Iranian Alert -- March 21, 2004 [EST]-- 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. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.

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.

Khamenei Upbeat on Iranian New Year

Saturday, March 20, 2004

TEHRAN, March 20 (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Saturday hailed the failure of US efforts to undermine the Islamic regime in an upbeat speech marking the Iranian new year.

Even the progressive encirclement of Iran by US forces as the US-led invasion of Iraq followed on the occupation of Afghanistan and the establishment of US bases in central Asia had failed to dent the regime in the year ending March 19, Khamenei said.

"Although the year 1382 started with US-British assualt on our western neighbour (Iraq) and the Great Satans' soldiers deployed on our borders creating some worries for our people, our wicked, despised enemy Saddam (Hussein) was overthrown," he said in the speech broadcast on state television.

"During the summer (of 2003), the US and Israeli intelligence services tried to provoke unrest in Iran but these plots were foiled due to the vigilance of our people and institutions," he said in allusion to short-lived student unrest last July.

The regime had also faced down US efforts to use Iran's nuclear programme against it through its "mature and correct policy" of accepting tougher international safeguards in return for a promise of Eurpean technical assistance, he said.

Along with communist North Korea, Iran is one of the two surviving members of the "axis of evil" targeted for replacement by the US administration of President George W. Bush.

But even chief US ally Britain has so far stuck to the European Union's policy of engaging the Islamic regime, despite its staunch support for US policy in Iraq.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=23581&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Arms dealers suspected of Iran-connection

March 21 2004
The Washington Times

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 21 (UPI) -- U.S. and Israeli law enforcement authorities reportedly suspect two Israeli arms traders of attempting, again, to sell military equipment to Iran.

It is the fifth time in the past 12 years the two men, Eli Cohen and Avihai Weinstein, have been suspected of such dealings. So far, they have not been convicted, the Ha'aretz newspaper reported.

A clandestine joint operation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reportedly led police to a warehouse in Binyamina, south of Haifa, where spare parts for Hawk anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems for Phantom planes were found.

The parts' final destination is suspected to be Iran, the Maariv newspaper said.

Eli Cohen, whose company owns the warehouse, was arrested, questioned, and released on bail.

His attorney, Haim Misgav, told Israel Radio authorities found five electric cables "of the kind you find in every truck." He said he cables had been sent to Binyamina by mistake and the sender asked they be returned.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040321-071414-8610r.htm

Was the war worth its price?
Yes.

Sun, Mar. 21, 2004
By Donald H. Rumsfeld
Special to the New York Times

WASHINGTON - As we mark the one-year anniversary of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is useful to recount why we have fought.

Not long ago I visited South Korea just as the Korean government was debating whether to send troops to Iraq. In Seoul, I was interviewed by a Korean journalist who was almost certainly too young to have a firsthand recollection of the Korean War. She asked me, "Why should Koreans send their young people halfway around the globe to be killed or wounded in Iraq?"

As it happened, I had that day visited a Korean War memorial, which bears the names of every American soldier killed in the war. On it was the name of a close friend of mine from high school, a wrestling teammate, who was killed on the last day of the war.

I said to the reporter: "It's a fair question. And it would have been fair for an American to ask, 50 years ago, 'Why should young Americans go halfway around the world to be killed or wounded in Korea?'"

We were speaking on an upper floor of a large hotel in Seoul. I asked the woman to look out the window -- at the lights, the cars, the energy of the vibrant economy of South Korea. I told her about a satellite photo of the Korean peninsula, taken at night, that I keep on a table in my Pentagon office. North of the Demilitarized Zone there is nothing but darkness -- except a pinprick of light around Pyongyang -- while the entire country of South Korea is ablaze in light, the light of freedom.

Korean freedom was won at a terrible cost -- tens of thousands of lives, including more than 33,000 Americans killed in action. Was it worth it? You bet. Just as it was worth it in Germany and France and Italy and in the Pacific in World War II. And just as it is worth it in Afghanistan and Iraq today.

Today, in a world of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and states that sponsor the former and pursue the latter, defending freedom means we must confront dangers before it is too late.

In Iraq, for 12 years, through 17 United Nations Security Council resolutions, the world gave Saddam Hussein every opportunity to avoid war. He was being held to a simple standard: Live up to your agreement at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War; disarm and prove you have done so. Instead of disarming -- as Kazakhstan, South Africa and Ukraine did, and as Libya is doing today -- Saddam chose deception and defiance.

He repeatedly rejected those resolutions, and he systematically deceived U.N. inspectors about his weapons and his intent. The world knew his record: He used chemical weapons against Iran and his own citizens; he invaded Iran and Kuwait; he launched ballistic missiles at Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; and his troops repeatedly fired on American and British aircraft patrolling the no-flight zones.

Recognizing the threat, in September 2002 President Bush went to the United Nations, which gave Iraq still another "final opportunity" to disarm and to prove it had done so. The next month the president went to Congress, which voted to support the use of force if Iraq did not.

And when Saddam passed up that final opportunity, he was given a last chance to avoid war: 48 hours to leave the country. Only then, after every peaceful option had been exhausted, did the president and our coalition partners order the liberation of Iraq.

Americans do not come easily to war, nor do they take freedom lightly. But when freedom and self-government have taken root in Iraq, and that country becomes a force for good in the Middle East, the rightness of those efforts will be just as clear as it is today in Korea, Germany, Japan and Italy.

As the continuing terrorist violence in Iraq reminds us, the road to self-governance will be challenging. But the progress is impressive.

This month, the Iraqi Governing Council unanimously signed an interim constitution. It guarantees freedom of religion and expression; the right to assemble and to organize political parties; the right to vote; and the right to a fair, speedy and open trial. It prohibits discrimination based on gender, nationality and religion, as well as arbitrary arrest and detention. A year ago, none of those protections could have been even imagined by the Iraqi people.

Today, as we think about the tens of thousands of United States soldiers in Iraq -- and in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world fighting the global war on terrorism -- we should say to all of them: "You join a long line of generations of Americans who have fought freedom's fight. Thank you."

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/8235525.htm

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