the Bomb." After all, the latter would be no surprise, given the considerable evidence (albeit, much of it circumstantial) that has accumulated about Tehran's intentions and activities in this area. By contrast, the pollyanish assessment not only seems wildly out of touch with such...

Top News Story A Clash of Civilizations An Excerpt: Amir Taheri, Newsweek International:Eight years ago a pirated translation of Samuel Huntington's celebrated essay "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order" appeared in Tehran. The publisher received an order for 1,000 copies, half the print run. "We wondered who wanted them," recalls Mustafa Tunkaboni, who marketed the book. The answer came when a military truck belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrived to pick up the books. Among the officers who received a copy was Yahya Safavi, now a general and commander in chief of...

Top News Story BBC Iranian judges have been given approval to carry guns and to use them if they feel threatened after a judge was shot in an attack in Tehran, officials say. Mohammed Reza Aghazadeh was shot outside his home in the capital, sustaining injuries to his eye. The incident comes less than a month after another judge was killed by a gunman on a motorcycle in Tehran. Hassan Moghaddas was a prominent judge who was involved in a number of high-profile political cases involving human rights or freedom of speech and who had jailed a number of...

Top News Story Drone crashes in IranAn unmanned single-engined plane has crashed in a mountainous area of western Iran and the wreckage has been recovered by the Iranian armed forces. It was not clear if the plane was Iranian or foreign, although the influential Kayhan newspaper pointed out that "usually these sort of planes are used for spying on other countries". The reports quoted Ali Asgar Ahmadi, deputy head of security in the interior ministry, as saying the plane went down on Thursday in the Alashtar mountains near the city of Khorramabad, the capital of Lorestan province, 350 kilometres...

Top News Story 'Iran had designed N-capable cruise missiles' LONDON, August 27 (IranMania) - A prominent Iranian dissident on Friday claimed Tehran had mastered the design of nuclear capable cruise missiles secretly sold to the Islamic Republic by Ukraine and was on the verge of producing copies.Alireza Jafarzadeh said the 12 weapons were now in the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and also fired off new claims about the corps' past links with disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan, according to AFP.His charges, made at a press conference in Washington, coincided with a spike in tensions in the...