That will be interesting!!
And there is this:
Click on the graphics!
Posted on 06/15/2003 11:26:04 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - President Bush on Sunday praised pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran, calling their protests a positive step toward freedom.
"This is the beginning of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran which I think is positive," Bush said.
Thousands of Iranians in Tehran protested against their conservative Islamic rulers for a fifth night on Saturday and smaller protests were reported in two other cities in the biggest anti-establishment demonstrations for months.
"I think that freedom is a powerful incentive," Bush told reporters after he attended church services during a weekend visit to Kennebunkport. "I believe that some day freedom will prevail everywhere because freedom is a powerful drive."
Iran's Foreign Ministry accused the United States of "flagrant interference in Iran's internal affairs" and said the significance of the protests was being deliberately overstated by U.S. officials.
The United States has had poor relations with Tehran since cutting diplomatic ties after radical students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 following the Islamic revolution which toppled the U.S.-backed shah.
A White House statement on Saturday denounced Islamic hard-liners who attacked pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran and called on the government to release those jailed.
CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT URGED
Bush included Iran in an "axis of evil" last year, along with Iraq and North Korea, accusing the countries of pursuing weapons of mass destruction and supporting what the U.S. calls international terrorism.
Washington also says Iran harbors members of the al Qaeda network blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
U.S. officials say they would welcome a change of government in Tehran. Although they stop short of embracing a policy of "regime change," their statements have prompted some alarm in the region after the U.S.-led invasion successfully ousted President Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq.
The Bush administration's major justification for attacking Iraq was that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction which posed an imminent danger to the United States. But no illegal arms have been found in the weeks since major combat operations ended.
The United Nation's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, discusses a report on Iran this week which calls for further inspections of its nuclear program. The IAEA says Tehran has failed to provide information as required under a safeguards agreement.
Iran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation but the United States says it is developing nuclear weapons.
A leading U.S. senator said he would "not necessarily" like to see the Iranian government toppled by outside forces.
"Well, a regime change that comes through the democratic processes of Iran, through the students and the young people taking charge -- now, how all that comes about, I don't know," Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."
"But I think it has to be an Iranian process, which we can assist," the Indiana Republican added.
Lugar said the Bush administration's policy on Iran had not yet been fully formulated, but he expected the U.S. Congress to support Iran's pro-democracy forces financially.
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Now THAT's funny.
Nice to see that Drudge has finally picked up on this. I guess that means this is news now?
At several occasion, brutal plainclothes men were captured by the demonstrators and were attached to trees.
That will be interesting!!
And there is this:
Click on the graphics!
The United States on June 14, 2003 denounced Islamic hard-liners who attacked pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran and called on the government to release those who have been jailed. 'We are alarmed at reports of arrests and provocative actions taken against students by regime forces and call upon the regime to protect the human rights of the students and to release those who have been arrested,' the White House said in a statement released in Kennebunkport where President Bush is spending a long weekend. In this photo, local residents join students protesting at the gates of the Tehran University dormitory complex on June 13, 2003. Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters
Broken doors of the student's room are seen at the Hemmat dormitory of the Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 14, 2003. Dozens of hard-line militants stormed at least two university dormitories, beating up students in their beds and detaining several of them as violence aimed at silencing government critics raged through Iran's capital. (AP Photo/ILNA)
An injured student from the Hemmat dormitory of Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 14, 2003 shows a knife wound in the back. Dozens of militants stormed at least two university dormitories, beating up students in their beds and detaining several of them as violence aimed at silencing government critics raged through Iran's capital. (AP Photo/ILNA)
An Iranian student gestures as another holds a stone, among other masked students during a protest in front of the Tehran University in Tehran, Iran, in the early hours of Friday, June 13, 2003. Hundreds of protesters participated in the third day of demonstrations in the capital despite threats by the hard-line regime to crack down to end the disturbances. (AP Photo/ISNA)
Thanks!
Hmmmm, what does this mean?
Iranians chant slogans during a student protest against privatizing some of Iran's universities that turned into a larger demonstration against the hard-line clerics that rule the country, Tuesday, June 10, 2003. About 300 male students had gathered outside dormitories at Tehran University, along with 200 women who were demonstrating from inside its gates. The men then started marching up and down a main street nearby and were joined by about 300 people. 'The clerical regime is nearing its end,' the protesters chanted. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranians attend a protest with their cars in Tehran, in the early hours of Friday, June 13, 2003. Hundreds of protesters called for the death of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei as thousands of onlookers watched early Friday, the third day of demonstrations in the capital despite threats by the hard-line regime to crack down to end the disturbances. The three nights of demonstrations have produced the largest outpouring of public opposition against Iran's leadership in months, involving hundreds of young Iranians, some still teenagers. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian students chant during an overnight anti-government demonstration outside the campus of Tehran University.(AFP/File/Atta Kenare)
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