Iranian Alert -- January 6, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

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.

N. Korea and Iran Were Involved in WMD Development in Libya

January 06, 2004
AFX-ASIA
Ample News

TOKYO -- North Korea and Iran were involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction in Libya, a Japanese news report said.

Many North Korean engineers had stayed in Libya for years to develop missiles, the conservative Sankei Shimbun reported, citing an unnamed source close to the matter, adding that Iran also had about 100 military-related contracts with the country.

The newspaper said Libya had signed an agreement under which it would pay for North Korean and Iranian engineers to provide technical assistance to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The report came after Libya announced last month that it would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs and allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities.

The Sankei said the announcement might allow inspectors to study the military technology of North Korea and Iran.

It said North Korea has long provided technical assistance to Libya to develop Scud missiles, adding that the two nations had also been discussing the development of North Korean Rodong missiles in Libya.

The report said Iran had built a fuel plant for Scud missiles in Libya and had built and operated three missiles parts plants there.

Iran also helped improve the capability of Libya's Scud missiles and other missiles for Libya and held training for Libya's missile engineers, it said.

http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/?type=news&articleid=4835804&action=article

Iraq May be Ruled as Federal State

January 06, 2004
The Associated Press
The Michigan Daily

BAGHDAD -- The Governing Council is close to agreeing on a federal system for Iraq and will defer until next year the explosive issue of whether to give greater autonomy to the northern Kurdish region, two council members said yesterday.

Dividing Iraq into federal states along ethnic and religious lines is a sensitive matter for Iraqis as well as for others in the region who fear such separations will lead to the disintegration of the country. Turkey and Iran also worry about an increasingly autonomous Kurdistan because of their own Kurdish minorities.

In London, meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said British forces would likely remain in Iraq for years to come. He said he could not give an “exact timescale” for their withdrawal but added “it is not going to be months. … I can’t say whether it is going to be 2006, 2007.”

Three U.S. soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military convoy west of Baghdad, and insurgents shot and wounded another soldier in an ambush northwest of the capital, the military said yesterday. All four soldiers were wounded Sunday.

The violence underscored remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday that the U.S.-led coalition must “get on top of the security situation” in Iraq as the country prepares for self-rule.

In Baghdad, members of the Iraqi Governing Council were focusing on how to structure the country in the post-Saddam Hussein era, including a proposal by the council’s five Kurdish members to allow Kurdistan to exist as an autonomous region.

Dara Nor al-Din, a Kurdish member, said the council has not gone beyond agreeing on the principle of federalism in an “interim law,” which will guide the country until the end of 2005.

Other details will have to be worked out when a constituent assembly is in place in mid-2005, he said. The assembly will then write a permanent constitution, which would be put to a national vote.

“The Kurds wanted to have a federal system based on two ethnic states. This is going to be difficult,” said Muwaffak al-Rubaie, a Shiite member of the Governing Council. “We will agree on the principle of federalism but leave the details for later.”

“The status in the Kurdish region will stay as it is now,” Nor al-Din said, referring to the semiautonomous status that the Kurdish region enjoyed under U.S.-British air protection after the 1991 Gulf War. He said the status would remain “until we get to decide the fate of the cities where there is a Kurdish majority.”

Kurds have a claim over oil-rich Kirkuk and other cities that were forcibly “Arabized” during the reign of Saddam, who moved large Arab populations into Kurdish areas to change the demography of the country. Kirkuk is not in the semiautonomous region.

Kurds — thousands of whom were killed when Saddam’s forces gassed Halabja in 1988 — have long wanted a federal system that allows them some independence.

Nor al-Din said the discussions in the council bogged down when the members tried to discuss details of the relationship between a federal Kurdistan and the central government.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday that whether the Kurdish regions of Iraq remain semiautonomous as part of a newly sovereign Iraq will be decided by the Iraqi people.

“This is not a decision for the Bush administration. We’ve said all along that it’s up to the Iraqi people to determine their political future,” Ereli said.

“I would say, on the subject of the Kurds, that we have always supported and will continue to support Iraq’s political unity and territorial integrity. The Kurds are members of the governing council and have themselves expressed a commitment to a unified Iraq.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will call on President Bush this month, seeking assurances that Kurds in Iraq will be kept in check in a postwar government.

A senior American diplomat said yesterday that Turkey, a valued U.S. ally, wanted to ensure there was balance in Iraq so that Kurds do not have a disproportionate influence leading to Kurdistan independence.

In private talks with American officials, the Turks have emphasized they do not believe ethnicity should be a basis for the way Iraq is governed, the official said to reporters on condition of anonymity.

He said the Bush administration agreed Iraq should not be divided after the U.S.-led coalition authority leaves Baghdad.

Dan Senor, the spokesman for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, said Sunday the details of a Nov. 15 agreement regarding the transfer of power to Iraqis are still being worked out. Under that deal, sovereignty is to be handed over to Iraqis by July 1.

The principle of federalism is included in the Nov. 15 agreement, he said. Senor added that Ambassador Paul L. Bremer, the U.S. chief administrator in Iraq, met the two main Kurdish leaders, Massoud Barazani and Jalal Talabani, over the weekend to discuss the issue.

In other developments yesterday, the U.S. military released three Iraqi employees of the Reuters news agency and an Iraqi cameraman working for NBC who were detained last week, a military official said. The U.S. military has not commented on the possibility that soldiers mistook the journalists for guerrillas.

http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/01/06/3ffa620970fce

NORMALISATION OF TIES WITH THE US UNDER SERIOUS CONSIDERATION

TEHRAN, 5 Jan. (IPS) The Islamic Republic is seriously discussing the possibility of opening dialogue with the United States, as the "topics" are debated at the Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS), the regime’s highest decision-taking body.

"The topic is under study by the respective organs and they may announce their views if they deem necessary", the government’s official spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters, asking him about the need to study Iran-US relations in the SNSC, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

Tehran’s quick acceptance of American relief missions for the quake-stricken people of Bam, the city and region in south eastern Iran that was hit by a strong earthquake on 26 December, killing more than 40.000 people and destroying eighty per cent of the houses and the infrastructures prompted speculations that the sinister might help warming up relations between the Islamic Republic and the United States, cut since the victory of the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Iran has also welcomed President George W. Bush’s decision to lift some of American sanctions against the Islamic Republic allowing Americans NGO’s and Iranians living in the United States to send money and other equipments to the needy people of Bam.

"The Government could not give to green light to American relief missions without prior authorisation from the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, a staunch adversary of normalisation with the Great Satan", an Iranian analyst had observed to Iran Press Service.

But as rapidly the Iranians had agreed to the relief and rescue missions, they rejected a new American proposal to send a "diplomatic mission", led by Senator Elizabeth Doyle to evaluate future American assistance for the region.

Asked why Tehran had rejected the venue of a diplomatic mission, Mr. Ramezanzadeh said laconically that Iran turned down the proposal "owing to involvement in Bam relief operations and it should not be related to other matters", dismissing any link between the US offer and the domestic politics.

He was referring to mounting voices, mostly among the ruling conservatives and the Revolutionary Guards criticising the authorities accepting American relief assistance that got disproportionate media report worldwide.

"Of course Tehran-Washington relations are complicate and full of problems which require appropriate time and atmosphere", he added.
In response to a question about the US humanitarian help to the quake-stricken people of Bam,

Mr. Ramezanzadeh said the earthquake followed by the humanitarian help from all over the world and the United States did its part in this respect with the positive step of lifting sanctions.

On Tehran-Cairo relations, the spokesman said that bilateral relations have gained momentum since President Mohammad Khatami and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak held a meeting in Geneva last December and that the two countries are willing to remove their differences in line with mutual interest and regional stability.

As he was talking to reporters, the Tehran city council that is under the control of pro-conservatives was debating an official request from the Foreign Affairs Ministry to remove the name of Khaled Eslambouli, the terrorist who killed the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat from a street in the Capital.

Cairo has made a "sine quoi none" condition the removal of the name of Eslambouli from the street for normalising its relations with the Islamic Republic, ties that were severed on order from the Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution to "punish" the Egyptian for recognising officially the State of Israel.

In Cairo, Mr. Ahmad Maher, the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister said Iran-Egypt relations "have had many ups and downs, but now the differences of the past, including the Camps Davis issue must be buried to prepare the future for a better relations between the two nations".

Answering a question on Egyptian mediation between Tehran and Washington, Ramezanzadeh said he is unaware of that.

On transfer of the administrative capital from Tehran, he said it has been under study since 1989 and the experts believe that since Tehran is located on the seismic fault-line, it requires national resolve to transfer the capital from Tehran.

The Management and Planning Organization (MPO) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development have been required to announce their expert studies in this respect within two months, he said, according to IRNA

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Jan_04/iran_us_5104.htm

Iran Plans Satellite Launch

Wired News Report Page 1 of 1
11:16 AM Jan. 05, 2004 PT

The Iranian defense minister said his country will launch a locally made satellite within 18 months, the official IRNA news agency reported. No details on the type of satellite were given.

Russian news agency Interfax said in August that Moscow planned to discuss with Tehran the possibility of resuming a project in which Russia would build Iran a telecommunications satellite.

It quoted Russian Aviation and Space Agency chief Yuri Koptev as saying Russia had designed a project that Iran accepted on technical grounds, but it had been put on ice due to contractual concerns on Iran's part.

- - -

SARS, then slaughter: China confirmed its first SARS case since a world epidemic was declared over in July, and began a mass slaughter of civet cats on fears a new strain of the deadly virus may have jumped from wild animals to humans.

Health officials said a virus gene sample from the SARS patient resembled that of a coronavirus found in civet cats, a Chinese culinary delicacy.

To eliminate a possible fresh source of the disease, the province where severe acute respiratory syndrome originated in November 2002 planned to close wild animal markets and kill all civet cats in those markets.

- - -

Working on Mars time: One of just a few in the world, the timepiece carried by Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres tells the hours, minutes and seconds on Mars, where NASA successfully landed a six-wheeled robot over the weekend.

The solar-powered rover should do most of its work between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mars time, when the sun is at its highest in the Martian sky. Throughout each 90-day mission, that four-hour window falls each day during a slightly different period of the day on Earth, forcing mission members to adjust accordingly.

Mission members have begun shifting the schedules of their every activity, including when they sleep and eat. The move came on the recommendation of sleep deprivation experts enlisted by the mission.

- - -

The universe’s origin story: In observations looking back to the edge of time, astronomers have captured images of the oldest and most distant galactic clusters ever seen, a discovery that shows immense numbers of stars formed less than 2 billion years after the birth of the cosmos.

The finding, to be presented this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, suggests that the raw materials needed to create life may have formed far earlier than astronomers once believed, researchers say.

Other studies have established that the Big Bang, the birth of the cosmos, was about 13.7 billion years ago. For years, most astronomers believed that it took many billions of years for stars to form galaxies and then for those galaxies align themselves in vast structures called galactic clusters that could include thousands of galaxies.

Compiled by Lore Sjöberg. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61794,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5

Iran: Government asks Tehran City Council to rename controversial street

Payvand
1.5.2004

Tehran City Council Tuesday will examine a senior foreign ministry official's request to rename a street in the Iranian capital, which is a bone of contention in ties with Egypt, IRNA reported.

The council will consider the letter of Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi to rename the Khaled Eslamboli street, called after the assassin of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

The announcement comes just a day after Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher described the Camp David peace accord with Israel, which has irked Tehran, as a thing of past history.

It also follows last month remarks of President Mohammad Khatami who hoped negotiations held between him and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Geneva recently would put an end to years of estrangement.

Khatami and Mubarak met in Geneva in November, on the sidelines of a UN technology summit. Iran said later it had invited the Egyptian president to attend a summit of eight developing Islamic countries (D-8) in Tehran in February.

The Islamic Republic severed its ties with Egypt after its former president Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David peace accord with the Zionist regime and harbored defunct Shah.

The two countries now run interest sections through foreign embassies in Cairo and Tehran, operated by Iranian and Egyptian diplomats.

http://www.payvand.com/news/04/jan/1009.html

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