Posted on 01/01/2005 9:32:03 PM PST by freedom44
she is the speaker for radical mullahs of Tehran
They should have nominated Jimmy Carter.
Presidential polls in Iran slated for June 17, 2005
Saturday, January 01, 2005 - ©2004 IranMania.com
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=28285&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
LONDON, Jan 1 (IranMania) - Iran's Guardian Council (GC) spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said on Saturday that the GC has agreed with the coming presidential elections to be held on June 17, 2005.
Making the remarks in his weekly press briefing, he said the council has also agreed with simultaneous holding of parliamentary bi-elections on the same date, according to IRNA.
Referring to the recent demise of the representative of Ilam constituency in parliament, the spokesman said people in Ilam too will go to ballot boxes to select their new representative.
According to him, Tehran constituency will choose its 30th representative on June 17 as well. In answer to a question on confirming or rejecting the qualifications of certain probable nominees in the coming presidential elections, he noted that since nobody has yet registered for the elections, the issue is completely out of the point.
12/31/04
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1250.html
Iranian-American Physician wins Ronald Reagan Award
New York, NY (30 Dec 04) – The Fertility Research Foundation (FRF) announced today that its Executive Director, Masood Khatamee, MD, FACOG, has been chosen as a 2004 Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal Award winner. The announcement was made earlier in the month by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (R-NY) and the NRCC from Washington, DC.
Dr. Khatamee was selected based on unyielding support of the Republican Party, outstanding leadership in business and for displaying a commitment to President Ronald Reagan’s vision for an entrepreneurial America.
Only an elite group of business and professional people were nominated to receive the award before the awards selection committee reached a final decision.
Commenting on the selection, Congressman Tom Reynolds, Chairman of the NRCC, said, “Dr. Khatamee has served as an Honorary Chairman of the Business Advisory Council and has provided much needed support. This award could not have gone to a more deserving candidate.”
Dr. Khatamee is a Professor at NYU School of Medicine. For more information on Dr. Khatamee & the FRF, please visit the FRF website at www.frfbaby.com.
Press Contact:
Michael Gibson
Tel: +1 917 757 8225
Email: mgibson@madisonlabs.com
12/31/04
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1252.html
US meddling in others' affairs contributing to the spread of terrorism: Iranian official
The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Hassan Rowhani here on Thursday blamed US efforts to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries for deteriorating terrorism situation worldwide, IRNA reported from Tehran.
Rowhani said the fact that the US is using other countries as its base for promoting tyranny as well as the torture of Iraqi prisoners have also had a major contribution to the spread of terrorism.
He said the Islamic Republic of Iran has always announced the US-led campaign against terrorism is a "bogus slogan", adding that the roots of terrorism -- which he named as tyranny and injustice -- must be addressed.
Rowhani, in a speech at a meeting with the people of Semnan, said Washington's current policies toward the issue of terrorism would increase the hatred of the world toward the US.
He said that Iran has adopted an independent stance toward regional and global developments within the frameworks of its own policies.
Rowhani further stressed that Iran has been able to successfully stay away from threats, and praised Iran's prudent positions toward world developments.
He said US officials have always been looking for pretexts to attack Iran, but voiced pleasure that they have not been successful in this regard.
On nuclear issues, Rowhani said that the US had created a ballyhoo about Iran's nuclear energy program so as to lead Iran into a crisis, stressing that the Islamic Republic has managed to avoid crisis.
He said Iran has never been pursuing nuclear arms, adding that Iran is trying to be independent in terms of nuclear fuel supplies.
On Iran-EU negotiations, Rowhani said that Europeans have fulfilled several of their promises, adding that a European delegation is due to visit Iran within the next few days for talks on selling a research atomic reactor.
He said Iran has no concerns as long as the Iranian nation support the Islamic establishment, stressing that Iran's ultimate objective is to attain peaceful nuclear technology.
Rowhani said that Iran's upcoming presidential elections is a very important event, adding that elections can play a significant role in country's development, dignity and independence.
He added that the elections should be turned into a source of people's unity and happiness to encourage them show a strong turnout at the polls.
Other Iran current affairs news in brief
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=28278&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Saturday, January 01, 2005 - ©2004 IranMania.com
LONDON, Jan 1 (IranMania)
- A high-ranking member of Iran's National Front, Dr Masoud Hejazi passed away in Tehran on Friday. He was a member of the leadership delegation of Iran's National Front- Iran Emrooz.
- An official in the consultation center of Tehran University said that 17% of the country's medical freshmen this year have been diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder - IRNA
- Iran's Guardian Council finally agreed to the date proposed by the Ministry of Interior for holding the upcoming presidential elections. The ballot will in all probability be held on June 16th of the next Iranian calendar year- Fars News Agency
- Secretary of Iran's State Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei predicted the participation of more than 25,000,000 Iranians in the upcoming presidential elections- Aftab
- The 2006 World Summit on ' Museums' will be held in Iran - Iran Daily
Brief Fri. 31 Dec 2004
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1125
Iran Focus
Weekly sheds new light on Iranian involvement in French hostage taking
Canard Enchaîne wrote in its final December issue “An Iranian minister came from Tehran to Paris with a message from President Khatami to announce to Chirac that the two hostages will be freed by the end of 2004”. Shedding new light on Iran’s involvement in the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq, the weekly added, “The envoy accompanied by Sadeq Kharrazi, the Islamic Republic's Ambassador to Paris, met with the French Interior minister in mid-December. Shortly afterwards, Chirac privately met with the envoy, where he gave him the good news. Iran's Hezbollah agents in Lebanon played a significant role in this case”.
Jordan's Foreign Minister again accuses Iran of role in instability in Iraq
Jordan’s Foreign Minister accused Iran of meddling in Iraq's affairs. Hani Al-Molghi said that Iran is trying to influence the Iraqi election. “The establishment of a pro-Iran religious Shiite regime in Iraq will upset the existing balance in the Middle East and will not be in the interest of the people of Iraq", he said Wednesday.
Majlis deputies receive $1,000 each
An Iranian state-run news agency, ILNA wrote that the Majlis (parliament) Speaker had deposited 10 million rials into the bank accounts of all the current Majlis deputies. The ten-million-rial bonus was justified as "The Majlis speaker's compensation for the costs involved in being a Majlis deputy".
Interesting thread today.
January 1, 2005 - 23:02
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w010141A
Iranian presidential election scheduled for June 17
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's constitutional watchdog has approved June 17 as the date for a presidential election, Iranian television reported Saturday, marking the first contest for control of the presidency since Muslim clerics barred reformist candidates from last year's legislative election.
Whoever emerges victorious will face substantial challenges, including the task of persuading the world Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and responding to President George W. Bush's labelling of Iran as part of the "axis of evil."
The Guardian Council has agreed to hold the presidential election June 17, television quoted council spokesman Gholamhossein Elham saying. Conservatives have gained the upper hand over reformists in the legislature since the Guardian Council barred reformist candidates from running in the February 2004 election.
By-elections in several cities will also be held at the same time, Elham said.
On Monday, Iran's largest reform party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, chose former cabinet minister Mostafa Moin, a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami, as its sole candidate in the upcoming elections.
The Guardian Council, which vets all legislation and elections, disqualified more than 2,000 reformist candidates in legislative polls in February, effectively barring reformers from the assembly.
Hard-liners are hoping to consolidate their grip on power and further erode the reformists' base of power. Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, still a powerful force in Iran and a leading hard-liner, has said he will run if most political groups support his candidacy.
Former hard-line clerics who now support reforms have expressed support for former speaker Mahdi Karroubi.
The election will choose a successor to replace Khatami in August, a reformist whose political and social agenda has been stifled by conservatives. Khatami is prevented from running for a third term by the Iranian constitution.
Find this page online at: http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2005/january/executions_311204.shtml
IRANIANS ANGRY AT OFFICIALS DEFENDING DEATH PRACTICES
By Safa Haeri
Posted Friday, December 31, 2004
Executions are not an important matter”, Foreign Affairs Ministry’s senior spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told journalists.
PARIS, 31 Dec. (IPS) Recent statements by some officials from the Judiciary and the Foreign Affairs Ministry concerning death sentences pronounced by some local courts against young women have stirred the anger of Iranians inside and outside the country.
“Executions are not an important matter”, Foreign Affairs Ministry’s senior spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told journalists last week when asked about international and national reactions to the death sentence against Ms Leyla Mafi, an 18 years old girl who has a mental age of eight.
Leyla was condemned to death by a religious court in the central city of Arak on charges of "acts contrary to chastity" by controlling a brothel, having intercourse with blood relatives and giving birth to an illegitimate child. She is to be flogged before she is executed. She had apparently “confessed” to the charges
Leyla was forced into prostitution by her mother when she was eight years old, according to the 28 November report published by the London-based Amnesty International, and was raped repeatedly thereafter. She gave birth to her first child when she was nine, and was sentenced to 100 lashes for prostitution at around the same time. At the age of 12, her family sold her to an Afghan man to become his “temporary wife”.
Leyla’s case was the fourth in the past six months, as two other young girls had been sentenced to death before her and 30 years-old Hajiyeh Esma’ilvand, was condemned to death by stoning.
Mr. Asefi, who is also a Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister, was reacting to a European Union declaration calling on the Islamic Republic to have more respect for human rights, warning that otherwise, the 25-members club would have difficulties in its relations with Tehran, including signing an important Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
“We have no lesson to receive from the Westerners”, he said, accusing the West of “double standard” practice, “like their treatment of the Palestinians and the Israelis”.
At almost the same time, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroodi, an Iraqi born cleric appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, as the Head of Judiciary said Iran’s Islam-based laws are the world’s “most advanced, human, democratic and just”.
He strongly attacked France for its laws forbidding “visible exhibition” of all signs pointing to a religion, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, describing the measure as “anti Islamic” and aimed at “preventing Muslim girls schools”.
“Deducting from Mr. Asefi’s statements, death sentences only became important once applied”, an Iranian scholar pointed out in the popular Iranian website “Gooya” on condition of anonymity, adding that according to Iranian officials, putting people, mostly women to death, is an ordinary practice in Muslim nations.
For his part, Mr. Mas’oud Behnoud, a veteran Iranian journalist who fled Iran last week after serving three months in prison said Mr. Asefi’s defense of death and his “unfortunate” answer to international reaction against such practices in the Islamic Republic helps to understand the isolation of the regime at the world stage.
One of the female journalists had been forced to confess to sex with at least six leading reformist personalities
“What one of Iran’s top diplomats in the one hand and the head of the regime’s Judiciary on the other said recently, statements like we have no lessen to get from outsiders or defending the principle of execution or Iran’s Judiciary is the best system in the world, at a time that writers of weblogs and journalists are forced to write public confessions praising their butchers, interrogators, torturers and prison guards or young girls are condemned to death is the best example of showing the distance that separates the Islamic Republic from the international community”, he wrote in his weblog, which was hacked recently.
The cases of the weblog writers and journalists who “confessed” to their “mistakes” and demanded “pardon” from the leader and the Iranian people while thanking their interrogators and prison guards was raised by Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Ali Abtahi in his new weblog, confirming that the confessions had been obtained under physical and psychological pressures they were subject while in solitary confinement.
According to the former Vice president for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs who’s personal weblog, “Webnevesht”, had been hacked, at least five of the nine journalists and owners of weblogs have confirmed that they had been ill-treated in prison and have been physically and psychologically tortured.
Acting on orders from President Mohammad Khatami as member of the Committee to Supervise the Application of the Constitution, Mr. Abtahi, who resigned recently from his post met Hanif Mazrou’i, (Ms) Fereshteh Qazi, Qoreyshi, (MS) Mahboubeh Mollaqoli and Nader Pour, who described to him some of the tortures the jailers and interrogators inflicted on them, including accusing some important reformist personalities of immoral acts, giving the names and addresses of people wanted by the Judiciary or implying others for having sex, drinking alcohol or smoking drugs etc.
“One of the female journalists had been forced to confess to sex with at least six leading reformist personalities. Others said they had been badly beaten up when theyr refused to denounced friends or unknown people. One of them was latter transported to hospital for wounds and she is still under difficult condition”, he disclosed, referring to the case of Ms. Fereshteh Qazi.
Another successful Iranian in the states... congratulations!
Mohsen Rezai: Voter turnout will exceed 25m
IranMania News
Jan, 1st 2005
London
LONDON, Jan 1 (IranMania) - More than 25 mln people will take part in the upcoming presidential election slated for May 2005, Iran's secretary of State Expediency Council predicted.
Addressing members of political groups and university students in Zabol (in Sistan-Baluchestan province) on Thursday, Mohsen Rezai noted that what is good about the upcoming presidential election is the fact that political factions have agreed to let people decide about the candidates, IRNA reported.
"In other countries, elections resemble a two-phase university entrance exam. People choose candidates in the first phase and then elect the president or lawmakers depending on the kind of election in the second phase," he said.
Rezai also said that political groups have realized it will be in their own interest to take wise decisions.
Commenting on the country's 20-year Perspective, Rezai noted that this perspective will be implemented in the country in 2005 and provides guidelines for Iran's future.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=28251&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Iran sends emergency aid to Tsunami victims
Persian Journal
Jan 1, 05
Iranian mission in Indonesia announced that first Iranian aid cargo is to be sent to the quake-hit area in Indonesia.
The contingent contains tents, foodstuff, clothes and medicines weighting 41,000 tons.
Iranian diplomat in Jakarta said more relief aid got on the way into the quake-hit area.
On Thursday, Iran has sent an aid cargo to Thailand weighting 23 tons.
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_5216.shtml
President Bush says the greatest threat to U.S. national security is a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. A nuclear Iran, not Saddam Hussein's Iraq, is a truly dangerous manifestation of that threat.
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