Iranian Alert -- DAY 46 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 7.25.2003 | DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movment in Iran from being reported.

From jamming satellite broadcasts, to prohibiting news reporters from covering any demonstrations to shutting down all cell phones and even hiring foreign security to control the population, the regime is doing everything in its power to keep the popular movement from expressing its demand for an end of the regime.

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

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.

Thanks for all the help.

DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

Reporters Without Borders Renewed Call for Independent Investigation

July 23, 2003
Reportes Without Borders
R.S.F

Reporters Without Borders called on the Canadian authorities to set up an international commission to investigate the death in custody in Iran of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who had both Canadian and Iranian citizenship, after the Iranian authorities created a new obstacle to any enquiry by hastily burying her today in Chiraz, her birthplace in the south of the country.

Kazemi's burial will make it "much more difficult to establish the truth" and was clearly intended to obstruct the investigation, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said. "A new autopsy would have been needed and no doubt strong pressure was put on Kazemi's mother to retract the letter the signed on 19 July in the Canadian embassy in Tehran requesting that her daughter be buried in Canada," he added.

The burial took place just a few hours after the Iranian news agency Isna reported that Kazemi's mother had written to the Iranian authorities asking for her daughter to be buried in Iran. Astonishingly, the mother's letter was conveyed by a member of the governmental commission of enquiry set up by President Mohammad Khatami. The commission had until than opposed Kazemi's burial until the enquiry was completed.

Reporters Without Borders urged the Canadian government to take the initiative of setting up an international commission of enquiry and to pressure the Iranian government into accepting the commission.

"It is clear now that only an international enquiry will be able to identify who was involved," Ménard said. "The Iranian regime clearly has no desire to shed light on this case and prosecute those responsible for this murder."

The person currently in charge of the enquiry is the Tehran public prosecutor and revolutionary, Said Mortazavi, who is himself under suspicion. According to the commission set up by the president, Mortazavi personally attended the interrogation of Kazemi in the first few hours after her arrest in Tehran on 23 June. Mortazavi is known for cracking down on reformist newspapers for the past three years and having dozens of journalists detained.

A total of 21 journalists are currently in prison in Iran, 13 of whom were arrested in the past 40 days. This makes the Islamic republic the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East. Thirteen of the detained journalists are being held by Mortazavi's staff and Revolutionary Guards in the same centre where Kazemi was interrogated.

These detainees are denied all rights (such as visits from their lawyer and family) and are kept in deplorable conditions. Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about their fate, especially as their relatives have referred to physical and psychological torture in a letter to President Khatami.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=7608

[DoctorZIn]

Germany Charges Iranian Man with Spying
World News
Jul 25, 2003

BERLIN - German federal prosecutors charged an Iranian man with spying Friday, accusing him of collecting information on Iranian opposition groups for the government in Tehran.

Prosecutors said in a statement that 65-year-old Iradj S., who also holds German citizenship, had worked for Iran's VEVAK secret service from 1991 to 2002.

They said he had gathered details of members and activities of the Iranian opposition groups as well as of former members of SAVAK, Iran's intelligence service under the Shah.

The man was arrested on June 12.

Iranians opposed to Islamic clerical rule in June staged the most outspoken wave of protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1395.shtml

[DoctorZIn]

Iran Names Judge to Probe Woman's Death

NYTimes 7.25.2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:46 p.m. ET

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran has named a veteran judge to lead an independent inquiry into the death of an Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in police custody, the prosecutor's office said Friday -- the second major investigation of the case in two weeks.

The death of Zahra Kazemi has become another dispute in the struggle for power between reformers and hard-liners who control Iran's police force, judiciary and security agencies. Reformers have called for the ouster of hard-liners they hold responsible for her death.

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The new inquiry was ordered by Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who demanded those behind the journalist's death face an open trial. Canada also recalled its ambassador, threatened sanctions and demanded a new investigation into the journalist's death.

Kazemi died July 10, nearly three weeks after she was detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests. After 77 hours of interrogation, she was rushed to an intensive care unit in a hospital controlled by hard-line Revolutionary Guards, where she died 14 days later.

Officials had tried to bury Kazemi quietly, saying she died of a stroke, but were stopped by presidential investigators. The reformist vice president then announced Kazemi died of a beating.

The presidential committee that investigated Kazemi's death said she had complained of punishment from her guards and died of a ``fractured skull, brain hemorrhage and its consequences resulting from a hard object hitting the head or the head hitting a hard object.''

In a letter published Thursday, Mohammad Hussein Khoshvaqt, head of the foreign press department, said Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi had forced him to announce that Kazemi had died of a stroke.

On Friday, a prosecutor's office official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Judge Javad Esmaeili will head the new probe and has begun preliminary investigations, including a visit Thursday to the Evin prison where Kazemi had been detained.

``Esmaeili's appointment is a step forward. At least the main suspect is not sitting as the judge,'' said reformist lawmaker Reza Yousefian.

Canada withdrew its ambassador after Kazemi was buried Wednesday in her birthplace, the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, against the wishes of Canadian authorities and her son, who lives in Montreal.

In a separate development Friday, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi demanded a thorough investigation into the July 14 shooting death of an Iranian by Canadian police in Port Moody, a small city east of Vancouver.

Keyvan Tabesh, 18, of Burnaby, British Columbia, was waving a machete and running toward a plainclothes police officer when the officer killed him. Tabesh was an Iranian citizen with immigrant status who had lived in Canada for about two years.

``The Canadian government has failed in its diplomatic responsibility to report this case to the Islamic Republic of Iran quickly,'' Kharrazi said in remarks carried by state-run Tehran TV.

A spokesman for Canada's Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited Iran to send observers to Canada to oversee the police investigation into Tabesh's death.

``We are ready to offer them (Iran) complete and unfettered assistance in communicating with the authorities,'' Reynald Doiron said Friday.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iran-Canada-Journalist.html

[firewalk]

bttt

[DoctorZIn]

Don’t give US an excuse: Khatami

TEHRAN: The United States wants to overthrow the Islamic regime in Tehran, which must avoid giving Washington any excuse to step up its campaign, Iranian President Khatami said Thursday.

“The White House is taking a stand against the Iranians and wants to overthrow the Islamic regime, but we should not give them any pretext,” he said addressing a crowd in Firuzkuh. —AFP

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_25-7-2003_pg7_12

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

[dixiechick2000]

Do either of you believe Iran has Al-Qaeda members in custody?

I notice they don't reveal their names.

[dixiechick2000]

"Several soldiers and militiamen have been arrested following the incendie that destroyed, on Wednesday, the Ghassr e Firoozeh Military depots by destroying millions of dollars of goods."

Does this concern the fires yesterday?

[McGavin999]

The middle east is ripe for change. It's all going to hinge on how steady the American people are, how resolved, how strong. If we falter, we leave a world of chaos for our children.

[nuconvert]

Good. He's doing our work for us.

“The White House is taking a stand against the Iranians and wants to overthrow the Islamic regime"

Keep it up, Khatami.

[nuconvert]

Since no one's answered.....I believe so.

[dixiechick2000]

Why, thank you. ;o)

[nuconvert]

Again, since no one has answered.......I think there were names mentioned in another article I read. But the Iranian gov't isn't confrming the identities. It's strange. It seems like one day they say they have people, and the next day they deny it. At least, that's how it seems to me.

[dixiechick2000]

That's how it has seemed to me, as well.

The one word that comes to my mind is "leverage".

[nuconvert]

How about schizophrenic?

[dixiechick2000]

LOL! That works...

[GOPJ]

Sad but true:

Everytime I start to feel that same way, I remind myself that Clinton does nothing without an ulterior motive. He is certainly NOT motivated by a desire to help out Pres. Bush. His comments are just a smokescreen that he intends to deflect any critizism of HIS actions and the intel collapse that ocurred during his 2 terms in office.

[nuconvert]

Ronin,

Whenever this terrible feeling starts to invade your brain again, just get a mental picture of the old "snake oil" salesman, the "flim flam man" , that smooth talkin guy that could sell you rabbit pellets and tell you they're vitamins. Then stick Clinton's face on him.
You'll be okay.

[dixiechick2000]

"Whenever this terrible feeling starts to invade your brain again, just get a mental picture of the old "snake oil" salesman, the "flim flam man" , that smooth talkin guy that could sell you rabbit pellets and tell you they're vitamins."

That is absolutely the best description of Southern Democrats that I have ever seen.

Thank you!

[DoctorZIn]

..."Several soldiers and militiamen have been arrested following the incendie that destroyed, on Wednesday, the Ghassr e Firoozeh Military depots by destroying millions of dollars of goods."
Does this concern the fires yesterday? ...

Yes!

[dixiechick2000]

Thank you! I pray for them...