گوشزد: خاطرات دهه شصت (Anatomy of the IRI's Reign of Terror)

گوشزد: خاطرات دهه شصت

I just stumbled upon this site and this one via sheema, accidentally and I was flabbergasted by the ghastly reign of terror of the mullahs in the 80's.

After reading these heinous and inexcusable carnage, violence and wholesale slaughter carried out on the flesh and psyche of the Iranians and the Iranian nation, I'm left with an overwhelming feeling of guilt. I left Iran before the revolution and I'm wondering why was I spared...I applaud and admire every one of you who has contributed to shed some light on the true nature of this regime. It takes a lot of courage to conjure up painful memories and I'm grateful for your brevity.

I think everyone needs to remember every detail and document it and not just for Iranians. You owe it to yourself and your children and the whole of humanity to transmit, communicate, pass on, and spread this injustice to the future generations of this planet. This was the Iranian Holocaust.. and we should never forget it not even for one day because this could happen again and it looks like it's going to very soon. It's time to speak up. Buying into this destructive advice of keeping quite for far too long will only lead to a repeat performance of the IRI and the future generations of Iranians have to once again pay steep price for your silence.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"--Attr. to Edmund Burke



We should not walk in fear, one of another. We should not be driven by fear into an age of unreason once again, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose tyranny and injustice to keep silent.

We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a humanity to abdicate his responsibilities. As a community in diaspora and as ex-pats, we have come into our full inheritance at a critical juncture in our history where all the signs indicate that another round of crimes and atrocities are about to be unleashed on the Iranian nation. We cannot wait for a saviour, We are the ones we've been waiting for. Ladies and Gentlemen, there is no one else. The recent repressive actions taken by the IR should cause alarm and dismay amongst all of us. And this time, the fault, is not in our stars, but in ourselves for not speaking up.


For my English speaking readers: I am going to translate what I've read so far as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience.

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Condemnation of Amir Kabir University arrests by CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): The CPJ condemns the recent arrests of four Iranian student editors of Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran following the publication of newsletters carrying articles deemed insulting to Islam. The students say they had no involvement in the publications, calling them a fraud designed to disrupt student elections. All of the university’s student publications were nonetheless banned by the school administration, according to online reports... The four arrested editors issued a statement May 3 saying that the newsletters fraudulently used the names and logos of their publications, according to AUTNews. The editors claimed that student members of the Basij—a militia affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, an elite unit under the supreme leader’s control—reproduced the names and logos in an attempt to disrupt the elections to the Islamic Student Association, AUTNews said. Immediately following distribution of the newsletters, the Basij attacked the publications and their activist leaders, according to online sources.

Cityboy has the translation of interview with Bijan Pouryousefi, a committee member of the student activist body ISA, who has been banned from attending any classes for two months which comes at a crucial point in his degree and delays his graduation by a year.

Europe has much more on the situation at Amir Kabir University.

For what it's worth... Amnesty International recommends this action:

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, Arabic, English or your own language:- expressing concern for the safety of the six students (please name them);- asking to be informed of the reasons for their arrest, including any charges against them, which should be made public and communicated to the students and their lawyers without delay;- calling for their immediate release if they are not to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence; - calling for them to be granted immediate and unconditional access to their lawyers, family members, and any medical treatment they may require;- seeking assurances that they not being tortured or ill-treated in detention. For more info. click here.

Amnesty International: Fear of torture and ill-treatment IRAN

Bejaz Ahmad Qasabian (m) ]

Moqdad Khalilpour (m) ]

Pooya Mahmoudian (m) ] students at Amir Kabir Polytechnic

Majid Tavakkoli (m) ] in Tehran

Majid Sheikhpour (m) ]

Babak Zamanian (m) ]

Pro-Ahmadinejad Thugs Stab & Beat Student Protesters!

Regime Beats Students With Chains- Arrests Student Leaders

Crackdown & Arrests At Tehran's Amir Kabir University

Crackdown Continues... Student Arrests at Amir-Kabir University

Source

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Iran: Outrageous Headlines

Iran FocusTehran, Iran, May 15 – Authorities have chopped off the hand of a man in public in the western city of Kermanshah, a state-run daily reported on Tuesday.“In order to deal decisively against those disrupting national security and order and to carry out the divine law, at exactly 4 pm on Sunday the sentence for Arash’s hand to be amputated in public was carried out in Kermanshah’s Jafaar-Abad Square”, wrote the hard-line daily Qods.The report said that Arash, whose hand was chopped off, had taken part in 16 robberies. The sentence had been upheld by Iran’s State Supreme Court, it added. It did not mention, however, which hand was amputated. Iran’s Islamic penal system regularly practices centuries-old sentences for petty crimes, such as amputation of limbs, eye gouging, stoning to death, and throwing prisoners off a cliff in a sac.





Gorzareshgaran, Baluchestan: َA 12 year old Iranian Baluchi girl, Roya Sarani, was shot and killed by the security forces of the Iranian regime. link via sheema.

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American Bases in Iran and Enemy Combatants of the IRI

List of American Bases:

1. Universities,
2. schools
3. Dormotories
4. factories,
5. Shopping malls
6. Hair Salons

List of Enemy Combatants and Agents of the Great Satan And filthy Zionists:

1. Student Activists
2. Women Activists
3. Human Rights Activistis
4. NGOs
5. Iranian-American and Iranian-Canadian Scholars
6. Journalists
7. University Professors
8. Bus Drivers
9. Teachers
10. Writers and Poets
11.Un-Islamic Musicians
12. Sufis
13. Baluchis,
14. Kurds
15. Azaris
16. Sunni Iranian-arabs
17. Homosexuals
18. Bahais

Why does Islamic Regime has so many enemies?

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Iran: Leader Rejects US Rapprochement

Alalam.ir.com: TEHRAN, May 17--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has ruled out any rapprochement between Iran and the US.Addressing a group of Islamic scholars in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the leader also rebuked "certain domestic circles" who are celebrating over the idea of negotiations with Washington.

The leader gave his backing to planned talks with the US on Iraq, but said the negotiations are aimed at reminding Washington of its failed duties in the war-torn country."Given that America, as an occupying government, does not fulfill its responsibilities regarding the establishment of security in Iraq…the foreign ministry decided upon the Iraqi government's request to remind the Americans of their responsibilities in a face-to-face dialogue".Ayatollah Khamenei said Washington had asked for negotiations in writing, lashing out at US officials over saying that the talks would be limited to the Iraq issue."

The Americans are saying there will be no negotiation beyond the Iraq issue but we are telling them that 'even the Iraq issue has nothing to do with you' and the dialogue is only about the occupiers' responsibilities regarding the security of Iraq."Ayatollah Khamenei said the US has tied the hands of the Iraqi government in its bid to restore security in Iraq and is trying to topple the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki while supporting terrorist groups.

The leader also castigated some voices inside Iran who have been gloating over the idea of talks between Tehran and Washington."Those, who think the Islamic Republic of Iran will change its firm, logical and totally defensible policy of rejecting negotiations with America, are blatantly mistaken."How can one have dialogue with an arrogant, bullying, expansionist and imperial American government, especially with its current brazen, ill-mannered and boastful statesmen?"Ayatollah Khamenei said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran's policy of not negotiating with America will remain unchanged as long as this arrogant government's policies do not change."

A key lawmaker also poured cold water on the idea of forming an Iranian-US friendship committee in parliament to hold contacts with the US Congress. The rebuttal came only a day after some deputies were said to have been gathering signatures to find a way to bridge nearly three decades of estrangement between the US and Iran.

But MP Kazem Jalali, rapporteur of parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, put the kibosh on the idea, saying "this is only a rumor which certain individuals have floated with special objectives"."Current talks between Iran and America are only in the framework of the Iraq problems and any haste in remarks and positions short of considering the dignity of the Iranian nation will not be in line with national interests," the MP said.Jalali said the reason behind the Bush government's push for negotiations with Iran was the failure of the US policies in the Middle East.

The lawmaker touched on the Baker-Hamilton report which advised the Bush government to hold direct talks with Iran over resolving the Iraqi crisis. "Under the current situations, the Americans need to talk to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hence, it is necessary to have a careful strategy in order to achieve results which guarantee Iran's national interests."Moreover, showing any sort of captivity with resuming ties with America and haste can prove contradictory to national interests," Jalali added.

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Iran: Mass Executions

Sheema: Mass executions in Baluchistan by the Islamic Republic of IranBalochistan Peoples Front: "Following the Amnesty International's appeal for saving the lives of 700 Baluch who had received death sentences from the Supreme Court of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to transfer the innocent Baluch people to other cities of Iran and execute them without releasing their identities."

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Plea For Perspective and Sanity

I hereby, beg, grovel, plea, implore, beseech, supplicate to the Supreme Eminences and Grandest of Grandest Ayatollahs of the Islamic monarchy to please tell us what is the logic behind kicking and beating up women and banning imported tea and sugar(including sugar cubes) in the holy and martyr-raising goverment offices of nation of Iran? Is there a correlation or a causal relationship that us earthly peons cannot begin to grasp?

Kamangir has this surreal report from Iran: [...]

1- The executive deputy of the president published a statement banning the usage of sugar and sugar cubes in government offices. The statement emphasizes the use of alternatives, including dates and raisins, instead (Mehr).

2- The executive deputy of the president mandated government offices to only use Iran-grown tea (Baztab).

However, in the same country, the Police literally kicks a girl into a car. Her “crime” is to take her veil off in public, according to my understanding of the video.

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Iran pulls the rug from Afghan refugees

Asia Times:Iran and Pakistan are threatening to expel the refugees - Iran has already started - in a move that will create unprecedented economic and social crises for the Afghan government. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), close to a million Afghan refugees live in Iran and more than 2 million in Pakistan. In addition, there are a considerable number of illegal refugees in both countries.

Update 1: Gateway pundit reports: Iran evicted 25,000 Afghan refugees in the span of a few days.Hundreds of Afghanistan citizens marched the streets of Kabul and rallied in front of the Iranian Embassy Tuesday:

Hundreds of people rallied in Afghanistan's capital Kabul Tuesday to protest against Iran's expulsion of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, witnesses said. Some 500 people marched from western Kabul to the Iranian embassy carrying banners condemning Tehran's action. One of the banners described Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his forces as "devils."

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Beating by Guards Fails to Stop Voting, Iranian Students Say

The NY Times:

TEHRAN, May 7 — Students at Amir Kabir University fended off club-wielding university security guards on Monday and went ahead with elections for a pro-democracy association.
Despite the successful election at Amir Kabir, it is not clear that balloting for student associations will be allowed at other universities. The associations, a powerful center of support and communication among student democracy advocates, are a constant irritant to the government, which seeks to maintain strict control over politics and cultural norms.
The University of Science and Industry, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad taught before he was elected, has not been permitted to hold elections for the past two years. Students at Tehran University have vowed to hold a ballot, but have yet to do so.
Amir Kabir University has long been a center of student political activity. Students there chanted against Mr. Ahmadinejad when he visited the university late last year and set fire to posters bearing his likeness.

A student leader, Mehrdad Khalilpour, was arrested Monday by security officials, but two of his comrades managed to escape. Among other student leaders, Babak Zamanian was arrested late last month and Ahmad Ghassaban was arrested on Friday.
However, the student democracy advocates said they scored a victory on Monday when they managed to hold their annual elections.

“The students reached the conclusion that the only way was to resist,” said Ehsan Mansouri, a student leader who has been banned from attending classes. “The students guarded the ballot boxes as they were attacked and clubbed severely by the university security guards.”
Protests erupted last week after four student publications appeared with articles that offended religious sensibilities. Student advocates denounced the articles, saying the publications had been forged in an effort to frame the students.
Under Iran’s Islamic law, punishment for the offense, technically “insulting religious sanctities,” can be death. One of the articles had raised what were seen as offensive questions about the return of the 12th Imam — the messiah in Shiite Islam.
Conservatives protested last week inside and outside the university, calling for a second cultural revolution. Under the first, which followed the 1979 Islamic revolution, universities around the country were closed, and liberal students and professors were purged.
The pressure on student advocates seems to be part of a major social and political crackdown. Women and younger men have been the target of the vice police in the past two weeks, with officers patrolling the streets and cautioning or arresting people they accused of looking immodest.

A prominent art professor, Nureddin Zarrinkelk, was expelled from Tehran University last week after he commented about the beauty of a woman’s hair at one of his classes.
The police also started seizing satellite dishes last week. Because the dishes provide access to opposition television channels they are officially banned, but that does not stop large numbers of people from using them.

Reformist politicians, who were marginalized after Mr. Ahmadinejad’s election two years ago, became alarmed last week when a former nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Hussein Moussavian, was arrested on espionage charges. To many here, the arrest seemed to signal a new crackdown on social freedoms.

“No one should be surprised if they stage another cultural revolution and shut down the universities,” said Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political commentator in Tehran. “The Islamic Republic has reached a stage that wants to suppress any kind of dissent, even if that means creating a police state.”

I applaud the NY Times for reporting the democracy movement in Iran. Thanks.

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Iran: First day of ISA elections at Amir Kabir University

"You attack, you kill, but how do you stop a flower from growing?" (flower representing the growing student activism),

"Today Babak, Ahmad, Maghdad, Tomorrow.." (referring to student activists arrested in AK University in the past few weeks),

"Today we are peaceful, but Tomorrow..",

"They don't let the student in his place" (regarding the recent banning of number student activists from entering the campus)

READ THIS EXCELLENT REPORT IN FULL AT

CITY BOY'S BLOG

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Iran: Savage Islamist Jacobins in 1980's

What a day?

دوستان گرامی مدتهاست میخواهم برایتان مطلبی راجع به سی خرداد بنویسم که از آن روزقتل عام بچه های مردم ایران به دست خمینی جنایتکارشروع شد و تا همین اکنون ادامه دارد یعنی ماجرای روز شروع حمله و کشتار مردم ایران از هرگروه و دسته و قوم و مذهبی ماجرا این بود که به شکل کاملا ارگانایز مدتها بود که گروه هایفشار با پشتیبانی کمیته ها به سازمان های مختلف سیاسی و فرهنگی حمله کرده و محل را مصادره و همه بچه ها را بهضرب چاقو و چماق مشتی لمپن خود فروخته که برای پول به شکل گنگ های مردمی عمل میکردند با فریاد و فحاشی وچماق و چاقو به هر محلی که میخواستند حمله و درش را تختهمیکردند

آخرین جا سازمان پیشگام بود
که اول خیابان بیست ویک آذرقرار داشت و خود داستانی بود که برایتان روزی خواهم نوشت و بعد نوبت مجاهدین رسید خمینی به مجاهدین پیغام داد که بیائید اسلحه های خود را تحویلدهید و فعالیت حزبی کنید مجاهدین اینجا به نظر من یک اشتباه تاکتیکی کردند و تصمیم بهمقاومت گرفتند آن زمان میتوانستند مقادیری از اسلحه ها را داده و ظاهرا خلع سلاح شوند البته سریعا بهانه ای برای نابودکردنشان میافتند و این درمان ماجرانبود ولی ماجرا را به عقب می انداخت در این زمان ماجرای دیگری هم در شرف وقوع بود و آن زدن بنی صدرتوسط ژاکوبن ها بود میخواستند کاملا از عناصر شهر وند قدرت مرکزی را خالی کنند خوب در چنین شرایطی من به دلیل بودن در میلیوی سیاسی ایرانخبر شدم که روز سی خرداد قرار است از جلوی شرکت نفت درخیابان تخت جمشید حرکت اعتراضی شروع شود
آن زمان دیگر روزنامه و یا اطلاعیه ای وجود نداشت که به مردم خبربدهند بنابراین همه به شکل افواهی ماجرا را خبر شدند این همهکه میگویم طبق معمول مشتی دانشجو و مشتی روشنفکر و مبارز بدبخت همیشگی بودند ورنه مردم عادی خبری از چیزی نداشتند من تصمیم گرفتم تنها بروم زیرا میدانستم که برخورد خواهد پیشآمد و هنگامی که با دوستان بودم در فرار و سعی در کتک نخوردن خیلیبرام سخت بود اگر فرار میکردم احساس عذاب وجدان داشتم و اگر میماندم که خوب مگر خر بودم که بمانم و قمه بخورم ؟؟؟؟؟؟

به همین دلیل به همه گفتم خودم تنها خواهم رفت و سر ساعت چهاربعد از ظهر که موقع تعطیل شرکت نفت و باقی شرکت ها میرسید در چهار راه تخت جمشید و بهجت آباد بودم وضع خیابان معمولی بود فقط کمی شلوغ تر از مواقع دیگر ولی ناگهانعده ای جوان به شدت مرتب و منظم در میانه خیابان ابتدا یک مربع انسانی ساختند و ناگهان میانه مربع مردمی که نمیدانم کجا بودند جمع شدند و ناگهان مربع شد مستطیل و با مشت های گره کرده و فریاد های شعار حرکت کردند و من و هرکه بود هم به آنان پیوستیم این گروه از خیابان ویلا به طرف جنوب سرازیر شد و جمعیت هم لحظه به لحظه زیادترمیشد

درست در همان خیابان ویلا بود که موتور سوارهایچوب و قمه و زنجیر به دست به ما حمله کردند و چون سازمان به اعضاگفته بوده که اگر بهتان حمله شد این بار پاسخ بدهید ناگهان جنگ و کتک کاری بد جوری شد یعنی دیگر کسی فرار نکرد بلکه بچه هابا لمپنان دست به یقه شدند و من آن روز برای اولین بار بعد از تمامی بالا پائین رفتن های جامعه و تجاوز به حقوق تک تک مردم دو سه کله شکسته از لمپنان حزب الهی دیدم و هر لجظه شرایط تنس تر و خشن تر میشد به هر حال با این جمع هنگامی که به خیابان شاهرضا رسیدیم و تازه روی خیان شاهرضا پلی بنا کرده بودند جمعیت بخشی از زیر پل و بخشی کهمن هم میانشان بودم از بالای پل به حرکت به طرف چهار راه پهلوی و شاهرضا ادامه دادیم و درست روی این پل بودیم که من صدای تیر اندازیواقعی را شنیدم و متوجه شدم که پاسداران روی مردماتش گشوده اند همه روی پل خم شدیم و خمیده با فشار و وحشت به عقب بازگشتیم اینزمان که نمیدانم چه اندازه طول کشید تمامی خیابان و میدان فردوسی تکهتکه سنگ های درشتی بود که بچه های مجاهدین به سر و کله حزب الهیها و کمیته زده بودند به هر حال همگی به شکل فرار از تیراندازی از خیابان ویلا به طرف شمالو تخت جمشید دویدیم و ناگهان من متوجه شدمکه کلی ماشین در حال گرفتن بچه های جوان است برای فرار از تیر و سنگ و باقی به درگاه یک ساختمان قدیمی و سیاه وکهنه رفتم و ایستادم مدتی که گذشت ناگهان دو دختر جوان سیزده چهاردهساله مجاهد به کنارم آمدند و با گریه و برافروخته به من گفتند عده ای راکشته اند و

باقی را دارند میگیرند من بلافاصله زنگ ساختمان را زدم همهطبقات را و ناگهان کسی درب را با درب باز کن برقی باز کرد و من و این دودختر ودو پسر جوان هم که به ما پیوستند داخل شدیمتمامی طبقات خالی و سوراخ و درها شکسته بود جز طبقه چهارم کهکسی به ما گفت بیائید بالا و هنگامی که رسیدیم آنجا را یک تریکو بافی یافتیم که شش کارگر مشغولتریکو بافی بودند و یک صاحب کار هم بود که به ما همگی گفت بنشینید وما دور اطاق روی صندلی های لهستانی نشستیم صدای تیر اندازی و آژیر و جیغ و فریاد از پنجره ها میامد و همگی مضطرب بودیم شاید نیم ساعت بود آنجا بودیم که زنگ را زدند و صاحب کار به خیال این که باز هم کسانی هستند که میخواهند پناهنده شوند درب را باز کرد و مادرجندگان کمیته یکی از یکی زشت تر و بوگندو تر و عرق ریزان بالا آمده و مانند وحشی ها ابتدا با لگدی چیزها را پرت کردند و بعد داخل شده مانندکفتاری زخمی ابتدا به سراغ من که بانفرت نگاهشان میکردم امدندو کریه ترینشان به من گفت :- دستهات را نشونم بده من بی اختیار دستهایم را از پشت به طرفش گرفتم که گفت :- نه از تو ....من دستهایم را برگرداندم و نگاهی کرد و گفت اینجا چهمیکنی ؟گفتم در خیابان بودم که خر تو خر شد و به اینجا پناه آوردم به سرعت به طرف دو دختر و دو پسر دیگر رفت و همان کار را با آنان کردو متاسفانه دستهای این بچه های نازنین خاکی بود و هیچ یک از ما بهاین فکر نیفتاد که بروند دستهایشان را که سنگ و آجر پرتاب کرده اند بشورند هر چهار نفر را با خود بردند و به من گفت :- صبر کن خلوت که شد بیا بیرون نیم ساعتی بعد از رفتن آنان بیرون آمدم و به خیابان فردوسی رفته و بهچهار راه پهلوی رفتم و چیزهائی دیدم که نصیب هیچ انسانی دیدنش نشود

همان شب بنی صدر و رجوی به همراه یک خلبان نیروی هوائی که حتیبه زنش هم نگفته بود به پاریس فرار کردند و رژیم قصابان خمینی در زندان اوین عده ای از زندانیان گرو گرفته از مجاهدین را که بچه دبیرستانی های روزنامه سر چهار راه فروش بودندبه همراه شکراله پاکنژاد و سعید سلطان پور که مدتی بود زندان بود اعدام کردند بعدها شنیدم تمامی بچه هائی که آن روز گرفته بودند بلافاصله برایگرفتن زهر چشم از باقی مردم ایران اعدام کرده اندتا روزی که زنده ام آن بعد از ظهر شوم و چهره تازه و سرخ آن دو دخترو دوپسر جوان مبارز را فراموش نخواهم کرد صحنه ای بود درست مانند فیلم های راجع به فاشیست های هیتلریو خوف و وحشت همان بدینسان تعرض به جان مردم ایران آغاز گردید که بدون توقف تا همین امروزبیست و هشت سال است که ادامه دارد ..............................نانا

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The arrest of Mr. Moussavian is a direct attack on Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani

Friendship between Rafsanjani
and Khameneh'i might turn to cut throat fight.

Safa Haeri of Iran Press Service, based in Paris (IPS), asserts that the recent arrest of Mohammad Hoseyn Moussavian, a senior Iranian diplomat and former nuclear negotiator on alleged charges of espionage and passing sensitive nuclear information to foreigner is likely a direct threat against him and his family by the hard liners, led by Mr. Khameneh’i and this time, he is bound to retaliate this time around after bowing down to many other humiliations he has suffered. Here are some tidbits:

“To destroy the political-financial of the Hashemi Rafsanjani empire, Khameneh’i, known to be utterly revengeful, narcissistic, egocentric and stubborn, needed a robo-cop, a fanatic-ambitious adventurer. All the people he had tried for this operation had evaded the responsibility, knowing the power of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani. Finally, his head hunters found Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhad, an obscure former revolutionary guard officer teaching civilian engineering at the Tehran University”, he added.
Ushered into the presidential race of 2005, he did not minced his words promising to fight big “corrupt fishes” until “uprooting them”, letting it be known that he is aiming the former president and his family, believed by many Iranians to be among the 100 richest families of the world.
Once elected as president with the help of ayatollah Khameneh’i, Mr. Ahmadi Nezhad renewed his attacks against Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani to the point that the Chairman of the Expediency Council openly complained to the leader, warning him to shut the new President or he would “open the Pandora's Box”.

[...]For some insiders, the fact that the seasoned diplomat and nuclear negotiator was detained on charges of espionage and passing nuclear information to foreign agents is not a coincidence, taking into account that there are more and more talks about a possible compromise in the nuclear standoff between Iran and the 5+1, namely the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany in the one hand and rumours about possible direct meetings between Tehran and Washington concerning normalization of relations.

I say, Let's Open the Pandora's Box, Please.

Whatever the reasons, political observers have no doubt that the detention of Mr. Moussavian, a personality much respected outside the country, would backfire on both the leader and the president as well as on the Iranian regime.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani has suffered many humiliations at the hands of Mr. Khameneh’i and every time, he has bowed, probably aware of the fact that in case he rebels, it could cost the whole of the theocratic system. But it seems that this time, the threats against him and his family by the hard liners, led by Mr. Khameneh’i, is getting too close for not reacting.

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A Jacksonian on Luttwak

Luttwak makes the common mistake of assuming that once the oil slows from the ME, the power will wane. Terrorism now uses multiple sources for funding: narcotrafficking, bank fraud, grey market goods sales, theft, kidnap for ransom, and the ever popular murder for hire.

Petrodollars make it worse, yes, but the present idea that free markets and cheap goods are making things safer and the world freer is misguided and no place more so than the Middle East. Trade does not get freedom. International insitutions do not get freedom.

If either of those were true then after 90 years of having it go on in the Middle East, it should be the freest place on the planet.

I do not see that for some very strange reason.This is primarily not a money flow question as that area has been a haven for tyrants, thugs and Empires for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Of freedom and liberty based upon the rights of man, there has been scant evidence of it.
In fact the drying up of money will make things more restive, more tense and those new sources, like Canada with the tar sands and the US with its oil shales, even more hated for 'taking such riches away'. That is, of course, irrational. Perhaps Mr. Luttwak has not noticed the lack of rational actors in the region?

Mussolini still managed to get a lot of folks killed, threaten the vital supply link of the Suez and had an outside chance, with Germany, of cutting off Gibraltar if Germany had held to its original War Plan. Thankfully that was not done.

This enemy has no Nation and wishes all Nations overturned. It can get cheap arms anywhere because we do not do a thing about going after trade with our enemies. There are a number of vital supply and transport links that can be targeted with some ease and if any non-conventional weapon is used possibly removed from the global economy on a long-term basis. I suggest that the economic argument is trivial compared to the long-term survival argument. If we do not put an end to terrorism and dreams of Empire we and our children *will live* to regret our effete attitudes towards civilization and how to hold it.

The fighting would have been bad, but manageable in 1917 and given basis for the US to help bring about more Nations aligned with their Peoples. We did not do that.

The US could have done a bit more after WW II beyond mere anti-colonial support and put in some actual help to the region in the way of schools and building a good base for decent jobs. We did not do that, either.

We could have stopped supporting tyrants or actually overthrown those not in the direct control of the USSR. We did not do that.

Now we pay for the inaction of parents and grand-parents who could have helped other Peoples find a route to freedom by expending blood and money to fight a hard, nasty war that had no good end because it was not fought to completion anywhere. That is still left undone in the Balkans and Middle East. And the price of that is held by a butcher that has decided we need to pay with our lives and freedom.

Time to put fancy ideas of economic reality away and start to deal with this other, actual, real sort of reality, where there are non-rational actors in the world.

Because if we do not put an end to them, then they shall do so to us.

A Jacksonian is brilliant, as always. I would also add a few lines from a recent interview with Amir Taheri by the JP:

There are three ways of dealing with this: You can surrender to Iran - by saying, "We'll give you the Middle East and then we'll go away." (Some Americans want to do this, because they don't have the stomach for anything else.) Or you can make a deal with it, like Clinton wanted to, by giving some zones of influence to Iran, and some zones of influence to the United States and then wait until Allah decides what happens (Highly likely that this is what we will get if the Democrats win the presidency in 2008) - like a mini-Cold War. Or you can resist it - by saying, "You want to create Khamenei's Middle East; we want to create Bush's Middle East" -

And NO, that doesn't mean War with Iran. Michael Rubin explains exactly how I feel:

The idea that there is a preventive war strategy to change the regime is at best a straw-man argument and at worst a conspiracy theory.Criticism regarding carrier group dispatch is misplaced. First, it is important that Arab states in the Persian Gulf recognize that the United States is going to defend its interests and protect our allies. Second, while Washington assumes events revolve around our decisions, the danger is Iranian overconfidence. Decision-makers in Iran, those in the office of the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guard, may confuse democratic debate with weakness and inadvertently cross a red line. We know from their statements that they do not take U.S. diplomatic demarches seriously. That the United States is willing to demonstrate red lines aids transparency and reduces the risk of accidental conflict.

With regard to engagement, we need to abandon the notion that long-term strategies to encourage the accountability of the Iranian government to its citizenry and short-term diplomacy are mutually exclusive. Providing moral support for the Vahed transportation workers’ ongoing attempts to form the Islamic Republic’s first independent trade union will not bring instant change. That does not mean it is wise to ignore them or to collude with the regime that seeks to crush them.

Even as Iran’s nuclear program has developed, the Bush administration has lacked a cohesive policy toward Tehran. An artificial dichotomy between engagement and regime change has polarized debate. Too often, proponents of engagement construct a straw-man argument about regime change to equate it with military action.

No serious policymaker seeks military action against Iran. Iranians are nationalistic. Any military strike would enable the regime to rally Iranians around the flag. Nor would even targeted strikes against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities end its program; at best, military strikes would only delay it. Nothing would be more irresponsible than the White House using the military to buy time because policymakers have not had the discipline to formulate a strategy.

This does not mean unrestrained engagement is a better option. Between 2000 and 2005, the apex of both European engagement and the Khatami presidency, EU trade with Tehran almost tripled. During that same period, Iranian leaders pumped hard currency into their weapons program and, at the time, still-covert nuclear program. Either Khatami’s rhetoric was insincere or he, like the many diplomats under him, had no insight into or control over the actions of other power centers.

If engagement is to be successful, it must include the sincere involvement of the people who control those aspects of regime behavior which Washington finds most objectionable—this means the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guards. This is an unlikely prospect.

Everyone who has been to Iran is aware of the sophistication of Iranian intellectuals and much of the public. Many Iranians resent the corruption and adventurism of their leadership. The reformers are largely discredited. They are new paint on a rotten house. No Iranian inside Iran wants regime change from abroad, but they do embrace the ideas of popular sovereignty and democracy. Here, interests converge. Should the Iranian leadership become more accountable to its citizenry, then they will emphasize what most Iranians want—better schools, medical care, and employment prospects rather than expensive adventurism.

What policymakers should support are Iranian efforts to democratize and force accountability upon their leadership. This is what independent unions inside Iran struggle for. Democracy is just peaceful regime change. I agree with Robert that we should rely on internal forces as the agents of change. Unfortunately, regime engagement will both undercut those forces and enable the Iranian leadership to run down the clock on its nuclear program.

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Iranian.com: California one step closer to divestment in Iran

SACRAMENTO, California -- Lisa Daftari: The California State Assembly Judiciary Committee has unanimously passed an assembly bill that will prohibit the investing of retirement funds in companies that do business in Iran.

Assembly Bill 221 was fathered by Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon) who argued that California’s retirement systems should find safer investments for its employees.

Currently, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) – which oversees California public employees and school teachers’ taxpayer-funded retirement funds – invest about $24 billion in companies that do business in Iran.

“A regime stays in power because of its country’s cash flow,” Anderson said. “Money is the mother’s milk of terrorism.”

This round’s passage of the bill was a large victory for Anderson and added to the popularity the bill has gained in recent weeks with strong bi-partisan support. The bill also had the backing of over 30 grass roots organizations, taxpayer groups, Jewish and Iranian-American groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, the Jewish Federations of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Reza Pahlavi, who all wrote letters to the Assemblyman expressing their support.

Among supporters who testified at the hearing was Barry Broad of UNITE HERE!, the California Conference of Machinists, and United Food & Commercial Workers Western States Council. Cliff Berg represented the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Barry Hirschowitz spoke for the Sacramento Jewish Community Relations Council. A long and emotional appeal was made by political activist Roozbeh Farahanipour of Marze Por Gohar, Iranians for a Secular Republic Party, who escaped Iran in 2000 after serving a grueling prison sentence.
“They were throwing students out of dormitory windows chanting: ‘Oh, Hossein! Oh Ali! Accept this gift from us.’ I was there. I was among those arrested. I was one of the ones who got picked up,” Farahanipour, one of the organizers of the July 1999 Tehran University student uprisings, said to the committee about his personal run-ins with the current regime.

“They held me for more than two months, beating and torturing me.”

The bill sends an important message to the Iranian people and to the clerical regime, Farahanipour said, stressing the importance of implementing non-violent political and economic pressures on this regime.

“Your legislation clearly shows that the people of California will not sit back and allow their retirement savings to buy technology for and bring fresh capital to a regime of murderers and hostage-takers in Tehran.”

Several members of CalPERS, CalSTRS and the California Teachers Association also spoke at the hearing, voicing their concerns about the bill, mainly that it will minimize retirement fund yields for Californians. The Chamber of Commerce was also in attendance, but said that they do not yet fully support or oppose the bill.

“According to our investment division, we’d have to divest in companies who have subsidiaries that work out of Iran. They only have links that link them to these large corporations,” CalSTRS director of governmental affairs and program analysis Jennifer Baker said. “At the end of the day, our job is to make sure we can pay for teachers’ retirements.”

“Seventy-six percent of money paid to teachers is from investments not taxpayer money,” said Lori Easterling, a lobbyist for the CTA. “There is a difference in doing business with the people of Iran versus the government of Iran.”

There is a disconnection between working teachers in the state of California and the people who represent them in these communities, Anderson said after the hearing.

“I would bet that if you ask any teacher, do you want to make a lot of money on the backs of Iranian people who hold women abound; who hold people hostage? Do you find that an acceptable way to fund your retirement? They would unequivocally say no.”

While the bill was introduced late January and has since passed last month’s policy hearing and the judiciary committee, it still must pass through appropriations and the assembly floor before it is taken to the state Senate and then signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Historically, the United States has used divestment in sending messages of either political or social disapproval. In the 1980s the U.S. divested from South Africa due to Apartheid and more recently from Sudan in light of the genocide in Darfur. Divestment has always taken place at the state level.

Over the past two months, Anderson’s bill has heard a positive echo in several other states including Florida, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado and Louisiana. While Missouri was the first to divest from Iran through administrative action, if the bill is signed into law, California will be the first state to make investing public funds in Iran illegal.

Florida Becomes First US State to Pass Iran Divestment Bill

**Now, it's time for Ohio to step up and do the right thing.**

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Haliburton Friendly Islamic Republic!

While The U.S. State Department accused Iran on Monday of continuing to remain the most active state sponsor of terrorism, Halliburton et al continue to make profits by working in the Islamic Republic.

Senators Question Halliburton Executive About Dealings in Iran

The NY TIMES: [...]Halliburton announced recently that it had completed its outstanding contracts in Iran and was leaving the country, fulfilling a promise it made in 2005 to wrap up its work there.
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat who has helped lead the investigation into the company’s work in Iran, said Halliburton effectively financed terrorism by doing business there.
“Companies that help terrorist states generate revenues that are helping fund terrorist operations,” he said. “It’s that simple.”
Senator Byron L. Dorgan, chairman of the Senate subcommittee that convened the hearing, was similarly blunt.

“Was there any discussion about whether from a values standpoint doing business through a foreign subsidiary with a prohibited country like Iran was in fact helping the terrorists?” he asked Ms. Williams.

Ms. Williams said she was “not a part of those discussions.” She cited an array of factors driving the decision to leave Iran, including the difficulty of working in the country and diminishing business there.
Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said he was incredulous that the reasons did not include “anything to do with patriotism or anything to do with the values that I think our country holds dear.” Read more.

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Islam and Hejab at Gunpoint!

Seized - for showing their hair

Simon Tisdal of Guardian: In the past few days hundreds of Iranian women have been bundled off the streets and arrested. Officially, they were breaking the 'correct' Islamic dress code. But, as Simon Tisdall reports, the real aim is to keep women second-class citizens.

The Iranian government's latest act of oppression against the nation's women has taken the form of a high-profile police drive to enforce "correct" Islamic dress codes. In its first few days, last week, the "bad hijab" crackdown netted several thousand young women on the streets of Tehran, with many receiving a warning and several hundred being arrested. Policewomen dressed in black chadors bundled detainees into buses that had been stationed on street corners in advance, before carting them off to police stations. The women were accused of presenting an immodest appearance - allowing their hair to show beneath the obligatory headscarves, wearing manteaus too short to conceal their hips, or wearing tight, revealing jeans and heels.
Article continues

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Introuding "Seven Valleys of Love" By Sheema Kalbasi

What happens when an Iranian-Danish woman who has traversed many cultures and passed many borders (Iran, Pakistan, India, Denmark, Berlin, etc.) comes to America and finds her 'American spirit'? You get spirited poetry that is antithesis of power behind oppression of all stripes committed by governments and cultural trappings of your own mind.

Sheema Kalbasi's latest book,"The Seven Valleys of Love" is due out in Fall. The title of this anthology of Iranian women's poetry, translated into English by Sheema Kalbasi, refers to the narrative of the medieval Persian allegory Mantegh ot-Tayr (Conference of the Birds) written by Farid od-Din Attar . His works were the inspiration of Rumi and many other mystic poets. Attar, along with Sanaie were two of the greatest influences on Rumi in his Sufi views. Rumi has mentioned both of them with the highest esteem several times in his poetry. Rumi praises Attar as such:

"Attar roamed the seven cities of love -- We are still just in one alley".

The Conference of Birds is a Persian mythological allegory, in which a group of thirty birds embark on a journey to meet the majestic and mysterious Si-morgh – a mythological giant bird symbolizing wisdom. Instead of finding the Si-morgh as such, however, the birds experience something ostensibly more poignant: they undergo the Sufi concept of Fana (Annihilation). At the end of the tale, as a consequence of enduring the arduous journey and traversing the Seven Valleys of Love, the birds have somewhat unwittingly effaced their selves (or egos); and have, as a result, unified to constitute an assembly of thirty birds, that is – in Persian – si (thirty) morgh (bird/s). The ordinary birds have, in other words, become the legendary Si-morgh in and of themselves.

Many of the poets presented in this volume have experienced journeys similar to those of the parabolic birds; and it can be said that these authors, by the virtue of being women in an intransigently and institutionally harsh patriarchal society such as Iran, have too had their egos threatened (although by no means 'annihilated'), and that they too have succeeded in not only surviving (though not all did survive) the travails and brutalities of sexism but have also found a kind of love, solidarity and inspiration that has resulted in passionate and provocative poetry.



One of the other great strengths of Ms Kalbasi's work is her decision to present lesser-known poets in place of such well-known figures as Forugh Farrokhzad, Simin Behbahani and Parvin Etesami. This editorial decision is visionary and courageous. By bringing new and/or marginalized poets to an international readership, Kalbasi has broken one of the most stifling taboos of poetry anthologies – that of presenting only the famous/classic 'public' poets – and has, as a result, opened a new front in giving voice to female artists usually denied exposure by unapologetically sexist and/or elitist culture industries in Iran as well as the Anglophone and Anglophobe world.

The Seven Valleys of Love comprises poems from medieval Arabic/Turkish ruled Persia; as well as poems from the independent unitary Iranian kingdoms of the Safavid and Ghajar monarchs; as well as works by modernists and post-modernists of the Pahlavi Dynasty and the Islamic Republic. Included are also poems written in Persian by members of the considerable Iranian diaspora communities.

Kalbasi's selection cuts across not only chronological divides but also aesthetical and ideological chasms. Some of the poems here are versified, others are free-formed/prosaic; some are romantic/erotic in a broad sense, others speak to the specific socio-political contexts in which they were articulated.

Though written in diverse contexts and on varied experiences, the poems vindicate this fundamental aspect of poetry that it is a medium that helps individual regain his/her faith in one's own humanity and the Godliness within. These poems have become the collective unconscious of Iranian women throughout the ages and are manifested in their everyday lives as warriors who have not and will not accept deeply-rooted misogyny at a baton point ( as witnessed in the news lately) as their ultimate fate.


If you're interested you can preorder by e-mailing her at iranianwoman@gmail.com.

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Iran: Poverty and New Draconian Labor Laws

Thousands fall through the cracks and get little help as traditional support systems fray.

Los Angeles Times: TEHRAN —

Atefeh is one of the younger members of Iran's merchant class. Her sales territory is the notorious traffic jams of north Tehran. She moves in on potential clients when the light turns red, pressing her face to car windows, cocking her head to one side and putting on a plaintive face.At 12, she isn't as good at plaintive as some of her younger competitors, two boys who are hawking Koranic inscriptions and balloons just up the street. Sometimes her face looks more furious than sad. But she still can clear 55 cents a day selling her packages of pink-and-red strawberry chewing gum to bored and surly drivers.A decade ago, street children were rare in Iran, with its long traditions of charity for the poor, government aid programs and strong family connections. No more.Nongovernmental organizations estimate that the number of street children in Iran, officially listed at 60,000, has grown in recent years to 200,000 or more. Many of them are the offspring of Afghan refugees. Others come from Iranian families who have slipped, through unemployment, drug addiction or illness, into the populous ranks of the urban poor.Social activists say high unemployment, ballooning inflation and misdirected government subsidies have left many families unable to support themselves without turning to their children to help with earnings. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected two years ago on a pledge to deliver Iran's oil wealth back to the nation's dining tables, has done little so far to improve the lot of Tehran's poorest families."In the early days of the revolution, I remember the slogan was, 'Welfare, food and health for everyone,' " said Bahram Rahimi, director of training at the Children's House of Shoosh, a school in south Tehran that provides part-time instruction to street children too busy working or too poor to attend normal schools.


The Children's House stands in the middle of a commercial block in one of the most crowded districts of Tehran. Inside, its corridors are lined with cheerful, hand-painted murals and its classroom chairs are arranged in haphazard clusters, testimony to a young clientele unaccustomed to sitting still in neat rows.About 55% of the city's street children are offspring of the estimated 1.5 million refugees who have flooded into Iran from Afghanistan in waves over the last 20 years, school officials say, and many of the rest are children of single parents, mixed-nationality families or Gypsies.

Many come from the growing number of families beset by drug addiction as heroin shipments across the Afghan border have multiplied since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.Rahmatollah Sedigh Sarvestani, a sociology professor at the University of Tehran, said the number of drug addicts in Iran, officially listed at 1 million, is more likely closer to 3 million, with the number of users possibly as high as 6 million."We don't have enough job opportunities for people. We are facing, even after the revolution, class differentiation, inequality in income, wealth and power. So there are good reasons to have so many addicts, and every other social deviancy," Sarvestani said. "This is everywhere. Not just here and there. Everywhere."Atefeh, who was afraid to give her last name, is a dark, slight girl who looks much younger than 12. She moved with her family to Tehran from the Caspian Sea region several years ago...

Beside mismangement of Iran's economy and oil infrastructure, one reason for the systematic poverty is that Iran's government has discouraged the formation of an industrial middle class because they don't want to repeat the late Shah's mistake where the middle class had the economic power to turn against him. That would leave 80 percent of the economy essentially in the hands of the state. As a result, there is no solid cadre of business leaders to pressure the government.

Despite its massive oil reserves, the country has very little capacity to produce substances like gasoline and jet fuel. It is estimated Iran's imports in this area are at about $10 billion a year, a figure that may represent up to a third of all imports. As A jacksonian eloquently puts it:

It is a metastable system with a heavy change bias to it. Internal collapse between 2012-19 is certain with current domestic market needs increasing and actual oil field production declining. And like many systems in decay the half-life is very important, because it is usually the inflection point for catastrophe: it is the point where a ship sliding to its side will suddenly capsize. It is the spell of bad weather for a year or two that can change lush cropland into dustbowls.

A point of no return!

Note: Iran - the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, and the fourth largest in the world - possesses 12 percent of the world’s crude, with an estimated 130 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

And on the New Labor Laws and Privatization to be unveiled soon:

Why Ahmadinejad Wants a New Draconian Labor Law for Iran

By Amir Taheri, Arab News

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears determined to confront Iran’s increasingly restive labor movement.
The showdown, begun last year, could reach a peak next week with government plans to crush International Labor Day demonstrations on May 1 by illegal trade unions.
The Islamic republic has always associated May 1 with leftist ideologies and has tried to promote an alternative “Islamic Labor Day” on May 2.

This year, however, a number of illegal trade unions have announced they would hold May 1 demonstrations in Tehran and 20 provincial capitals. The newly created Workers’ Organizations and Activists Coordination Council (WOACC), a grouping of over 80 illegal trade unions claiming a total membership of over a million in 22 cities, is leading the move.
The WOACC emerged in the wake of strikes by Tehran transport workers that brought the capital to a standstill last year. The authorities succeeded to end the strike with a mixture of mass arrests and wage concessions. However, the example set in Tehran spread to other cities and industries.

The rising labor movement started with local grievances linked to wages and working conditions. In the past few months, however, it has developed a broader consciousness by highlighting issues that concern most workers.

One issue that has brought the hitherto scattered illegal unions together is their opposition to President Ahmadinejad’s proposed new Islamic Labor Code. The text proposed by Ahmadinejad cancels virtually all the rights that working people have won throughout the world over centuries of social struggle and political reform. It abolishes the legal minimum wage in favor of rates fixed through agreement by employers and employees.

It also allows for the generalization of verbal employment contracts, gives employers the right to hire and fire as they please, and makes legal holidays, sick leave, and pension schemes conditional to agreements on a case-by-case basis.

At the same time, it imposes a ban on independent trade unions. Instead, it proposes the creation of Islamic Guidance Councils to promote “Islamic values and sensibilities” among workers.

In a detailed critique of the proposed text, the WOACC shows that the new code violates the Islamic republic’s constitution, Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and accords Iran has signed with the ILO over decades.
“The proposed text is a charter for slavery disguised as an Islamic code,” a WOACC spokesman in Tehran said over the telephone last week.

That view is shared by some members of the Islamic Consultative Majlis who criticize Ahmadinejad for refusing to submit his text to normal parliamentary procedures. Instead, the Ministry of Labor is trying to railroad the draft law through a Majlis committee controlled by pro-Ahmadinejad parliamentarians.

Ahmadinejad’s confrontational style in dealing with the labor movement has also been criticized by some top mullahs within the regime.

Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, the Islamic chief justice, has warned that the government’s repressive approach could destabilize the regime. Former President Hashemi-Rafsanjani, a mullah-cum-businessman who heads the powerful Expediency Council, has called for “sensitivity” in dealing with what may be the most serious challenge the regime has faced in years.

Why is Ahmadinejad so determined to defy a grass-root workers’ movement by imposing an unpopular law? Part of the answer may lie in the massive privatization scheme that Ahmadinejad is expected to unveil this year.

According to government sources, 44 state-owned conglomerates will be put on sale at a total price of $18 billion. These businesses employ an estimated 3.5 million people across the country. A majority of likely buyers will be mullahs and their associates, operating through supposedly religious and charitable foundations, along with officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Although potential gold mines, most of the businesses concerned have been losing money for years, because of inefficient management and corruption. They also suffer from the fact that they have had to employ far too many people, often because of nepotism and favor distribution by powerful figures of the regime.

Under the existing Labor Code, it would be difficult for the new owners to downsize the labor force or close loss-making units. The new Labor Code would give future owners carte blanche to reorganize the businesses. According to unofficial estimates, a million people could lose their jobs under privatization.

“Ahmadinejad is laying the banquet table for a big feast of plunder,” says the WOACC spokesman.

The situation is further complicated by UN-imposed sanctions that are starting to bite. Dozens of small businesses have already closed down or reduced their activities for want of credit facilities, imported parts and raw material, and fears of being shut out of foreign markets. The thousands of workers who have lost their jobs as a result plan to be in the vanguard of the May 1 demonstrations.

Update 1: BBC on Workers Protest in Iran

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Iran: Crackdown on Women, Student, and Dissidents Continues

Click to enlarge the picture (link via sheema). (for more info go to http://www.hriran.org/)

In related news: Reporters Without Borders reports that Four women get jail terms in crackdown on "cyber-feminists".

And this:

Ghassem Sholeh Sadi, Professor of Law at Tehran University, a former member of Islamic regime’s parliament and a practice attorney has been notified that he has been convicted to eighteen month of imprisonment. His alleged crime is an open letter which he had addressed to the ‘supreme leader’ more than five years ago.
According to Radio France International (RFI- Wednesday April 12, 2007) Ghassem Sholeh Sadi, Professor of Law at Tehran University, a former member of Islamic regime’s parliament and a practice attorney has been notified that he has been convicted to eighteen month of imprisonment. His alleged crime is an open letter which he had addressed to the ‘supreme leader’ more than five years ago.

In that letter he had politely criticized some of the domestic as well as international actions and policies of the Leader and the Regime. This is the second time that he will be going to jail as a punishment for his courage in calling into question the excesses of the Iranian theocracy. In a radio interview with RFI, from Tehran on Wednesday 12 April, he once again reiterated his criticism of the regime in no uncertain terms. He said he was not going to be intimidated by prison or any other punishment .

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Cartoon!

From: Iranian.com

Transliteration: "How dare you? You should be ashamed for being more beautiful than us."--Strike Force of Sister Commandos.

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