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Iranians Rally Against United States
Yahoo news ^ | Mon Feb 11, 5:42 PM ET | By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

Posted on 02/12/2002 8:22:09 AM PST by vannrox

Iranians Rally Against United States Iranians Rally Against United States
Mon Feb 11, 5:42 PM ET

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Angered by the United States' labeling of Iran as part of an "axis of evil," hundreds of thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" on Monday during demonstrations to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

Photos

AP Photo
Audio/Video
(AP)
The gathering was much larger than last year's commemorations as Iranians used the occasion to show their anger with President Bush (news - web sites)'s condemnation of their country in his State of the Union address. Many Iranians who said they rarely join such celebrations spoke of taking to the streets to show solidarity.

Men, women and children poured into Tehran's Freedom Square carrying anti-U.S. banners and burning effigies of Uncle Sam.

"This year, despite insults to the great Iranian nation and the trumped-up charges against it, the Iranian nation has commemorated the anniversary of its revolt on a greater scale than before," President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) said.

State television reported that millions of people took part in rallies in all major Iranian cities.

Khatami said the United States should understand the message of Iran's revolution: independence, freedom and an Islamic Republic.

His speech was repeatedly interrupted by chants of "Death to America!" — a phrase dating to the days of the 1979 revolution that lost its edge in recent years as the idea of a gradual rapprochement with the United States gained a following among Khatami's reform-minded supporters.

In Washington, the Bush administration said Monday it would talk to and work with Iranian government officials despite the demonstrations and a suggestion by Khatami blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks. But it demanded that Iran stop sponsoring terror and trying to develop weapons of mass destruction.

"If Iran wants to set a clear course toward the modern world, we're happy to talk to them, work with them," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Early in the U.S. war on terrorism, American officials spoke of better cooperation with Iran after it tacitly approved their campaign to topple the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan (news - web sites). But recently, U.S. officials have accused Tehran of trying to undermine Afghanistan's new government and of smuggling weapons to the Palestinians. Iran denies the charges.

Last month, President Bush said in his State of the Union address that Iran was part of an "axis of evil" — along with Iraq and North Korea (news - web sites) — because it seeks weapons of mass destruction, an allegation that Iran denies.

Bush also said Iran "exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom."

Bush's words have drawn strong condemnation across Iran's political spectrum. They have pushed the nation's domestic political troubles — a long-standing power struggle between moderate and conservative clerics — into the background, at least for now, as people pull together against what was perceived as an unwarranted insult.

Khatami acknowledged there were "many differences" among Iran's leaders, a reference to the power struggle, but said the country is united in supporting the cause of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Let's not conceal that there are deficiencies and dissatisfaction, but undoubtedly the whole nation is united in supporting the revolution and the path it has chosen," he said.

The reformist president also suggested U.S. foreign policy bore responsibility for the terror attacks on New York and Washington — a widely held view in the region.

"The American people have every right to ask their leaders how long should they pay the price for their faulty policies. What policies and what reasons caused the Sept. 11 attacks?" he said.

In Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) said Monday his country opposes any U.S. attack on Iran, adding the U.S. description of Iraq and Iran as part of an "axis of evil" proves the United States considers Muslims and Arabs evil.

Iraq and Iran fought a 1980-88 war and continue to accuse each other of harboring opponents of their respective governments. But Saddam told his Cabinet any harm to Iran and its security negatively affects Iraq, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.

One of those taking part in the demonstration, the chief of the elite revolutionary guards, Gen. Rahim Safavi, told state television: "Today's rallies are the biggest deterrent to U.S. threats. The people have shown they have remained faithful to the objectives of the revolution."

The streets were awash in color as people carried placards and balloons in the red, white and green colors of the Iranian flag. Helicopters dropped red flowers over the crowd.

Banners written in Farsi and English read "We still follow the ideals of the Islamic revolution" and "America cannot do a damn thing" — a favorite expression of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the revolution.

One placard read in English: "Bush is a Dracula."

"Outside threats only result in greater national unity," said Zahra Dowlatabadi, a 40-year-old homemaker who said national pride after Bush's speech led her to attend her first mass demonstration in years.

Monday's demonstration marked the final day of festivities commemorating the 1979 revolution, which swept the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from power.


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To: angcat
BTW, "our place" ain't "your place". I'm here at the sufferance of Mr. Robinson. When he sees fit to remove me, I'll go. But if you and your intolerant miniscule cerebrum don't like it, you can lump it.
21 posted on 02/12/2002 10:05:58 AM PST by Loopy
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To: Loopy
Oh burning American flags at their "Hate America" rallies is good enough for me. If you need more, there's the Hezbollah's kidnapping and murder of the CIA station chief in Beirut. Oh and Iran was definitely responsible for blowing up 300 Marines at the barracks in the same city. Their government is truly the epitome of evil. What's kept their fanatics from attacking America head on was the fear we might strike back. Right now their regime is living on borrowed time. One of these days we'll give the "Death To America" scum the back of some good old fashioned C-4. ;-)
22 posted on 02/12/2002 10:09:25 AM PST by goldstategop
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To: vannrox
reminds one of the old nazi rallies.
23 posted on 02/12/2002 10:10:54 AM PST by imperator2
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To: The Duke
Duke, how do a group of American wrestlers who were well-treated by the Iranian people compare to thousands of Iranians screaming "Death to America"? Is there something about that phrase you don't understand?

On the other hand, I don't think any of us believe that there aren't many Iranians who hunger for freedom from oppression and who don't wish to kill us -- unfortunately, they didn't show up on Monday.

24 posted on 02/12/2002 10:14:13 AM PST by browardchad
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To: goldstategop
Part of me agrees with you and I don't enjoy playing apologist to Iran. But if we were going to go to war with them over what they did in the eighties then why in he|| did we wait so long. We've had close to twenty years where we could have done something. Now, because it is convenient we decide we've got to do something. Sorry, I'm not buying it. If they are a current danger to us, then that's a different story. But I haven't seen anything showing them to be a current danger to us. We spend more on defense than the next 15-16 countries in the world combined. So how dangerous are those whackos to us? No evidence says they had anything to do with 9-11. So why now?

Twenty years ago, while I was in grade school I got into a fight with another person, we've since gone our separate ways. Should I now go out of my way to track him down and settle the old score?

25 posted on 02/12/2002 10:14:41 AM PST by Loopy
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To: browardchad
Thousands of people showed up in the streets of Pakistan shouting the same thing a few months ago. And that country has nuclear weapons. Perhaps we should bomb them too. If Pakistan were to fall to the fanatics there, we'd have a bigger problem than Iran is to us. And we know that the scientists who worked on Pakistan's bomb were sympathetic to the Taliban AND Al Quaeda. So why aren't we neutralizing Pakistan?
26 posted on 02/12/2002 10:17:21 AM PST by Loopy
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To: Maringa
Re #10

I am reasonably certain that Iranian government can bring up all people under government payroll or direct control. Government employees, military, police, security service, public companies(utility, transportation, etc), schools, and lots and lots of students. You can give a fraction of these people a day off and bring them to a large rally. They will come in thousands. First, they have no choice and second, it is a day-off. All they have to do is to pretend to listening to anti-American diatriabes without falling into sleep and fall off a chair. Chant a slogan or two on cue. Then go home and tell your family how you made easy money today or skipped school thanks to stupid mullahs. You can see yourself on TV news footage if you are lucky(unlucky) depending on your circumstance.

27 posted on 02/12/2002 10:20:59 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
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To: vannrox
I saw a strange segment on MSNBC yesterday with Ashleigh Banfield walking throught the gathering crowd (about 10,000). It looked more like a field day than a hate America rally. People were smiling at her, mugging for the camera and and flashing peace signs, while warmly greeting her with "Death to America". Very weird, but they sure didn't look like the hate filled crowds of the 70s and 80s.
28 posted on 02/12/2002 10:24:30 AM PST by Hugin
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To: Loopy
Iran has a nuclear weapons program for which Russia has been selling them the technology, with Clueless Algore's assistance. Maybe its just a quirk of mine, but I don't like the idea of a country that has been chanting "Death to America" for 20+ years acquiring the means to make that happen.

IMHO the inclusion of Iran in the "axis of evil" and the reference to "unelected leaders" which excludes Khatami and the reformers was meant to send the message that a truly reformist government could end Iran's isolation. If that doesn't happen, then military action would be appropriate, not to settle the score for 1979, not to trigger an Afghan-style change of regime, but to eliminate any nuclear threat, similar to Israel's destruction of Iraq's first nuclear weapons program.

29 posted on 02/12/2002 10:28:05 AM PST by colorado tanker
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To: Loopy
53 Amereicans held hostage for 444 days.
284 Marines killed by Iranian backed Hebollah in Beruit.
Numerous hostages taken by the same.
The Khobar tower bombing carried out by Iranian backed agents who fled there afterwared.

That's enough reason for me.

30 posted on 02/12/2002 10:29:09 AM PST by Hugin
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To: vannrox
How is this news? The Iranian Rent-A-Mob is always good for a paid demonstration. If the TV cameras wouldn't show up, there would BE no demonstrations.

Now, if it's NEWS you want, let's have Iranians demonstrating FOR America. That would be news. Man bites dog. Reporting on dog-bites-man is not news. It's like the sun coming up.

Michael

31 posted on 02/12/2002 10:31:21 AM PST by Wright is right!
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To: Hugin
As someone pointed out on another thread, when Islamics think they have the upper hand, their preferred method of attack is to sneak up and stab their enemy in the back (a la 9/11) - when they know they hold the short end of the stick they rush out with a mighty show of force chanting "Death to America" and babbling about "lines in the sand" and "mother of all battles".
32 posted on 02/12/2002 10:31:36 AM PST by Let's Roll
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To: Hugin
Amen.
33 posted on 02/12/2002 10:31:55 AM PST by goldstategop
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To: Wright is right!
The Iranian people DO NOT hate America !

The Iranian people held a candle light vigil for the victims of 9/11.

Those people that you see going to the streets on the anniversary of the islamic regime, comprise only 5% of the Iranian people. They are mainly paid agents and militia men of the regime, and their families.

95% of the Iranian people HATE this criminal terrorist regime that has been occupying Iran for 23 years ! There is an active movement for democracy in Iran fighting against these savage islamists !

International Alliance of Iranian Students
Political discussion by Iranians fighting against islamic regime
Mission for the Establishment of Human Rights in Iran

Don't blame the Iranian people, who are themselves VICTIMS of 23 years of torture, murder, assasination, poverty. blaim the criminal islamists occupying Iran, and the Europeans who support them and do trade with them, and help them in their propaganda efforts !

Mission for Establishment of Human Rights in Iran (MEHR IRAN)
P.O. Box 2037, P.V.P., CA 90274
Tel: (310) 377-4590 ; Fax: (310) 377-3103
E-Mail: mehr@mehr.org ; URL: http://mehr.org

How to Deal With a Terrorist Regime?


Don’t Help it! Don’t Legitimize it!
(By Mohammad Parvin)
Islamic Regime of Iran (IRI) was a terrorist regime well before President Bush declared it as such and will be one after it will conveniently qualify to become a US ally.

Iranian people have been experiencing the terror of the IRI right after its conception in 1979. They have not been able to dress, speak, write, vote, pray, dance, love, laugh, and live the way they want and they have paid with their lives, hundreds and thousands of lives, for not giving up these basic rights. They have been harassed, imprisoned; tortured, executed, stoned to death by the IRI for so long and none of these were enough to qualify the IRI as a terrorist. However, western governments and media driven by “interest” factor turned a blind eye to horrible situation of Iranian people subjected to the worst type of human rights abuses and terrorism. The “interest” factor made the European countries so eager to establish relation with IRI and a fierce competition started among them as to which one will take a bigger portion of the lucrative one-sided deals with a desperate regime to survive. The US, lobbied strongly by the financial institutions and especially oil companies, left the door open by pursuing a dual policy towards the Islamic Regime.

For IRI to qualify itself for such help, and for West to justify relations with one of the most brutal regimes of all times, both needed a wide spread cover up. While human rights abuses escalated in Iran, conference after conferences were held in Iran and abroad on issues like human rights, civil society, dialog among civilizations, women rights, child abuse, etc. Western media and government authorities publicized these events, and participated in them and argued that they should support the so called “reformists” vs. “radicals” knowing well that all real reformists are in jails.

This policy of appeasement continued even after September 11 and after President Bush’s speech regarding the terrorism of Islamic Regime. Last month, while Iranians were beaten on the streets because of their peaceful protests against the human rights abuses, the representatives of this terrorist regime were given the opportunity by the UN to take part in a conference specially organized for them to lecture the world about dialog among civilizations. Senator Specter among other US Senators and Representatives greeted IRA’s representative warmly in another ceremony and Secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Colin Powel had very nice words for them.

The family of the prisoners of conscience and other Iranian people were beaten and arrested under Mr. Kofi Annan’s nose during his recent trip to Tehran for just trying to meet with him and pleading for the lives of their loved ones, and what they got from him was words of praise for the government of Iran and statements in defense of Islamic Regime for the “allegation” of terrorism made against it! The UN policy to legitimize the State of terror is quite long term and comprehensive. It is cooperating with a religious school called Mofid University that trains military seminaries in the city of Qom in Iran, to stage a conference on “Human Rights” on May 2003.

According to the US Government, IRI will lose its terrorist status and will become a US ally if it refrains from threatening America or its friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Can any institution just forgive a regime that has been terrorizing its own nation for so long? Can the world forgive a regime that has been involved in the assassination of so many Iranian dissidents and has been condemned by a German Court in Berlin? Can we ignore its terrorism against so many American people in many terrorist activities including seven cases tried in the US Federal Courts?

Our message to all European countries that support IRI unconditionally and the US that is only concerned about one aspect of its terrorism and blames only a few “un-elected elements” within the Islamic Regime, is that even if the circumstances changed and the IRI abided by all the US conditions and would become “worthy” of being US ally, this would not change the fact that this regime is still brutalizing the freedom loving Iranian people. Having said this, it is our turn now to ask this question from the world community:

Who are you with? Are you with the terrorist regime of Iran or with the Iranian people who are fighting with this regime for their basic rights and struggle for freedom and democracy?

Although the recent comments by President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleeza Rice are very promising, the fact that there are no references to the internal terrorism of Islamic Regime is still very disturbing and leaves room for overnight change of policy.

As President Bush said in his speech after the September 11 event, fighting terrorism has a price. The demand of freedom loving Iranian people from the world community is not much. Bombing Iran wouldn’t hurt the terrorists. It would hurt the victims of the terrorism. To fight the terror of the Islamic Regime of Iran, just leave the “interest” factor out. Don’t help this terrorist regime. Don’t legitimize it by promoting its disgusting shows. Don’t make any deal with it. Let the struggle of Iranian people for democracy prevails. That is all they want. It is not much. Is it?

34 posted on 02/12/2002 10:32:06 AM PST by HamMihan
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To: HamMihan

Crimes of the savage islamic regime occupying Iran:




35 posted on 02/12/2002 10:35:35 AM PST by HamMihan
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To: vannrox
I'm surprised that any and all Iranians in the US aren't marching in Washington DC yelling discrimination.
36 posted on 02/12/2002 10:36:17 AM PST by lilylangtree
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To: Loopy
No, they never ignored us. They're terrorists. And the ones (Iranians) who WERE chanting "we are evil" a couple of months ago were beaten down by the police.
37 posted on 02/12/2002 10:36:19 AM PST by GuillermoX
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To: Hugin
Ashleigh Banfield told Chris Matthews that people were chanting "Death to William Cohen." Guess it takes a while for news to reach Teheran.
38 posted on 02/12/2002 10:37:09 AM PST by EllaMinnow
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To: vannrox
Wouldn't these demonstrations be a great place to test out the latest software updates for the AC-130 with computer driven machine gun........?????????
39 posted on 02/12/2002 10:43:31 AM PST by nascarnation
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To: cardinal4
President Khatami is an improvement over what came before him, but his powers and freedom of action are not absolute. He is the elected leader of the secular, democratic part of the Iranian government. Ali Khamanei is the unelected leader of the religious part of the Iranian government. Khatami cannot renounce the Iranian revolution if he wishes to remain in power. His position as head of state means that when his country is threatened with war, he is obligated to defend it.

What he can do is to use what powers he has to move his country away from the fanatacism of the Khomeini era. In some ways there is a similarity to Gorbachev, who never really renounced communism but who nevertheless helped bring an end to the cold war. Threatening Iran with attack puts him between a rock and a hard place and is probably not in our best interests.

40 posted on 02/12/2002 10:44:51 AM PST by ganesha
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