Iranian Alert -- DAY 33 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST [Breaking News... Jamming Source Identified]

The world media has all but ignored this week's dramatic events in Iran. The regime has masterfully handled the world media. The regime appears to have a new ally in their efforts to silent the media, Cuba.

Several days ago we reported the jamming of LA based Iranian broadcasters, the key link of communication of the Iranian protest movement. The regime had been jamming the signals in the past within Iran using equipment purchased from France.

But days before the July 9th protests were to begin the broadcaster began reporting that their uplink signal was being jammed as well. This would require jamming equipment either in the US or nearby. We have been seeking confirmation of this story. We now have it.

Loral Skynet, hired a firm to investigate the source of the jamming. The result was that they have narrowed the probable source of the jamming to be in the vicinity of Havana Cuba.

The following is the text of a letter from Loral Skynet to Atlanta Direct-to-Home, the service providing satellite broadcast services to several Los Angeles based Iranian broadcasters. The matter is now in the hands of the FCC.

Peggy A Courter Director , Client Services Tel:(908) 470-2362 Fax:(908) 470-2459 Email: pcourter@loralskynet.com

Mr. Michael Day President Atlanta Direct-to-Home (ADTH) 5388 New Peachtree Rd. Chamblee, GA 30341

As reported in the news media, it appears that an unknown entity is blocking certain signals into Loral Skynet's Telstar 12 satellite, which signals carry Farsi language and Iranian programming. Skynet is taking all appropriate actions to resolve the interference, and regrets any inconvenience to Atlanta DTH ("ADTH") and its customers caused by the interference. This letter summaries our understanding of the source of the interference and our efforts to resolve it.

Interference into Transponder 10 on Telstar 12 was first reported to Skynet by one of ADTH's uplinkers on July 5, 2003 at approximately 5:35 p.m. EST, and ADTH spoke with Skynet operations personnel within minutes thereafter to discuss the problem. Skynet immediately instituted its standard procedures for detecting the cause of the interference, including investigating any cross-pole carrier or adjacent operator issues and any recent uplinking activity that may have adversely affected the carrier. Skynet determined that none of those factors contributed to the interference, and that the Telstar 12 satellite and Transponder 10 were, and had been, operating properly (and, in fact, continue to operate properly). As a result, Skynet concluded that the interference was caused by a third party.

Similarly, ADTH instituted several procedures to attempt to resolve the interference, including reducing its bandwidth and splitting capacity among three carriers. Despite these procedures, intermittent interference continued.

Accordingly, Skynet contacted a transmitter geo-location service, TLS, Inc., to attempt to locate the transmit source of the interference. TLS was able to provide an ellipse of the most probable location of the source of the interference, which it identified as being in the vicinity of Havana, Cuba. As the services being interfered with are licensed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the probable source of the interference is not within United States boundaries, on July 9 Skynet forwarded the information concerning the interference and TLS's investigation to FCC personnel. The FCC has contacted TLS for further technical discussions.

As Skynet continues its efforts to eliminate the interference into Telstar 12, I want to reassure you that Skynet understands ADTH's concerns and those of its customers regarding their broadcasting integrity, and Skynet remains full committed to resolving the issue as quickly as possible.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss this matter further.

This story has national security implications. We need to write the media and ensure they cover this breaking story. We need to contact our elected officials and demand they investigate this immediately.

These efforts by the regime, while successful in the short term, do not resolve the fundamental reasons why this regime is crumbling from within.

As Michael Ledeen posted recently, "...we can already say that the regime's intimidation was not successful. And you have to admire the courage of these young Iranians..."

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Please continue to join us here, post your news stories and comments to this thread.

This is not against you. This is against Mullahs.

OK, I get your point; you want to show that some Iranian youth are prepared to go to the extreme to get rid of the mullahs. But it seems that these extreme kids not only are prepared to die for their cause, but to replace one stupid ideology with another similar brain dead vision.

We have to learn from history and that is that if you have a revolutionary situation the most extreme will have the upper hand, if not the silent majority is given a helping hand. When you have a totalitarian regime the opposition tends to be extreme as the silent majority is frightened. In the former communist central Europe the regimes gave up peacefully, with the exception of Yugoslavia and to some extent Albania.

Groups like the Marxist(!)-Islamist MEK, SUMKÂ (ideology described by their name NATIONAL SOCIALIST IRANIAN WORKERS PARTY) should not only be prevented from acting they should be terminated. Actually we in the West should assist the Iranian government in this.

Our objective is a responsible government in Iran. This means that they should comply with the NPT and not make nuclear bombs, not support terrorism etc. If the people in Iran wants to have a theocracy (which I do not think) it is OK.

My opinion has been that even a majority of the mullahs are fed up with the present situation and that given time we will have a peaceful regime change. However, the last days has convinced me that some groups (read the Rafsanjani clan) is so afraid of losing their money that they will stick to status quo.

As long as Rafsanjani is around there will not be a peaceful change. If we can convince him that Iran is heading for a civil war when Khatami resigns and that the most likely result after the chaos is that the present regime will lose not only power but as well their money, then we can make him and his entourage an offer they can not refuse: A safe haven in Saudi together with say 1 bn USD. (remember the article that Saudi offered 300 mullahs a place in the Sun) This is much cheaper than the cost for the damage that a civil war will cause.

There are a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations going on and we will see the coming weeks if Iran comply with IAEA, extradites the 200 or so al Qaeda followers. I anticipated that these negotiations would have been completed before July 9th but I was wrong. Now is the time to put up the pressure on Rafsanjani. Give him hell Henry!

I'm beginning to be a bit concerned about the Bush administration.

Eala, there is so much going on behind the scenes on this. This is really a major undertaking and it doesn't happen overnight. This is going to change the entire face of the earth. You can't build something new and strong on a rotting foundation. The old, the rotting and the corrupt must be dismatled brick by brick and that's exactly what is being done. Step one, Afghanistan, step two Iraq. Both Iran (who is purchasing missiles from North Korea as well as financing terrorism) and Syria (a major terrorist supporter) are basically isolated. Step three, begin the "peace process" in Israel and Palestine knowing that the terrorists can not accept any peace process and will expose the ugly underbelly of the Iranian sponsored Hizbollah in preparation for the death blow by the US (with the backing of the so called Quartet). Step four, make sure that Africa will not provide safe haven for the fleeing terrorists the mad mullahs employ. Step five...........I won't go on, because we aren't there yet, but so far I can see the entire plan the Bush administration has laid out to eliminate the threat of terror and bring peace and prosperity to the middle east.

I know it's frustrating to wait, but there is no alternative. The demolition is almost complete, the foundation is being laid, the future is bright.

An editorial from Pakistan:

Editorial: Iran must put house in order

Iran is passing through a crucial stage in its history. It is facing internal turmoil on the one hand and external danger on the other. The internal turmoil is the result of a reverse socio-political revolution that has been brewing in Iran since the mid-nineties and which has manifested itself in the political landslide for President Mohammad Khatami in two elections. The external threat emanates from the United States that has Iran in the crosshairs on the issue of Tehran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. The smoking gun on the nuclear front is Iran’s fairly advanced intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) programme of which Shahab III stands as a proud emblem, and Iran’s efforts to develop the nuclear facility at Bushehr, which it says is for energy purposes, a somewhat feeble excuse for a country awash with natural gas and oil. Intriguingly, on the nuclear issue, Iran evinces a nationalistic streak that cuts across the ideological divide between progressive and retrogressive camps. What adds to the complexity of the situation is the fact that the ruling dispensation is increasingly losing its legitimacy which could undermine Tehran’s efforts to negotiate with the outside world.

The past three months have seen many street protests in Iran. Just the other day, hundreds of Iranian pro-democracy students, hard-line Islamic vigilantes and the police fought three-way pitched battles in and around Tehran University on the anniversary of the 1999 student protests in that country. The police faced a tough task of controlling pro-democracy students on the one hand and Islamist zealots on the other and preventing the two groups from clashing violently. There is also something to be said about another dimension of the ongoing protests by the reformists. While initially the reformists, politically, were identified with President Khatami and helped him win the general elections twice, the social backlash to the revolution is now increasingly expressing itself independent of that political support. This is partly owed to the inability of the reformist politicians to break through the controls enshrined in the constitution that concentrate massive coercive and judicial powers in the person of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his capacity as “supreme leader”. Despite the electoral wins the reformists have failed to break the monopoly of power of the hard-liners.

The failure of new social expression – essentially a failure of affirmative action through political channels – has now forced the youth to take the challenge directly to the streets. This is why in June Iranian intellectuals called on Ayatollah Khamenei to relinquish his status as Iran’s “supreme leader” and abandon the principle of being God’s representative on earth. The statement was signed by academics, writers and some clerics. Earlier, in May, in a bold initiative, reformist Iranian MPs appealed to the entrenched conservative camp to allow reforms and normalise relations with the outside world. They warned that Iran could face Iraq’s fate if the realities were not heeded. The appeal, made through an open letter signed by 153 deputies in a 290-seat Majlis (parliament), recognised that Iran faces ‘a critical situation’.

The problem springs from the competition between the earlier social revolutionary situation and the new social expression that craves democratic freedoms. The utopia of 1979 has lost its charm. But the new social thought is hampered by the politico-coercive tools of what has become blasé and which is legalised through the anomalies built into the constitutional structures thrown up by the 1979 revolution. In a manner of speaking, the 1979 revolution and its entrenched interests are ancien regime for the new revolutionaries. Banning newspapers, jailing editors and intellectuals and generally going against the rising tide of reforms, among other things, are acts that provide the fillip to the new thought. Most observers had thought that the new revolution would be bloodless since it slowly expressed itself through parliamentary structures. But the backlash from the conservative camp threatens to shrink the space for a democratic, peaceful transition to the new phase. That is as big a danger to Iran as that from the outside.

On the “outside” front, we have the US and also the European Union pressing Tehran to scuttle its nuclear programme. Last Wednesday, the IAEA director, Mohammad El Baradei was in Tehran to convince Iran to agree to a tougher inspections regime. While Iran has agreed to consider the proposal, it is unlikely that it will relent on what it is doing. The circumstantial evidence is pretty strong. Countries do not develop IRBM capability without the complementary capability to drop a strategic warhead thousands of kilometres away. Also, Iran does not need nuclear energy because it sits atop huge oil and gas resources.

Of course, the argument itself can be plugged into the larger debate on nuclear arms control and disarmament. There is always, also, the argument about Israel’s capability. But there is also a catch here. Israel, India and Pakistan, unlike Iran and North Korea, never signed the NPT. They objected to the whole concept from the start and then went ahead to develop the capability by hook or by crook. But Iran did sign the NPT and is hemmed in by that legally. Of course, it can use the withdrawal clause and get out of the NPT but that would mean coming clean on what it wants to do or is trying to do. However, it is debateable whether this is the right time to do that.

If Iran wants to negotiate the twists and turns it faces today, including circumventing the United States, it, at the least, needs to set its house in order and close ranks. That is why its domestic situation is untenable. Indeed, given the national consensus on the nuclear question, it would be in Iran’s interest if the conservatives could make space for the reformists.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_11-7-2003_pg3_1

I just found this article by one of the true leaders of the conservative movement in America. He says "it's not too late for our country to be more bold in proclaiming support for the Iranians..." Thank God for genuine leaders like him.

Iran Revisited

By Paul M. Weyrich

Just four years ago, July 9th was the start of mass student protests in Iran to protest their repressive government. While the protests failed to usher in a new, more democratic government, many Iranians continue their fight to bring about a freer society.

Unrest continues to dominate the citizens of this country, particularly among young Iranians, and while there were demonstrations earlier this summer, the government had taken steps to prevent open displays of unrest from marking the fourth anniversary. But that didn't stop Islamic vigilantes from seizing student leaders after a news conference yesterday. Silence on the streets of Tehran should not be taken for approval of Iran's governing regime.

Many Americans have unfavorable memories of Iran from the takeover of our hostages that was perpetrated by the followers of Ayatollah Khomeni over two decades ago. Indeed, Iran, ruled by a so-called `reformist' faction for the last seven years, was identified a few months ago as having links to an Al Qaeda cell.

Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) has earned a reputation as a sensible, committed advocate of human rights. When the news broke a few months ago about new evidence that Iran had links to an Al Qaeda cell, Brownback made clear his belief that the Iranian regime is a terrorist regime.

"A longstanding truism of American foreign policy has been that you cannot and should not negotiate with terrorists. I hope that the current revelations will put an end to the dangerous desires by some to make a deal with these tyrants."

However, the tyrants still hold the reins of power for the time being. Just a few weeks ago, Iran's `reformist' president, Mohammad Khatami, insisted his government was not operating an atomic weapons program. This week, however, Iran announced that it had completed testing of a long-range, surface-to surface missile that experts say has the capability of being deployed against Israel.

Many Americans think the clerics exercise total control over the citizens of Iran. But as the demonstrations that took place earlier this year and in 1999 show, the current Iranian regime like the failed Soviet Communist government cannot sate their people's thirst for true freedom.

Now, Brownback is promoting the Iran Democracy Act, which will: a.) expand pro-democracy broadcasting into Iran; b.) increase the participation by Iranian-Americans in the U.S.-Persian radio service, Radio Farda, and increase grants for translating materials into Persian; c.) establish as U.S. policy support for an internationally-monitored referendum to let Iranians to change their system of government; and d.) clearly place the United States on the side of the Iranian people rather than the misidentified "reform" faction that holds power.

When Brownback introduced the Iran Democracy Act, he appeared with several Iranian-Americans who related how their friends had suffered violence, even death at the hands of the Iranian regime's so-called reformists. "How can a regime that would do this to its own people ever be trusted?," he asked.

The choice is between cutting a deal with the so-called reformists who offer a softer, gentler kind of blood-soaked tyranny or being steadfast in support of a whole new system.

The passion and commitment that Iranian exiles have to change their country's system for the better is demonstrated by Zia Ataby who has used his own family's money to help finance National Iranian TV, which is based in Los Angeles, and which broadcasts into Iran. It's just one of a dozen radio and TV stations based in LA which is broadcasting anti-regime messages. One of the former Iranian presidents even used a prayer sermon to warn Iranians against becoming ensnared by the "evil" TV networks established by his country's expatriates. Iran's government has jammed Ataby's signals and those of other anti-regime stations, even Voice of America programming. But the pro-change message continues to be sounded, and protest leaders in Iran call the stations to let others know what is happening.

The situation in Iran is not exactly comparable to the crackup of the Soviet Union. However, continued resistance to the regime by student demonstrators is a sign that the grip of the ayatollahs over the nation's young is weakening. The nation's economic ills suggest the discontent is more widespread and deeper than kids who just want to listen to rock music. It's been estimated that seventy percent of the nation's gross domestic product is concentrated in government-controlled entities that are inefficient. Inflation, high unemployment, and a high rate of poverty plague Iran.

As one who saw firsthand how badly many of our government's foreign policy "experts" failed to recognize the massive changes underway in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, it's hard not to wonder if history is repeating itself again. In fact, the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Ledeen had argued that we would have been better off to tackle Iran first, rather than Iraq, because of the discontent that is prevalent throughout Iran's citizenry. If Iran's regime had fallen and a democratic government put in its place, then that might have inspired an uprising in Iraq.

It's too late for that exact scenario to occur. But it's not too late for our country to be more bold in proclaiming support for the Iranians who seek a better system of government that truly serves their needs, not just those of the governmental and clerical elites. The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee so far are not considered to be supportive of Senator Brownback's Iran Democracy Act. But there may come a day when the leaders of a new Iran ask us: "Whose side were you on, the government's or the people's?" Is there any doubt what our answer should be?

http://toogoodreports.com/column/general/weyrich/20030710.htm

BRUTALISED IRANIAN-CANADIAN PHOTOJOURNALIST DIED IN HOSPITAL

ROME 12 July (IPS) The Association of Iranian Journalists Abroad (AIJA), in a fax to the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, protested vigorously to the death of Ms. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-born Canadian photo-journalist.

Ms. Kazemi, 54, a free lance photographer covering for the Montreal-based "Recto Verso" and the London-based "Camera Press Agency", had been arrested on 23 June in Tehran while taking pictures near the notorious Evin prison and taken to an undisclosed prison, where, according to informed sources, she had been beaten to death, accused of espionage.

Confirming the death, the Director General of the press and foreign media department of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad Hoseyn Khoshvaqt, on Saturday said "the hospitalised Iranian photographer and reporter, Zahra Kazemi, 54, passed away Friday night as a result of brain stroke".

"Kazemi, introducing herself as an Iranian national, was authorised to take photos and prepare reports on the recent university unrests as a representative of the English "Camera Press" institute", Mr. Khoshvaqt added, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, keeping silence that she had been arrested and beaten up.

According to the official, the victim complained of a headache while being interrogated at the Information (Intelligence) Ministry, after being detained by Evin prison’s guards "who treated her as an Iranian national, since she had produced Iranian passport".

"The AIJA accuses you as the sole responsible of the death of our colleague, Ms. Zahra Kazemi, as not only you are the commander of all the Armed Forces of Islamic Republic, but also one that directly controls the pressure groups and rogue plainclothesmen and their prisons", the Rome-based Association said in a fax to Mr. Khameneh'i.

The Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF, or Reporters Without Borders) for its part in a statement says it hold the Iranian authorities as "responsible" for the death of Ms. Kazemi, "having used arbitrary procedures for her arrest in the one hand and doing nothing to provide her necessary medical cares".

Canada has urged Iranian authorities to investigate Ms. Kazemi’s case, particularly allegations that she had been beaten while in custody.

According to newspaper reports, Ms. Kazemi was grabbed by plainclothes after taking photographs of the Elvin prison facility in northern Tehran.

Canadian officials said they were unsure of what, exactly, happened to Kazemi after she was taken into custody, but they know she was admitted to hospital under mysterious circumstances two days later.

Her family alleges Kazemi slipped into a coma with a cerebral hemorrhage suffered during a violent interrogation.

The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department said it learned of the arrest on Monday, when Kazemi's mother contacted the Canadian embassy in Iran.

"We have asked the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to investigate and report to us as soon as possible about the circumstances surrounding Kazemi's being taken into detention, and what might have taken place during the detention to require being taken to hospital for urgent medical reasons", a Department’s spokesman said, adding that no reply had been received as of Wednesday afternoon to Canada's request for information.

While Canadian consular officials in the Iranian capital are trying to confirm Kazemi's condition, friends who visited her in the Baqiatollah Hospital Tuesday said she remains unconscious with severe cuts and bruises on her face and head.

Consular officials visited Kazemi in hospital Tuesday, but were kept too far from the patient to properly assess her condition.

Kazemi was born in Iran but later immigrated to Montreal. Her son, Stephen Hachemi, who is in Montreal said he is convinced his mother was assaulted, but discounts suggestions she was involved in espionage.

"Spying? No, she's not spying", Hachemi told the "National Post". "She does the same thing that every journalist does. She takes pictures of what's going on".

"The country is living through nighttime upheavals that are ideal for photographers," she wrote, describing the anti-government student protests that engulfed the capital, sparking mass roundups and the detention of numerous journalists by security forces.

At least 17 journalists are believed to still be in custody following a security clampdown after the student protests.

Meanwhile, the rights group Amnesty International expressed concern over the arrest of three student activists in Iran earlier this week.

The three students activists, Reza Ameri Nassab, Ali Moqtadari and Arash Hashemi of the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) were detained on Wednesday just minutes after they had held a press conference condemning the Islamic republic for banning events to mark the fourth anniversary of bloody student clashes with security forces.

Denouncing the arrests, Amnesty International said the trio "may have been targeted solely for the peaceful expression of their political views".

"During the press conference they criticized restrictions on freedom of expression and association in Iran. They were reported to have been forced to the ground and thrown into three separate vehicles and taken to an unknown destination", Amnesty said, adding that the authorities have confirmed the arrest of up to 4,000 demonstrators in Iran since June 11 in the latest wave of student protests, and that some 2,000 may remain in detention without charge or trial.

But students and other independent sources say the number of protesters detained is more than 8.000, with a hundred abducted, and placed in undisclosed prisons controlled by the ruling conservatives.

"Amnesty International considers them prisoners of conscience and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. Amnesty International also calls for anyone charged with a recognisable criminal offence to be given prompt fair trial.

"The authorities should take immediate measures to ensure that student activists and peaceful demonstrators are treated in accordance with international human rights standards", the statement added. ENDS JOURNALIST DIES 12703

http://www.iran-press-service.com/

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