http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/norooz/ en-us Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:39:27 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1983065/posts Tehran, Iran, Mar. 06 – Iran’s police chief has vowed to keep “repeat offenders” in prison throughout the entire Persian New Year period which lasts until April 3 even if their jail terms expire. Brigadier General Ismaeil Ahmadi-Moghaddam, the commander of Iran’s State Security Forces, on Wednesday said, “With the cooperation of the judiciary, repeat offenders who are arrested will be incarcerated until the end of the holiday period”. His remarks were carried by the government-owned news agency Fars. “Among the steps we are taking is increasing police patrols, and arresting and detaining repeat offenders”, said Ahmadi-Moghaddam, who is himself... IranFocus http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1983065/posts#comment Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:39:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803381/posts On March 25, the fourth annual Persian parade will begin on 40th Street and Madison Avenue. Organizers say the single-day festival commemorates Noerooz, the Persian New Year of 1386, and its theme will be "Celebrating the Persian-American Community." In a statement, they said: "The 2007 parade is promising to be bigger, better, and more colorful than ever." That's because it's in New York, where we are free to express our cultural heritage without losing our national identity. Judging from persianparade.org, which shows last year's Iradj Javid parade, I expect to see as many American flags as in tomorrow's Irish-American St.... NY Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803381/posts#comment Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:51:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1599268/posts Reza Pahlavi’s Message On the Occasion of Persian New Year 2006 (Nowrooz 1385) March 20th, 2006 All nations’ festive occasions are a reminder of past glories and happy times. For us, the people of Iran, Nowrooz is that and more: It is a reminder of our national and historical identity; it connects our ancient heritage to today and the future, having endured through foreign attacks and domination of anti-Iranian orders; it is thus the mark of the continuity of our national history. This year, Nowrooz comes under conditions where the anti-Iranian policies of the Islamic regime have brought our homeland... rezapahlavi.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1599268/posts#comment Sun, 19 Mar 2006 21:40:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597703/posts Tehran, Iran, Mar. 16 – Iran’s paramilitary police arrested 1,000 individuals in the Iranian capital during Tuesday night’s annual fire festival, Tehran’s deputy chief prosecutor announced on Thursday. “On the night leading to the [Persian calendar] year’s final Wednesday, 1,000 individuals who were creating disorder and disruption were arrested across Tehran”, Mahmoud Salarkia announced. His comments were carried by the state-run news agency ISNA. The figure was considerably higher than the one announced earlier by Greater Tehran’s chief of police. Brigadier General Morteza Talai said on Wednesday that the security forces had arrested 174 people in Tehran during the festival... Iran Focus http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597703/posts#comment Thu, 16 Mar 2006 22:07:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597828/posts Under the azure dome, before Islam's arrival in the 7th Century, the Persians, in what is today's Iran, began battling evil with fire. Despite Islamic traditionalists' dislike of "superstitious" ritual, the practice of purifying one's body and soul has survived in Iran and thrived into the present-day Festival of Fire. The annual celebration is the one secular event — probably beside national soccer victories — that is celebrated by every Iranian regardless of religious affiliations. Last night, instead of leaping over bonfires, Toronto's 100,000-strong Iranian Canadian community ushered in the festival with fireworks at Sunnybrook Park and Mel Lastman Square,... Toronto Star http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597828/posts#comment Fri, 17 Mar 2006 01:41:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1596430/posts Revelers call for anti-Islamic Regime demonstration on Wednesday March 15th at 7pm Iran Time (GMT +3:30). Farsi language radio station KRSI in Los Angeles took calls live this Tuesday morning from people gathered in the streets in Iran and broadcasted them live to listeners all over Iran. Despite a total ban by the Islamic regime against celebrating an ancient Zoroastrian festival, traditionally on the last Wednesday of the Persian Year, by jumping over lines of smallish tumbleweed bonfires and chanting "your redness to me, my yellowness to you", crowds ignored the edict. And faced up to the attacks from the... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1596430/posts#comment Wed, 15 Mar 2006 01:26:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562912/posts Tehran plans a nuclear weapons test before March 20, 2006 – the Iranian New Year, moves Shahab-3 missiles within striking range of Israel. Reporting this, the dissident Foundation for Democracy in Iran, a US-based watch group, cites sources in the US and Iran. The FDI adds from Iran: on June 16, the high command of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force ordered Shahab-3 missile units to move mobile launchers every 24 hours instead of weekly. This is in view of a potential pre-emptive strike by the US or Israel. Advance Shahab-3 units have been positioned in Kermanshah and Hamad within striking... DEBKAfile http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562912/posts#comment Sun, 22 Jan 2006 22:57:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1544484/posts People (both muslims and christians) are getting ready for a happy new year and Christmas! Although we (Persians) have our own solar year delivery (Norouz) on march 21st every year, most people also celebrate Christmas though Merry Christmas to every one from Iran various http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1544484/posts#comment Wed, 21 Dec 2005 06:49:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477313/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477313/posts#comment Sun, 4 Sep 2005 21:12:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476895/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476895/posts#comment Sun, 4 Sep 2005 05:24:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475382/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475382/posts#comment Fri, 2 Sep 2005 05:51:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1474569/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1474569/posts#comment Thu, 1 Sep 2005 03:14:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473497/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473497/posts#comment Tue, 30 Aug 2005 16:49:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1472478/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1472478/posts#comment Sun, 28 Aug 2005 23:26:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1472454/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1472454/posts#comment Sun, 28 Aug 2005 22:23:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1472155/posts 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... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1472155/posts#comment Sun, 28 Aug 2005 04:35:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1471959/posts Heads Up!! The worst is about to happen Alan Peters: The name “Alan Peters” is a nom de plume for a writer who was for many years involved in intelligence and security matters in Iran. He had significant access inside Iran at high levels during the rule of the Shah, until early 1979. The news item below hidden among so many other stories, fails to call enough attention to perhaps the very worst that could happen seemingly to be about to happen. Oil might soon no longer be linked to the US Dollar and move to the Euro. As... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1471959/posts#comment Sat, 27 Aug 2005 19:43:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1471321/posts Top News Story EU powers still want Iran nuclear talks - France By Paul CarrelPARIS (Reuters) - European powers are still keen to talk to Iran about its sensitive nuclear programme despite calling off an Aug 31. negotiating meeting, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Wednesday.Britain, France and Germany have called off next week's negotiations on proposals they made to Iran earlier this month because Tehran has resumed some nuclear work in breach of a promise to freeze it while talks lasted, France said on Tuesday.Douste-Blazy said the trio, acting on behalf of the European Union, were not... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1471321/posts#comment Fri, 26 Aug 2005 16:57:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1470251/posts Top News Story Europeans call off crucial atomic talks with Iran Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:07 PM BST By Paul CarrelPARIS (Reuters) - European powers have called off August 31 talks with Iran over its nuclear programme, France said on Tuesday, marking a breakdown in two years of negotiations with Tehran to halt its sensitive atomic work.French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said talks on a formal European proposal made earlier this month would not go ahead because Iran had resumed certain nuclear work in breach of a promise to freeze it while talks lasted.Iran shrugged off the cancellation,... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1470251/posts#comment Thu, 25 Aug 2005 07:35:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1469091/posts Top News Story IRAN: JOURNALIST SUSPENDS HUNGER STRIKETehran, 22 August (AKI) - The Iranian journalist and writer, Akbar Ganji, has suspended the hunger strike he began in prison on June 11, his wife, Massoumeh Shafii, told Adnkronos International (AKI). She confirmed the news after seeing him at the Milad hospital in the Iranian capital Tehran, where he was transferred from prison after his health worsened. Shafii did not say what led her husband to break off his hunger strike. There is speculation in Tehran that Ganji's decision could be the result of a letter from UN secretary-general Kofi Annan... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1469091/posts#comment Tue, 23 Aug 2005 18:08:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468632/posts Top News Story Iranian secularist forces prepare Ahmadi-Nejad's 'welcoming' to USSMCCDI (Information Service) Aug 22, 2005 Iranian secularist opposition groups are preparing a kind of 'welcoming' ceremony for the Islamic republic's appointed president on US soil. Ahamdi-Nejad is to speak on September 14th at the UN General Assembly in New York.Groups are preparing to stage a peaceful protest rally, at the UN, on the days of September 14th and 15th. They intend to denounce, in a common voice, the presence of the Islamist president as the 'symbol of Iranian Nation' and the persistent human rights' abuses by his illegitimate... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468632/posts#comment Tue, 23 Aug 2005 02:11:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468016/posts Top News Story Iran’s Agenda for the WorldAmir Taheri   When he launched the invasion of Iraq in 2003 President George W. Bush promised to help the greater Middle East, the Muslim heartland from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, to bury a despotic past and build a democratic future.As if on cue, political elites throughout the region began to use “democracy” as a catchword. In Egypt President Hosni Mubarak declared the building democracy as the central aim of his next administration. The Lebanese launched their “Cedar Revolution” under the banner of democracy. The Saudi municipal elections were described... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468016/posts#comment Mon, 22 Aug 2005 05:16:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467733/posts Top News Story The Free World's Guess NY Sun, Eli Lake :"Iran is not in a revolutionary or even a pre-revolutionary state." This quote is from an August 1978 CIA assessment of a government five months away from being toppled by the first modern Islamic revolution. The phrase, however, could easily belong to many of the Bush administration's top analysts ... Brave leaders of Iran's democracy movement, men such as Akbar Ganji, Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, and Ahmad Batebi, should not be discouraged by the free world's recent guesswork. Read More A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467733/posts#comment Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:03:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467522/posts Top News Story Iran Made Thousands of Centrifuges, Breaking Pledge, Exiles Say Thu. 18 Aug 2005 By Alex Morales, Iran Focus: an MEK website New York - Iran has continued to produce centrifuges, which are used in the uranium enrichment process, in contravention of a November 2004 agreement with the U.K., France and Germany to suspend all such activities, the exiled opposition National Council for Resistance in Iran said. Iran this month removed United Nations seals on equipment used in uranium enrichment at its Isfahan plant, after rejecting an offer from the so-called EU-3 of technology and economic incentives... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467522/posts#comment Sun, 21 Aug 2005 03:20:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1466362/posts Top News Story The military strike option against Iran Experts disagree about possible effect of US or Israeli preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. By Tom Regan| csmonitor.com Iran once again says it will resume its nuclear program, despite International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)concerns. Iran claims its interest in nuclear power is entirely for peaceful purposes. Last week US President George Bush said during an interview on Israeli TV that "all options are on the table," including a possible military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities by US or Israeli forces, if Iran doesn't "comply with international standards." When it... Regime Change Iran http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1466362/posts#comment Fri, 19 Aug 2005 02:36:12 GMT