Iranian Alert -- January 28, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 1.28.2004 | DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

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.

DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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

[DoctorZIn]

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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

[DoctorZIn]

Casualty number of Kerman province clashes increases

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jan 27, 2004

The casualty number of last Saturday and Sunday's clashes, of Babak City and Khatoon-Abad of Kerman province, has raised to over 19 deaths and more than 300 injured among the protesters. Several other injured have been reported as being in critical conditions and might succumb from their injuries while tens of other protesters have been arrested and transferred to the Pasdaran Corp. HQ in Kerman city.

The demonstrators were attacked, on Sunday, from air by the special heliported forces of the Militia, sent from Medras base, and on the ground by Commando forces. These forces are composed by hardcore Iranian militiamen and foreign Islamist elements known for their extreme brutality.

Tens of protesters and even regular residents were killed by blind bullets shot from the regime's choppers, just as like as, during the bloody repression of the Akbar-Abad and Eslamshahr demonstrations back in 1996.

The savage heliported repression started following a popular riot, on Saturday, which sparkled in reaction to the brutal attack of peaceful demonstrators by the local militiamen. This attack had resulted, already, in the deaths of at least three demonstrators including a young woman having rushed to protect her husband. Bullets, Clubs, Chains and Tear gas were the only answers of the Islamic regime to residents who had gather to protest against the raising unemployment and the degrading economic conditions of the residents.

The situation in the region is very tense and most neighboring cities, villages and the famous Sar-Chechmeh facilities have been placed under intense military watch.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4775.shtml

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The demonstrators were attacked, on Sunday, from air by the special heliported forces of the Militia,

And nothing in our papers !!

[F14 Pilot]

Media are almost silent.

[DoctorZIn]

Terrorism and The Iranian Model:
Who is Responsible?

By Ali Sina

In the last four decades, the interest in Islam has picked. During the sixties and seventies the Iranians, who were Muslims by name and never paid much attention to religion, flocked the Mosques and in other Islamic countries thousands of Madressahs were built brainwashing Muslim youth. All that fueled the rise of Islamic fundamentalism which led to Islamic terrorism. The question is how this all happened? Why suddenly Islam became a threat to human civilization and why it was chosen as the vehicle of the terror for political gains?

To answer this, we have to know the history. History is a chain of events. One link leads to another and all links are interrelated.

Forty years ago J.K. Kennedy, fearing the spread of communism ordered Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the dictator of Iran, to make land reforms. Shah took good agricultural lands from their owners and gave them to the peasants. In this way Kennedy thought they would "vaccinate" Iran against the threat of communism. Iran was an agrarian country. The landowners had the villagers working for them. They also had means to transport their products and market them. When the land was taken away from them and given to the peasants, the peasants were left with a piece of land with which they did not know what to do. They sure knew how to till the land but did not have the means to market their products let alone modernize and expand their operations. To produce lucratively, they needed machinery. Simple farmers did not have enough money to buy such machinery. They had no means of transportation and did not know how to market, process or export the fruit of their labor. Soon the new owners were left with a worthless title that was useless to them. Before they had work and pay, but now they were left on their own with no work to do and no wages to earn. They could no more feed their families. They became discouraged and were forced to leave behind their families to go to big cities in the search of work. During the day they engaged in menial works and in the evenings they met in the mosques to socialize. There, the Mullahs indoctrinated them and instilled in them the hatred of the Shah, who they blamed for their plight.

Coming from small cut-off villages, accustomed to living pastoral lives, they felt alienated in modern and westernized cities. While Shah was heedlessly celebrating his "victories" and consolidating his monarchy with pompous feasts, ordering Cyrus the Great to "sleep because we are awake", the poor Iranian peasants, now stranded in inhospitable cities felt betrayed and cheated.

These people became part of the huge mass of the discontent Iranians who marched in the streets when Khomeini asked them to and shouted death to Shah and death to America. The Iranian intellectuals went along with that because they too remembered how CIA staged a coup against their nascent democracy a quarter of century earlier and overthrow the legitimate government of Dr. Mossadegh, replacing it with a puppet king who turned to be a despot and incompetent.

The revolution succeeded. It in turn became an inspiration to other Islamists in other countries. Suddenly Islam was seen as a powerful tool to combat dictatorial regimes. Even the West promoted this idea and reinforced the Muslim Jihadis in order to contain the spread of communism. The hatred of the West and particularly America was instrumental in inciting people in Iran and hence it is now the focal point of the Islamists everywhere. To unite people you need an enemy. Muslims overthrew a 2500 year old monarchy and grabbed a relatively stable country such as Iran in a revolution. Terrorism led to revolution and revolution led to power. It worked once and hence it should work again.

In America there are huge landowners. But Kennedy did not think land reform is necessary for America, however he thought it was necessary for Iran. The intention may have been good. Unfortunately, as we see time and again, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

To add insult to injury, at the time that the Islamic Revolution was taking shape the USA had an incompetent man as the president. Carter was a peanut grower and a religious nutcase. He had no idea of politics and world stability. At a time when America should have propped the regime of the Shah, they abandoned him. Carter did not think Shah is worth saving because of his bad human rights records. This man did not have brains to see the consequence of his inaction.

the U.K. and France had long time grievances against the Shah, who had become too willful and did not obey them as he used to when he was younger. Shah was a weak man but lately he felt omnipotent. He eliminated his critics leaving a bunch of sycophants to adulate him. You praise any man and he loses his head. Shah was no more servile to UK and France and they in return vented the fire of the revolution. BBC bombarded the airwaves of Iran with anti Shah propaganda and magnified the problems of that country. BBC became the official radio of the Islamists reporting their every move and airing any statement they made, inciting the people and preparing them for the uprising.

Only now the Iranians realize they were played by the BBC. Today the BBC is deafeningly silent in reporting the atrocities of the Mullahs even though this regime is a thousand times worse than that of the Shah. Today there is no mention of the uprisings of the Iranians in the BBC. By overthrowing the Shah and supporting the Islamic Republic the United Kingdom and France won good business deals but the world lost its stability.

Shah suddenly felt he is abandoned. He was shocked to see this much hatred against him, much of which was unjustified and created by the BBC misinformation campaign. He waited for instruction from Washington. The instructions did not come and he did not have the guts to subdue the revolution by force. Being a narcissist, shah was very arrogant and even ruthless when he felt strong but fearful and coward when he felt weak. So Iran fell.

The fall of Iran was a success for Islamists across the globe. They learned that terrorism pays off. The revolution of Iran started with setting fire to the Rex Theater in Abadan, killing over 400 innocent people and blaming the Shah for their own dastardly crime. The perpetrators won and Ali Khamanei who was one of the masterminds of this heinous crime eventually became the supreme leader.

The Iranian model was a total success for the Islamists. That is why they are doing what they are doing now. They want to replicate what they did in Iran. The Islamists will continue with their terrorism until they destabilize the countries and bring about revolutions. By doing so they intend to create a power vacuum, which would be filled by them as soon as the present power is removed. This is the tested and proven Iranian model that they are following.

Today we are in a war against terrorism. Many innocent people have already died and many more are to die. Cities in the West will be nuked. Millions would perish. This is not a matter of IF, but WHEN. It is easy to blame it all on Islam. But let us not forget the incompetence and malicious machinations of some non-Muslims that made Islam a universal threat including to themselves. They let the genii out. Now it proves to be much more difficult to bottle it back.

Today we have no other option but to fight against the Islamic terrorism. The terrorists must be defeated at all cost. This is a matter of life and death for all of us. They must be annihilated and destroyed. Unless they are not destroyed completely, the Iranian model will be followed and terrorism will not end.

The Iranian Mullahcracy must be overthrown. The madressas must be closed. The Islamic terrorist groups, including Hamas must be squashed. The rise of Islamic terrorism is the fault of many. Those who are the victims of this menace are also responsible for it. The PeeCeeists are fueling Islamic fundamentalism and validating their terrorists activities. When Jenny Tonge, a United Kingdom MP condones suicide bombing, it tells us that some of our politicians have lost every notion of right and wrong. Our only chance is to acknowledge our own mistakes and change our ways. Regrettably, the BBC does not seem to have learned from its mistakes and is battling more against America than the Islamists who are the real enemies of Mankind. France does not get it either, and now, with the rise of religious strife in French soil, it is reaping what it has wrought. France will pay heavily for its blind support of Islamism. With 10 percent Muslim population, the woes of France have just begun.

If we want to win the war against Islamic terrorism, all of us must join hands and combat Islam on all fronts. But the most important front is the ideological front. The Islamic terrorism is the outcome of Islamic theology. The terrorists, the suicide bombers, are born and raised within the bosom of Islam. It is the belief in Islam and the hate speeches of the Quran that makes them despise the rest of mankind and pushes them to such extremes. We can't fight Islamic terrorism if we do not address its cause.

http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina40127.htm

DoctorZin Note: This was published on a Secular Humanist Website Against Islam.

[DoctorZIn]

Watching Iran's Coup

Wednesday, January 28, 2004; Page A20
Washington Post Editorial

EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS lately have been congratulating themselves for what they see as a turn toward moderation by the Iranian government, which has agreed to more stringent international inspections of its nuclear program. There is talk of a renewed political dialogue between Washington and Tehran, too: After an earthquake devastated the city of Bam late last month the administration considered dispatching a relief delegation headed by Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.). Such steps are hardly unprecedented -- Iran and Western governments have been flirting with rapprochement sporadically for years. What's remarkable is that the latest effort is developing at a moment when Iran's conservative clergy is engaged in an aggressive campaign to destroy, once and for all, the country's democratic reform movement. Before proceeding, the United States and Europe ought to draw the right conclusions from that political struggle.

The crisis began earlier this month when a clerical body, the Guardian Council, banned nearly 4,000 candidates for next month's elections, including more than 80 incumbent members of parliament. The council's aim was to prevent a repeat of the 2000 elections, in which democratic reformers won a parliamentary majority. By rigging this election, the mullahs would prepare the way for replacing Iran's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, with a conservative next year. Khatami and his parliamentary allies already have failed to push through reforms of the Iranian political system; most of their legislation has been vetoed by the Guardian Council. The electoral manipulation could demolish what is left of the movement, leaving Iran's government entirely in the hands of hard-liners.

Although they cultivated Mr. Khatami for years, European governments appear ready to accept this development. Hassan Rowhani, the hard-liner who has begun speaking for Iran on subjects such as nuclear inspections, was received in Paris last week by French President Jacques Chirac, even while the reformist parliamentarians were engaged in a sit-in to protest their banishment. The Bush administration, too, may be tempted to overlook the eclipse of Mr. Khatami. The White House has tended to discount his party in favor of the more radical youth movement that, it is hoped, might eventually bring revolutionary regime change to Iran. Some officials argue that Iran's hard-liners are at least as interested as Mr. Khatami in striking a deal with the West -- and more able to deliver on their promises.

It would be a mistake, however, to ignore a conservative coup. Iran's mullahs, authors of its continuing sponsorship of terrorism, should not be the beneficiaries of Western political approval, much less favors in trade and technology. It's not only that their pledges of a nuclear freeze would lack credibility. The larger problem is that Iran's ruling clergy is now so deeply unpopular among its own people that its ability to monopolize power for long is doubtful. Perhaps in recognition of this weakness, the clergy have recently reversed the ban on some parliamentary candidates and hinted at further compromise. Whatever the outcome of the crisis, however, the West's interest lies in standing with Iran's pro-democracy majority -- even if that means an end to the latest diplomatic thaw.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54864-2004Jan27.html

[DoctorZIn]

Iran rejects al Qaeda links heard in German court

TEHRAN, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Iran rejected on Tuesday testimony from a witness in a German court who said Iran had contacts with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network before the September 11 attacks against the United States.

The Hamburg court heard testimony in which the witness, identified only by his cover name Hamid Reza Zakeri, said on Thursday that he had worked for part of Iran's secret service "responsible for carrying out terrorist attacks globally".

When asked about Zakeri's assertions, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said the witness was not credible.

"This is untrue. He has made up this information...he has made it up for fraudulent purposes. He wants to make money and his views are of no value," he told a joint news conference with Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

Zakeri's testimony, delivered to the court by the presiding judge and two police officers, also said a delegation including one of bin Laden's sons had been in Iran in 2001.

Zakeri, summoned to appear in court himself this Thursday, said he had tried to warn the United States about the September 11 attacks in mid-2001 but was not believed by the CIA.

The court is trying Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi on charges of aiding the September 11 attackers.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/OLI742268.htm

[DoctorZIn]

Press reflects Iran election turmoil

BBC

Uncertainty over the future of next month's parliamentary elections in Iran continues to worry the country's press.

One daily believes the turmoil will deter the electorate from voting, and another urges the powerful Guardians Council to state openly what it is seeking to achieve by banning a large number of candidates from standing.

The reformist daily Sharq warns that unless swift action is taken, MPs will resign en masse.

"This option seems the more likely unless leaders take immediate and effective steps to end the crisis."

Why vote?

The conservative daily Khorasan points its finger at all sides in the stand-off, blaming them for what it sees as "the people's sense of despondency and disenchantment".

"The people are asking themselves a serious question: Why should we vote?"

In a criticism aimed at the reformists, it accuses them of behaving "like drowning people clutching at straws".

If the people really feel free and confident, voter turnout could be impressive

Iran Daily commentator
"The people have a right to ask: why now? Why, when the knife is held to your neck, have you started to protest?"

A centre-right daily, Entekhab, insists that Guardian Council "should be transparent and should provide an explanation for its reasoning".

Entekhab also takes to task the state-run radio and television channels which it calls "supporters of the Guardian Council".

It says they "imagine that they are supporting the institution, but instead they are destroying its image".

A hardline daily which supports the country's spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, reports there was a "commotion" after students at a sit-in over the election stand-off objected to the unrepresentative nature of the statement put out on their behalf.

They "started to voice their criticisms and said that those statements were written by one person in the name of all the students", Kayhan reports.

Optimistic voice

A commentator in the English-language Iran Daily writes that the public is being put off voting by a combination of disappointment with the status quo, a lack of trust in politicians and decline in the popular belief of the legitimacy of civil society.

However, noting the fact that "a large number of relatively young aspirants have nominated themselves for the legislature", his is one of the few relatively optimistic voices.

"If the people really feel free and confident that they can vote for their candidates of choice, voter turnout could be impressive on 20 February," he believes, "provided the ongoing controversy over the performance of the electoral supervisory boards is resolved without further delay."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3433717.stm

[DoctorZIn]

Iran lifts poll ban on 700

1.28.2004

TEHRAN: Seven hundred candidates who were among thousands barred from contesting next month's parliamentary polls, have had their candidacies reinstated, Iran's state news agency IRNA said yesterday.

The report quoted a source in the Guardians Council, a political watchdog that sparked a major political crisis when it blacklisted 3,605 out of the 8,157 people who registered to contest the February 20 elections.

Most of those reinstated on appeal were for voting in greater Tehran.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Guardians Council, an unelected body which screens all laws and candidates, to be less stringent in its vetting.

The Council is still examining appeals, and is due to release its final list of approved candidates on Friday.

The mass barring of candidates, most of them reformists, prompted allegations that hardliners were seeking to rig the elections.

Meanwhile, President Mohammad Khatami has refused to accept the resignation of top government officials, while reformists spoke of a compromise in the efforts to resolve the country's worst political crisis in years.

Khatami said the ministers and vice-presidents, who had submitted their resignations to protest a hard-line council's mass disqualification of election candidates, had a duty to perform. He called on them to "proceed with their services to the people", the agency said.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=72745&Sn=WORL

[DoctorZIn]

Just as I predicted...

The world media has had several weeks to follow this so called "crisis" and wake up to the reality that Iran is not a democracy.

Now the only question is whether or not the world media will have the courage to expose this fraudulent government OR call this a reformist triumph and a victory for democracy.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Revolt or revolution?

By Bruce Fein

Either a revolt or a revolution is under way in Iran against the oppressive rule of Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Council of Guardians dominated by extremist mullahs.

Political predictions are notoriously problematic. Thus, the European upheavals of 1848 marked a turn in history that didn't turn. The Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 was commonly misjudged as the beginning of the end of the Chinese Communist Party. Upon learning at Versailles of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, King Louis XVI inquired: "Is it a revolt? The Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt retorted: "No, Sire, it is a revolution."

During the last century, Iran surprised the world twice. Its 1906 constitutional revolution inaugurated unprecedented individual liberties and representative institutions. In contrast, the 1979 Islamic Revolution featuring spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini plunged Iran into a theocratic despotism alien to its culture. Indeed, it marked the flip-side of the budding Iranian democracy under Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh that the United States shipwrecked with a 1953 royalist coup d'etat in favor of Mohammed Reza Shah, the second and last in the Pahlavi line.

An indigenous Iranian democratic revolution seems vastly more promising than in neighboring Arab states. According to experts, the Council of Guardians and Leader Khamenei enjoy but 10 percent to 15 percent popular support. In contrast, the Iranian people voted overwhelmingly for a more liberal president, Mohammed Khatami, and a 290-member Majlis during the last two elections.

Under Iran's constitution, however, the Leader and Guardian Council stand at the apex of power. Article 94, for instance, stipulates that, "All legislation passed by the [Majlis] must be sent to the Guardian Council... with a view to ensuring its compatibility with the criteria of Islam and the Constitution." And Articles 110 and 113 make the leader superior to the president on every significant executive matter.

Ayatollah Khamenei and the Council have worked hand in glove to block political, free speech and judicial reforms enacted by the Majlis. The ruling mullahs are seeking to placate widespread resentment of their brutal grip on power by blinking at commonplace defiance of strict Islamic behavioral codes. Iranian youths routinely wear Western dress, listen to pop music, and flirt or otherwise show signs of affection in public without punishment by the religious police.

But as King Louis XVI's letters de cachet provoked the storming of the Bastille, the Guardian Council may have ignited a democratic revolution in disqualifying more than one-third of candidates for the impending Feb. 20 Majlis elections because of their liberal stripes. Emboldened by the political floundering of the United States in neighboring Iraq, the 12-member council hopes to push its dominance into the Iranian parliament by excluding rivals to their hand-picked slate.

They had reason for optimism their latest despotic gambit would succeed. A popular student uprising was suppressed in 1999 without awakening public protest. And the sound track of President Khatami during his two terms has been to speak for democratic reforms but to carry a twig, not a big stick a la U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

The council's disqualifications, however, may prove to have been the last straw for the seething and sullen Iranian people. Eighty disqualified parliamentary incumbents protested with a sitdown strike. The Guardian Council and Leader Khamenei flinched in lifting the ban for 200 candidates. Fear of the twin oppressors receded. The strike continued in support of the remaining disqualified candidates. The chief election official pledged to scuttle balloting unless the disqualifications were renounced. Six vice presidents and 24 ministers resigned to signal opposition to the Guardian Council.

Even the timid President Khatami, joined by Speaker of the Majlis Mahdi Karroubi, issued a flinty statement last Saturday that portends a defining confrontation. It maintained the disqualifications were against "Islamic democracy," and that the ongoing attempted orchestration of the elections is "against the dignity of the noble Iranian nation." The two insisted on "fair, free and competitive elections and hope•... the Guardian Council reconsiders disqualification as soon as possible." And on Sunday, the Majlis enacted an emergency bill to marginalize the council's vetting power, which it instantly vetoed.

The council's slender support does not guarantee its overthrow by a democratic revolution. Brutality and ruthlessness regularly defeat widespread peaceful opposition. The Bolshevik Revolution succeeded for 75 years in the Soviet Union by practicing and inculcating terror and fear. The reviled and reptilian military thugs in Myanmar hold an iron-grip on power despite virtual universal support for Nobel Peace Prize icon and National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Saddam Hussein's widespread execration was no match for his indiscriminate wretchedness, torture, and general barbarism.

On the other hand, Iran has twice tasted the freshness of a democratic dispensation. Its political culture is mature, resembling that of Turkey's. A majority of Iran's citizens are young and unthrilled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and these include the Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson. An Iranian woman lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, recently captured the Nobel Peace Prize for opposing the mullahs. And the exhilarating fervor that greeted the overthrow of the shah of Iran and the taking of American hostages for 444 days has long since dissipated amidst corruption, economic hardships, and petty mullah ambitions.

The odds thus seem favorable to an Iranian democratic revolution in 2004. The United States should scrupulously resist intermeddling to avoid tainting indigenous democrats by association with the much hated shah.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040127-084856-1970r.htm

[nuconvert]

"19 deaths and more than 300 injured"

Civilians attacked by air.....This story needs to be sent to media.

[F14 Pilot]

Iran's main student group calls for polls boycott


2004-01-28
Middle East Online

Office to Consolidate Unity urges reformist MPs to keep up their sit-in at parliament, demand polls be postponed.

TEHRAN - Iran's main pro-democracy student group Wednesday called for a nationwide boycott of next month's parliamentary elections following the mass disqualification of reformist candidates, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"Noting the fact that people's votes have no effect... and that there is no possibility for fair and free elections, there is no justification for people to participate in these elections," the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) said in a statement carried by IRNA.

The group, which had so far largely stayed out of the two-week-old crisis, called on reformist deputies to keep up their sit-in at the parliament building and to demand the February 20 polls be postponed.

"Just as they have stood up honestly until now and have sworn to defend the rights of people, they should also resist holding these elections," the OCU said.

"The biggest mistake and failure of the reformists will be to give in and accept to have these elections."

The OCU said deputies should instead press for a referendum on the Islamic republic's political future.

"The students ask for a referendum, which would provide a wise alternative to this political dead-end. The deputies should approve a proposal for a referendum," the statement said.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=8675

[windchime]

Bump!

[F14 Pilot]

Stone cutting factories 'on strike' in Isfahan, Iran

Wednesday, January 28, 2004
IranMania News

Tehran, January 28 (IranMania) – The factories of stone cutting factories in Isfahan, Iran suspended their activities on Tuesday.

Incoming reports from the Central Iranian city indicate that a group of industrialists have organized the move in protest to certain economic policies of the government.

According to the report, high transportation cost is one of the reasons behind the syndicate’s protest. Over the past year, the cost of transportation for stone made goods has increased three fold.

Soaring industrial electricity charges are another factor which led to the dissatisfaction. On average each stone-cutting factory is charged around 1.2 million tomans ($1400) per month for industrial electricity and if the owner does not pay the bill within 20-30 days, the factory’s electricity is cut.

Another reason for the Isfahani industrialists’ strike is the Iranian Ministry’s Labor and Social Welfare’s decision on banning Afghan nationals from working in the industrial workshops.

Isfahan is the main center of the stone industry in Iran and undoubtedly the continuation of such a trend will inflict a heavy blow on the country’s stone market.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=22048&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

[AdmSmith]

On average each stone-cutting factory is charged around 1.2 million tomans ($1400) per month for industrial electricity and if the owner does not pay the bill within 20-30 days, the factory's electricity is cut.

And what is the cost per kWh and other electricity costs?

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040122/2004012215.html

Iran to provide electricity to Iraq; damages to Iraqi electricity network due to US past actions are $8 billion Iraq-Iran, Economics, 1/22/2004

Iraq and Iran on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the field of electricity, according to which Tehran gives support to Baghdad to rehabilitate its network and provide it with electrical power.

The Iraqi minister of electricity, Ayhem al-Samerai, said following his return back from Iran, following a three day visit, that according to the memorandum of understanding "Iran will give support and help to Iraq in the field of electricity and provides it with an amount of 100 to 130 Megawatt at a maximum. This is in the course of the Ministry's efforts to ensure electricity supplies from the countries neighboring Iraq."

He said that this amount is not enough to fill the deficiency in electrical power because Iraq is still in need of additional 15,000 megawatts. Al-Samerai continued that his ministry "could not sign the private contracts by adding new 1800 megawatt to the national Iraqi electricity organization because sums estimated at 600 million dollars have not been allotted.

During his visit to Jordan, al-Samerai announced that the cost of rehabilitating the electricity public sector for next year is estimated at 8 billion dollars.

here is some other info:

Turkmenistan To Supply Electricity To Iran 4 September 2003

Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov and Iranian Energy Minister Habibollah Bitaraf on 4 September signed a contract for the supply of Turkmen electricity to Iran and an intergovernmental memorandum on long-term cooperation of the two countries in the area of electricity, ITAR-TASS reported.

"Turkmenistan generously shares its wealth -- gas and electricity -- with its neighbors," Niyazov said at the signing ceremony. He recalled that Turkmen power engineers are successfully implementing the long-term agreement on the construction of a number of electricity-transmission lines to Afghanistan.

"The newly signed contract with Turkmenistan envisages the implementation by both sides of certain volume of work to link their energy systems in three points on the border -- Meshed, Serahs, and Gonbad," Bitaraf said. "When electricity-transmission lines on the border go into operation, the capacity of Turkmen energy supplies will reach 700 megawatts."

According to Turkmen Energy Ministry, 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity will cost $0.02 under the contract with Iran. Turkmenistan will supply $48 million in electricity to Iran annually. Iran will pay for half of the energy in hard currency and half in electrical-engineering equipment. (ITAR-TASS)

comment: 0.02 USD/kWh is rather expensive! but provide opportunities for bribes.

[DoctorZIn]

Two Arms Scientists Aided Iran, Libya

January 28, 2004
The Washington Post
Kamran Khan

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Pakistani investigators have concluded that two senior nuclear scientists used a network of middlemen operating a black market to supply nuclear weapons technology to Iran and Libya, according to three senior Pakistani intelligence officials.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, and Mohammed Farooq provided the help--including blueprints for equipment used to enrich uranium--both directly and through a black market based in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, the officials said.

The middlemen, from South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and elsewhere, allegedly also offered the Pakistani scientists' services to Syria and Iraq. But the deals apparently never materialized, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In return for the scientists' assistance in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Iran channeled millions of dollars to foreign bank accounts allegedly controlled by the two men, one of whom, Khan, amassed large real estate holdings in Pakistan and Dubai, the officials said. Khan and Farooq were longtime colleagues at the country's premier nuclear weapons laboratory, A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories, which is named for Khan.

The officials said the findings arose from an investigation being conducted by the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. The probe, which officials say is nearing completion, was begun after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) presented Pakistani officials late last year with evidence that Pakistani technology appeared to have played a role in the clandestine nuclear weapons programs of both Iran and Libya.

As a result of the probe, Khan has been confined to his house in an elite neighborhood in Islamabad, one of the officials said, and Farooq has been in detention since late November. Telephone calls to Khan's home seeking comment went unanswered on Tuesday.

In addition to concerns raised by the IAEA, U.S. intelligence officials have said they believe North Korea obtained uranium-enrichment technology and equipment from Pakistan in exchange for missiles. Pakistan is one of a handful of countries that remain outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and technically is not bound by many of the international restrictions on the export of nuclear technology.

Pakistan first tested a nuclear device on its own soil in 1998, the culmination of decades of research by Khan and other scientists as part of a program largely overseen by the Pakistani military. A variety of high-ranking military officials ``looked the other way as insiders volunteered information about all sorts of problems in the highest echelon of the KRL bureaucracy,'' said one of the three officials, referring to Khan Research Laboratories.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, acknowledged last week that some of Pakistan's nuclear scientists appeared to have sold their expertise abroad. Musharraf and other officials have said the scientists acted without authorization and have vowed to take action against those involved. That, however, could provoke a political backlash in Pakistan, where many people regard Khan and his colleagues as national heroes.

``To show its commitment and international responsibility to nuclear nonproliferation, Pakistan has assured the IAEA of strong legal action against the culprits,'' said one of the three officials.

Although government officials assert that the nuclear program is now under tight control, they acknowledge that it has suffered from lax security in the past, when Khan and other senior scientists were given vast resources and freedom from outside scrutiny that may have contributed to the leaking of nuclear secrets.

``It was a no-questions-asked regime for the KRL,'' said a nuclear scientist who spent 30 years in the country's nuclear program. ``Dr. Khan was never supposed to answer or explain his frequent foreign trips. He spent billions of dollars without any significant financial oversight.''

Khan was chairman of the laboratory until 2001, when he was dismissed by Musharraf, at least partly because of concerns about financial improprieties at the lab, officials said.

One of the officials involved in the current investigation said that while the ``money trail'' provides some of the evidence against Khan and Farooq, the most damaging information was given by Iran and Libya to the IAEA, which then passed it along to Pakistani authorities.

``The governments of Iran and Libya have exposed the racket,'' one of the officials said. ``They made no attempt to hide their sources, as if they wanted to settle score with Pakistani scientists.''

A senior official close to the Pakistani president said that the information provided by the IAEA was so specific and incriminating that Musharraf decided to personally confront Khan in the last week of November. ``For the first time ever, I saw tears in the eyes of the president, who thought that it was the worst-ever breach of the nation's trust,'' recalled the aide.

Musharraf is eager to pursue charges against the scientist, but some advisers are urging a milder punishment, such as dismissing Khan from his post as an adviser to the government on nuclear issues, the official added.

Khan has subsequently been questioned by Lt. Gen. Ehsanul Haq, chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and Lt. Gen. Khalid Kidwai, commander of the Strategic Planning and Development Cell, which was created several years ago to oversee nuclear security in Pakistan.

Pakistani investigators have determined that in addition to selling technology through black-market intermediaries, Khan also provided direct help to Iranian nuclear scientists by giving them blueprints for high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs, and the names of clandestine suppliers for centrifuge parts, officials said. Farooq, an engineer with expertise in centrifuges, helped facilitate Khan's efforts during several trips to Iran, the officials said.

Khan was well-compensated for his work in behalf of the Iranians, the officials said. He purchased houses for his children and spent considerable sums to organize seminars, distribute posters and publish books aimed at lauding his achievements in the country's nuclear program, officials said.

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=24&ID=143668&r=0

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