Iranian Alert -- April 11, 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.” 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.

Khatami Distances Iran From Sadr

April 11, 2004
AFP
Arab News

TEHRAN -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami yesterday distanced Iran from the latest violent developments in Iraq under the leadership of radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, saying there was no connection between Iran and radical Shiites.

IRNA news agency quoted Khatami as saying that the latest violence and kidnapping in Iraq harms the general image of Islam and Muslims.

The president stressed that Iran supports the moderate policies of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), headed by Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, and Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Both Sistani and Al-Hakim are known to be openly supported by Tehran but at the same time regarded as political rivals of Sadr. Iran, said Khatami, was one of the first countries to acknowledge the Governing Council in Baghdad.

But he added that violence and tension would continue and escalate unless the US ends its occupation and allows the Iraqi people to determine their political fate. The president had earlier this week condemned the attacks by US- led coalition forces on Shiites in southern Iraq, describing them as contrary to their initial claims of bringing freedom and democracy to the country.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi discussed Iran’s nuclear case with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, seeking their support ahead of a June meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors, Iranian dailies reported yesterday.

“Iranian public opinion expects that Iran’s peaceful nuclear case be settled by June and the IAEA and the European Union fulfill their commitments towards Iran,” Kharrazi said in a phone conversation with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer.

In his talk to his French counterpart Michel Barnier, Kharrazi said the visit by IAEA Director General Mohamed El-Baradei to Tehran earlier this week “provided the appropriate opportunity to draw a timetable for normalizing Iran’s nuclear case before the next meeting of the IAEA board of governors.”

Kharrazi told British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw: “A timetable has been prepared to discuss and settle the nuclear issue between Tehran and the IAEA and the two sides have agreed on it.”

Last October, Iran gave the IAEA what it said was a complete declaration of its nuclear activities.

It was later found to have made a number of omissions, including its acquisition of designs for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges that can produce weapons-grade uranium, way above the normal level of enrichment required for atomic reactors.

In another development, Kharrazi voiced concern over the kidnapping of an Iranian cleric in Guyana and called on officials there to work quickly to secure his release, state media said.

“We are worried about the kidnapping of an Iranian religious scholar and researcher in Guyana,” the state IRNA news agency reported Kharrazi as telling his Guyanese counterpart Clement Rohee in a telephone conversation. “We want the necessary action to be taken to release him as soon as possible and for the abductors to be prosecuted,” the minister added.

Muhammad Hassan Abrahemi, 35, was abducted outside the International Islamic College of Advanced Studies on April 2 as gunmen fired shots at his car and the building.

On Wednesday, Sheikh Salim Ibn Abdul Kadir, interim head of the college said Iran would send a fact-finding mission to Guyana next week to investigate the kidnapping, but this could not be confirmed with the Iranian foreign ministry.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=42897&d=11&m=4&y=2004

Iran seeks European trio's backing over its nuclear stance

TEHRAN (AFP) Apr 10, 2004

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi discussed Iran's nuclear case with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, seeking their support ahead of a June meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors, Iranian dailies reported Saturday.
"Iranian public opinion expects that Iran's peaceful nuclear case be settled by June and the IAEA and the European Union fulfill their commitments towards Iran," Kharazi said in a phone conversation with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer.

In his talk to his French counterpart Michel Barnier, Kharazi said the visit by IAEA director general Mohamed Elbaradai to Tehran earlier this week "provided the appropriate opportunity to draw a timetable for normalizing Iran's nuclear case before the next meeting of the IAEA board of governors."

Kharazi told British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw: "A timetable has been prepared to discuss and settle the nuclear issue between Tehran and the IAEA and the two sides have agreed on it."

Last October, Iran gave the IAEA what it said was a complete declaration of its nuclear activities.

It was later found to have made a number of omissions, including its acquisition of designs for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges that can produce weapons-grade uranium, way above the normal level of enrichment required for atomic reactors.

The three European countries in October struck a deal with Iran for it to cooperate with the IAEA. The United States however claims Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and is seeking a tougher stance with Tehran.

In March, the IAEA board of governors passed a resolution that condemned Iran for failing to report crucial technologies, such as the advanced P-2 centrifuge designs.

ElBaradei returned to Vienna last Wednesday from Tehran, where he had hammered out an agreement for Iran to adhere to a timetable to answer the agency's questions about its nuclear activities.

http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040410125433.z44ztak4.html

US Criticizes Iran Over Human Rights

VOA News
10 Apr 2004, 23:48 UTC

The U.S. State Department has released a pamphlet denouncing Iran for human rights abuses.
The 16-page brochure, which is also available on the State Department web site, denounces steps by Iran's un-elected clerical leadership that Washington says trample democracy and freedom of speech.

The pamphlet, entitled "Iran: Voices Struggling to be Heard," says the Iranian people are being stifled as they call for their rights, beliefs and needs to be respected. It says un-elected elements of the Iranian government are responding by increasing repression.

The brochure details several recent incidents in Iran, including the death in custody of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi last year. It also refers to the closure of reformist newspapers and the disqualification of hundreds of reformist candidates from February's parliamentary elections.

The pamphlet goes on to say that Iranian youth, who have staged massive pro-reform rallies, represent hope for the future of Iran.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=3CCFC159-377C-44B2-B04C1CE78DFBDD92

IRAN, HEZBOLLAH AID CRAZED CLERIC

The New York Post
By NILES LATHEM and URI DAN
April 11, 2004 -- EXCLUSIVE

Iran's Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah are secretly providing outlawed Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr with money, training and logistical support for his violent campaign against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, The Post has learned.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials said last night there is evidence that Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the security services loyal to Iran's hard-line religious leader Ayatollah al Khameini, have funneled as much as $80 million into Shiite charities established by al-Sadr's influential family that have been diverted to fund his fanatic al-Mahdi militia.

Intelligence sources also said operatives from the Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shiite terror group created by Iran, have trained 800 to 1,200 al-Mahdi fighters in guerrilla warfare and terrorist techniques at three camps in Iran near the Iraq border.

Al-Sadr's group is also believed to have been recently provided with 800 satellite phones and new radio broadcasting equipment by diplomats at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, sources told The Post.

Al-Sadr's fanatics, drawn from poor Shiite urban slums in Iraq, have been battling U.S. forces throughout the week and took control of the cities of Kufa, Kut and most of Najaf.

Bush administration officials said the strength of al-Sadr's rag-tag al-Mahdi militia took U.S. military commanders by surprise and that intelligence detailing active support from Iran and Hezbollah for his violent uprising has been a simmering issue within the administration.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with WNIS-AM Tuesday that al-Sadr "is reputed to have connections with Iran."

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/22516.htm

Iran Reactor Could Produce Plutonium

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 8th, 04

VIENNA, Austria (AP)--Iran will start building a nuclear reactor in June that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, diplomats said Wednesday. Although Tehran insists the heavy water facility is for research, the decision heightens concern about its nuclear ambitions.

One diplomat said the planned 40-megawatt reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year, an amount experts commonly say is 8.8 pounds.

The diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency last year of its plans to build a reactor, and Iranian officials have previously suggested the reactor was already being built.

But the diplomats said construction had not yet begun and that Iranian officials announced the June start date for the first time during talks Tuesday in Tehran with Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

With Iran open about its desire to build the facility, the diplomats said the Iranian decision to go ahead with the plan was not an overt example of Tehran backtracking on pledges to dispel suspicions it is pursuing nuclear weapons.

Still, it ``sends a bad signal at a time all eyes are on Iran,'' one of the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

International scrutiny of Iran's nuclear program has been growing since the IAEA discovered last year that Tehran had not disclosed large-scale efforts to enrich uranium, which can be used in nuclear warheads.

Traces of weapons-grade uranium found by inspectors and evidence of suspicious experiments led to a series of critical resolutions by the IAEA's board of governors.

The resolutions stopped short of forcing Iran to go before the U.N. Security Council, as demanded by the United States. But if ElBaradei gives a negative progress report on Iran when the IAEA board of governors meets in June--just as construction of the reactor is getting under way--Tehran could face action by the security council.

Iran argues that it needs the reactor to produce radioisotopes for medical research. But spent fuel rods from the planned reactor can be reprocessed to produce plutonium--also used for nuclear warheads--although the facility would be subject to IAEA inspections and other controls intended to make sure no plutonium is created.

Still, the United States and other countries may seize on Iran's plans as further evidence that the Islamic Republic is not serious about quelling suspicions about its intentions.

``We feel strongly that there is no need for indigenous heavy water in Iran,'' said a Western diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity. ``It's not necessary and highly suspicious.''

The reactor site is at Arak, next to an existing heavy water production plant. It is to replace a reactor using non-weapons grade enriched uranium that the Iranians mothballed, saying it was outmoded and lacked fuel.

Because enrichment can be used both to generate power and make nuclear warheads, Iran has said it has suspended all enrichment activities to prove its peaceful intentions. It also cannot buy enriched fuel on legal markets because of international suspicions about its intentions.

Seeking to counter accusations of continued deceit, Iran on Tuesday pledged to deliver a complete dossier to the IAEA detailing all its present and future nuclear activities by the end of April, ElBaradei said.

``We have agreed on an action plan with a timetable with how to move forward on the major outstanding issues,'' he said after meeting with Hasan Rowhani, secretary of Iran's powerful National Security Council.

Critics say Iran reneged on commitments to win international trust as IAEA inspectors discovered evidence of past experiments that could be used to develop weapons.

Adding to the skepticism was Iran's announcement last month that it inaugurated a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, 155 miles south of Tehran, to process uranium ore into gas--a crucial step before uranium enrichment.

Iran insists the move does not contradict its pledge to suspend enrichment. But Britain, France and Germany--which have stymied past U.S. attempts to castigate Iran--said the plant sent the wrong signal.

Last year, the three secured Iran's agreement to suspend enrichment and cooperate with the IAEA in exchange for promised access to Western technology.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V8503.AP-Iran-Nuclear-Ag.html

News Agency Reports on Sadr Seeking Political Asylum in Iran

April 11, 2004
BBC Monitoring
monitor.bbc.co.uk

Tehran -- Without mentioning any specific sources, Al Sharq al-Awsat has published a report claiming that Muqtada al-Sadr will be transferred to Iran as a political refugee.

According to a report by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), the newspaper, which is published in London, quoted a source whom it only described as "an Iraqi Shi'i official". It claimed that Iraqi Shi'i figures are trying to mediate on Muqtada al-Sadr's behalf to organize his transfer to Iran as a political refugee.

Quoting the source, the aforementioned newspaper claimed that the intermediary was an important Iraqi political figure. Quoting the aforementioned source, the newspaper, which is published in Iraq [as received, it is also printed in Iraq] wrote: I have information on the mediation effort and the Iraqi figure's meetings with Iranian officials.

Text of report by Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) web site

Source: ISNA web site, Tehran, in Persian 0849 gmt 11 Apr 04

http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/nfnews.shtml#fourth

Lack of U.S. strategy for Iran a missing link
By JIM HOAGLAND

Americans can be forgiven for asking of Iraqi Shiites the famous and ill-advised question Sigmund Freud asked about women: What do they want? A year ago this weekend, Shiite crowds cheered as U.S. troops drove into Baghdad and toppled statues of Saddam Hussein. This springtime, Shiite gangs in southern Iraq are shooting at their liberators.

That is only part of what would intrigue Dr. Freud. The Shiites are just as justified in asking his question of the Bush administration, which has shown a psychological unwillingness to accept two major policy corollaries of its swift military victory in Baghdad.

The defeat of the Baathists changed much in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. But Washington has not used that victory and the year that has passed to seek a change in relations with -- or regional strategy toward -- Iran. The administration has chosen not to choose when it comes to the nation that is Iraq's most important and most dangerous neighbor, a major supporter of international terrorism and the only country ruled by a Shiite majority.

Change on Iran should have been the first clear policy corollary of regime change in Iraq. But there was either no point or no way to accommodate Tehran's large stakes in post-Saddam Iraq, U.S. policy-makers concluded. Neither was it possible to prevent Iran's ruling Shiite clerics from influencing events and attitudes in the large Shiite population centers in Baghdad and southern Iraq.

Instead the administration left U.S. policy on Iran in a steadily deepening limbo: Once a member of the "axis of evil," Iran became the embarrassing, unaddressed missing link in the Bush administration's bold ambitions to transform Iraq and to becalm the world's most volatile and treacherous region. Iran slipped into the "too hard" file.

That is understandable, if unforgivable. No one has a sure-fire policy for dealing with the theocratic state founded on the ruins of the Persian empire. France, Germany and Britain have proved this in trying to talk the ayatollahs out of developing nuclear weapons. Despite clear and repeated Iranian lying to them, the Europeans persevere.

"In the end, we may wind up only slowing them down -- hopefully significantly -- in what they intended to do all along," a European participant in this effort told me recently. "But given the lack of any other workable option, this is worth doing."

U.S.-Iranian discussions on cooperating -- or at least on not crossing wires -- in Iraq would have been difficult to arrange and carry out. It would not have been as simple as the indirect but useful dialogue American diplomats had with the Iranians on post-Taliban Afghanistan, where Iranian interests and opportunities are substantially less than in Iraq.

But any serious effort in that direction was smothered in its crib by familiar hardliner vs. softliner debates within the administration -- and the less remarked on but equally crucial absence of a clear U.S. diplomatic strategy for consolidating and converting American battlefield prowess into sustainable political gains abroad. It is difficult to fit Iran into a strategy if there is no strategy to begin with.

Instead, policy has consisted of occasional growls from senior Pentagon officials warning Iran -- and its quasi-surrogate Syria -- to halt infiltration into Iraq, followed quickly by public assurances from the State Department that the growls do not represent threats of military action. Even Freud could not explain the Rumsfeldian-Powellian Syndrome that afflicts Bush foreign policy.

The effects of indecision on Iran could have been minimized if the administration had embraced the second corollary of changing regimes and establishing a parliamentary democracy in Iraq: Representatives of the Shiite majority had to become the most important consistent political partners for the United States in the first phases of constructing a new Iraq.

But the Coalition Provisional Authority leadership in Baghdad -- which was deeply suspicious of Tehran -- failed to convince Iraq's Shiites that their bottomless insecurities -- stirred greatly by the betrayal of their 1991 anti-Saddam uprising by the first Bush administration -- and political aspirations were understood in Washington. This left room for the bloody rabble rousing of Moqtada Sadr and the self-protective mysticism of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to cast doubts on American intentions and commitment.

Washington and the CPA have been running behind the growing radicalization of Iraq's Shiite community over the past three months. Iran's ayatollahs and their agents may well have played a role in that deterioration and the current upheaval. It is impossible to know at this point.

One thing is clear: Washington did not enunciate or pursue an Iran policy that would have prevented Tehran from doing its worst or would have encouraged it to do its best. That is the price of limbo.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/2497538

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