Showing posts with label islamic repbulic of iran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label islamic repbulic of iran. Show all posts

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Tehran:Anti-riot police clash with people protesting savage beating of a young girl by the moral police

صادقيه ميدان زنان:ضرب و شتم يک دختر جوان توسط ماموران نيروی انتظامی موجب تجمع اعتراض آميز و درگيری مردم با ماموران شد. عصر روز شنبه 4 اسفند ماموران طرح امنيت اجتماعي، دختر جوانی را در پاساژ گلديس واقع در فلکه دوم صادقيه به بهانه بدحجابی دستگير کردند. اما به دنبال مقاومت دختر در برابر انتقال به ماشين نيروی انظامي، ماموران اقدام به ضرب و شتم او با باتوم کرده که منجر به زخمی و خون آلود شدن صورت و بدن اين دختر می شود. اين وضعيت موجب اعتراض مردم حاضر در محل و درگيری آنها با ماموران می شود. جمعيت شعارهائی عليه نيروی انتظامی و رئيس جمهور سر داده و سطلهای زباله را آتش زده اند. شاهدان عيني، اين درگيريها را گسترده توصيف کرده و از شليک تير هوائی و اعزام نيروهای يگان ويژه به محل خبر می دهند. گفته می شود برای متفرق ساختن جمعيت خشمگين که صدها نفر برآورد شده اند از ماشينهای آتش نشانی استفاده شده است. تا لحظه تنظيم اين گزارش، فضای ميدان صادقيه ملتهب گزارش می شود. با توجه به نزديکی ايام نوروز و آغاز خريدهای نوروزی مردم، حضور ماموران نيروی انتظامی در ميادين اصلی و مراکز خريد افزايش محسوسی
Translation below:
Iran-Tehran: Police and protesters clash in Sadeghiyeh Square!

The moral police arrested a young girl for improper "hejab". She resisted the arrest and several police officers beat her with their batons violently. Her face and body was soaked in blood. Angry Witnesses came to her rescue and protested against the police by shouting slogans against the police force and the Presdient of Islamic Republic and burning trash bins in the streets.

Hundreds of anti-riot police and firetrucks were dispatched to the scene and shouts were fired to disburse the crowd...


The demonstrators are shouting, "Islamic Government, We don't want, We don't want"


Related: Last year's police brutality against "improper" veils of young women and their forced arrests.



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Friday, August 17, 2007

Mehdi Khalaji: Iran is a 'Garrison State'

In branding Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization the United States could be sending a signal to IR to change its behavior or face the music.

Does the terrorist designation sets the stage for the physical destruction of the Guard? There's a surge of new articles against the IRGC in the MSM, which is a customary lead up to action. Or is it as the NY Times tells us to placate Cheney and up the pressure in the UN security council for more sanctions.

Below is Mr. Khalaji's all-inclusive background information on the IRGC and their iron grip on Iran:


Backbone of the Regime

In his 1988 last will and testament, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on the military forces "to follow the regulation of non-interference of the military in the affairs of political parties" and "keep themselves away from political games." In the years since, the opposite has occurred. Once a theocratic state, the Islamic Republic has evolved into a "garrison state", to use an American political science term, in which the military dominates political, economic, and cultural life, and preserves the regime from domestic rather than external opponents. The Iranian constitution forbids the supreme leader from being fully autocratic, but Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has used his position as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, especially his tight control over the Revolutionary Guards, to expand his power.
Khamenei has appointed many former Revolutionary Guards commanders to top political positions, blurring the line between military and civil authority. Former IRGC senior officers hold significant positions throughout the Iranian government: the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad; the secretary of the Supreme Council of National Security, Ali Larijani; the head of state television and radio services, Ezzatolah Zarghami; the secretary of the Expediency Council (charged with interpreting policy when the president and Majlis disagree), Mohsen Rezai; and the head of the powerful Mostazafan Foundation, Mohammad Farouzandeh; as well as several cabinet ministers and many members of parliament (Majlis).

The Revolutionary Guards actively prevent steps toward democratic reforms. For example, in 1999, following student protests, the conservative newspaper Jomhouri-e Eslami published a letter by twenty-four Revolutionary Guards senior officers to the reformist president Mohammad Khatami. The Revolutionary Guards, the letter threatened, "cannot tolerate the situation anymore" and would take action if Khatami did not change his policies. It was no idol threat. The IRGC's "Special Force" is trained for scenarios of suppressing political or social uprisings in urban settings -- especially in Tehran.

The Revolutionary Guards also possess their own large and capable intelligence agency. The "Unit of Reservation of Information" exists in parallel with and is quite influential within the Ministry of Intelligence. Like the ministry, the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence unit operates both within Iran and abroad. The IRGC also has responsibility for Iran's strategic missile force of Shahab missiles and is thought to control the country's suspected nuclear weapons program. Several Revolutionary Guards commanders have been named in UN Security Council resolutions applying sanctions intended to force Iran to reveal more information about nuclear projects.


....However, no oversight body exists with the capability of supervising the Revolutionary Guards' economic activities. IRGC-owned companies like the Bahman Group, which assembles Mazda cars in Iran, are examples of the Revolutionary Guards' expansion into a variety of economic sectors.

Speaking at a ceremony announcing a $1.3 billion no-bid contract between Iran's Oil Ministry and the Khatam al-Anbia firm in June 2006, Revolutionary Guards Brig. Abdurreza Abedzadeh, Khatam al-Anbia's reconstruction deputy, stated that the company had completed 1,220 industrial and mining projects over the previous sixteen years, with 247 projects currently underway. Three days later, a $2.4 billion contract was concluded with the Tehran Metro Company between the IRGC-owned National Company of Building working with the Mostazafan Foundation. The Oil Ministry also ceded the fifteenth and sixteenth phases of expansion of the South Pars oil field to Khatam al-Anbia under a $2.5 billion contract. In July 2007, the Ministry of Energy agreed that Revolutionary Guards contractors would operate all public infrastructures projects involving water, electricity, and bridges in western Iran. All contracts were awarded on a no-bid basis in violation of Iranian law on open bidding processes.

In 1999, then-speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karrubi explicitly detailed the sixty unauthorized docks controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. Ali Qanbari, then a Majlis member, further explained, "One-third of country's import takes place through illegal markets, underground economy, and unauthorized docks". Several hours after the May 8, 2004, official opening of the new Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards closed it, citing security fears over the presence of the Turkish-Austrian consortium Tepe-Akfen-Vie. Iranian sources later revealed that the Revolutionary Guards had been using the old airport to import goods tariff-free and feared losing that ability.

Some reports suggest that the Revolutionary Guards have used force to assume control of large economic projects. In July 2005, soon after Oriental Oil Kish, one of the largest private oil companies in Iran, refused the IRGC's demand for equal partnership, Cyrus Nasseri, the company's vice-chairman and a senior nuclear negotiator, was arrested and the Revolutionary Guards seized an offshore oil rig being rented by Oriental Oil from a Romanian firm. The Fars News Agency later wrote that negotiations were underway to transfer the ownership of the company to the Revolutionary Guards. Under the banner of economic privatization, the government has circumvented Iranian law to cede ownership of public companies to the Revolutionary Guards at below-market prices through no-bid contracts.

Less information is available about the Revolutionary Guards' role in foreign firms ostensibly belonging to private individuals. Many rumors, of uncertain accuracy, circulate, for instance about al-Makassib, a huge company based in Dubai. It is not clear who controls the firm, though its most public face is that of Nasser Vaez Tabassi, apparently a U.S. citizen, who is the son of Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabassi, one of the most powerful men in Iran in his role as the custodian of the Imam Reza Holy Shrine in Mashhad, which the Wall Street Journal describes as a $6 billion a year enterprise.

Conclusion

Iranian writers widely use the economic jargon "rent-seeking" to describe those who prosper thanks to their political connections rather than their business acumen. Under Khamenei, the role of the Revolutionary Guards has expanded exponentially. Under Ahmadinezhad, the IRGC's influence in government ministries and state firms has grown apace. Its next target may be the Majlis. Ahead of a July 2007 registration deadline, more than fifty Revolutionary Guards commanders resigned in order to qualify as candidates for the next parliamentary election.

The IRGC is a major obstacle to democratization and economic privatization. Imposing sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards could help promote democratic reform and stability in the region. However, choking off the IRGC's financial resources will not be easy; it is quite adept at diversifying its sophisticated economic activities. The Revolutionary Guards have demonstrated both skill in politics and contempt for the law. As former Washington Institute visiting fellow Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of the IRGC in 1979, put it, "What was once a revolutionary guard is now a mafia."


Mehdi Khalaji, a Shiite theologian by training, is the Next Generation Fellow at the Washington Institute.


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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Rule of Islam only way for salvation of mankind


Payvand: Iran-Afghanistan-Ahmadinejad President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that rule of Islam on mankind is the only way for salvation of human beings.


"There is no truth on earth but monotheism and following tenets of Islam and there is no way for salvation of mankind but rule of Islam over mankind," said Ahmadinejad in a meeting with Afghan Sunni and Shiite ulama at Iranian Embassy in Kabul.

President Ahmadinejad said nations are today distancing themselves from culture of materialism and selfishness and look for a new way for their prosperity, that is the path of Islam.

He said that the world is on verge of a great upheaval and ulama at this juncture shoulder a heavy responsibility that is introducing genuine Islam as it is.

"Nations today have no haven but religion," the Iranian president announced, cautioning Muslim nations against enemies' divisive plots.


He said, "All of us have the duty to resist the enemy by closing our ranks." He said that the Iranian nation today feels more than ever the need to stand beside the Afghan nation.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has kindly received their Afghan brothers and will continue to do so in future. Minor issues will cannot affect Iran's policies on Afghanistan," he added.
The president said Islam belongs to all generations and Muslims should get ready for global mission of Islam.

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Thursday, August 02, 2007

Islamic Republic Uses Lebanese Torturers in its Prisons


استفاده از تروریستهای خارجی برای اذیت و آزار زندانیان


Iran press News ran a story yesterday, which indicates use of Lebanese and foreign agents as torturers and beaters of prisoners. The student human rights activists are reporting that the Islamic Republic has been using Lebanese mercenaries/terrorists in recent crackdowns on the so-called criminals, torturing and beating the prisoners in prison and while arresting them.

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Ahmadinejad: Give War a Chance!


THIS IS what makes "Loony Ahmadinejad" so dangerous:

In Iran, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is rapidly losing popularity and respect. It's feared that his only option is to somehow get the United States to attack Iran. This would instantly boost Ahmadinejad's popularity, and save his political career. For a while, anyway. Why is this happening?


Related: Tehran: Military Officers Resign to Run for Office


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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, allegedly providing support to Hezbollah


WASHINGTON (AP) The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in the Middle East.
The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation.
"We will not allow organizations that support terrorism to raise money in the United States," said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
FBI agents removed boxes from the Goodwill Charitable Organization's Dearborn office on Tuesday.Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, said members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force executed a series of search warrants. She said agents removed paper files from the Goodwill Charitable Organization and that no arrests were made.

About a mile away, FBI agents also were seen inside the office of the Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization.
"There is no known threat to U.S. homeland security regarding these" searches, Clenney said.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department also moved against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Beirut firm that the U.S. government believes was used by Hezbollah "as a cover to manage its financial activity."
Two Lebanese people - Qasem Aliq and Ahmad al-Shami - also were covered by Treasury's order.
The U.S. identified Aliq as a Hezbollah official who was once the director of the Martyrs Foundation's branch in Lebanon. The U.S. says he is currently a director of Jihad al Bina, a Lebanon-based construction company allegedly formed and operated by Hezbollah.
Al-Shami had worked for the foundation in Lebanon and has been in "frequent contact" with the Goodwill Charitable Organization, the department said. Goodwill Charitable Organization sent him money to distribute to the Martyrs Foundation, the department said.
The Treasury Department's action means that any bank accounts or other financial assets found in the United States that belong to those identified Tuesday must be frozen. Americans also are prohibited from doing business with them.
There was no current telephone listing for Goodwill Charitable Organization.
The department called Goodwill Charitable Organization, or GCO, "a Hezbollah front organization that reports directly to the leadership of the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon. "Hezbollah recruited GCO leaders and had maintained close contact with GCO representatives in the United States," the department alleged.
Goodwill Charitable Organization has allegedly provided "financial support to Hezbollah directly and through the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon," Treasury stated. "Hezbollah's leaders in Lebanon have instructed Hezbollah members in the United States to send their contributions to GCO and to contact the GCO for the purpose of contributing to the Martyrs Foundation," the department said.
"Since its founding," Treasury said, "GCO has sent a significant amount of money to the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon."
The department alleged that the Martyrs Foundation channels financial support from Iran to Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, as well as other terrorist groups.
The U.S. says senior foundation officials were directly involved in Hezbollah operations against Israel last summer.

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Iran: Student Activist Executed as Gang-Member



Archer's blog: Meisam Lotfi (میثم لطفی) was reportedly executed for being a gang-member. He is in fact a student activist. Shahrzad News, a reputable independent website, talked to his mother, before he was executed.


It was 1am when they woke up with a knock on their door. The 25-year-old son tried to escape from the Police, but was shot at with 17 bullets, two of which hit his leg. He was then sentenced to execution. Before we managed to find and publish his pictures he was executed.


Meisam spent six month in the infamous Evin Prison after the July 1999 student riots. His sister was also attacked by the Police and received 40 stitches. Meisam had spent 55 days in solitary confinement after he was accused of setting tires on fire during the protests which followed the fundamentalists’ raid to the dormitory of University of Tehran.


For more pictures published anonymously at the night he was arrested see here.. And here is the rest of it.

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Friday, July 20, 2007

A few samples of Islamic Republic Propaganda Machinery



با حمایت اسرائیل قانونی در آمریکا اجرا می شود که طی آن هر کس مسلمان شود، به 20 سال زندان محکوم خواهد شد.

h/t to Winston


The statement above reads "With the help of Israel, a new law will go into effect where anyone who converts to Islam will be sentenced to 20 years of prison".

A Persian language news bulletin, Tebyan, run by the seminary school of Qum publishes this news by sourcing the Iranian news agency, Mehr, sourcing a Moroccan based Arabic newspaper "Al-Tajdid" as the real source of the news story and also, quotes a non-existing "American" news agency as the primary source of the false story. The bulletin goes on to say that radical Zionist groups in America have proposed a plan that every convert should be jailed and this proposal has prompted the US government to toughen its intelligence gathering efforts to seek those new converts and prosecute them. Somehow a French News Agency appears in the headline of the this "news"!!!!





Varjavand also reports on his blog that IRI's chief propaganda arm, IRNA, published a statement from the President of Yemen, accusing Al-qadea of being on the payroll of Zionist and US. Imeperialist.


بنا به خبر رسمی ایرنا خبرنگاری جمهوری اسلامی ایران در روز ‪پنجشنبه، ۲۱ تیر ۱۳۸۶ و بنقل از خبرگزاری فرانسه رئیس جمهور یمن رهبران القاعده را به مزدوری برای استعمار و صهیونیسم جهانی متهم کرد!؟

به بخش انگلیسی و عربی خبرگزاری ایرنا مراجعه میکنیم ، چنین خبر مهمی به این دو زبان منتشر نشده است. به ا.اف.پی (خبرگزاری فرانسه) به زبانهای عربی و انگلیسی مراجعه میکنیم ، چنین خبری روی تلکس این خبرگزاری هم نیست!؟

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Iran Sees Different Futures for Middle East

This week in Syria, Iranian President huddled in a face to face meetings with the leaders of 3 of his mercenary militias, Hassan Nassrallah, the Lebanese stooge; Khaled Michel, his Palestinian underling and Bashar al-Assad, his Syrian lackey to chart the future of Middle East in his messianic image. The mullahs are both the chief ideologues of the Islamic Revolution they are obligated to spread according to the IR's Constitution and are also its main financier (Arms supplier). Here are some highlights of what transpired in those meeting from a piece from WaPo:

After bilateral talks, Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed to deepen their alliance and warned Western powers to stand back. "The enemies of the region should abandon plans to attack the interests of this region, or they will be burned by the wrath of the region's people," Ahmadinejad said at a joint news conference. He described ties with Syria as "progressing daily" and "in every field and along all lines."
Assad said Ahmadinejad's visit took on special importance, given the "circumstances changing rapidly" in the region, reflecting the polarization pitting pro-Western governments against hard-line or Islamic parties.

Ahmadinejad met separately with Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, who made a rare trip out of Lebanon since he became a target during the Islamic movement's month-long war with Israel last year. Iran provided the rockets and missiles that have made Hezbollah the most powerful nongovernment armed force in the region, capable of waging the longest war Israel has fought. U.S. officials have expressed increasing concerns about the flow of arms back into Lebanon.


Asked at the news conference if he expects another "hot summer," Ahmadinejad said, "We hope that the hot weather of this summer would coincide with similar victories for the region's peoples and with consequent defeat for the region's enemies."


On his one-day visit, the Iranian leader also met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. Iran provides financial aid and arms to the Islamic party, which won democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority 18 months ago. A senior Hamas spokesman said Ahmadinejad promised continued support for the movement, which wrested control of Gaza last month in a bloody five-day purge of security forces loyal to Abbas.


Teheran has been playing the West for fools for far too long, using proxy fighters in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine to distract the world from its continuing pursuit of nuclear weapons. It would be a foolish mistake to think that their target is just the West. They aim to subvert and take over any government with a moderate form of Islam in the region and they have been crystal clear about it all along. Iranian proxy groups are spreading like a fungus all over the Islamic world, from last week's attack on Pakistan's Red Mosque in Islamabad, to fighting in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Gaza. Their next targets: Saudi Arabia? Bahrain? Yemen?

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Holy Grail


Finally, it sounds like the Bush Administration has come up with a multi-front containment plan against terror-manufacturing mullahs. This comprehensive strategy entails an unprecedented cooperation between Israel and other Arab states.

Their common enemy, the Islamic Republic, has produced the most unlikely alliance between Israel and its Arab neighbors; united for the first time they are ready to reign in the irrational, suicidal and genocidal mullahs. IPS's Jim Lobe does an outstanding job of outlining the details of this new collaborative strategy. Here are some highlights:



IPS: WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (IPS) - Six months after last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iran has become the George W. Bush administration's "Public Enemy Number One", against which its Middle East strategy is increasingly focused, according to one of the U.S.'s leading experts on the Gulf....


The new strategy appears to have been galvanised by last summer's Israel-Lebanon war, which, according to Sick, "was perceived by Israel, the United States and the Sunni Arab governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan as an Iranian attempt to extend its power into the Levant by challenging both Israel and the Sunni Arab leadership."


In the months that have followed, a division of labour among the three principal components of the anti-Iranian front has emerged based on a series of presumed mutual understandings.

And here is the rest of it.For its part, the Bush administration has essentially dropped its democratisation campaign in the region; beefed up its naval power in the Gulf while providing Patriot missiles to the Arab Gulf states to encourage them to adopt a more confrontational posture toward Iran; stepped up military and other support to the Sunni-led, Saudi-backed Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora; and renewed its involvement in promoting a peace process between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, "recognising that even limited visible progress will provide diplomatic cover to the Arab states if they are to co-operate more with Israel," according to Sick.


In addition, the administration has tried to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran both in the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear programme and in Iraq by charging Tehran with arming sectarian militias and harassing Iranian officials there. At the same time, Bush has assured the Saudis, in particular, that he will maintain U.S. forces in Iraq to prevent a full-scale civil war that could be catastrophic for the Sunni population and press the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to control the Shia militias or risk replacement by a "more Sunni-friendly" regime. "Washington may also be trying to organise dissident movements in Iran, primarily among ethnic groups along the periphery and other targets of opportunity, to distract and potentially even destabilise the Tehran government," according to Sick.


For their part, according to Sick, the Sunni-led Arab states, which include all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt and Jordan, have agreed to provide major funding and political support to the Siniora government in Lebanon; "to woo (or threaten) Syria away from its alliance with Iran..."; provide facilities and funding to support U.S. efforts in the region and against Iran; and to try to bring down the price of oil, both to relieve political pressure on Bush and "make life more difficult for Iran." Israel's contribution is to provide intelligence support to U.S. and possibly Arab anti-Hezbollah efforts in Lebanon; keep highlighting the alleged "existential" threat Iran's nuclear capability would pose to it; use its long-standing contacts, especially among Iran's Kurds, to foment opposition to Tehran; and "be prepared to make sufficient concessions on the Palestinian issue and the Golan (Heights) to provide at least the perception of significant forward motion toward a comprehensive settlement."


This strategy is attractive to Bush for a variety of reasons, not least that focusing greater attention on Iran may serve to "distract public attention from the Iraqi disaster." Moreover, given the antipathy and distrust in U.S. attitudes toward Iran created by the 1979-81 hostage crisis, it is relatively easy to rally bipartisan opinion against the Islamic Republic, Sick noted.


But perhaps most important, like Washington's global contest with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the new strategy provides a "single, agreed enemy that can serve as the organising point of reference... (which) can be used to explain and rationalise a wide range of policies that otherwise might be quite unpopular," he wrote.


"The Holy Grail of U.S. Middle East policy has always been the hope of persuading both Arab and Israeli allies to agree on a common enemy and thereby relegate their mutual hostilities to a subordinate role," Sick noted. But while Arab states generally found it hard to accept that Moscow was the greater threat during the Cold War, "Iran as a large, neighbouring, non-Arab, racial Shia state may fulfill that role more convincingly," according to Sick, who noted that the "extravagant rhetoric and populist posturing" of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad add to the strategy's appeal.


While this strategy is not necessarily designed to provoke or lay the foundations for a military conflict -- and may be in fact be aimed more at "containing" Iran and persuading it to change its policies -- Sick also believes that it is "deliberately provocative and risks prompting a belligerent Iranian response... that could quickly escalate into an armed exchange."

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Monday, July 16, 2007

Fake Confessions used as propaganda Against America



Lie or Die

Iran TV shows detained Iranian-Americans

AP: TEHRAN, Iran—Iranian state-run television broadcast clips on Monday of two Iranian-Americans being held on charges of endangering national security, mixing footage of the detainees with images of civil unrest and revolution.

The video was a preview of a program called "Under the Name of Democracy" that state television indicated would be broadcast on Wednesday.

Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh were shown separately, both in what appeared to be homes and wearing civilian attire. Clips of the two, speaking in Farsi, were shown intermittently throughout the video.

"I was an element in the velvet revolution in Georgia," said Esfandiari at one point. The broadcast made no reference to the context of her comments.
Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was jailed in early May.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry has accused her of trying to set up networks of Iranians with the ultimate goal of creating a "soft revolution" in Iran to topple the hardline Islamic regime, along the lines of the revolutions that ended communist rule in eastern Europe.

Archive images of street violence and protests in what appeared to be eastern Europe and Iran were mixed in with images of the two detainees.

At another point in the video, she said: "Finding speakers has been my role," a possible reference to her efforts to bring prominent Iranians to the U.S. to talk about the political situation in Iran."

Click Here to watch the promotional piece for the scheduled program to be aired on state TV on the so-called confessions. (the video clip, of course, is in Persian)

This propaganda is a direct assault on America and our democracy. I'm so angst-ridden and depressed. There is no leadership to be found in this country and no one is standing up for our democracy and our reputation. The MOIS (Intelligence agents) thugs are known to use horrendous methods such as artificially addicting prisoners to drugs to elicit confessions from them. Luckily, most people in Iran know this and will not believe this propaganda.

P.S. My anonymous reader added this bit of interesting tidbit:

Serendip, Maybe you heared but these days journalists, Student activists, or women rights activists who think they may get arrested, usually announce (in their papers, or blogs)that no one should belive what they say on TV-confessions when they are in jail, becuase it only means they have not been able to tolerate the torture. Everyone knows they are being forced to say certain things.Only non-Iranians specially Leftists believe what the official media says about them.


Many thanks anonymous jan.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Save Iranian woman from execution by stoning


Amnesty International is making an urgent appeal to prevent the stoning to death of Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, an Iranian woman, following the stoning execution of her co-accused.Jafar Kiana was stoned to death in the village of Aghche-kand, near the town of Takestan, Qazvin province, on Thursday 5 July. There are grave concerns that his partner, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, will suffer the same fate unless Iran's Head of the Judiciary intervenes immediately.Jafar Kiana and Mokarrameh Ebrahimi were due to be stoned to death on 21 June, but the execution was suspended after a wave of domestic and international pressure on the Iranian government. This included campaigning by the Iran-based Stop Stoning Forever campaign and Amnesty International.


hey couple had spent more than 11 years in prison for having an adulterous relationship. They have two children, who live with their mother in prison.The couple remained under sentence of execution by stoning, but it was believed the risk was not imminent. However, Jafar Kiana's execution has triggered fears that Mokarrameh Ebrahimi's life is in imminent danger.Under Iranian law, execution by stoning is a punishment for adultery by married men and women. The stones used are specifically designed to increase the victim's suffering. It has been reported that only a few members of the public participated in Jafar Kiana's stoning, which was carried out mostly by local governmental and judiciary officials.

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Sunday, July 08, 2007

Al-Qaeda group threatens Iranians

The Daily Telegraph: THE leader of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq has vowed to attack Iranians unless Iran cuts off its support for the Iraqi government within two months.We announce it today, our hands will not stay far from you," he said.

He did not say whether the group would mount attacks inside Iran.

Baghdadi said his group's decision is the result of Iran's support for its fellow Shiite Muslims in Iraq, and accused Tehran of being behind the burning of Sunni Muslim mosques and killings of Sunni leaders.

"We have prepared four years for this war, and all that remains is to give the orders," he said.

In May, Iraq's Interior Ministry said Baghdadi had been killed, but the group denied his death in a web posting.

Baghdadi said the ultimatum covers financial organisations and banks in Iraq that deal with Iran, without elaborating.
He warned Sunni businessmen against doing business with Iran and urged Arab states to denounce the Iraqi government.
"We give a precious chance to all countries that host the rejectionist Persians to issue a statement of condemnation denouncing the crimes committed by the rejectionist government (of Iraq)," he said.
Sunni Islamists often refer to Shiites as "rejectionists".
"They will be safe from our attacks if they do so within two months."

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Saturday, July 07, 2007

BBC Correspondent Says Farewell to a Changed, Subtle Iran


Frances Harrison is moving on after three years as the BBC correspondent in Tehran. It has been a period of change, she writes, but generally not for the better, particularly for women. Listen to 'From Our Own Correspondent'


BBC: When I first came to Iran the reformists were still in power, not the ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But to me as a newcomer, the government then did not seem particularly liberal. The reformists were not quite what they had been cracked up to be in the West.
Reform, I soon found out, was not a euphemism for regime change - it just meant more respect for the rule of law and human rights, in order to preserve the Islamic system of government, not overthrow it. With the benefit of hindsight, many look back on the reformist period as a sort of golden age, where a smiling well-dressed President Mohammad Khatami spoke honeyed words about democracy, even if he did not deliver on many of his promises. The contrast between then and now is huge.
Media crackdown
When my predecessor left, he threw a lunch party for officials. They were friendly and urbane and unfazed by the fact that I was a woman bureau chief which is still a novelty in Iran. Now things are so bad that officials from the ministry of Islamic guidance who are helpful on a personal level did not come to my farewell lunch hosted by the BBC. I did not take it personally.


The atmosphere is now one where Iranians are afraid to mix with foreigners for fear of being accused of spying. If they do talk to foreigners they certainly do not want to do it in front of each other. One Iranian journalist working for a foreign news agency even asked if we had foreign diplomats coming to a farewell party in our house because, she said, if there were it would not be safe for her to attend. During the two years of President Ahmadinejad's government, I have watched friends have their press cards taken away by the government. It is not that this did not happen before but now there is a sense of a widespread crackdown on the media.


I have struggled with my conscience interviewing people lest I put them at risk. At one house, the mother-in-law of a student activist accosted me in a most un-Iranian way, saying: "Why are you here? He has children and he's just been released from jail." It is un-Iranian because of the innate sense of hospitality here. People have come to my office with information and I have found myself warning them to be careful about coming again.


It gets to a point where you find yourself questioning the motives of anyone brave enough to speak out. Either it is a trap or perhaps they are really naive - in which case why are we interviewing them? Subtle opposition But let me tell you about the subtle ways in which Iranians articulate their opposition. This is not a culture where anyone says anything directly - and it can sometimes be infuriating for a foreigner. But it has nuance, subtlety and a playfulness that is lost in the one-dimensional views you see in news reports.


The other night I was at a private party and two young Iranian women performed a song about a bird. It was indescribably sad and beautiful and had many of the women in the audience in tears. Women are not allowed to sing in public in Iran - it is considered un-Islamic for men to hear them. These women - who in today's Iran can only perform in houses of friends - sang about a bird, a crane, whose wings had been clipped and whose mouth had been covered. It was a poetic symbol of censorship and the restrictions imposed on women. It moved the audience far more than any feminist speech or political agitation because it drew on their tradition and the Iranian love of poetry.


Persian culture survives
On the surface, Tehran is a place where you see women swathed in black and there are ugly grimy modern buildings housing rude officials. The Islamic system of government has deliberately erased much of what was Persian culture and it is only by looking hard that you can catch glimpses of the past. Yes, some of the women may be covered from top-to-toe in black, but do not think that every woman who is covered up like that is submissive and docile - they wield huge power behind the scenes, often controlling the family finances.


Some officials may be staggeringly rude but at home Iranians are so courteous that it overwhelms foreigners until they get used to the ritual exchange of politesse that is rather beautiful to observe in action when done by a true professional. The younger generation may eat pizzas and burgers and listen to rap music, but they still have a deep respect for Persian food, music, poetry and the language itself. Of course, three years in Iran has brainwashed me.


I do believe that Iranians cook rice better than anyone else in the world, that Iranian women are the most beautiful in the world, and that the roses smell sweeter. For all the ugliness of much of the politics here, there are still vestiges of a past beauty. And as I leave, that is the Iran I want to treasure even though it is slowly fading.


From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 7 July, 2007 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

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Friday, July 06, 2007

Two decades later – it’s still about Iran


Finally a piece from MSM that makes sense:

That said, we cannot take our eyes off the ball. There are other key objectives in Iraq, the most important of which is to ensure that Iran does not emerge as the principle power broker in the region. Not only have the neighboring Arab countries been concerned about Iranian power and aggressiveness – not to mention its arsenal of ballistic missile and potential nuclear weapons capability – the United States has long been concerned about Iran as well.

Much of American policy in the region since we were thrust into superpower status following World War II has been about Iran, either seeking influence or containing it, or both. A new book (in which I am castigated) details our relationship with Saddam Hussein in the late 1980’s. The United States provided intelligence information to the Iraqi armed forces at the same time the Iraqis were using “special ammunition” - chemical weapons – on Iranian troops and their own Kurdish population. However, the relationship was not about supporting the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, it was about containing the Islamic revolution of the ayatollahs in Iran.

We contained Iran then - let’s hope we can do it now.

We are fighting a proxy war in Iraq, a war between the United States and Iran. The winner will be the power broker in the Persian Gulf, source of not only much of the world’s oil but strategic and ideological battleground to maintain our freedom and Western/secular way of life.

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Thursday, July 05, 2007

Nonsense

Nonsense
By: Roxie

To the citizens of the United States of AmericaI am not an elected official.

I am not a government employee. I am not even highly educated. I am but one citizen of the United States of America. Many citizens may prefer to ignore my written text and embrace the continuous feed of politically tainted propaganda mass produced by three major 24-hour news networks inside the United States and two 24-hour news networks outside the United States and the print outlets these networks own.

In America’s war of Independence, thirteen colonies fought the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1775 to 1783. Just as it was in the 1700s, the cause of Americans today is the cause of all humankind. When vile people abuse power and commit homicidal-suicidal acts in the name of some God, it is a problem for all of humankind because the natural rights of everyone are affected but such barbarian acts. Never in the course of history have vile barbarians ever reformed as the result of talking to them. Elected officials may wish to deceive citizens into believing that vile barbarians can reform if we talk to them, but such belief runs contrary to all of history. Those who appeased the Nazis prior to World War II found themselves overrun by the Nazis. It took the greater portion of humankind, working together, to remove the Nazi party from the face of the earth.

Today’s threat against humankind is far different from that of the Nazi era yet both are the abuse of power by a few imposed by force upon the many. Both have caused the death and destruction of innocent men, women and children. Both are contrary to world peace. While the Nazis used and perverted the swastika, an ancient religious symbol which represented life, sun, power, strength and good luck, the Islamic revolutionaries have used and perverted the religion of Islam. Unlike Nazism, which grew from a single nation, Islamic revolutionary terrorism was empowered and then exported and used by the United States as a Cold War weapon against the Soviet Union. The success of this Cold War weapon was not in the combat training provided by the CIA but in the underlying ideology of the Islamic revolutionary terrorists who were fighting a war, not for the United States but for Allah against the godless Soviet Union. Today Islamic revolutionaries exist covertly and overtly in many nations around the world.

Bassam Tibi, a professor of political science at Göttingen, Germany, and at Harvard said, “The goal of the Islamic fundamentalists is to abolish the Western, secular world order and replace it with a new Islamist divine order....The goal of the Islamists is a new imperial, absolutist Islamic world power.” Unless citizens are prepared to live under Islamic rule, then Islamic revolutionary terrorists are the citizen’s enemy because their final solution is to impose Islamic law upon the whole world. Unless Christian citizens are prepared to surrender their Christian rights, then Islamic revolutionary terrorists are the enemy of every Christian citizen. Islamic revolutionary terrorists embrace monotheism, the belief in one God, named Allah. While the Islamic revolutionary terrorists believe in the existence of Jesus, whom they call a prophet, they deny the deity of the Father and the Son.

Those who appease and defend Islamic revolutionaries are attempting to deceive American citizens. Such deception was foreseen by the writer of the First Epistle of John who wrote in I John, Chapter 2, verse 22, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son.” In verse 26, the writer of I John states, “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” Whether it is politically correct or not to say, the truth is that Islamic revolutionary terrorists want to impose a world order that is antichrist. American citizens can be reasonably certain that Islamic revolutionary terrorism and Christianity will never share the same compatibility that Catholics and Protestants have shared in the United States. The imperial, absolutist Islamic world will never coexist with Christianity; therefore, unless Christian Americans are prepared to surrender Christianity as they know it, then they have no alternative but to oppose the antichrist forces on every level and in every place. Those who advocate talking to and negotiating with the imperial, absolutist Islamic terrorists are using a politically correct shell game to hide common sense truth while presenting the American people a delusion of nonsense based on false beliefs.

These Islamic revolutionary terrorists seeking to conquer the world for Allah and impose their absolutist Islamic world order upon humankind have been aided by world leaders who embrace Christianity, and by religious leaders who embrace Islam. The Christian President Jimmy Carter aided the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, an Islamic revolutionary nation that has exported its absolutist Islamic world order for three decades. The American CIA supported Saudi Arabian Osama bin-Laden’s campaign against the Soviet Union. The United Nations has supported Hezbollah and Hamas. Christian leaders have been mostly silent the past three decades as the absolutist Islamic forces grew and prospered. Islamic leaders have also been mostly silent as the absolutist Islamic forces used Islam to bring about homicidal-suicidal murders and armed conflicts around the world.T

he appeasement of vile barbaric creatures who inflict great suffering on humankind reflects a decline in moral values among world leaders and political leaders. They have, as they have done historically, turned a blind-eye to those imposing barbaric acts on humankind. Such morally corrupt leaders embrace a false belief that evil does not exist, or if evil does exist it can be talked away. If this were true there would be no need for jails because evil criminals could be persuaded to turn from their wicked ways. The morally corrupt leaders falsely blame the America’s foreign policies for the expansion of Islamic revolutionary barbarianism and ignore the core religious ideology that gave raise to Islamic revolutionary terrorism, thereby selling American citizens and the world a package of false beliefs about the true nature of the barbarians. Even worse, these morally compromised world leaders and spiritually polluted religious leaders sell humankind the nonsense that changing the behavior of Americans and Christians will magically solve the problems created by the Islamic revolutionary terrorists. To falsely blame America’s foreign policy and Christian behavior for the Islamic revolutionary terrorism is utter nonsense and is dangerous to the United States, Christianity and all of humankind.Whatever the arguments about the roots of terrorism, whatever plans to end the vile homicidal-suicidal acts of Islamic revolutionaries, those arguments and plans of the previous three decades were superseded and useless after the vicious attacks on American soil on September 11, 2001. Independence shall not survive long if those who plant the seeds of the ideology that grew the barbarianism of 9/11 are permitted to continue to teach and expand that ideology anywhere in the world. Leaving the teachers of the perverted ideology that brought America 9/11 is not only a disservice to Americans; it is a disservice to all of humankind.

Yet voices continue to call for the continuation of the very appeasement of the Islamic revolutionary terrorists that permitted them to grow from a small band of AK-47 toting extremists into a mature tactically advanced empire that reached around the world to bring about the 9/11 attacks.

Even now, some are advocate negotiating with those who brought America 9/11, brought Lebanon years of destruction, Palestine false hope, Sudan carnage, Iraq instability, and endless war in distant places like Somalia. As the United Nations talked about Iran’s nuclear program, Islamic revolutionary terrorists inside Iran increased their efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and tested more sophisticated missiles. Those who support appeasement and support talking to terrorists and nations who train, fund and arm terrorists may be included in the following descriptions: Interested people who should not be trusted because they have their own agenda, weak-minded people too afraid to look at the truth, prejudiced men who do see but will not expose the truth, and millions of average people infected with the politically correct biased pseudo-news of the 24-hour television news channels. Advocating that humankind can become friends with Islamic revolutionary terrorists if we, those who do not cut off human heads, play nice with those who do cut off human heads is utter nonsense.

Over the past two decades as Americans attacked with zest and spent millions of dollars to oppose the immorality, homosexuality, they turned a blind-eye to a far greater immorality. The Islamic revolutionary immorality has harmed humankind by destroying billions of dollars in property, killing a host of completely innocent men, women and children and causing millions of people to become homeless. Blinded by homosexuality some religious leaders blamed America’s humanitarian treatment of homosexual people for 9/11 instead of laying the blame for the attacks at the feet of the Islamic revolutionary terrorists. It was immoral of American political and religious leaders to turn a blind-eye to the barbarian ideology that was ravaging cities in nations around the globe. The nonsense of pursuing a tiny immorality while permitting an antichrist abomination to grow so large and so strong as to endanger all of humankind betrayed not only Americans but billions of people around the world.

Every quiet method to end Islamic revolutionary terrorism has resulted in its expansion, never its decline. After 9/11 the United States faced the undeniable truth that the ideology of Islamic revolutionary terrorism had to be destroyed or it would continue to grow and devour the entire world, including the United States. When Islamic revolutionary terrorists bogged down U. S. forces in Iraq, American leaders decided to study the problem. The Iraq Study Group, a group influenced by the same people who helped create the first Islamic nation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, sold America the false belief that the Iraq war could not be won militarily and that the Iraq war was only making terrorism worse. The Iraq Study Group ignored the fact that the United Nation’s quiet diplomacy with Hezbollah in Lebanon had resulted in the expansion of Islamic revolutionary terrorism in Lebanon, not in the decline of Islamic revolutionary terrorism. The Iraq Study Group report, influenced by the biased people who helped create the Islamic Republic of Iran, embraced the false belief that diplomacy was the answer to the barbarianism ravaging humankind around the world.It is also a false belief that a war can not be won militarily. History has proven that all wars can be won. Even the most recent war against Islamic revolutionary terrorists, called the Crusades by historians, was able to be won militarily. The Iraq Study Group’s recommendations run counter to history and embrace a dangerous false belief that diplomacy will resolve the problem of terrorism when in fact diplomacy empowers and expands Islamic revolutionary terrorism. When one considers that the CIA helped Islamic revolutionary terrorism spread and that former President Jimmy Carter aided in the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the proposed abandonment of Iraq, a nation affected by Islamic revolutionary terrorism as a direct result of the U.S. invasion, shows some elected officials to be self-serving political parasites who lack any sense of morality for humankind.Those elected American officials who arrogantly and boldly proclaim they voted for the war in Iraq before they voted against it have proven to the citizens that they possess no real core moral values. They are the spineless creatures who helped bring about the spread of the immoral and barbaric Islamic revolution. They are as guilty of cutting off human heads as the people who hold the knives. They compromise moral right for political gain and represent a danger to democracy and to Christianity, both of which the vile Islamic revolutionary barbarians seek to destroy. It would be pure nonsense to reelect these morally bankrupt souls to public office because doing so would continue to inflict barbarianism on humankind around the world.

It will be impossible for Americans, as citizens or Christians, to continue to enjoy every civil and religious right if America’s religious leaders and elected officials continue to permit the growth and spread of the great immorality destroying innocent men, women and children, and overthrowing governments. It does not require a mixing of religion with politics to end the reign of Islamic revolutionary terrorists, but simply the basic moral values that should be an intimate part of all elected officials and religious leaders. In fact it was the mixing of Islam and politics that created the Islamic revolutionary monster devouring humankind. Both Christianity and the American political system will be destroyed if Islamic revolutionary terrorists are permitted to realize their goals and those pushing such false beliefs on American citizens are peddling nonsense. Therefore the war against terrorism preserves both democracy and Christianity.

America’s war on terrorism has failed thus far, not because it is not a noble and necessary war, and not because it can not be won militarily, but because America has not yet begun to fight. Places like the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s largest sponsor of Islamic revolutionary terrorism, have remained untouched in the war on terror. America’s religious leaders, both Islamic and Christian, have failed to lead the moral fight against the ideology that inspires the homicidal-suicidal attacks on innocent men, women and children. Religious leaders permit the cycle of Islamic revolution to continue by condemning the acts of terrorism yet continuing to appease the antichrist sinners teaching more souls to kill themselves in the name of Allah. It is a question of moral right and moral wrong. Those same leaders that spent billions to crusade against the moral wrong of homosexuality have failed to spend as much money and energy crusading against a far greater and far more dangerous immorality.

Likewise, American citizens continue to consume the foreign oil that helps fund the Islamic revolutionary terrorists. American businesses have offered the America citizens no alternative to foreign oil in the past three decades. Half a decade after 9/11 America still lacks the moral values and political will to stop funding Islamic revolutionary terrorists. While sending a ten-dollar check to an Islamic terrorist group will result in a jail sentence, sending terrorist groups millions of dollars disguised as gasoline and oil-product purchases is perfectly legal. It is nonsense to assume America citizens are fighting a war on terrorism while they are funding the very enemy fighting to destroy them. It is immoral for the nation’s citizens to support the enemy their military is fighting.

President Bush’s war on terrorism is a noble cause, a just cause and a necessary moral response to bring an end to three decades of Islamic revolutionary terrorism, but he failed to properly present the case to the American people. He assumed Americans were informed citizens who understood Islamic revolutionary terrorism. His Administration also made errors in executing the war, which happens in every war. His Administration made the mistake of invading Iraq while not touching the world’s largest terrorist nation, thereby permitting Iran to arm, train and send fighters into Iraq and create a quagmire. Instead of looking at the military mistakes and discussing to correct them in order to win the war, as has been done historically in all major wars, elected officials exploited the quagmire and used it as propaganda for political gain while breaking the citizens will to continue the noble cause. They have sold citizens a false hope that ending the Iraq war will not further empower the Islamic revolutionary terrorists. Such morally bankrupt leaders are a disgrace to America, a danger to freedom, and appeasers of antichrist elements who have chanted “death to America” for three generations. With elected officials like these, who needs enemies? Abraham Lincoln said, “If destruction be our lot, it must spring up among us.” It has sprung up in the House and Senate.

No civilized citizen wishes for war. War is a cruel but sometimes necessary response to evil forces that wish to destroy a citizen’s political and religious freedom. So far these Islamic revolutionary terrorists do not have nuclear weapons. To wait to destroy them is to give them time to obtain nuclear weapons. Those who embrace a homicidal-suicidal ideology would not be stopped from using nuclear weapons in Allah’s name by the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Therefore, America has a moral obligation to destroy this Cold War weapon which America empowered as a tool to prevent global thermal nuclear war, or this Cold War weapon is guaranteed to bring about the very global thermal nuclear war it was designed to prevent. As morally bankrupt political leaders propose returning to the quiet negotiation and appeasement that transformed a small group of former CIA sponsored Islamic revolutionary terrorists into a global power, every citizen has a moral obligation to question the nonsense espoused by their elected leaders.

At no time in recorded history have barbarians seeking world domination been defeated by talking to them. Unless times have so changed that the only immorality left in existence is homosexuality, then we, the America citizens, have a moral obligation and a moral duty to pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty and to free all humankind from the horror of Islamic revolutionary terrorists. If America does not defeat these savage beasts before they obtain nuclear weapons, entire cities will be wiped off the map; the direct result of America’s bankrupt morality and political nonsense.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Gayle, My Republican Blog wishes everyone to read Author sees Islam's 20 Year Plan for America

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Iraq's PM Maliki to visit Iran

TEHRAN, July 04 (ISNA)-Iraq's prime minister at the head of a high delegation will visit Iran. Nori Maliki at the head of a high ranking delegation consisting of ministers related to joint venture projects with Iran is to visit Tehran soon.

Maliki is also expected to visit the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, Seyyed Abdel Aziz Hakim, who is currently under treatment in Iran.

The exact date of this visit is still not clear.

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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Iranian Human Rights film wins Amnesty International award


City boy: I just heard the great news that the undercover documentary Execution of a teenage girl produced by Arash Sahami (left in the picture) won the television documentary award at the Amnesty International Media Awards tonight. Arash Sahami and his team risked their lives by going undercover in Iran to capture the story of this little girl and the tragic end to her life..
The Observer (July, 2006) described the documentary as:
An almost impossible to watch documentary about the life of Atefeh Sahaaleh. a 16-year-old girl who was hanged in a public square in Iran in 2004 after being charged with ‘crimes against chastity’. Using eyewitness accounts, reconstructions and undercover footage, the programme slowly recreates Atefeh’s life and shows why the same life was brutally extinguished. At times you really just want to look away from the screen unable to believe this is happening - but don’t, because this truly is one of the best documentaries of the year and one of the most important
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Related:TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Authorities have arrested some 80 suspects on the charge of damaging gas stations and looting shops during last week's protests against fuel rationing, state-run television reported.
PeykeIran: Those who participated in the riots are kept in solitary confinment in the infamous Evin Prison and the name of those who will be executed will be annonuced in a few days.

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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Solana Suggests Iran Behind Gaza, Lebanon Attacks


REUTERS: BRUSSELS -- The European Union foreign policy chief suggested on Monday that Iran could be linked to the Hamas military takeover of Gaza, recent attacks on the Lebanese army, and on European peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Javier Solana, who has led efforts to bring Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme, stopped short of blaming Tehran outright, but said the incidents could not be treated separately.

"What happened in Gaza cannot be seen separately from what happened in Lebanon," he told a conference on the Middle East hosted by the Socialist group of the European Parliament.

"There are new groups in the Palestinian camps," Solana said. "And the fact that UNIFIL has been attacked for the first time cannot be taken separately."

Solana said that while the car bomb attack that killed six Spanish members of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on June 24 was carried out by "forces we don't know", he added: "It would be naive not to see this as part of a global approach."

"Somebody I know well -- Ali Larijani -- has said 'we are supporting Hamas'," he said, referring to the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator, who made the statement in an interview with Newsweek published last month.

"All this is connected," Solana said. "It didn't happen by accident or miracle, it was probably planned."

"It would be difficult to understand without seeing other important regional players behind it," he added, referring to "other forces" in Iran and Syria.

Solana also said a postponed meeting of Western and Arab Middle East mediators with Israeli and Palestinian leaders would probably now happen in Cairo in mid-July.

He said it was important to provide a new political impetus to the peace process, not just financial and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian government.

Solana also said that in the long run it would be necessary to have an international peacekeeping presence in the West Bank and Gaza, but this was not an immediate priority.

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