Iranian Alert -- DAY 36 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The Iranian Student Movement -- Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 7.15.2003 | DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movment in Iran from being reported.

From jamming satellite broadcasts, to prohibiting news reporters from covering any demonstrations to shutting down all cell phones and even hiring foreign security to control the population, the regime is doing everything in its power to keep the popular movement from expressing its demand for an end of the regime.

These efforts by the regime, while successful in the short term, do not resolve the fundamental reasons why this regime is crumbling from within.

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Please continue to join us here, post your news stories and comments to this thread.

Thanks for all the help.

DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

To find all the links to all 34 threads since the protests started, go to:

[DoctorZIn]

Join Us at the Iranian Alert -- DAY 36 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Live Thread Ping List | 7.15.2003 | DoctorZIn

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[DoctorZIn]

Canada Hunts for Body of Photographer in Iran

Mon July 14, 2003 04:10 PM ET

By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian diplomats in Tehran are hunting for the body of a Montreal-based freelance photographer who died from alleged head wounds after being arrested, officials said on Monday.

The case of 54-year-old Zahra Kazemi is becoming increasingly confused amid disagreements between her mother -- who has given permission for the body to be buried in Iran -- and her son, who wants it returned to Canada for an autopsy.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Sunday ordered a probe into the death of Kazemi, who was arrested in late June after taking pictures of Tehran's notorious Evin jail, where many dissidents are jailed.

Kazemi's son and friends in Canada insist she was beaten into a coma while Iranian officials say she fell ill after her interrogation started and died of "a brain attack."

Canadian officials denied reports Kazemi had already been buried, saying the argument between mother and son meant Iranian authorities were likely to take a final decision.

Ottawa is under increasing pressure from the family and activists in Montreal to ensure the return the body of Kazemi, a Canadian of Iranian descent. She died late on Friday.

"We're still verifying in Iran, through the Canadian embassy, where Ms Kazemi's remains are," a Canadian official told Reuters.

"Her remains are not buried yet. A final determination regarding the disposal of the remains -- i.e. whether they're going to be buried in Iran or whether they're going to be repatriated to Canada, as the son wishes -- will be in all likelihood a decision to be taken by a judicial body in Iran."

Canada -- which backs what it says is the son's ultimate right to decide -- wants to enlist the help of Ambeyi Ligabo, the U.N. Human Rights Commission's special rapporteur on promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, who is due to visit Iran from July 17 to 27.

Canada's ambassador in Tehran would try to meet Ligabo in Iran and persuade him to take an interest in the case, the official said.

Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, has sent a letter to the Iranian embassy formally requesting the return of the body. He said he was sure Iranian officials had forced his grandmother to grant permission for the body to be buried quickly.

But the Canadian official said even if a decision were taken to bury Kazemi, "given the probable judicial component of the whole situation, the burial might not be in sight (imminent)."

Activists insist Ottawa be tough with Tehran.

"We have to be strong in our resolve to demand an independent inquiry and call Iran to task for its handling of this grotesque incident," Joel Ruimy, head of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, told CBC television.

An official at the Iranian embassy in Ottawa said the fact Khatami had become involved meant the case of Kazemi was now gathering plenty of attention.

"This is a big political internal issue in Iran now," the official said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=UAJKIC25X2NAQCRBAEZSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3086773

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me”

[DoctorZIn]

A Revolution's Lessons

By Pejman Yousefzadeh 07/15/2003
AP

The July 9th protests against the Islamic regime in Iran started out with the reform movement announcing that it would cancel protests because of concerns that the regime would crack down harshly on the protestors. In reward for the forbearance, leaders of the reform movement were kidnapped by regime enforcers.

Protests against the regime ultimately occurred, but it is worth noting these events to point out that the Islamic regime is absolutely devoted to putting a stop to any effort to reform or change it. The mullahs are not only ruthless about stifling dissent, they have gone so far as to get non-Iranian riot police in order to have a police force that is less reluctant to engage in savagery against Iranian demonstrators (the theory being that an Iranian police force might have greater difficulty in putting down revolts that were instituted by their own countrymen). The internal police force has been specifically trained to help preserve the power of the regime, and is skilled at clamping down on internal revolt. In instituting these safeguards, the mullahs demonstrate that they have learned from history.

Many of the leaders of the Islamic regime were revolutionaries themselves 25 years ago -- revolutionaries against the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah had a powerful military, and a fearsome security apparatus: SAVAK (the Persian acronym and the words it represents translates to "Organization for State Information and Security" in English). However, the Shah was under increasing Western pressure to curb the abuses engaged in by SAVAK, and his military force was not skilled at internal crowd control and domestic peacekeeping. Because the Shah's security apparatus was not prepared to put down revolts against his regime, the Islamic Revolution -- given so little chance to succeed -- was able to bring an end to the Pahlavi dynasty, and to nearly two and a half millennia of monarchy in Iran/Persia.

In addition, the Shah himself was always wary about the use of force against demonstrators, and that wariness ultimately gave the revolutionaries confidence that the Shah would not crack down on them. Marvin Zonis (who was one of my professors when I was in graduate school) noted this wariness in his psychological profile of the Shah. He tells us that the Shah was hesitant about cracking down on protestors who initially began to dissent against the Shah's regime in 1963 (the year that Ayatollah Khomeini emerged as one of the main figures in opposition to the Shah), and that the Shah had to be prodded by his prime minister, Asadollah 'Alam to take drastic measures to preserve his reign. When the Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s came around, there were no leaders like 'Alam to urge the Shah to repeat the clampdown of 1963 in order to preserve his reign. Additionally, as Zonis points out and as the Shah himself hints to in his own autobiography, the Shah was reluctant to crack down on the protestors because he didn't feel that he had the backing of the United States to do so. All in all, the Shah did not have the proper instruments of state power to control his population, and failed to use the instruments that he did have. The mullahs will not make that mistake.

So what can be done to counter the mullahs' absolute determination to hold on to power? One thing that would help would be increased media coverage of the events in Iran. The regime's leaders will have a harder time taking drastic steps to curb the pro-democracy movement if they realize that the world is watching them, and if they realize that they will come in for strong international condemnation and increased isolation if they impose brutal crowd control methods to keep power.

Additionally, it would help if other countries would do more to isolate the regime. Despite its support for terrorism, its appalling human rights record, and the threat it poses to peace and stability, the friendship of the Iranian regime is still courted by other countries -- including European countries. This causes the regime to believe that it has nothing to fear in terms of retaliation if it does take measures to crack down on protests. Instead of their current course of action, European countries would do well to inform Iran publicly and directly that there will be no business done between the two countries unless the regime respects and gives voice to the demands of the pro-democracy movement.

The protests against the Islamic regime have now reached a critical stage. The regime is determined to do whatever it can to keep power. For its efforts to be frustrated, the international community must recognize and seek to frustrate the regime's determination to implement harsh measures against the dissident movement, and the international media should place the regime's actions under a microscope in order to prevent the mullahs from believing that their totalitarian and repressive methods will not be noticed by the rest of the world. As important as regime change in Iran is, it will not be implemented easily. Only by focusing more attention on Iran, and by isolating the regime further will the international community be able to head off the Islamic Republic's efforts to outlast the pro-democracy movement.

http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/defensewrapper.jsp?PID=1051-350&CID=1051-071503D

[F14 Pilot]

A link about Iran's History.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iohp/

[F14 Pilot]

http://www.iiaf.net

http://www.iiaf.net/history/commemorates.html
This link shows the brutality of the Regime.

[firewalk]

Thanks for the ping
bttt

[DoctorZIn]

American Companies Armed Iran For Many Years

Translated from Russian by Maria Gousseva
Jul 15, 2003

US special services discovered that 18 American companies supposedly supplied weapons to the country

As a result of an investigation of illegal supplies of military technologies to Iran agents of US special services discovered that 18 American companies supposedly supplied weapons to the country.

Associated Press reports that through London's company Multicore Ltd., related to the Iranian military, Teheran was supplied with spare parts for the F-14, F-4 and F-5 battle planes, to the S-130 troop-carriers, Hawk anti-aircraft missiles and military radars.

The information is spread by the Immigration Bureau and the War Crimes Investigation Service. No charges have been brought yet; violations of the act on control over weapons export are being investigated.

In this connection Pentagon Inspector Joseph Schmitz declared that "lives of US pilots were jeopardized with the illegal military supplies." The investigation is being held at the time when the USA is intensifying the pressure upon Iran; it also demands that Iran must stop supposed experiments with nuclear weapons. The USA demands that American companies must stop all kinds of contacts with Iran which may give the country more advanced military technologies.

Intelligence agents focused on activity of Multicore for the first time in February 1999 when special services suspected that a Californian branch of the company supplied spare parts for F-14 fighters to Iran. A search was held in the company in December 2000 when thousands of spare parts for battle planes and cruise missiles were discovered at the storehouses of the London company. Soon after that, two workers of the company were found guilty of violating the agreements on arms export. A brother of one of the men, Sorosh Homaini was arrested in London; his activity is still investigated in Great Britain. In 1998, the USA sentenced the criminal to 21 months of imprisonment for an attempt to start illegal export of military radars; later he was expelled from the USA.

A Multicore spokesperson in London with whom Associated Press contacted denied that the company illegally supplied weapons to Iran. Representatives of American companies insist they had no notion that their weapons further went to Iran; many of them deny that they had any kind of contacts with London's Multicore. Majority of US companies are now cooperating with the structures conducting the investigation.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1160.shtml

[DoctorZIn]

Cuba Accused of Blocking U.S. Satellite Feeds to Iran

July 15, 2003
Miami Herald
Nnancy San Martin

WASHINGTON -- Transmitters in Cuba are jamming the signals of at least four U.S.-based television stations owned by Iranian Americans who are critical of the Tehran regime and use satellites to transmit programs to Iran, according to broadcasters and a private U.S. firm that has pinpointed the source of the interference.

All the transmissions affected so far are beamed from Los Angeles -- which has a large population of Iranian exiles -- by privately owned stations that oppose Iran's theocratic government, officials of the four stations said.

U.S. government officials said they are still trying to determine whether three other satellite broadcasts, transmitted by the Voice of America from Washington to Iran, are also being disrupted.

''We simply don't know if our signals are being jammed,'' said Joe O'Connell, a spokesman for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is in charge of the U.S.-funded VOA broadcasts.

IMPROVING QUALITY

News of the Cuban jamming came as U.S. authorities revealed they have been studying ways to enhance TV Martí broadcasts to Cuba by using analog satellite transmissions -- rather than digital transmissions currently being used -- that are more difficult to jam and more easily captured by the estimated 10,000 to 15,000 satellite dishes on rooftops across the island.

''In the future, things might change,'' O'Connell said, adding that his office recently ran some experiments on improving satellite transmission to the island. ``The whole idea was to find effective ways to enhance TV and Radio Martí to Cuba.''

The disruptions of the California broadcasts were first detected on July 5. Broadcasters have since been unable to get their programs to reach Iran, where the ruling Muslim clerics have sought to bar access to media not controlled by the government.

''We never thought that in a country such as the United States we'd be suppressed from freedom of speech,'' said Kourosh Abbassi, a spokesman at Azadi Television, which promotes political change in Iran. ``Seeing as we have no ax to grind with the Cuban government, they must be in cahoots with the Iranian government.''

ANTI-AMERICAN

Cuba has long been friendly with the equally anti-American Iranian regime, even selling biotechnology used to manufacture medical products to Tehran in the late 1990s that a Cuban defector alleged in 2001 could be used to produce biochemical weapons.

The jamming, first reported by NBC News, began as the Washington-based VOA began broadcasting a new Persian-language television program, News & Views, to Tehran as Iranian students launched a series of street protests against their government.

FCC officials confirmed that they were looking into the jamming reports.

John McCarthy, a spokesman for Loral Skynet, the operator of the Telstar-12 satellite used by the California broadcasters to beam their signals to Iran, told The Herald that the company has identified the source of the jamming, but declined to discuss further details.

However, according to a letter from the Loral Skynet made public by Azadi Television, a privately owned U.S. transmitter location company was able ``to provide an ellipse of the most probable location of the source of the interference, which it identified as being in the vicinity of Havana, Cuba.''

Efforts to reach Cuban officials for comment were unsuccessful.

It is presumed that Iran is using jammers in Cuba, 90 miles off the U.S. coast, because they are physically closer to the Telstar satellites.

The other affected stations are Channel 1, Pars TV and National Iranian TV, which began its broadcasts to Iran three years ago.

The U.S.-funded VOA uses two satellites for its transmissions to Iran, Telstar 12 and another that covers the Middle East, Europe, Russia and North Africa.

BALLOON IN THE SKY

TV Martí relies primarily on a regular TV signal, not a satellite, broadcast from a balloon tethered 10,000 feet above Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys. Those transmissions are easily blocked by the Cuban government.

But TV Martí, with little fanfare, has also been broadcasting since 1990 on satellite through New Skies 806, the Latin America net portion of the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau. IBB, a U.S. government agency, is the parent agency of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting in Miami.

TV Martí's satellite broadcasts are widely available in Latin America via cable services. But its digital service requires Cubans with satellite reception dishes to use a hard-to-obtain converter, O'Connell said.

Regular, analog, satellite transmissions to the island have not been used in the past because the number of satellite receiver dishes in Cuba has been limited. But over the past five years there has been a boom in Cuba's black market for satellite receivers that U.S. officials hope to tap into.

U.S. officials have been struggling with Cuban jamming of TV and Radio Martí for a decade. In May, the Pentagon deployed a special airplane to test improvements in transmissions to Cuba, using a technology meant to break through the ''wall'' of Cuban jamming efforts and make the U.S.-operated stations more effective at reaching Cubans.

TV Martí costs about $11 million a year. About another $15 million goes to Radio Martí.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/6304655.htm

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me”

[DoctorZIn]

Reformers: Iran Must Chose Democracy or Despotism

Tue July 15, 2003 08:47 AM ET
By Jon Hemming
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Some 350 reformist intellectuals urged Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Tuesday to end repression and free political prisoners, saying the Islamic Republic must choose between democracy and despotism.

The politicians, academics, activists and lawyers said Khamenei, Iran's most powerful figure, should overhaul the hard-line judiciary and conservative institutions that have blocked much of moderate President Mohammad Khatami's reforms.

Around a dozen journalists have been arrested since violent protests last month and one Canadian photographer died after being detained. Some 4,000 were arrested during the student unrest in which slogans targeted both hard-liners and reformers.

"Resorting to violence, crackdowns and authoritarian methods, as we see today toward students, will bear no result but exacerbating the crisis," said the letter to Khamenei, a copy of which was faxed to Reuters.

"Such methods...are not only illegal and lack popular, religious and moral legitimacy, but are also useless and inefficient," it said.

The letter was the latest in a string of missives sent by parliamentarians and dissidents calling for change. Last month 250 intellectuals wrote an open letter accusing the clerical establishment of putting themselves in the place of God.

Pro-reform journalist and former deputy Culture Minister Issa Saharkhiz, whose office distributed the letter to the media, was arrested Tuesday on unspecified charges, his office said.

The manager of the magazine Theater Sinema was also arrested Tuesday on charges connected to a picture published in it, the ISNA student news agency said.

"VITAL DILEMMA"

The intellectuals' letter to Khamenei reflected a debate over the precedence of the Islamic or the republican side of the Islamic Republic; whether officials appointed by Iran's top cleric Khamenei or those popularly elected should hold sway.

"We believe the Islamic Republic is now in a vital dilemma," the letter said.

"One way is to succumb to a despotic interpretation of Islam and the constitution by appointing people who do not have any standing before public opinion...whose measures have led to a storm of frustration," it said.

"The other way is to succumb to a democratic interpretation of the constitution...to save the country and repel foreign threats."

With U.S. troops at both Iran's front and back doors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran has come under increasing pressure over allegations it was developing nuclear arms and backing terrorism, giving a new edge to the domestic political debate.

The United States strongly supported the demonstrations. Tehran has accused Washington of blatant interference in its affairs.

Khatami's efforts to create more open, responsible rule have been frustrated by appointed conservatives who have blocked his reform bills at every turn and hard-line judges who have banned some 90 pro-reform publications in the last three years.

The intellectuals said their minimum demands were an overhaul of the judiciary, changes to the 12-man Guardian Council which can veto laws, the approval of two bills giving Khatami more power and the release of political prisoners.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3091476

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[DoctorZIn]

Journalist sought to expose injustice
Life ended as she pursued her passion

KINDA JAYOUSH
The Gazette Canada.com
Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi dedicated herself to documenting the living conditions in war-torn areas and exposing injustices against women and children.

Her life ended shortly after her arrest in Tehran last month while covering one of those stories she was most passionate about.

Iranian authorities detained Kazemi on or about June 23 as she was taking pictures of the notorious Evin prison in northern Tehran, where many political dissidents are locked up.

Melanie Navarro, assistant editor of Montreal's Recto Verso magazine, where Kazemi's pictures and articles were published over the past seven years, described Kazemi as a courageous person with a strong humanitarian sense.

"She was a woman who was really full of love for everybody. A very special person," Navarro said. "She had a strong passion for her work and was very much interested in social issues and women's rights."

Kazemi, 54, who arrived in Montreal from France in 1993, worked hard to confront injustices and was able to connect with people and capture their innermost feelings in her pictures.

"With her kind heart, she knew how to get close to people and portray their emotions and sufferings," Navarro said.

"She was very active and when she was confronted with injustices, she did not settle until she exposed them," she added.

Kazemi, who was of Iranian descent, travelled extensively around the Middle East and covered living conditions in Palestinian refugee camps.

Her last report with Recto Verso was in April. It included an article and pictures about the critical living conditions in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taliban regime.

After this report and before heading to Iran, she was in Iraq for six weeks to document the situation there after the end of the U.S.-led war.

She went to Tehran as an Iranian citizen on her way to Turkmenistan where she was planning to cover a story about Russians being expelled from the former republic of the ex-Soviet Union. After that she wanted to head to North Korea.

Kazemi stayed longer than planned in Iran to cover last month's protests by students demanding reforms. About 4,000 people were arrested.

Kazemi was detained while taking pictures of Evin prison. Her family was later notified by the Iranian authorities that she was in a hospital.

Her family alleged she was beaten into coma. Friends who visited her said they saw severe cuts and bruises on her face and head.

Navarro said Kazemi's colleagues want to see more details on what happened between the arrest and her being taken to hospital.

"Whatever has happened shouldn't have happened," she said. "It is too late for Zeba to return, but we really need her body to be repatriated to have it examined and know exactly how she died."

kjayoush@thegazette.canwest.com

© Copyright 2003 Montreal Gazette

http://www.canada.com/montreal/news/story.asp?id=D33DECB8-367E-461B-BE90-19CC6113CEC1

[jriemer]

The jamming, first reported by NBC News, began as the Washington-based VOA began broadcasting a new Persian-language television program, News & Views, to Tehran as Iranian students launched a series of street protests against their government.

Interesting co-incidence? When did the Persian VOA signal start and the private sector satellite signals start having their interference. (Note for the tinfoil crowd: I am not linking the two) I just am exploring a theory that the Cubans have grown skilled in jamming VOA / TV-Marti satellite signals and they figured they would do the mullahs a favor.

What are some other people's thoughts on this?

[the Real fifi]

I think Castro and Chavez are, and have been working, check by jowl with the Iranian thugs..Castro for oil from Iran and Chavez because he does whatever Castro tells him to do.
The mullahs bombed the Jewish Center in Bueanas Aires and have their hezbollah gangs in a number of places in Central and South America.

So does AQ.

[Eala]

The Persian VOA has been transmitting for some time now. I remember reading complaints about a change in format last winter. But that Castro is doing this for the mullahs seems pretty evident.

What's surprising to me is Loral's reluctance to speak out, and the seeming inaction from the feds over this. I just don't feel like we're getting the whole story...

[jriemer]

I think Castro and Chavez are, and have been working, check by jowl with the Iranian thugs..Castro for oil from Iran and Chavez because he does whatever Castro tells him to do. The mullahs bombed the Jewish Center in Bueanas Aires and have their hezbollah gangs in a number of places in Central and South America.

Many have concentrated on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars but really we have a multi-front campaign that spans contients.

There are AQ insurgents South East Asia spreading towards Australia. There are bona-fide communist governments giving safe haven to AQ in and around Venezuela and Brazil in South America. To wrap it up, AQ still has bases of operations in Africa that have never tackled-head head on since the Kenya and Tanzania bombings.

To think that AQ is purely a Middle-Eastern terrorist outfit is naive in the extreme.

[the Real fifi]

Just as it is idiotic to accept the Clinton era formulation that it is not operating under state-sponsorship.

[DoctorZIn]

...When did the Persian VOA signal start and the private sector satellite signals start having their interference....

They began jamming I believe the day before VOA TV Iran was to begin, Sunday July 6.

[DoctorZIn]

..The Persian VOA has been transmitting for some time now....

True, but the TV broadcasts began July 6th.

[DoctorZIn]

Iran’s Supreme Leader Receives Hefty Kickback on Auto Sales!?

July 15, 2003
AFP
Khaleej Times

TEHRAN - The office of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has taken the rare step of seeking to dispel a popular myth that it receives a hefty cut on the sale of new cars, press reports said on Tuesday.

“The rumours that say that this office receives a percentage off the cars manufactured in Iran are sheer lies, and only try to sow anxiety and mistrust,” Khamenei’s office was quoted as saying in a statement.

“This office has asked the ministry of intelligence to identify those spreading such rumors so they could be dealt with according to the law,” it added.

According to a rumour frequently heard in Tehran, particularly from struggling taxi drivers, the high price of even low-quality cars can be attributed to a “religious tax” that sees up to a third of their cash sent to Khamenei.

Many drivers argue that a car such as the locally-produced Paykan, which is based on the 1960’s British Hillman Hunter, cannot be worth its sale price of 7,500 dollars.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2003/July/middleeast_July263.xml&section=middleeast&col=