Replies

Thousands demonstrate outside Tehran university

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com

TEHRAN, June 17 (AFP) - Thousands of anti-government demonstrators converged on Tehran university in their cars for an eighth straight night of protest on Tuesday but police appeared well in control of the situation.

Demonstrations around the campus -- the focal point of the week-long student protests -- have become more low-key since the weekend, with few people venturing out of their vehicles or shouting slogans.

There was no sign, however of the Islamist miliciamen who used clubs and iron bars to disperse protesters on Friday.

Meanwhile in Tehran-Pars, a poor neighboorhood some 15 kilometres from the university, small groups of young people staged a brief demonstration but were immediately scattered by police, witnesses said.

Police special forces and members of the Basij militia were taking up positions at key points in the large neighborhood to enforce a return to calm.

Scores of people have been injured or detained over the past week of anti-government protests, which come amid a worsening political deadlock between reformists loyal to President Mohammad Khatami and powerful hardliners.

The protests have been marked by slogans targeting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and have involved clashes with hardline vigilantes loyal to him.

But tensions in Tehran have been eased by a police crackdown on the activities of the hardline Islamist Basij and Ansar Hezbollah militias.

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Cross-link:

-Unrest in Iran--

Here are some of the latest news reports...

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Iran's Mullahs are in Trouble

June 17, 2003
United Press International
Eli J. Lake

In Tehran, demonstrations against the government have raged for more than seven straight days -- and spread to other cities -- forcing the regime to bring in outside militias to attempt to put down popular unrest because the local police have refused.

And with the anniversary of the student demonstrations on July 9, 1999 nearing, fears of more violent confrontations are peaking.

In Washington, President Bush threw his full support behind the pro-democracy protests Sunday despite some of his closest advisers' desire to keep the door open to furthering diplomatic contacts with the regime. And in Brussels Monday the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report that stated plainly that numerous questions remained unanswered about the existence of an illegal and clandestine nuclear weapons program.

So far the Islamic Republic has, at least publicly, chalked up its recent woes to U.S. meddling. Last Friday, Iran's powerful ex-President, Hashemi Rafsanjani warned students not to fall into "the trap the Americans had dug for them," by protesting too vocally against the government. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement blasting the White House over the weekend for its support for the Iranian protestors. As for the recent report from the IAEA, an Iranian spokesman attributed this to America's "psychological warfare."

The clerics have been making such charges for the last few years, and like many distortions, inside there is a grain of truth. While the United States government has not directly given any money to Iranian activists, some Iranian Americans have.

Last fall, the Broadcasting Board of Governors replaced its shortwave station with a more popular AM music/news station. From Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, Radio Farda broadcasts 46 newscasts per day, seven days a week. Since June 10, Farda "has aired in-depth, special coverage from correspondents on the scene of student protests in Iran. News reports, often with background noise, described what was actually happening in the streets -- the mood of the demonstrators, the location of clashes with security forces and how they were attacking the people," according to BBG spokeswoman Joan Mower.

As Norm Pattiz, the chairman of the BBG's Middle East committee which oversees Farda said in an interview Monday, "If people think that giving people in Iran examples of a free press in the American tradition as destabilizing an oppressive regime, then good for our side."

Iran's rulers peddle the theory of American intervention because it would crumble the very foundations of the state to face the painful truth that the country's emerging democracy movement is real, that the Islamic revolution of 1979 has totally failed. What started as a popular movement has turned into a corrupt and autocratic regime despised by its subjects.

Consider that in Tehran young people openly hold hands, drink alcohol and listen to rock music. The police in the big cities have stopped enforcing Islamic moral codes in any meaningful sense. Some women in the recent protests have taken to burning their veils. The country's oil workers have stopped working because they have not been paid in some cases for two months. Books on Persian pre-Islamic culture are among the most popular in Iran's bookstores.

As popular support for the government has eroded, the mullahs have not only sought to explain their unpopularity by citing charges of America's hidden hand. They have also made an extra effort to seek their legitimacy from the outside. Thus the regime prizes the European Union's policy engagement more than ever because it fosters the illusion that this government is like any other.

But it's at least possible, and perhaps likely, that the IAEA's recent report on Iran's nuclear program could threaten this relationship and the trade that goes along with it. In a rare recent example of effective American diplomacy, the State Department managed to get heads of state for the Group of Eight industrialized nations -- United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- to sign a statement expressing concern with Iran's activities to seek nuclear weapons.

It also seems likely that IAEA's European members will sign onto a statement urging Iran to come clean. Behind the scenes, U.S. officials are beginning to make the case to their European counterparts that diplomatic and economic engagement with Iran has done little to actually correct the country's troubling behavior.

Iran's options now are far less appealing than they were a few months ago. Considering charges that the mullahs encourage and support suicide bombers in the Palestinian territories and that it funds Islamic theocrats seeking to take over Iraq, trouble for the mullahs could become a most welcome development in Washington.

By ELI J. LAKE, UPI State Department Correspondent

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Iran Internet Use at Risk

June 18, 2003
The Euronet
Firouz Sedarat

TEHRAN -- The diary of a former prostitute is one of the hottest Web sites in Iran, a strict Islamic society where the Internet is coveted for the access it gives users to a forbidden world.

The anonymous author, who presents herself as a 24-year-old former sex worker, says she does not want to just titillate readers in the conservative country which bans sex and romance outside marriage.

"Some may see my writings as an erotic film, but others might learn something useful from them. It's like a knife that can be used to kill or to peel a cucumber," she says on her site (faheshe.persianblog.com).

Her site and other unabashed online diaries offer a rare insight into the mindset of Iranian youth who have grown up under strict social rules since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The new generation has been using the Internet to express themselves and satisfy their hunger for knowledge about taboo subjects, ranging from sex to Western-style entertainment or politics.

But they are at risk of losing that window to the world as Islamic conservatives move to restrict Internet use as they have done with foreign satellite television. Their aim is to blot out the "immoral" effects of Western culture.

"This is my only link to the West. One click and I'm in Los Angeles. It also allows me freer contact with other young people inside Iran," said Haleh, a young woman.

After school, she often goes to a neighbourhood Internet cafe to chat online or look for the latest fashions or news of Iranian entertainers living in exile in Los Angeles.

She tries to suppress a giggle as she furtively reads an Iranian site offering tips on dating.

"I'm worried about being denied access to many of my favourite sites. I don't approve of immoral sites, but the question is who decides what is or is not moral," Haleh added.

A latecomer to the Internet age, Iran began last month to block pornography and other sites deemed obscene or subversive.

Some 70 youngsters were arrested in March for meeting through an illegal online dating site, newspapers reported, suggesting the authorities had monitored a chat-room they used.

An Internet boom has caught officials by surprise and prompted them to draw up rules for the largely unregulated sector. The number of users has jumped by 90 percent in the past year. Still, only about three million of Iran's population of 65 million -- half of them under 25 -- have access to the net.

Iranian youths have launched 20,000 active Web logs, or "blogs", -- online diaries which range in topic from simple musings on life to political discussions to sports.

In April, Sina Motallebi became the first blogger to be arrested in Iran where dozens of reformist journalists have been charged by hardline courts. He was freed on bail three weeks later but still faces undisclosed charges.

Women have been especially active bloggers, seizing the opportunity to speak out freely and anonymously on subjects such as dating and romance.

Besides popular political and news sites, half of the 10 most visited Persian blogs are about sex, according to figures from a service providing statistics on Web usage.

"Blogs show us a new generation...that is self-expressive, tolerant and individualistic," said Hossein Derakhshan, a Toronto-based veteran Iranian blogger (hoder.com/weblog).

"Many are lonely and hopeless to the point of depression. They seem to be frustrated and have a problem with sex," said Derakhshan, who presented a study on Iranian blogs at a conference in Vienna in late May.

Growing tension with Washington since the war in neighbouring Iraq has prompted hardliners to tighten control over the flow of information. There is heavier jamming of U.S.-based Iranian satellite television stations carrying entertainment and dissident messages calling for anti-government protests.

"I think authorities are upset about the parallels these stations draw between Iraq and Iran," said Hassan, a journalist.

The United States has hardened its rhetoric against Iran since the Iraq war, raising the spectre of military action against a country it calls part of an "axis of evil".

Iran's conservatives also seek to counter reformist and dissident groups using the net to reach the public and get round a ban on some 90 pro-reform newspapers in three years.

Reformists allied with President Mohammad Khatami are opposed to restrictions but conservatives say they are needed to check "enemy propaganda" and Western cultural influences.

So far 100,000 mainly foreign porn sites and about 200 Iranian sites have been blocked, but industry sources say the curbs are less drastic than those in nearby Gulf Arab states.

"Up to now mostly political sites have been hit, not blogs. But nothing is predictable here," said Ata Khalighi of persianblog.com, which hosts most Iranian Web logs.

"The day the filtering started, I rushed to check if our site has been blocked or not," he said.

Among the first sites to be blocked were the Persian Web page of the Voice of America, one of its most-viewed sites, and that of Radio Farda, a 24-hour station set up by Washington to try to woo young Iranians with a mix of pop songs and news.

http://www.euronetmag.com/euronet/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=60688

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Fresh Night of Protest in Iran

June 18, 2003
Reuters
Jon Hemming

TEHRAN -- Hundreds of Iranians demanding more freedom have demonstrated for the eighth consecutive night and scores of protesters were arrested and some injured in rallies in seven cities.

The Unites States backs the protests as a cry for freedom from a people whose government U.S. officials accuse of being part of an "axis of evil" for allegedly developing nuclear arms, backing terrorism and trying to destabilise post-war Iraq.

Protesters in Tehran, wary of possible beatings from hardline Islamic vigilantes which marked previous nights, kept to their cars and sounded their horns in traffic jams around the city's university on Wednesday -- the focus of the unrest.

The official IRNA news agency reported protests in six other cities in which scores were arrested and several injured. But numbers taking part in the demonstrations -- among the largest and most violent for four years -- appeared to be dwindling.

Iran's government and most parliamentary deputies accused the United States of blatant interference in Iran's internal affairs. Hardline clerics say they have detected a U.S.-inspired plot to destabilise Iran.

But demonstrators said they were not on the streets for the sake of Washington.

"If coming to the streets will give me more freedom, I don't care who calls for it, I will come here and tell all my friends to come with me," said teenage high school student Amir.

Protesters have expressed anger at moderate President Mohammad Khatami as well as unelected conservative clerics who have blocked his efforts to reform Iran's "Islamic democracy".

DISCONTENT IN IRAN

IRNA said at least 90 people had been arrested in the past two days in the northwestern city of Tabriz where riot police surrounded the university there.

Police used tear gas to break up protests in the southern city of Yazd and the windows of banks, shops and a judiciary building were smashed in Karaj, west of Tehran.

Analysts predict that with most student leaders in jail or having fled the country after campus protests in 1999 and 2002, the unrest was likely to fizzle out.

While Khatami has remained silent on the protests, his younger brother, deputy parliamentary speaker Mohammad Reza Khatami, said Iran should not use Washington as a scapegoat for the unrest.

"America or any other power does not have the ability to disturb order in our society," he told the Iran newspaper. "There is discontent in Iranian society and we have turned a blind eye to it," he added.

Uniformed police once more guarded Tehran University keeping hardline militiamen and the students inside apart and preventing any repeat of Friday night's clashes in which the Islamic militants fired shots and beat protesters with clubs and chains.

But in one eastern Tehran working class suburb, police, riot police and plainclothes Islamic militants stood shoulder to shoulder as gangs of youths roamed the side streets.

IRNA said the protest was sparked by a sudden crackdown on illegal satellite dishes. Iranian opposition stations based in Los Angeles have played a key role in encouraging people to take to the streets in recent days.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=319880

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Taking the Iran regime by the horns
By Pepe Escobar

A few thousand University of Tehran students have shaken the Islamic Republic of Iran to the core. Teary-eyed veterans of the student movements of the 1960s celebrated by dusting up their situationist slogans and their Bob Dylan anthems: could this be the first revolution of the 21st century?

It all started a just over a week ago when a few hundred students didn't take their nightly meal to protest against the privatization of a university restaurant on the campus. Radio Iran Farda, based in the US, and Los Angeles-based satellite channels broadcasting in Farsi immediately seized the story. As thousands converged to the students' dormitories, the demonstration inevitably became politicized. The defiance was vocal: down with the mullah dictatorship, down with the "Leader of the Revolution" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and down even with reformist President Mohamad Khatami. The startled regime, via intelligence minister Ali Yunisi, claimed that "developments outside the campus were directed by foreign media and satellite channels, and a few extremists from within committed these acts". For Mohammad Reza Djalili, professor at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, this 2003 Tehran spring reflects a very deep social, political and economic malaise: "Iranian society is about to implode. The system is totally blocked. First of all politically, because the reformers can't find a way to change the regime. And socially because the regime can't come to grips with unemployment among young people." Djalili agrees that Iran's actual encirclement by the US - on the one side Afghanistan, on the other Iraq - has added to the regime's extreme nervousness, and has also given alternative ideas to a lot of Iranians. "But all these factors have a relative and marginal impact. The major problem is an internal problem."

The religious conservative elite has been forced to perform a dangerous balancing act: it can't organize a massive crackdown, but at the same time it must prevent the movement from spreading to the rest of the country. Djalili confirms that instead of brutal armed repression, the regime has preferred to send the bassidjis - young Islamist militants, all voluntary recruits - to confront the students, wielding their chains, iron bars and riding their Harley Davidsons.

The bassidjis - literally "mobilization" - are part of an organization created slightly after the Shah's fall in 1979 to entice poor kids into the service of the embryonic Islamic revolution. In the beginning of the war against Iraq in the early 1980s, they were integrated into a special army created to counter-balance a regular army "too influenced by the West", according to the mullahs. Farhad Khosrokhavar, an Iranian sociologist who teaches in Paris, qualifies them as exponents of "lethal Shi'ism, neo-mysticism and necro-mysticism". Middle-class boys and girls in Tehran are experts in dealing with the bassidjis. Whenever the militants patrol the routine Friday get-together of young people in the mountains north of Tehran, girls instantly readjust their black veils over their dark glasses and the odd stereo disappears inside a backpack. And when the bassidjis discover cassettes of "decadent" American pop, a bribe in the form of a pack of cigarettes will do the trick. The bassidjis are complemented by members of the Ansar-i Hizbullah, a plainclothes, volunteer Islamic militia that suppresses dissent and upholds strict codes of behavior by thuggish means.

Djalili stresses that the regime at this point simply cannot afford a repression with lots of dead and wounded: "The students have families, and their parents support them. And the conservatives have to be even more careful because the demonstrators now want the head of reformist President Khatami."

"This is the main news. Until now, Khatami was the security valve for the regime. But after seven years of Khatamism, people are angry, they don't believe him anymore." Significantly, Khatami has not been seen and has not uttered a single public word since the beginning of the protests a week ago.

Djalili poses many relevant questions for the immediate future. How long will the students be able to sustain their resistance? Will the movement cross the gates of the university? Will the state be divided? And in the event of a wave of strikes - for instance in the oil industry - will the state keep the means to take care of its clients? The major problem for now seems to be the absence of a political network to follow up on the students' demands. Djalili reminds us that "in these last 20 years, all movements of the left, liberals, nationalists, even monarchists, were severely repressed".

Last Friday, in the Azadi stadium in Tehran, 100,000 people were watching a soccer match between top local teams Persepolis and Istiqlal. But only 3,000 or 4,000 people were at the Amir Abad university campus - where the students were being hit by the iron bars of the bassidjis and the Ansar-i Hizbullah. Nevertheless, the number of protesters keeps growing slowly but steadily, day by day. One university after the next is being hit by the movement in key urban centers like Isfahan, Shiraz and Mashad. Tahkim-e Wahdat ("Movement of the Consolidation of Unity"), a student union, has been particularly active: three of its leaders have already been arrested.

Many in the Iranian diaspora in Europe, following the events extremely closely, regret only one thing: that the fusion between the very well-organized student movement and the rest of the population still has not happened. But the distance may now be only physical as the campuses in Tehran have been isolated from the rest of the city by anti-riot police. And this cordon sanitaire has only had limited success in preventing the bassidjis and the Ansar-i Hizbullah from attacking the students. And it may prevent the general population from enrolling in the protests. But it certainly does not prevent them from expressing very vocal support.

The key date to watch will be July 9 - the anniversary of the brutal repression of the student demonstrations of 1999. The regime, in full balancing-act-mode, is negotiating a deal with the students: the anniversary of 1999 may be celebrated, but only inside the campuses. And Ansar-i Hizbullah will not be able to invade the campuses to beat up students.

Roughly, south Tehran - very poor and ravaged by the country's economic crisis - has been oblivious to the protests. But north Tehran, middle-class and more Westernized, is very much alert. North Tehran is literally rolling with the arrangement - in their cars, and with their hands on their horns: as reformist journalist Issa Saharkhi put it, "this is protest by honking". Some reformist members of parliament support the student protests - but very carefully. They always make sure to also denounce American interference. In a recent open letter signed by 137 members of parliament, the reformist camp warned that political legitimacy is the only Iranian antidote against a possible American intervention. Reformists have been threatening to resign en masse for quite some time. But the conservatives don't believe that they ever will. And even if they do, the conservatives know they can blame them for the inevitable consequences - or what the Iranian diaspora has already dubbed American "occuberation" (occupation plus liberation).

The conservatives are playing hardball. Students and intellectuals can't do much against the ultra-conservative judiciary. The unelected Guardian Council once again humiliated them all, not to mention President Khatami and the parliament, as it recently rejected twin bills aimed at reclaiming more political authority for the elected parliament and president. The bills will be returned to parliament - and then an extremely diluted version may eventually be approved by the Guardian Council.

Things may be about to implode, as Djalili warned. In another unprecedented, very harsh open letter published last Sunday, 248 Iranian personalities defended the Iranians' right to criticize and even get rid of their leaders: "The exercizing, because of its position, of a divine and absolute power ... and instilling fear in people, is an heresy against God and it oppresses human dignity", reads the letter. The object of the intellectuals' anger couldn't be more specific: the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei - who according to the Islamic Republic's laws simply cannot be criticized.

As much for its mesmerizing cultural influence, dating back to more than 2,500 years, in the 20th century alone Iran has many times left its lasting mark far beyond its borders - from constitutional revolution and oil nationalization to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The goal used to be limited to a single theme: the establishment of a judiciary, nationalization of oil, the end of absolute monarchy. Now Iranians want real democracy: they want it all, and they want it now. Many in East and West cannot but see in these Tehran students the vanguard of a true, indigenous revolution.

(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EF19Ak02.html

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

BTTT

Believe it or not... CNN is broadcasting interviews with Azadi TV an LA based Iranian broadcaster into Iran.

Email CNN and thank them and ask them to continue doing more broadcasts like this.

Comments@cnn.com

You may want to encourage them to also interview

Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi
la_fleur_violette@yahoo.com

She is an intellegent spokewoman for the protesters.
She is very connected, a filmaker and her father (also a filmaker) is in Evin prison right now.
She lives in the NY area.

We need more such spokespeople on the air.

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Please post photos and links to other news stories found on the FreeRepublic. That way people can have a single source thread they can rely on.

Thanks for all your support, in advance.

Increase of Iranian money's devaluation lead to clashes in day time
SMCCDI (Information Service)
June 18, 2003

The Islamic regime forces intervened, this afternoon, in several areas of Tehran in order to beat on shoppers who were protesting against the daily price increase of their needs,

Price of vital items like milk or meat have started to increase in the last 8 days in addition to their exhorbitant prices which were already much higher than the regular Iranian citizens can afford,

Some increases of the last 8 days are happening so fast that the sellers don't have the time to change the sell stickers.

The regime forces were seen beating, in the Azadi avenue on several elder women and men who were insulting the regime's leaders despite their presence.

Source: Info Net

http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/cgi-bin/smccdinews/viewnews.cgi?category=5&id=1055943491

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Thanks for all your work putting this information together!

Bush Doctrine Unfolds :

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Bush Doctrine Unfold , click below:
	click here >>>	Bush Doctrine Unfold	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

Interesting article about the battle of Bush and the State Department on Iran.

Thanks Ernest_at_the_Beach for the interesting post.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/931078/posts

Although this is not related to the protests, Bush just came out and said he will not tolerate nuclear weapons in Iran.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9793-2003Jun18.html

Sporadic clashes rock main Iranian cities for the 9th consecutive night
SMCCDI (Information Service)
July 18, 2003

Sporadic clashes rocked several main Iranian cities for the 9th consecutive night. Smaller protests with chase and runs and clashes took place in the estern and southern parts of the capital were groups of young demonsrators retaliated to the regime forces attacks.

Same trend was followed in the cities of Esfahan, Mashad, Khorram Abad and Shiraz where demonstrations took place leading to sporadic clashes resulting in several injured and arrested especially in Khorram Abad.

In Esfahan, more attacks were made against the students and their dorms which resulted in the popular reaction. Number of injured have been reported as several.

The Capital City Tehran has been brought under a relative control as the demonstrators have reduced their activities to make a tactical adjustment and to counter the fresh troops of the regime composed mainly by foreigners and transferred from the south eastern province of Khoozestan.

Massive unrests are planned for tommorow evening in most cities and more radical actions will take place.

Source: Info net

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Radio Free Asia broadcasts SMCCDI interview serie for Chinese students
SMCCDI (Information Service)
June 18, 2003

Radio Free Asia (RFA) broadcasted, today, for east asia and especially China the 2nd part of the interview made with Aryo Pirouznia, speaking on behalf of SMCCDI. The third part will be broadcasted tomorrow.

The interview was on the current unrests in Iran, the role of the Iranian Students and the similarity or comparaison of their request and action in reference to their Chinese colleagues.

In part of the interview, Pirouznia, stated that the crackdown of July 1999, in Iran, can be compared to the 1989 crackdown on Chinese students in the
"Tian'An men" Square in Beijing but at this time and as the Iranian people have stand up in support of the students such scenario will not happen again.

It is to note that as like as Radio Free Europe (RFE), the RFA was promoted by the US administration in order to push for the spread of the Democratic culture.

The US created as well a subsidiary to the RFE for Iran which was named Radio Liberty but this institution became a tribune for the Islamic regime in order to promote its sham reform. Radio Liberty will be later disolved in order to be replaced by Radio Farda which carries some of the programs made by the former radio Liberty and some other made by the VOA.

One main problem within the new institution, as like as in the former Radio Liberty and the VOA Farsi service, is that some of its Iranian reporters act on partisanship behavior using often discriminatory ways in their approach toward Iranian opponents. Some of them act more on friendship rather than impartial as the Journalistic ethic require.

Same problems, showing a deep lack of maturity and ethic, is existing in some of the opposition radio and networks .

The lAudio links of the 2 first parts of the RFA interview with SMCCDI, translated and broadcasted in Chinese, are as follow:

http://www.rfa.org/service/audio_popup.html?file=http://www.rfa.org/content/
service/can/audio/c0617-tl.mp3

http://www.rfa.org/service/audio_popup.html?file=http://www.rfa.org/content/
service/can/audio/c0618-tl.mp3

Source: SMCCDI

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

PLEASE ask everyone to e-mail or fax Tony Blair.

Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, Iranian filmmaker and NY based leader within the Iranian Student Movement asked me again to ask everyone to e-mail of fax Blair.

As I mentioned yesterday Jack Straw announced that Britain was NOT supporting the Iranian Protesters, rather they supported the mullah President of Iran, Khatami.

After making those RIDICULOUS comments yesterday Straw is now going to IRAN of all things, on Saturday. So please ask people to fax Blair condemning Straw's commentary and his going to Iran. He must apologize for denigrating the very real freedom movement of the people of Iran and impress upon the member nations of the EU to step away from trade with Iran. The EU MUST stop stealing from Iran. They are getting oil from Iran for about 10$ a barrel compared to the market price of around $24 a barrel, for their support of the dictators of Iran. Europe is afraid of the U.S. presence there as well...BUT at least the U.S. is standing up in support of the people's will to overthrow the rule of Islam as government entirely.

Blair's fax nos.: (44/207)925-0918 and (40/207)839-9044

Direct e-mail:

webmaster@pmo.gov.uk

We must FLOOD THEM with e-mails and faxes. The British are not our friends because as coalition members they betrayed our troops when the U.S. blocked Ayatollah Hakim to enter into Iraq. So what did the Brits do? They let him in through the port of Basra where they were in control and that way the insisted more violence between the pro-Iranian Shiites and the Shi'itism that was being promoted by Ayatollah Khoei before he was hacked to death in the Mosque of Imam Ali 2 months ago, in Najaf.

The American people need to step up to the European people and challenge them to force their governments to boycott trade with murderers.

.... Please email this to your friends and ask them to join us. If Britain changes course it will be a tremendous boost for the Iranian people.....

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Britain Seeks Ultimatum to Iran [US Wants Military Action]
News Channel 24 and The UK Daily Telegraph ^ | June 18, 2003 4:17PM | 0821 News Desk

Posted on 06/18/2003 7:40 AM PDT by ewing

Britain is pressing Europe to give Iran an two month ultimatium to comply with international demands to halt its nuclear program and to cut off its alledged support of terrorists, a Britsh Daily said on Wednesday.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/931155/posts

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Tonight's Nightline on Iran with Michael Ledeen

ABCNEWS --Nightline Daily E-Mail | June 18, 2003 | Sara Just

Posted on 06/18/2003 1:16 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah

TONIGHT'S FOCUS: Though they haven't been found yet, one of the principal reasons that the Bush administration put forward as a justification for invading Iraq was that it possessed weapons of mass destruction. Now that the major battles are over in Iraq, is the administration turning its sights on Iran? Is Iran next?

From a certain point of view, Iraq and Iran have a lot in common. Along with North Korea, they were two of the three members of President George Bush's axis of evil. They have both been accused of sponsoring international terrorism. Some believe al Qaeda supporters are hiding in Iran. And weapons of mass destruction? Recent revelations indicate Iran may be further along in its nuclear program than was previously suspected. Some even predict that the radical Islamic state could acquire a nuclear weapon as early as 2006.

Inside the Bush administration a debate has roiled, since long before the war in Iraq, about what to do about Iran. Is it better to try to contain Iran through closer ties, or should the administration try to bring the regime down? Some trusted advisors to the administration, in conjunction with a large Iranian exile community, are pushing for tougher Iran policy. No senior officials have publicly spoken of military invasion of Iran. But from Bush and Rumsfeld on down, there has been talk about providing support to the "reform movement" in Iran.

Is Iran ripe for revolution? Thousands of students and other private citizens took to the streets in the last eight days in Tehran, in what appears to be spontaneous and rare public protest of the unelected government there. How far should the United States go in supporting those protests? Should the U.S. take pre-emptive military action, at least against the suspected nuclear sites?

We'll begin tonight with a report from Chris Bury on the debate in the administration over policy toward Iran. And then Ted Koppel will turn to Michael Ledeen, a former Reagan administration official now with the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute. Ledeen is advocating for a robust American intervention in Iran and is said to be close to key members of the administration. Will his point of view be echoed in the near future by the administration? No one can answer that now - but here's a taste of Ledeen's perspective: "If we are really serious about winning the war on terrorism, we must defeat Iran. Thus far, we haven't been serious enough."

We hope you'll join us.

Sara Just and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington bureau

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/931363/posts

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

Bush, State Dept. at odds over democracy protests in Iran
Jewish World Review ^ | June 18, 2003 | Joel Mowbray

Posted on 06/18/2003 5:38 AM PDT by SJackson

After five nights of courageous demonstrations in Iran - where protesters faced the prospects of beatings, torture or worse - Iranians seeking freedom from an oppressive regime once again found an ally in President Bush. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the president's own State Department.

Speaking to reporters from the Bush family vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, the president said that the protests are "the beginnings of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran, which I think is positive."

This is in keeping with past statements, where Bush has expressed solidarity with the majority of the Iranian population that wants the very freedoms that millions of Americans often take for granted, not the least of which being the right to choose their own government.

Technically speaking, Iran has elections - but they are no more "democratic" than those that used to be held in the old Soviet Union. The country is dominated by an unelected cabal of 12 mullahs, known as the Council of Guardians. The panel vets all candidates for president and Parliament - including the so-called "reformers" - and has the authority to veto any legislation enacted by the legislature. What power they don't have rests in the hands of the unelected "Supreme Leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who controls the military, the police, the press, the judiciary, the oil industry and most corporations that trade with the West.

Amazingly, the State Department's No. 2 official, Richard Armitage, told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year that Iran is a "democracy."

Using the "democracy" line as fig leaf cover, State has been pushing for "engagement" with the mullahs. The professional diplomats there claim that talks with the current regime will actually empower the "reformers" within the government. To the extent there are true reformers in the government, though, they have precious little actual power. Since every "reformer" that is inside the government is there only because the mullahs granted approval, "most of the `reformers' actually support the existing power structure," notes an administration official.

Until May 12 - the date of the al-Qaeda bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that may have been connected to cells operating openly inside Iran - State had been carrying on talks with the Iranian mullahs. The substance of the talks may have been rather limited, insists an administration official who says, "State was kept on a pretty tight leash." But the substance was not the sore point for those inside and outside the administration who support Iran's burgeoning freedom movement; the fact that they took place at all was the problem.

"Engaging" leaders in any way is a tacit acknowledgement of legitimacy, particularly when their very basis for rule is being challenged from within. The Iranian regime is one that has done almost nothing to redeem itself since President Bush named it a member of the "axis evil," as the mullahs continue to oppress the Iranian people while at the same time actively pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. Some estimates cited in a Washington Post story Sunday are that Iran could have nuclear weapons as soon as 2006. The mullahs, though, could actually obtain nukes sooner than that. "It would be 2006 if Iran received no outside help whatsoever," notes an informed source.

The thousands of protesters willing to stand up to the mullahs and their thug enforcers gives the United States an opening to undermine the oppressive regime. When a similar opportunity presented itself last year, however, State stayed mum - it didn't want to "anger" the mullahs.

Excerpted ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/931078/posts

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."

A Revolution Ignored? (Iran)

TCS Tech | 6/17/03 | Pejman Yousefzadeh

Posted on 06/18/2003 11:22 PM PDT by LdSentinal

The Islamic Revolution that brought about the advent of a clerical regime in Iran nearly a quarter of a century ago captured the attention - and quite often, the horror - of the world. Constant press coverage of Ayatollah Khomeini's successful effort to overthrow Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and the Iranian monarchy helped those unfamiliar with Iran learn about the country and its geopolitical significance. And given the historical significance of a theocratic revolution displacing one of the most enduring monarchies in human history, it was entirely proper to have so much attention paid to the Islamic Revolution, and to the eventual creation of an Islamic regime in Iran.

Now, many of the mullahs who helped Khomeini overthrow the Shah are seeing their own power threatened, thanks to nearly a week of protests against the Islamic regime. These are some of the most serious protests that the regime has faced in its existence, and certainly the most serious since the summer of 1999, the last time that Iranians rose up in significant numbers. Considering the fact that the Supreme Religious Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to crack down on the protestors in the same manner that he did in 1999, and considering the fact that violence has indeed broken out, it is clear that the regime is taking the protests seriously, and is concerned about them.

But while there has certainly been coverage of events in Iran, it has not reached the levels of attention paid to the course of the Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s. Perhaps that attention will come in time, but it should be paid now. More media outlets should devote resources to cover the student protests in Iran. They should not be read about merely in Internet stories and newspapers, but should receive coverage on television in order to allow as many people as possible to learn about the potentially momentous events that are taking place there.

And a surefire way to get the press to pay more attention to the protests in Iran is for the Bush administration to talk more about Iran, and to make clear its support for the reformists who aim to change the policies of their country - as well as the regime that propagates those policies.

It is puzzling why the administration has not lent more public support to the Iranian reform movement, especially considering just how much regime and policy changes in Iran could benefit the United States, and the international community at large.

The Islamic regime collaborates with terrorist organizations like Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, and assists them in their murderous operations through financing, weapons transfers, intelligence sharing, and other measures. These groups disrupt efforts to craft a peace settlement that allows Israel and an independent Palestinian state to live side by side. The current effort on the part of the Bush administration to bring about a comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli peace process will benefit from a change in Iran.

Iran's apparent pursuit of a nuclear program - a pursuit that has drawn the attention and concern of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - is another reason for the administration to work aggressively for a change in the policies and regime in Iran. With its huge oil and natural gas deposits, there is no reason for Iran to pursue a nuclear program, unless the country wishes to acquire a nuclear weapons program. Such a program would pose a severe risk to American national security, and to the security of the international community.

Moreover, it is vital to the war on terrorism and to the effort to combat Islamic radicalism to demonstrate Iranian-style radicalism is a failure, and its implementation leads to a failed society. Iran is the chief test case for the proposition that Islamic fundamentalism can make for good government, and that it should be adopted by nations throughout the Muslim world. We know that proposition to be false - the Iranian economy is in a shambles, the Iranian people are increasingly embittered by the way their government treats them. If the reformist movement can succeed in changing the nature of the Iranian regime and the policies it pursues, it could demonstrate to Islamic radicals throughout the world that the fundamentalist vision advanced by Khomeini is a failed one, and that it should not be pursued elsewhere. Communism suffered a tremendous blow to its reputation when the Warsaw Pact nations threw off the oppression of their communist governments, and when the Soviet Union itself fell. Islamic fundamentalism could be similarly discredited via a regime change in Iran - especially given the fact that Iranians are determined to bring that change about.

In response to BBC reports covering the protests in Iran, one Iranian sent the following in an e-mail to the BBC:

The Iranian people have shown their urgent tendency for freedom. Now the US must start to support the demonstration by warning the Iran government not to act against the people. This enforcement from the outside and people's demonstration inside, will finally down the Iran regime. We are waiting for immediate support of the US.

And they deserve to have it. Supporting the Iranian people publicly will help bring about a change in Iran that will benefit both the security interests of the United States and the international community, and the interests of the Iranian people. This burgeoning revolution should no longer be ignored.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/931624/posts

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me."