IRANIAN ARRESTED IN ERBIL IS WANTED IN AUSTRIA

AKI ^ | 1/17/07

[Valin]

Tehran, 17 Jan. (AKI) - One of the five Iranians arrested last week by the US army in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil is wanted in Austria in connection with the assassination of Kurdish leader Andol Rahman Ghassemlu in 1989. Mahommad Jaafari Sharoudi was one of five Iranian officials detained last week in the Kurdish-controlled city on charges of being connected to a faction of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Pasdaran, that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq.

Abdol Rahman Ghassemlu, the historic leader of Iranian Kurds, was killed in an apartment in the outskirts of the Austrian capital Vienna where he was scheduled to meet a delegation sent by then Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

However, shortly after the start of the meeting between a delegation of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and Tehran's delegation, a special unit of the Pasdaran is believed to have stormed the apartment and killed Ghassmlu and his aides.

According to the Austrian police, the killers escaped arrest by hiding in Iran's embassy in Vienna.

Austrian sources claim that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was at the time a Pasdaran official, was the logistics' head of the commando group responsible for the Kurdish leader's death while Jaafari Sharoudi was one of the killers.

[Dog]

Chit just hit the san...

[Dog]

Background.

Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou returned to Europe to attend a congress of the Socialist International. Tehran tried to contact him again in order, he was told, to pursue the negotiations that had begun the previous winter. The PDKI accepted the offer sent to it. The meeting took place on 12 July 1989 in Vienna. The Tehran delegation was as before, namely Mohammed Jafar Sahraroudi and Hadji Moustafawi, except that this time there was also a third member: Amir Mansur Bozorgian whose function was that of bodyguard. The Kurds also had a three-man delegation: Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, his aide Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar (member of the PDKI Central Committee) and Fadhil Rassoul, an Iraqi university professor who had acted as a mediator.

The next day, 13 July 1989, in the very room where the negotiation took place Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was killed by three bullets fired at very close range. His assistant Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar was hit by eleven bullets and Fadhil Rassoul by five. Hadji Moustafawi succeeded in escaping. Mohammad Jafar Sahraroudi received minor injuries and was taken to hospital, questioned and allowed to go. Amir Mansur Bozorgian was released after 24 hours in police custody and took refuge in the Iranian Embassy. Indignation was at its height. How, in this age, in the heart of Europe, could it happen for the representatives of a member country of the United Nations to open fire at point blank range on the representatives of a country with whom it was at war and had entered into peace negotiations?

[txroadhawg]

"Austrian sources claim that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was at the time a Pasdaran official, was the logistics' head of the commando group..."

I believe this is the first time I've heard that little bit of information

[pissant]

Give the arrestee from Erbil a Richard Gere gerbil.

[Valin]

Thanks for the background. This is turning into a very intersting story.

[Dog]

Your welcome.

[RexBeach]

I read this headline as "Iranian Arrested In Gerbil..."

[Red6]

That "should" be major news.

But instead we'll be subjected to a steady stream of off the cuff humor by big thinkers the likes of Jon Stewart, or David Letterman. Our nightly news will worry about whether that turkey Bush carried was just a display and not really consumed by the troops. They might even even have a false report on some bad National Guard evaluations of the President. "That's news"! Iranian sponsored terrorists killing people in Austria, hiding the the Iranian embassy, Iran's present head of state being one of the key figures behind this, this same terrorist involved in the 80s being picked up today in Iraq and operating in Iraq presumably under Iranian direction again, that's not important! No, all that will happen is that this will get drowned out by those screaming "no blood for oil", the self proclaimed intellectuals.

[Valin]

Lighten up!

[eastforker]

Sounds like a character from the series of "24"!

[blam]

"Austrian sources claim that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was at the time a Pasdaran official, was the logistics' head of the commando group responsible for the Kurdish leader's death while Jaafari Sharoudi was one of the killers."

The Austrians should have an arrest warrant for Ahmadinejad too.(?)

[nuconvert]

Good catch!

[Bon mots]

The Austrians won't hang him. They're afraid of Iran too... after all, Iran will soon have nukes that can reach Vienna.

We should try him, find him guilty and hang him high. With a long rope so his head pops off.

[nuconvert]

Pong

[agrace]

I heard this on CNN this morning...no wait, that's not right, must have been their website...hmm, not there either. Can't blame them though, they needed the room to talk about a cast feud on Grey's Anatomy.

[geezerwheezer]

'Tis amazing what lurks in the dark underworld of diplomacy and deceipt, isn't it? Think he's been "water boarded" yet?

[Valin]

Austria doesn't have the death penalty.

[nuconvert]

I guess this has something to do with the Kurds in Iraq changing their tune about the Iranians arrested.

[ClaireSolt]

It is truly amazing how much of hte news and comment is media comment on other shows. The echo chamber has become malignantly nardsissistic.