Iranian Alert -- June 7, 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.

Iranian MP Wants to Sign Up for 'Martyrdom Operation'

June 07, 2004
Middle East Media Research Institute
MEMRI Ticker Headlines

The world Islamic organization's headquarters for remembering the shahids has registered over 2,000 Iranian volunteers for martyrdom operations in Iraq and Israel. the youngest volunteer is seven years old, and 25% are under 18. Recruitment headquarters head Mohamed Samedi said that the organization would carry out martyrdom operations if Iranian leader Ali Khamenei asked them to. (Sharq, Iran, 6/5/04)

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Expediency council secretary Mohsen Rezaei expressed his hope that the Iranian people would again follow in the path of the shahids and of ayatollah Khomeini, saying 'the sons of the shahids can continue in this path, but they have become passive for various reasons.' (Fars Persian news agency, Iran, 6/7/04)

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Iranian MP Mahdi Kuchek-zadeh said he too wants to sign up as a volunteer to carry out a martyrdom operation. (Jomhour-e eslami, Iran, 6/6/04)

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Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said of the Iranian volunteer signup for martyrdom bombings in Iraq: 'this has no connection to Iran’s government policy and regime. This is an expression of the sentiments of the people in light of the crimes of Israel and the U.S.' (Sharq, Iran, 6/7/04)

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Four eminent Shiite grand ayatollahs, among them Ali al-Sistani, issued fatwas urging Muslims to spurn trade with Israel. According to one, ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, 'trade and use of goods produced by America and the occupying regime of Israel are problematic.' (Jaam-e jam, Iran, 6/5/04)

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Iranian media indicate disagreement between Iranian and Iraqi shia clerics following a Friday sermon by sheikh Sadr al-din al-Qabanchi, one of ayatollah Sistani's aides, criticizing Iranian clergy for 'Iran’s near complete silence' about the killing of Shiites and damaging holy sites by Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. (al-Qabas, Kuwait, 6/7/04)

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A diplomat close to the IAEA said that Iran and the IAEA have agreed to inspections at nine centrifuge manufacturing sites. (Sharq, Iran, 6/5/04)

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The Iranian Aftab-e Yazd daily quoted diplomats who claimed that Germany, France, and Britain would continue cooperating with Tehran despite IAEA criticism over Iran’s secret nuclear activity. (Aftab-e Yazd, Iran, 6/7/04)

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Former Iranian MP Fatemeh Rakei called Iran’s reform process 'irrevocable' and said that despite ongoing political and anti-ethical opposition to reformists on the pretext of protecting Islam, reform has been institutionalized in the country. (Irna, Iran, 6/5/04)

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Iran’s supreme national security council secretary Hassan Rowhani said that stoning embassies, which are under the security protection of Iran, is disrespectful of Iran’s security apparatuses. (Aftab-e Yazd, Iran, 6/5/04)

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A senior central bank of Iran official said that in the absence of ties with the U.S., Iranian banks cannot accept American credit cards, and foreign tourists must keep this in mind. (Irna, Iran, 6/5/04)

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Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar-Zanganeh said that at the recent Opec meeting in Damascus, Iran’s share in total production was determined to be 14%. (Irna, Iran, 6/5/04)

http://memri.org/ticker.html

Reagan Seen Plain

He changed the world.

Michael Ledeen
National Review Online
June 07, 2004, 9:29 a.m.

Washington is rarely so hypocritical as when a great man dies, and so we are hearing that in Reagan's time, politics were more genteel. The nastiness of today is said to have come later, presumably during the recent unpleasantness having to do with the impeachment of Clinton. But it is not so. Reagan was subjected to the same personal vilification as Bush is today, and was called many of the same names: stupid, unprepared, a puppet of more clever people, an ideologue, and so forth. Reagan was often said to be unable to deliver a coherent English sentence without an index card to read from. And the media were desperate to defeat him. In fact, a few days before his triumphant reelection in 1984, James Reston of the New York Times wrote that never before had so many journalists, editors, producers, and broadcasters done so much to defeat a candidate as they had to defeat Reagan, but alas they had failed. You can't ask for a better source than that.

Reagan had the last laugh, both in the election and in the war against the Soviet Empire. In all likelihood, the stereotype that the intelligentsia created — the fool in the White House — worked to his advantage, because it gave him more room to do what he did best: defeat his enemies, and do it with grace, wit, and modesty. And in the process, he exceeded his own expectations. Not only did he destroy the Soviet Empire, but he launched a global democratic revolution that transformed the political universe.

Pope John Paul II understood this (he and Reagan, more than anyone else, were the two men who changed the world), and sent a subtle message to President Bush the day before Reagan died. If you read the full text of the pope's statement to Bush, instead of the one phrase taken out of context and then deconstructed by the media, you will find that the pontiff asked the president to give warm regards to the Reagans. No other American president was mentioned. I will always believe that that was John Paul's way of saying to Bush, "be Reagan's heir, not your father's son." President Bush can advance Reagan's democratic revolution, and I think the pope was encouraging him to do it.

The Left truly hates Reagan, and those who worked with him, because he demonstrated the emptiness of their greatest conceit: that the ideals embodied in the Communist revolution were both just and destined to triumph. The Leftist intelligentsia will never forgive him and his people for destroying the Soviet Empire, and they still strive desperately to pretend that he didn't do it. But it won't work.

Reagan also drove his critics crazy because they couldn't get to him with their usual methods. He wasn't interested in winning the "strange new respect" award for erstwhile conservatives who adopt Leftist causes. He didn't want to go teach at the Kennedy School at Harvard. He could care less about his clippings in The New York Review of Books. And he'd rather be alone with Nancy than attend a power dinner at Mrs. Graham's house. He knew who he was, he was entirely comfortable with that knowledge, and he didn't want to be one of them.

That's the source of the inner strength that made him one of our four greatest presidents. He joins Washington, Lincoln, and FDR in the pantheon of American political leaders who fundamentally changed the world.

— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. Ledeen is Resident Scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200406070929.asp

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