Free Republic

Mohammad Ali Ramin, who is said to have shaped the views of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on the Holocaust, has been appointed deputy culture minister for media affairs. Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a "myth." Ramin's appointment was announced on November 1 by Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hoseini. Ramin is currently the secretary-general of the Tehran-based World Holocaust Foundation, which was established at an international conference reviewing the Holocaust in Tehran in 2006. A number of controversial figures, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, attended the conference, which was strongly condemned by Western countries. Ramin,...

No, this is not satire from The Onion. If only it were, we could laugh instead of cry. Laura Rozen reports in Politico: The U.S. has condemned a suicide attack that killed five Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members today. Five commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed in suicide attacks in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province bordering Pakistan, according to reports. The Baluch group Jundullah claimed responsibility for the attack, that killed some 30 people. Iranian authorities have accused the group of receiving funding from foreign countries including the United States. The US has denied supporting Jundullah. "We condemn this act...

TEHRAN, Iran — A hard-line cleric sought Friday to head off an attempt to reinvigorate Iran's anti-government movement, warning against a planned opposition rally next month that would coincide with annual state-sponsored demonstrations against the United States. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, delivering the weekly Muslim prayer sermon in Tehran, also had an unusual warning for the security forces, telling them any soft treatment of those activists already in detention would be considered treason. "Nobody gives a flower to his murderer," he said. Iranian authorities executed a fierce crackdown on the hundreds of thousands of protesters who poured into the streets in...

OCTOBER 2, 2009 Springtime for Mullahs The Geneva Talks Rehabilitate Iran's Beleaguered Regime. From Geneva yesterday come all kinds of good diplomatic vibrations. Iran may allow U.N. inspectors into a recently unveiled uranium-enrichment plant "within two weeks." Another meeting will be held before month's end. A "freeze" on sanctions was bruited about. In an appearance at the White House, President Obama sounded sober but hopeful, calling the direct American talks with the Islamic Republic "a constructive beginning" toward "serious and meaningful engagement." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was presumably in even better spirits at his remarkable change of fortune. A month ago, Iran's...

The past two weeks have been a big success for the rulers in Tehran, despite what many in the United States and Europe may think. The Obama administration, the Europeans and the media have been obsessively focused on Iranian missile launches and secret enrichment facilities, on Russia's body language, and on the likely success or failure of Thursday's talks in Geneva. What the world has not focused on is the one thing Iran's rulers care about: their own survival. You have to give the clerics credit for keeping this grave matter off Western agendas. The fraudulent presidential election in June...

Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports. Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said. The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years.

The interrogator politely apologized for grilling the prisoner about her role in the mass protests over Iran's disputed presidential election. Then the prisoner was made to sit facing a wall in the courtyard of Iran's Evin Prison, blindfolded, handcuffed and covered in an all-enveloping chador for four and a half hours under the blazing sun.

Hojjatoleslam Sadegh Larijani, the new chief of the judiciary, has fired Saeed Mortazavi, the notorious Prosecutor General of Tehran and of the Revolutionary Court. Larijani has appointed Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi to replace him. Mortazavi was responsible for the arrest and torture of many journalists, young bloggers, human rights advocates, political activists and reformist leaders. He was behind the closure of more than 200 newspapers, weeklies, and monthlies. Mortazavi has been implicated in the death of Dr. Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who was killed while in custody. She was taking photos of the notorious Evin prison when arrested. The attorneys...

In the middle of the night, at 1:30 in the morning of Friday, August 14th, there was a large explosion at the monster petrochemical facility of the Iranian Pars Petrochemical Company in Bandar Assaluyeh. It is the biggest such plant in Iran, and the second largest in the whole Middle East (second only to one in Saudi Arabia). The explosion, which took place in pipes carrying Liquid Petroleum Gas (which is mostly propane), caused fires throughout the facility. It took at least three hours before the fires were brought under control. At least two persons died (fortunately, at that hour...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's list of cabinet nominees reveals a determination to fill the top positions in Iran's government from a coterie of loyal men, plus three women, many of whom are strongly linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Under Ahmadinejad's previous administration there was a distinct militarisation of politics: many ministers, as well as ambassadors, mayors, provincial governors and senior bureaucrats, were drawn from the guards. Ahmadinejad himself is widely associated with the IRGC, but in an interview his adviser insisted that the president had never been a member and was present only "when necessary" (although when pressed the adviser...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's most senior dissident cleric has criticized the ruling system under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a dictatorship in the name of Islam. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri's comments are significant because although criticism of ruling figures has increased following the disputed June presidential election, public attacks against Khamenei are rare.

A member of a parliamentary committee reportedly says it is investigating claims of a mass burial of protesters after Iran's disputed June election. Last week, a reformist website said "tens" of people had been interred in anonymous graves at a Tehran cemetery. "Parliament is investigating a rumour about a mass burial of post-vote detainees," Hamidreza Katouzian told the official Irna news agency. At least 30 people died in clashes with security forces after the election. The largest mass opposition demonstrations in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution were sparked by allegations of widespread fraud in the presidential election, which saw...

Michael Ledeen on Iranian regime and their belief that he is apparently the main influence behind the Iranian opposition and recent protests. (about 4 mins)

A GROUP of former reformist lawmakers appealed to a powerful clerical body in Iran to investigate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s qualification to rule in an unprecedented challenge to the country’s most powerful man over the post-election crackdown. The former lawmakers’ appeal was to the Assembly of Experts, a body of clerics that under Iranian law has the power to name the supreme leader and, in theory, to remove him — though such a move has never been attempted. There was no response from the assembly to the letter. But even if the call is ignored and is only symbolic,...

According to Majid Ansari, member of the Association of Combatant Clerics, cases of sexual abuse of prisoners are certain and the evidence regarding them has been already handed to officials of the Islamic Republic. Mehdi Karoubi, a disputing candidate of the recent presidential elections in Iran, was the first to officially publicize reports of the alleged sexual assault. In a letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of Council of Experts, he had urged an immediate investigation of the reports. After ten days, having received no response from Ayatollah Rafsanjani, he released the letter to the media. While Karoubi and Ansari and...

TEHERAN - IRAN'S powerful conservative camp rejected on Wednesday claims that election protesters were raped in custody and issued a stern warning to opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi for raising the allegations. As the political turmoil raged on, lawmakers urged Iran to review ties with Western nations they accuse of 'meddling' in its affairs, saying the United States, Britain and France was backing opposition groups. 'The issue of detainees being sexually abused is a lie,' parliament speaker Ali Larijani told the assembly, the official IRNA news agency reported. 'Following an investigation of detainees in Kahrizak and Evin prisons, no cases of...

SNIPPET: "The following are excerpts from the letter, as published by norooznews . [1] "...The people who gave me this information hold sensitive positions in the regime... They say that all sorts of incidents are occurring in the prisons... Mr. Hashemi... Some of the detainees say that [certain] people [in the prisons] are raping girls who have been arrested, causing them vaginal tearing and injuries. They are also raping young boys, causing them depression and severe physical and emotional harm... so that [today, after their release] they hide in the corners of their homes. "In light of the gravity of...

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tightened his grip on Iran’s powerful intelligence services, ousting four senior officials in a widening purge against authorities who challenged the harsh crackdowns after June’s disputed elections, lawmakers and media said Monday. The shake-up at the Intelligence Ministry — the nation’s main spy agency — deepened the rifts straining Iran’s conservative ranks over Ahmadinejad’s strong-arm political tactics and the crushing response to the pro-reform opposition since the June 12 election. It also sought to bolster Ahmadinejad allies in the Revolutionary Guard, which led the assaults and arrests against protesters who claimed the election was...

A prisoner forced to confess tries to speak with his eyes - to tell those watching that he's admitting to crimes he never committed because he's been broken by days alone in a cell and interrogators' threats to his family and loved ones. And because it's the only way to get free, said Ebrahim Nabavi, a popular Iranian satirist whose televised confession came after he spent more than three months in prison in 2000 for his written jabs at the ruling clerics. Nabavi believes he saw the same thing happen as he watched two of Iran's most prominent pro-reform politicians...

ISTANBUL | Beyond the power struggle playing out on the streets of Tehran is a complex battle for control of Iran's intelligence ministry -- a pivotal institution in the regime's repression of dissent. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who began a second term this week, fired Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei late last month after Mr. Ejei objected to the president's efforts to name an in-law as first vice president. The departure of Mr. Ejei, a hard-line cleric close to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two other Khamenei loyalists and nearly 20 other high-ranking officials appeared to weaken the leader's hold over...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the "elected leader" of Iran on Tuesday when asked whether President Barack Obama recognized the Iranian president after the country's disputed election. "This was a decision and a debate ongoing in Iran by Iranians, they were going to choose their leadership," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "He's the elected leader."

DEFINITION of TERRORISTS/TERRORISM: Those people or groups who have a plan and are intent on destroying and TAKING OVER a country/region, in order to implement their own agenda are known as TERRORISTS and the fear they project is TERROR. They can be home-grown, or foreign, but if their intent and actions are all toward overtaking a country by destroying its business, murdering it's elderly, handicapped and hurt; taking away the possessions of its people; putting into place a TERRORIST regime (with it's own terrorist members) based on fear and intimidation... that's called TERRORISM. It is, by it's nature of lawlessness,...

BEIRUT, Lebanon — With his adversaries facing a mass trial of more than 100 alleged dissidents, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was formally endorsed Monday as Iran’s leader for a second term. But several of his most prominent opponents, who have called his re-election fraudulent, stayed away from the event, news reports said. The ceremony, conducted by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came one day after state television broadcast a chilling segment of the mass trial in which two defendants — both prominent reform figures — said they had “changed” since being arrested, and disputed widespread claims that their publicized confessions...

About 100 Iranian activists and political moderates went on trial Saturday to face charges related to massive protests following the controversial presidential election. The semi-official Fars news agency published images of defendants sitting in a packed Tehran courtroom, some handcuffed in pairs. The IRNA news agency says the detainees are accused of conspiring against the ruling system, among other charges. Reports say some leading political figures on trial have retracted their claims that the June vote was rigged - the main rallying point of opposition demonstrators.

Three clocks are ticking for the rattled rulers of Iran. One clock, which they see in their favor, is a countdown to the day, perhaps a year or so away, when the country's scientists gain the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. A second counts the time until a September deadline, set by President Obama, for Tehran to respond to an offer of talks on the nuclear issue or face a stern response. But it is the third clock, one that will influence the other two, that matters most to the regime of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President...

July 27, 2009, 0:00 a.m. End of DiscussionIn Iran, there is a growing consensus that it is time to move beyond Khomeinism. By Amir Taheri No one knows how the current Iranian insurrection, triggered by last month’s disputed presidential election, will end. However, one thing is already clear: The doctrine of walayat faqih (“government of the theologian�), the cornerstone of the Khomeinist system, is dead. The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini invented the doctrine to justify the claim that he drew his legitimacy from Allah and was accountable solely to Him. In practice, walayat faqih was supposed to work the...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader ordered the closure of a prison where rights workers say protesters detained in the country's election turmoil have died, officials said Tuesday, as the head of the opposition sharply condemned the wave of arrests. The order by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a nod to concerns over the treatment of the hundreds arrested after the disputed June 12 presidential election. Authorities appear to be paying greater attention to the complaints after the son of a prominent conservative figure died in prison — reportedly the same one closed by Khamenei.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sacked one of his ministers, a day after he was forced to cancel the appointment of his vice-president. No reason was given for the sacking of Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie. Meanwhile, the culture minister quit, saying the government was weakened. The president is due to announce a new cabinet after he is sworn in for a second term in 10 days' time, following a disputed election victory. Amid the turmoil, Mr Ahmadinejad's office also denied reports that three other ministers were sacked. One of those reported dismissed, Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad...

When Iranians want to highlight someone's isolation, they use the proverb: "Ali is left with his pond!" The proverb was on many minds last Monday during a live telecast of ceremonies in which Ali Khamenei, the "Supreme Guide" urged "the elite" to close ranks behind President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The cameras did their best to show that, in this instance at least, Ali was not alone at his pond. The "Supreme Guide" was surrounded by men in uniforms, sporting ferocious beards. There were a dozen or so African dignitaries in colorful tribal attires. (What they were doing there we never fond...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader told politicians Monday not to disturb the country's security in a strong warning to the opposition to back down after one of its top figures called for a referendum on the government. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed "Iran's elite" and warned them to be cautious in the positions they take on the turmoil that has shaken the country since the disputed presidential election on June 12.

Reporting from Beirut - A top advisor to Iran's supreme leader today urged the country's establishment to be more tolerant of dissent, even as military officials stepped up their rhetoric in the latest signs of divisions created by the marred reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad one month ago. Mohammad Mohammadian, a midranking cleric who heads Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office of university affairs, acknowledged simmering discontent over the vote, which sparked massive protests and a violent crackdown last month. "We cannot order public opinion to get convinced," Mohammadian said, according to the Mehr news agency. "Certain individuals are suspicious about the...

[TEHRAN BUREAU] In a very important development, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the most senior cleric living in Iran, and one of the top two* marja’ taghlid (source of emulation) in Shiite Islam, issued a series of Fatwas, calling the Supreme Leader illegitimate and saying that he was working with the government against religion. Montazeri has called on people to take action against this injustice, even if they have to pay a heavy price for it. Ayatollah Motazeri, who has long been one of the most outspoken critics of Iran’s hard-liners, issued the Fatwas in response to a letter that...

(Begin my translation synopsis, from original Japanese):North Korean defector KANG CHOL HWANG, who is vice chair of a South Korean humanitarian group which assists North Korean defectors--(who himself is a defector/refugee from North Korea and survivor of the notorious "Yodok" Concentration Camp), reports the following new information to Tokyo based Sankei journalists by telephone:--Gunfire sound is increasing on the North Korean border with China these days. The gunfire can now be heard on almost a daily basis.--The gunfire is coming from North Korean side of the border and indicates two things: a) attempted escapes are increasing and North Korea has...

By FARNAZ FASSIHI TEHRAN -- When the protests broke out here last month, Mehdi Moradani answered the call to crush them. When the Unrest Flared, the Ayatollah's Enforcers Took to the Streets of Tehran With Batons and Zeal On the first day of the unrest, the 24-year-old volunteer member of Iran's paramilitary Basij force mounted his motorcycle and chased reformist protesters through the streets, shouting out the names of Shiite saints as he revved his engine. On the fourth day, he picked up a thick wooden stick issued by his Basij neighborhood task force and beat demonstrators who refused to...

Tear gas was still wafting through the streets of Tehran when, at a June 23 White House press conference, The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney conveyed an Iranian's question to President Obama: "Under which conditions would you accept the election of [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn't that a betrayal of what the demonstrators there are working towards?" Obama avoided a direct answer, saying only that the Iranian government should "recognize that there is a peaceful path that will lead to stability and legitimacy and prosperity," and expressing hope that...

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The United States may have been behind the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old Iranian woman whose fatal videotaped shooting Saturday made her a symbol of opposition to the June 12 presidential election results, the country's ambassador to Mexico said Thursday. "This death of Neda is very suspicious," Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri said. "My question is, how is it that this Miss Neda is shot from behind, got shot in front of several cameras, and is shot in an area where no significant demonstration was behind held?" He suggested that the CIA or another intelligence...

The revulsion of Iranians for the political system that has imprisoned them for three decades was triggered by the disputed results of the June 12 election. Once, however, the opposition took to the streets and the regime spilled blood to intimidate the people, it became transparently clear the revulsion a majority of Iranians are displaying is not over details of the rigged election. It is directed at the bloody-minded theocracy oppressing them, and its overthrow most Iranians want. Those with the misfortune of living inside totalitarian regimes know -- except for their apologists and the delusional lib-left crowd in the...

There are few anecdotes about him, and pictures, at least ones that have appeared publicly, are scarce. The younger Khamenei operates behind an elaborate security structure, an overlapping world that stretches from Iran's Revolutionary Guards to the motorcycle-riding Basiji. That accumulation of control was used to outflank reformists such as Hashemi Rafsanjani and Hossein Ali Montazeri, revered figures of the Islamic Revolution who years ago had questioned the senior Khamenei's qualifications as supreme leader. The violence that has erupted over the last week -- state media have reported that 10 to 19 people have died -- were in part the...

President Obama has finally come out unequivocally on the side of the victimized people of Iran, condemning the regime’s violent actions and saying there were “big questions” about the election results. He wisely mentioned the videotaped, tear-jerking death of Neda Soltani, saying, “We have experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and painful, we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.” He even went so far as to declare his support for the principles that the Iranians are fighting...

There are two deciding factors in whether the Green Revolution will reverse the travesty of the Islamic Revolution of 1979: the emotion of the Revolutionary Guards personnel that are the regime’s last line of defense, and the people’s willingness to march onto the government buildings that the regime operates from. For the most part, the demonstrations have been limited to public squares and universities. There have been reports of protesters overtaking police stations and attacking Basiji outposts, but if they march closer to government offices, forcing the regime’s leaders to flee or fill the streets with blood, what will the...

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Newt Gingrich addressed the AIPAC policy conference and called for ousting the regime in Iran and bombing its missile sites. Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a likely presidential candidate in 2012, faulted the last Bush administration and the current Obama administration for engaging with Iran as long as it is led by theocrats who threaten Israel. "We need to recognize that there are some regimes we will never be able to cut a deal with because they are in fact evil," he said Sunday, the opening day of this year's American...

IRAN is facing an "international conspiracy" to over throw the Khomeinist re gime with a "velvet revolution," the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) claimed yesterday. The latest mascot of the plotters is supposed to be Roxana Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota now charged with espionage in Tehran. A US citizen with an Iranian father and a Japanese mother, the 31-year-old Roxana has worked in Iran on and off for years as a freelance reporter. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for Saberi's immediate release and safe return to the US. IRNA claims that the plot was first...

"Liberty" isn't a word you'll find in President Obama's Iranian New Year message to "the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Nor is "freedom." Nor "democracy." Nor "human rights." Nor will you find any expression of solidarity with the people of Iran--though you'll find plenty of solicitude for their rulers. The president bends over backwards to reassure the mullahs that our government wishes them well. You'll find a paragraph addressed to "the people and leaders of Iran," as if the people and leaders were in harmony, and shared a need to be reassured that we seek "a...

(EXCERPT) ...allow me to frame today’s US-Iran predicament from the perspective of one who has had a daily front-row seat into my country’s domestic theatre, and whose primary concerned is the individual fate of 70 million Iranians who’s legitimate aspiration for liberty, freedom and humans rights cannot be discounted under any circumstance. In my view, we should first and foremost reflect on the big picture: First, the clerical regime’s ultimate goal, Second, my compatriots national aspirations, and Third, the free world long term interests. On the first point, we need to remember that the regime’s raison d’être is to establish...

By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL Farid Hashemi's latest "status update" on his Facebook page says a lot about his state of mind. "It's better to be born as a dog in a democracy than to be a human in a dictatorship," he writes. Twenty-eight-year-old Hashemi is a senior member of Iran's largest pro-reform student group, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat, which is a regular target of pressure from the state. He is also one of the thousands of Iranians who use Facebook to stay in touch with friends, share photos, and exchange views and information. Iranian authorities blocked the popular social networking site...

March 02, 2009 By Abbas Djavadi "In Islamic law, there is a principle of respect for the human being and his or her life and property, irrespective of his or her religion, confession, race, or sex." This quote comes from no less an authority than Mohammad Mojtehed Shabestari, a Shi'ite Muslim cleric who has spent his life studying and teaching Islam in the Theological Seminary of Qom, Iran. He has written for numerous respected publications such as "Maktabe Eslam," and he taught on the Faculty of Religion at Tehran University until he was fired last year -- along with many...

As preparations begin in Iran for the festivities marking the Islamic republic's 30 year anniversary, another somber Iranian anniversary is commemorated. Twenty years ago, some 10,000 political prisoners and regime opponents were brutally killed following a fatwa from then supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The executed, some as young as 15 or 16 years old, were buried in mass graves. Many of the political prisoners were affiliated with radical left-wing groups and the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (aka People's Mujahedin of Iran). Some of the prisoners were only a few weeks away from finishing their sentences and regaining their freedom when Khomeini gave his...

The media has been showing video footage of Ahmadinejad speaking to thousands of people gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of 'the revolution'. Yet what they don't tell you about or show you, are the thousands and thousands of poor people receiving their food rewards for showing up to the rally. Some receive bowls of food and others are carrying their canned goods in bags & boxes. That's the only way the Iranian regime can get big crowds to show up to these events. They have been doing this for 30yrs, yet the MSM would like the world to believe...

GAZA CITY — Hamas has demanded a guarantee from Israel that it would not attack the Islamic regime in the Gaza Strip. ShareThis Hamas sources said a five-member delegation that completed negotiations in Cairo has insisted that any Israeli ceasefire include a guarantee backed by the international community that Israel would not topple the Islamic regime. The sources said this has been the main obstacle to a ceasefire agreement, Middle East Newsline reported. "They [Egypt] have a duty to provide guarantees that bind the Zionist entity, and the Egyptians have to give us answers to our inquiries," Hamas spokesman Fawzi...