Iranian Alert -- December 28, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. 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. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

"Long Live Israel, Long Live America"

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Dec 27, 2003

The regime's plainclothes men and security agents have arrested in several cities, such as in Tehran and Esfahan, Iranians who angered by the situation had shouted publicly unprecedented slogans considered almost as a blasphemy by the ruling theocracy.

These unprecedented slogans were nothing else than "Long Live Israel!" and "Long Live America!" shouted during tens of popular Blood collect gatherings by Iranians welcoming the Israeli and American support of the quake's victims.

The popular anger has been boosted as the Islamic regime has banned any Israeli support of the quake's victims by rejecting this country's offer of aid. Many Iranians consider such rejection as another prove that the regime's leaders are more willing to let Iranians die by sacrifying them in order to keep their backwarded anti-Semite ideology.

Many also are cheering the US President for his constant support of Iranians and are qualifying the landing of US Aid planes as another "slap in the face of the regime".

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4238.shtml

Disgusted Iranians Form Aid Committees, Warn Against Misuse Of Aids

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Dec 27, 2003

Tens of thousands of Iranians and students have formed local committees in order to collect aid and provide help to the rescapees of the deadly quake which has killed thousands of Iranians in the Kerman Province. Disgusted by various reports stating about the catastrophic conditions of the Bam and Jiroft residents and the lack of real attention and support from the official circles, money, food and materials are getting collected in order to be shipped from main Iranian cities by trucks conducted by their owners or voluntary drivers.

Many Iranians, not concerned by politic till now, are showing anger and voicing up with many already against the regime.

Unprecedented courageous public accusations are made against the regime and its leaders by angry Iranians. Many of them are qualifying, publicly, the regime and its leaders as "bunch of thieves and murderers mainly concerned by spending Iranians' money for Terrorism purposes or to place it abroad rather than spending it for the sake of the People".

Talks are made in public cabs and buses, in the streets or on the campuses on the need of a "wide scale revolution which will purify Iran from mullahs and their collaborators".

The deadly Kerman quake and the increasing number of deaths, due to the incompetency of the regime, have contributed to cut off the last few moral barriers which were existing among some Iranians for wishing a radical change in Iran no matter the cost will be.

Abroad Iran, local committees are getting formed in most US and European cities by Iranians and their friends in order to collect aid and to transfer it by "secure ways" to Iran and the quake's rescapees. Iranians remembering how the regime's men confiscated and sold, in the black market, the aids made in the last decade to Roodbar's quake's rescapees are avoiding all official channels by preferring to send via family members these aids or by giving them to well known and respectable organizations, such as, "Mercy Corps." or "Doctors Without Borders".

E.mails are circulating on the net asking from anybody wishing to help to avoid giving them to groups known for having "close relation" with the regime. The main accused are the self called "Iranian American National Council" (NIAC), the self-called "American Iranian Council" (AIC) and religious foundations, such as, the Los Angeles based "Iman foundation". The anger of the Iranian Diaspora has increased against these pro-regime lobby groups as the head of the AIC has used the quake's occasion for again asking the end of sanctions against the clerical regime.

It's to note that the main heads of the NIAC, AIC and Iman foundation have been working hard in order to help the establishment of relations between the US's consecutive administrations and the repressive clerics by trying to make believe to American officials that Iran's becoming a Democracy and that the regime has legitimacy among Iranians.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4236.shtml

Stench of death in Iran quake city

Reuters - World News
Dec 28, 2003

BAM - Iran's earthquake-devastated city of Bam was filled with the stench of death on Sunday as a top foreign rescuer warned hopes were fading of finding any more survivors from a disaster that killed at least 20,000 people.

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration cast aside its branding of Iran as an "axis of evil" state to begin sending in military plane-loads of aid and held rare talks with a government it has shunned diplomatically for two decades.

From China to South Africa, Britain to Australia, nations reacted swiftly to send rescue workers, doctors, tents and cash to help deal with what appeared to be the world's most lethal earthquake in at least 10 years.

The quake also injured 30,000 people. Bam airport was converted into a sprawling, makeshift hospital and rubble-strewn pavements were lined with injured, some on intravenous drips.

President Mohammad Khatami said Iran could not cope on its own, as authorities battled to accommodate thousands of homeless people on a second bitterly cold in the historic Silk Road city where Friday's quake flattened about 70 percent of its mostly mud-brick buildings.

"Everyone is doing their best to help, but the disaster is so huge that I believe no matter how much is done we cannot meet the people's expectations," Khatami said on state television.

SURVIVORS ENDURE SECOND COLD NIGHT

Officials said many survivors should be in tents by late on Saturday, but witnesses said a number of people spent the night in the open among palm groves around Bam, burning cardboard and any other material they could find to fend off the cold.

Witnesses said cemeteries in Bam were overflowing with fully clothed corpses and that hundreds of bodies had been tipped into trenches hollowed out by mechanical diggers.

"I am burying myself in this grave," Fatemeh, 35, said as she buried her two children.

The quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and struck early on Friday when many people were at home asleep in Bam, a city with a population of about 80,000 some 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran.

Experts said there was a risk of more tremors to come.

In rare direct contact between Washington and Tehran, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations, Mohammad Javad Zarif, held phone talks to discuss humanitarian aid.

"Given the urgency of the situation we deemed direct contact to be the most appropriate channel," U.S. State Department spokesman Lou Fintor told reporters.

U.S. MILITARY FLIES IN AID

The U.S. military said it had sent a transport plane with medical and humanitarian supplies to Iran and would ship around 68 tonnes of aid from logistics sites in the Gulf, in place for the U.S.-led war on Iraq and its reconstruction.

It said it was sending bandages and other dressings as well as blankets and pyjamas for the homeless.

Washington broke ties with the Iran after students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. In 2002, Bush branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" for allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction.

The Islamic Republic's quick acceptance of help contrasted with its rejection in 1990 when a quake killed 36,000 people.

Officials have said this time help would be welcome from everywhere except Israel.

Roland Schlachter, heading a team of 10 rescuers from the Swiss Corps for Humanitarian Aid, said the chances of finding any more survivors were extremely low.

"It has to do with the way the houses were built and have collapsed. There appears to be very few air spaces created when the buildings collapsed," he told German television.

Iranian authorities said too many people from nearby towns were rushing to help, causing traffic chaos on a main road into Bam and hampering the flow of aid and rescue teams.

Bam, a popular tourist spot because of an historic citadel and other centuries-old buildings, has a history going back to the old Silk Road route days when it was a stopover for merchants and travellers between China and Europe.

A large part of the citadel was destroyed by the quake, dealing a blow to Bam's future economy if tourists are no longer attracted to the city.

The Interior Ministry confirmed on Saturday the death toll was now 20,000.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4237.shtml

UN finds European states helped Iran nuclear program

By The Associated Press
12.28.2003

VIENNA - Pakistani scientists may have played a major role in advancing Iran's nuclear program, but more than a half-dozen other countries are now being drawn into the UN investigation, diplomats and arms experts say.

A month-long probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency has traced the origins of Iran's program to the late 1980s, when Iran was supplied with the first drawings on centrifuge technology, its main way of enriching uranium - leading to suspicions it was developing nuclear weapons.

The investigations have widened "well beyond" Pakistan, Russia and China to include companies in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other West European countries, said one diplomat.

There are no UN or other international sanctions against Iran that would have prevented foreign companies from providing equipment that could be used in a nuclear program. But investigating companies yielded useful information when the world body investigated Iraq's weapons programs in the early 1990s.

One of those diplomats, talking on condition of anonymity, also linked Pakistan to North Korea's weapons program, saying U.S. intelligence had "pretty convincing" evidence of such a connection.

Iran and North Korea are the key concerns of the Vienna-based UN atomic agency, whose main task is to curb weapons proliferation through inspections and monitoring of countries that have ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. North Korea withdrew from that treaty after the Bush administration confronted Pyongyang about its nuclear program late last year.

After months of intense international pressure, Iran now is cooperating with IAEA efforts to unravel nearly two decades of covert activities that the United States and other countries say point to a weapons program.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are peaceful. But suspicions have heightened with revelations that it was enriching uranium, and the discovery of traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium on some of its centrifuge equipment.

A diplomat said the agency was following up on three to four different samples of highly enriched uranium - beyond the two whose existence had been previously revealed.

The agency is trying to trace the origins of the equipment to test Iranian claims that Tehran did not enrich uranium to weapons grade and that the highly enriched traces were inadvertently "imported" on the components.

Neither Iran nor the IAEA have revealed the countries of origin, but diplomats had previously told the AP that Pakistan, China and Russia were among the probable suppliers.

Russia has acknowledged signing a contract with Iran in the mid-1990s to deliver equipment that could be used for laser enrichment of uranium, but officials in Moscow say the contract was canceled several years later in response to U.S. pressure in the initial stages of the program.

Pakistan, itself a nuclear power, acknowledged Tuesday that several of its nuclear scientists may have shared sensitive technology with Iran, but insisted the government never authorized it. Officials said information provided by the IAEA prompted the questioning of some scientists.

Pakistan has long been suspected of proliferation during its 30-year effort to build nuclear weapons - of sending nuclear technology to North Korea in exchange for missiles, or helping Libya and Iraq.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/376701.html

This quake reminds me of the Nicaraguan quake of 1972:

Although General Somoza was shot dead in 1956, his sons upheld the reign of the Somoza dynasty until 1979. Widespread opposition to the regime had been present for a long time, but it was the devasting earthquake of 1972, and more specifically the way that international aid poured into the pockets of the Somozas while thousands of people suffered and died, that caused opposition to spread among all classes of Nicaraguans. Two groups were set up to counter the regime: the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacíon Nacional, also known as the Sandinistas) and the UDEL, led by Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, publisher of La Prensa, the newspaper critical of the dictatorship.
When Chamorro was assassinated in 1978 the people erupted in violence and declared a general strike. The revolt spread and former moderates joined with the FSLN to overthrow the Somoza regime. The Sandinistas marched victoriously into Managua on July 19, 1979.

With this quake, who knows?

"European tourists freed by Iran kidappers": FM

Sunday, December 28, 2003
IranMania News

TEHRAN, Dec 28 (AFP) -- One Irish and two German tourists kidnapped in southeastern Iran earlier this month have been released and are in good health, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said Sunday.

"The three hostages have been freed and are safe and sound," Kharazi told state television.

"All three are in good health," the minister said, without elaborating on the circumstances of their release.

Earlier Sunday, deputy interior minister Ali Afghar Ahmadi had announced that he expected the tourists to be freed "very soon."

The trio were kidnapped by bandits while cycling near Nosrat Abad, on the road between the ancient city of Bam, which was devastated by an earthquake Friday, and Zahedan near the border with Pakistan.

Their kidnappers, who the government believes are drug smugglers disgruntled by the police seizure of a consignment, had demanded a five million euro (six million dollar) ransom.

Iran had said it would not pay the ransom, and asked Germany and Ireland to also not give in to blackmail.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=21026&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

U.S., Iran Hold High Level Talks on Quake Relief

Yahoo! News
Dec 28, 2003

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - High level U.S. and Iranian officials put aside diplomatic differences to directly discuss humanitarian aid after the earthquake that killed tens of thousands of Iranians, a State Department official said on Saturday.

Spokesman Lou Fintor told reporters the discussion took place in a phone call between Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"Given the urgency of the situation we deemed direct contact to be the most appropriate channel," Fintor said.

The White House said earlier the United States would send government and civilian emergency workers and 150,000 pounds of medical supplies to Iran following the quake that razed much of the ancient Silk Road city of Bam and killed about 20,000 people.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement that the United States was working with Iranian authorities, the United Nations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Washington broke relations with the Islamic republic after students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

President Bush (news - web sites), in his 2002 State of the Union speech, branded Iran as part of an "axis of evil." But the president offered condolences to the families of the dead and injured on Friday and promised the United States would provide humanitarian aid.

U.S. officials usually communicate with Tehran through intermediaries, often channeling messages through Swiss diplomats.

Fintor played down the diplomatic significance of the direct contacts with Iran.

"There is no political angle. There is a humanitarian catastrophe in Iran and our only mission is to alleviate the human suffering associated with yesterday's earthquake," he said.

Iran's quick acceptance of help contrasts with its rejection in 1990 of outside doctors, workers, blood supplies, sniffer dogs and used clothes after an earthquake claimed 36,000 lives and injured 100,000 people.

The United Sates will send medical response teams from Boston, Los Angeles and Virginia and disaster experts from government agencies, McClellan said. The U.S. military will deliver medical supplies from bases in Kuwait, said the spokesman, who was with Bush at his Texas ranch.

Separately, World Vision, a major U.S.-based humanitarian relief organization, announced it plans to airlift supplies to Iran next week.

World Vision said it would send an airlift of $250,000 worth of supplies including plastic sheeting and water purification tablets and equipment.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=3&u=/nm/20031228/pl_nm/quake_iran_usa_dc

Spectacular medieval complex on Old Silk Road now lies in ruins

By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent
27 Dec, 2003
INDEPENDENT Daily, UK

The old part of Bam was one of the world's most spectacular and best-preserved deserted medieval cities.

In architectural and archaeological terms, the ancient Middle Eastern palace city was of major international importance. Surrounded by a magnificent 16th-century city wall, and entered into through complex gateways, the old town has long been famous in Iran for its vast urban landscape of abandoned houses, shops and mosques.

At the heart of the medieval city, inner ramparts enclosed the spectacular palace citadel. It lies on the Old Silk Road, the ancient trading route that connected East Asia to Europe by camel caravans, and flourished as a trading centre and pilgrimage site.

Bam was founded more than 1,500 years ago, and in pre-Islamic times was a centre for the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. However, many of Bam's old buildings actually date from somewhat later - the 16th and 17th centuries. The thousands of deserted buildings in the old city (which once covered 6 sq km and had a population of up to 13,000) are all made of mud-brick, clay and palm tree timber.

The new town - adjacent to the old one - is densely inhabited and was constructed in the 19th and 20th centuries after its predecessor had been attacked by Afghan and other invaders in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The deserted parts of the old city were regarded by archaeologists and architectural historians as one of the most complete surviving records of a medieval/early modern urban environment anywhere in the world.

It was used as an army barracks until 1932, after which it was abandoned.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=476256

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