Iranian Alert -- DAY 23 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

To find the links to all the 23 threads go to:

Live Thread Ping List | 7.2.2003 Posted on 07/02/2003 12:31 AM PDT by DoctorZIn

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

This morning I would like to start with a personal story. I was chatting on line with an Iranian who was depressed because they had lost use of their satellite TV. Recently they had heard a helicopter over their home.

The next day there was posted a notice to turn in their satellite dish or face a huge fine (worth several months salary). This was depressing because they no longer had access to the news.

I was able to send them the link to our webpage and the daily thread and they were thrilled. They loved the banner I am using on my webpage, which VisualOps had created. He was thrilled to see a hero of her's on the artwork, Ahmad Batebi. He is a young Iranian who was arrested four years earlier in that student protests of 1999. He is most famous for the photo showing him holding up the t-shirt of a fallen student that was drenched in blood. This young man has been in prison for four years now and now has acquired MS and most of the time, if not all, was placed in solitary confinement.

The They we no longer alone. They were in touch with the rest of the world. I would expect we may hear from them in the days ahead, if they dare.

The protests are continuing, though smaller and spread across the country. There are clashes with the regime. Last night there were clashes in Khoozestan following the "executions of two freedom fighters."

“Slogans against the regime and its leaders were shouted by many despite the heavy presence.”

“Several protesters and members of the security forces, many of them of Iraqi origin, were injured in the clashes as residents tried to stop the public executions from taking place.”

“The two men were among those arrested during the violent clashes that rocked the City Of Ahwaz earlier this month and were involved in the popular uprising against the regime.”

We now have less than a week before the big show down. Soon we will see whose resolve is greater. I will report back as soon as I have information

BUMP for the Brave Iranians! July 9, we are with you.

Let's all hope that this is the beginning of the end for the Mad Mullahs.

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

Great work. Happy to read that sort of story first thing A.M..

Does anyone have those "Free Iran now" images that wereposted the other day?

Wonderful story, great stuff to read first thing in the morning..

Iranian students 25 years ago, begging for what they have now.

Your post implies that these are the same students still at the university 25 yrs later.

Good morning! Your post #3 was very interesting. I hope they can find a "home" here. Thank you for sending the link.

BTTT!

Khatami Threatens to Resign if Students are Executed

July 02, 2003
The Media Line
Melanie Takefman

The Student protests in Iran are entering their third week and it seems the situation is still far from being under control. Over the past two weeks, more than 8,000 students have been arrested during demonstrations against the regime and religious clerics. At an emergency meeting of the High Council of National Security which took place this week, President Khatami condemned proclamations of senior religious clerics to execute the student leaders, according to the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat.

Participants at the meeting said Khatami gave a direct warning to the Judiciary Authority and an indirect warning to spiritual leader Ayatollah ‘Ali Khamanai, stressing that he will not hesitate to give in his resignation “straight to the people”if the threat to the lives of the student leaders is not removed.

During the meeting, Khatami harshly criticized Tehran’s Prosecutor General Sa’id Murtadawi, also known as “The Press Murderer”. Murtadawi was appointed by Iran’s spiritual leader ‘Ali Khamanai to thwart the activities of independent reform newspapers and incarcerate their editors. Murtadawi was recently given the unusual authorization to imprison people for long-terms even though the law does not allow detaining people for more than one day without presenting an indictment.

President Khatami delivered a speech on Wednesday during the opening session of the national judges seminar in which he stressed that the most important mission of a regime subordinate to God is to establish an efficient judiciary authority aimed at “creating an insecure atmosphere for those who make society insecure.” He later clarified his remarks, saying that the worst danger posed to society is violating people’s rights and liberties. “People are free within the framework of the law and our duty is to promote their freedom,” the President told the Iranian national news agency.

Khatami and his reform-supporting partners, among them head of Parliament, Mahdi Karoubi, are concerned about the fate of several detainees who were forced by Murta’sawi’s people to “confess” on national television to ties with opposition elements abroad. They were also made to confess to supporting the contents of television and radio satellite broadcasts transmitted by Iranian opposition activists based in Los Angeles.

The concern of Khatami and his supporters has increased in light of sermons and declarations of senior religious clerics, broadcasted continuously on Iranian television and radio. These sermons call for the execution of students and detainees in order to prevent a repetition of the demonstrations that occurred in July, 1999.

Khatami threatened to resign upon receiving information that the spiritual leader Khamanai approved the request of prosecutor general Muta’sawi to execute at least four of the student leaders prior to the protests anticipated to be held on the 9th of July.

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news_en.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=07&d=02&a=8

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

DoctorZin Note: The funny thing is that the students want him to resign. He is struggling to stay in power, what little he has. It is also interesting that they are now reporting there are 8,000 students in custody and that the protests have been continuing. Just as I have been reporting to you.

Death to Theocracy

July 01, 2003
CNSNews.com
Robert W. Tracinski

The Bush administration has been right in recent weeks to focus attention on Iran--but not because of the threat that Iran might build nuclear weapons. Iran is the source of a much more powerful weapon of mass destruction that already has been unleashed against the West: the ideology of Islamic theocracy, with its tactic of state-sponsored terrorism.

And we must confront this threat now because we have an opportunity to strike at the very heart of Iran's regime by supporting its repudiation by its own citizens.

Iran has long been the leading ideological and material source of terrorism. The Ayatollah Khomeini was the first to develop a systematic theory of modern Islamic theocracy--a totalitarian fusion of mosque and state that is nearly identical to the philosophy later espoused by Osama bin Laden. Under the theocracy founded by Khomeini, Iran has been a systematic exporter of the ideas and methods of terrorism, backing international terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Most important, Iran was the first Islamic regime to strike systematically at the United States, from the seizing of our embassy in Tehran in 1979 -- to the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 -- to the kidnapping of Americans in Lebanon through the 1980s -- to Iran's probable involvement in the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 -- to its sheltering of al Qaeda leaders responsible for the latest anti-American bombing in Saudi Arabia. For almost a quarter of a century, Iran has been at war against the United States of America.

The most dangerous precedent set by this not-so-secret war is the fact that America has refused to fight back. Every administration since 1979 has followed a policy of appeasement, from trading arms for hostages to the State Department's recent "secret" negotiations with the mullahs.

Iran's rulers use terrorism as a tactic because it allows them to wage war against America without suffering the consequences of a real confrontation with a powerful foe. But this only works because we have chosen not to respond.

Now, however, we have been given an unprecedented opportunity to strike at the heart of the mullah's power. When the Soviet Union fell, the world discovered that no one hated Communism more than those forced to live under it.

Similarly, no one in the Middle East hates Islamic theocracy more than the young people of Iran. For four years, Iranian students have held mass protests in the streets. These protesters are openly fighting for the right principles: the idea of a secular government with freedom of speech and separation of mosque and state.

Despite arrests of opposition leaders, the rebellion is growing--and it has been emboldened by America's invasion of Iraq. A reporter with McLean's, a Canadian newsmagazine, recently traveled across Iran and heard one message: "They would welcome American troops if they were sent to remove the leadership." A young female student told him: "We want more freedom. We want the freedom to speak our minds, and we think America can bring this to us."

These demands for freedom are more than loose talk. The Iranian dissidents have set July 9 as the date for a massive general strike to protest against theocracy -- an event that could initiate a showdown with the regime.

This opportunity is too important, and the threat from Iran is too urgent, to allow for a moment's delay. It is crucial for Congress and the administration to provide immediate material, diplomatic, and moral support for the Iranian rebels.

But we dare not depend on these unarmed dissidents to overthrow the mullahs on their own. We cannot abandon them to an Iranian equivalent of the Tiananmen Square massacre. We must be prepared to use our overwhelming military might to destroy Iran's theocracy.

The reasons for toppling Iran's theocracy are far stronger--and more certain--than the reasons for invading Iraq. President Bush has described America's military victory in Iraq as the "turning of the tide" in the War on Terrorism.

But supporting the rebellion against the mullahs would be more than a military victory. It could decisively turn the ideological tide in the Middle East. Helping to establish a secular government on the ruins of a theocracy would provide a vivid demonstration of the failure of Islamic fanaticism -- and a model of a free, prosperous, secular society.

This is the main battle in the War on Terrorism, and it is about to commence. America only needs to decide whether we will choose to fight it.

(Robert Tracinski is a senior editor at the Ayn Rand Institue in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.)

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news_en.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=07&d=02&a=3

Who controls the troops and security forces. Instead of resigning, he should simply execute the spirtual leaders instead of the students.

Re #13

I wonder why they stopped lying and admit now that they have actually 8,000 in custody. I see the regime showing some cracks now.

Bush is on TV speaking about the Iranian regime. He had just spoken to Putin and they are putting pressure on the Iranians regarding their nuclear ambitions. BTW, it is Bush's b-day. He told the reports to remember to wish him happy birthday.... he said, Putin had.

Re #13

If he would not support protesters, he should resign and go home.

It is still the same ideology driving them.

Who controls the troops and security forces. Instead of resigning, he should simply execute the spiritual leaders instead of the students.

There are a variety of military groups in Iran. They have a standard military (mostly conscripts and many sympathetic to the protest movement. I have written about this in past threads but the mullahs have never trusted the military, so they created several paramilitary forces to act as a check against the military. Some of these groups are better trained and equipped than the military itself. Frankly, these groups could easily take the country into civil war.

I like your idea about who should be executed. I think most Iranian agree with you, “attach them to trees,” as they say.