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-B04C1CE78DFBDD92Can we send a copy of this to Khatami? He seems to think everything's hunky-dory in Iran and the U.S. is the big human rights violator.
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