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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

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

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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

Number of journalists held in unknown location in current crackdown rises to nine

Reporters sans frontières
July 2, 2003

PARIS - Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of another journalist in Iran, Ali Akrami, which brought to at least nine the number of journalists arbitrarily detained in the past few weeks in a crackdown prompted by student demonstrations. It is not known where they are being held and their lawyers and relatives have been unable to get any word of them.

The organisation cautioned the authorities about a campaign orchestrated by judicial officials and revolutionary guards in the mosques and conservative press in which all the detained students and journalists are accused of being "mohareb" (persons who fight against God), which is punishable by death.

Reporters Without Borders also reiterated its call for the release of all the journalists imprisoned in Iran, which now totals at least 17. The recent arrests have made Iran the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East.

Akrami worked for the reformist daily Nedat Eslahat, which has been closed by the authorities for some time. His wife said she has not seen him since 16 June, when he went missing while outside Tehran university, and she said she was worried about his fate.

State prosecutor Saïd Mortazavi has said the recently detained journalists were being held in Evin prisons. But lawyers of the journalists who have gone to the prison have not been able to locate their clients and found no mention of their names in the prison records.

Mohsen Sazgara, the editor of the website Alliran and the (closed) reformist daily Jameh, is meanwhile continuing the hunger strike he began on the day of his arrest on 15 June. He is now very weak, and his condition is all the more worrying because he has a heart ailment. His wife, who is also on hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment, was summoned by judicial officials on 25 June and was hospitalised the same day.

http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/cgi-bin/smccdinews/viewnews.cgi?category=5&id=1057154724

"Failure of Iran's recent unrest a disgrace for US"

Tehran, Jul 1 - Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday described the United States as a 'dinosaur with a bird's brain' and said that the failure of recent unrest in Iran, encouraged by Washington, was yet another disgrace for America, IRNA reported.

"The failure of recent riots in Iran brought about another disgrace for America," he told a festival, held by the Iranian Air Force here.

Iran's leaders have said that Washington was behind several days of rioting in Tehran and some other cities and that US officials' praise for the unrest constituted a 'blatant interference in Iran's internal affairs'.

[Iranian students gather in a demonstration at the Amir Kabir university in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 16, 2003. More than 250 university lecturers and writers have called on Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to abandon the principle of being God's representative on earth and to accept his accountability to his people. The move follows a week of protests and riots in Tehran in which pro-democracy demonstrators clashed with police and vigilantes who support the hard-line clerical regime. Theprotests witnessed unprecedented condemnation of Khamenei, calls for his death, in a land where criticism of the supreme leader is punishable by imprisonment.]

"Recent unrest in our country was so much important for America that Mr. (George W.) Bush announced that he supports the protestors and will remain with them," Rafsanjani said.

"The American Congress also announced that it will establish channels to contact the rioters," the official, who heads the arbitrative Expediency Council, added.

Rafsanjani cited US-led occupation of Iraq as another blunder and said America is like a dinosaur which has a got a bird's brain.

"More than three months have passed since the end of war in Iraq and insecurity still predominates in that country, but Washington is not responsible for the reasons for this insecurity," he declared.

By invading Iraq, US is now repeating its military debacle in Vietnam, he said forecasting a 'bitter experience for America' ahead.

"America must realize that it has embarked a hard work and it presumes that the world has no custodians.

"American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likens the troubles resulting from Iraq's occupation to the times when America was gaining independence.

"His analysis is false since the American people were seeking independence, but armed forces cannot bring independence for the Iraqi people," Rafsanjani said.

The former president, who partly served during the 1980-1988 imposed war of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, played down threats of any military action against Iran.

"The enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran have the experience of the eight-year Sacred Defense in their archives and (know) that Iran is not a suitable ground for aggression," Rafsanjani said.

He reiterated that 'the Islamic Republic of Iran's doctrine is not to invade and attack although the country enjoys a favorable military power'.

A high-ranking police officer seen arguing with a masked student in the fourth consecutive day of protest in areas around Tehran University campus and dormitories on 13 June 2003 in Tehran.

The official, however, stressed the need for investment in the country's military and defense research establishments in the face of 'American floating of the plan to establish a unipolar world'.

"Under such conditions, it is necessary to maintain Iran's defense preparedness and our vigilance," he said.

Commenting further on the recent unrest in Iran, Rafsanjani said, "Washington paid a very heavy price to create an atmosphere of unrest in our country."

The riots were conducted by 'a bunch of thugs, hooligans and hoodlums who thought a miracle was in the offing in Iran', he added.

The riots followed a peaceful gathering of students to protest perceived privatization of state universities, which officials have denied, and took an ugly turn when vigilantes attacked students.

Police have said maximum security had been restored following the unrest and vowed to 'stand up with full force to those who seek to jeopardize the country's security'.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=16620&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

APANESE PRIME MINISTER WEIGHS IN ON POSSIBLE OIL DEAL WITH IRAN.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on 2 July urged the Japanese consortium that includes Tomen Corporation, Inoex Corporation, and Japan Petroleum Exploration Company to examine from several angles the possibility of signing an oil-development contract with Iran, Jiji Press reported. Koizumi said important factors are nuclear nonproliferation, Japan's role in the international community, and domestic Iranian issues. On 1 July, Tokyo announced that Japan will not sign a contract with Iran for an oil-development project if Tehran fails to address international concern about its nuclear activities (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 July 2003). BS

IRAN-INDIA GAS PIPELINE LOOKS DOUBTFUL. The respected daily "New Delhi Business Standard" reported on 2 July that the possible discovery of more natural-gas reserves in the Krishna-Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh and the deep waters off the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal is threatening to overshadow the proposed natural-gas pipeline from Iran to India.

Citing anonymous "knowledgeable sources," the report said that even if India does import liquefied natural gas from Iran, it is unlikely to invest in a natural-gas pipeline, not least because supply and demand projections show that India's natural-gas supplies are sufficient to meet demand by 2006-07, and if there are more discoveries India could have a surplus of gas. The pipeline project was a major feature of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's January visit to India, and India has voiced skepticism about the security of a pipeline that would pass through Pakistan (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 27 January 2003 and 10 March 2003). BS

Source: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 124, Part III, 2 July 2003

Shah's son rallies American Right against mullahs

Iran's exiled crown prince says religious leaders cannot deliver real reform, writes David Rennie in WashingtonFrom his exile home near Washington, Reza Pahlavi is confident that he smells revolution in the Iranian air. It may be a long way from suburban Maryland to the streets of Teheran, but he has been here before.

He was 18, and a crown prince, the last time there was regime change in Iran. In Texas for air force training, he watched as his father, the Shah, left his country on a medical "vacation" that swiftly became permanent exile.It was January 1979, and the western-backed monarchy had been swept aside with startling speed, after months of martial law, riots and crippling strikes.

Now, in emails, faxes and telephone messages that reach him from Iran every day, Mr Pahlavi says he senses a similar mixture of disdain and impatience.

Western politicians - most recently Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, who visited Teheran on Sunday - continue to pin hope on the elected elements of the Iranian state, urging President Mohammed Khatami and his allies to stand by promises of reform. To Mr Pahlavi, they are too late.

"Certain quarters still insist on raising hopes based on so-called moderates. But the world is behind the curve by at least a year. For all practical purposes, the reform movement is dead," he told The Telegraph.

"I don't know Mr Khatami personally. I'm not suggesting that he's necessarily somebody with evil intent. Perhaps he even had good intentions. But at the end of the day he has failed to deliver."

Iranians are not just disappointed with their president. "It's beyond disappointment. They're enraged," said Mr Pahlavi. He resists talk of regime change from outside, and especially threats of military intervention.

"There is no need for it. Change in Iran will happen from within," he said. The outside world's role should be to offer moral support for the protesters - 4,000 of whom were arrested last month - and to sever political and commercial ties with the mullahs.

He has reached out to his countrymen from afar, calling for civil disobedience, then a referendum, so that Iranians can decide their own form of democratic government.

Mr Pahlavi has powerful friends in Washington. On Capitol Hill, Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, has called for £30 million in funding for opposition groups and broadcasters, many with monarchist links.

A group of neo-conservative hawks recently formed the Coalition for Democracy in Iran, advocating an all-out drive to overthrow the mullahs.

Mr Pahlavi knows what his new friends want to hear, predicting that a democratic Iran would scrap its nuclear weapons programme, and hinting that a new Iran would restore the friendly ties with Israel forged by his father.

The Bush administration is more cautious, even declining to endorse Mr Brownback's bill for the moment. George Tenet, the CIA chief, told Congress this year that "no Iranian government, regardless of its ideological leanings" will readily give up weapons "seen as guaranteeing the security of Iran".

Mr Pahlavi dodges the question of whether he would be king. He said his "only mission" was to lead Iran towards a democratic choice of government. "On that day I've said my mission in life would be accomplished," he declared.

Many Iranian-Americans mutter that he is surrounded by hardliners from his father's old regime. Yet he is not afraid to voice remarks that would appal the old guard. He said some good came from Iran's 24-year "direct experiment with theocracy".

It has been "tragic and costly", but Iranians have been "intellectually and ideologically inoculated" against clerical rule.

"Unless there is a clear separation between religion and government, there is no hope for meaningful democratisation. This is the basic conclusion that Iranians have reached," he explained.

• A French court yesterday ordered the release on bail of Maryam Rajavi, the symbolic leader of the Iranian opposition People's Mujahideen, who is suspected of terrorist offences.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030702/wl_mideast_afp/azerbaijan_iran_us_030702212008
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U.S. to Beam TV Show to Iran From Washington

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2003; Page A16 [An Excerpt]

The U.S. government plans to launch a Persian-language television newscast in Iran on Sunday as the Bush administration continues to encourage internal dissent against the ruling clerics, administration officials said yesterday.

The Voice of America program, to be announced today, will be sent from Washington by satellite to avoid the jamming that has interfered with U.S. government radio programs aimed at the Iranian people.

The program, "News and Views," will include headlines, a report about the United Nations and a cultural package. It will air nightly from 9:30 to 10 p.m., Tehran time. VOA said a network of Iranian stringers will supply news from within the country.

The U.S. government's satellite newscast builds on the efforts of exiles in Los Angeles who are trying to promote rebellion in Tehran and other Iranian cities by beaming private radio and television programs into the country by satellite. The United States has said it is not involved in those programs, but some Pentagon officials and others in the administration have argued for a more activist approach to undermining the mullahs.

Voice of America officials said the mission of the new program is journalistic. But President Bush has praised Iranian protesters for demanding greater freedom from the clerics for pursuing what he calls a "free Iran." The White House has been working with allies around the world to try to build pressure on Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.

A senior administration official, who refused to be identified because the plan has not been announced, said the mission of the new newscast is to "add volume and reach" to the efforts of the exiles.

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the VOA, said the goal is to provide Iranians with an alternative to news programs controlled by their government.

"By reporting what's happening, we can help further the struggle for freedom and self-determination in Iran," Tomlinson said. "The demonstrations alone reflect the unrest in the nation, and if ever there was a time when the people of Iran needed sound, factual, objective reporting on their country, it's now."

The program will last at least through Sept. 30, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors plans to spend about $500,000 on it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1078-2003Jul2.html