Iranian Alert -- March 17, 2004 [EST]-- IRAN LIVE THREAD -- Americans for Regime Change in Iran

The Last 24 hours were intense. As the student movement reported, "What's going on this evening has never been seen and the night is just at its start and will be very long for the regime."

Although it is now midnight on the east coast of the US, it is now morning in Iran. I expect to post numerous reports on the celebrations/demonstrations later in the day and expecting more photos.

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. 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. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

Festival of Light and Fire, A Defiance of Ruling Clerics

March 17, 2004
Iran va Jahan
Potkin Azarmehr

The inherent sense of Iranian nationalism has always manifested itself during the darkest hours of Iran's turbulent history and delivered the nation from certain collapse. To date Iranian nationalism remains the most potent weapon against foreign occupiers and the present day ruling clerics.

For the last 25 years of the Islamic rule, the Iranian New Year Nowrooz, and the Red Wednesday fire Festival, which falls on the last Tuesday evening of the Iranian year, have been the battleground between the Iranian culture of joy, knowledge and life and the non-Iranian culture of mourning, ignorance and martyrdom.

When Ayatollah Khomeini tried to ban these celebrations, the uncompromising reaction of the Iranian people forced him into his first unprecedented retreat.

In more recent years, the coinciding of the Arab lunar calendar and the Shiite mourning month of Moharram with the solar Iranian calendar and the new year celebrations, gave the impression to the clerics that they can use this opportunity to ban these pre-Islamic celebrations at least while they fall in the month of Moharram. Instead the celebrations became even more poignant and more symbolic in terms of showing defiance to the imposed non-Iranian culture of the ruling clerics.

Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani issued his decree by stating earlier this week: "The superstitious ceremony of Chaharshanbeh Suri is incompatible with the dignity and understanding of the Muslim Iranian nation".

The Islamic regime's security forces tried to reach a compromise this year by not banning the celebrations but declaring only certain official parks in the cities for lawful celebrations. Yet the people and the youth in particular once again turned the Red Wednesday celebrations into a combat zone for the test of forces.

As the youth jumped over the bonfires the traditional ancient rhymes were replaced with anti-government ones. "toop, tank, feshfesheh Akhoond bayad koshteh sheh" " Cannons, Tanks and Firecrackers We must kill the Mullahs".

In the Haft-Howz, Falakeh Dovvom and Nirooye Havaii, districts of Tehran more than 10,000 people had gathered. Some women openly removed their scarves encouraging others to do so too. In Mohseni Square, the youth fought back the Law Enforcement Forces. At least 20 government forces were reported badly beaten up by the crowds. In Amir-Abad district the people joined the students and more anti-government slogans were shouted. Police patrol cars, which attempted to disperse the crowd, drove away from the scene as the people started throwing home made grenades at them. In Aryashahr, the crowd were throwing pictures of Supreme Leader, Khamenei and Islamic Republic flags on to the bonfires.

Other districts in Tehran like Javadieh, Ferdowsi and Noor similar scenes continued. In some districts the noise prevented the telephone reports from making their reports audible.

Not far from Tehran, in Karaj, the house of the Friday Prayer leader was set on fire copying the similar action by the people in Fereydoon Kenar .

In Yazd, between 7000-8000 people gathered in Atlasi Sq and attacked the known regime agents.

In Booshehr, one revolutionary guard is reported killed.

In Shiraz, the people attacked government agents who were filming them and broke their cameras.

In Kerman, the people were shouting, Referendum, Referendum, This is the cry of nation.

In Sarab, Azarbijan, where the people have a fierce reputation for their fighting capabilities, the local Baseejis were on the run while shouting Allah-Akbar.

As in last year Iran's Kurdistan contained the biggest scenes of celebrations. Huge bonfires were reported from Marivan and Sannadaj, with the youth openly taunting the regime's forces.

Even in many other places throughout Iran where the celebrations were less political, young boys and girls circled around bonfires, held hands and danced to the music. An unthinkable act in the month of Moharram, even in the pre-Isalmic revolution of 1979.

So on a night where the Islamic state run TV even resorted to showing popular American films to encourage the people of Iran to stay indoors, the fire of Zarathustra remained defiant and rekindled.

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2004&m=03&d=17&a=6

Yes, Sir

New York Sun - Editorial
Mar 17, 2004

Iranians once again have challenged the ruling clerics there in demonstrations that turned violent, according to reports from Iran. The occasion this time was a feast to commemorate the last Wednesday on the Persian calendar known as Chaharshambeh Soori. For the particulars please see Eli Lake's dispatch at page one.

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2004&m=03&d=17&a=10

After much hemming and hawing, Tehran's chief of police allowed the citizens of his city to celebrate the festival in 40 cordoned-off areas over objections from powerful ayatollahs who tried to stop the celebrations because they fell at the wrong time on the Islamic calendar, two weeks after Shiites are supposed to celebrate Ashura, the somber holiday commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. It is the tension between the Arab dictates of Islam and the indigenous traditions of Persia that was at play last night when some Iranians threw homemade explosives at the feet of the anti riot police and set patrol cars ablaze.

The protesters are extraordinarily brave. Few secret police services in the world are as ruthless as Iran's Pasdaran, and many of the students who directly challenged the government in the fall and winter of 2002 are still missing. The regime has even arrested close associates of President Khatemi, sending the message that no one will be spared.

All the more reason, though, for the Bush administration to give these protesters moral, material, and, to the degree practical, diplomatic support. It was in October of 2003 that the deputy state secretary, Richard Armitage, answered "no, sir," when asked by Senator Hagel whether the Bush administration supported regime change. The thing to remember is that on the streets of Tehran this week, the Iranians are risking their lives for freedom, and they deserve a resounding "Yes, sir," in Washington.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5392.shtml

Holy Month Reveals Schism Between Shiite Youth, State

March 10, 2004
Inter Press Service
Ramin Mostaghim

TEHRAN -- The holy month of Moharram, marked by ritual mourning, has highlighted a rift between official religious doctrine and young people who make up the large majority of this Shiite Islamic republic's population.

Contrary to the uniform and austere religion promoted by the state, young Iranians increasingly have turned to individual interpretations that allow them, for example, to express themselves through Western fashions and popular music.

The specific forms of expression and the energy with which young people pursue them might be unique to the current generation, but its members recognize that the act of balancing state doctrine with individual conscience is not new.

''My father, a pensioner and self-employed businessman, plays the piano, has an occasional alcoholic drink, says his prayers five times daily, and describes himself as a Muslim,'' said Amin Mazaheri.

The 24-year-old chemical engineer and bachelor lives with his parents in a three-story building a few minutes' walk from the Madar (mother) roundabout. The nouveau-riche area is named for the sculpture that dominates it, a structure consisting of a hollow trunk, a metal heart and a headscarf, and designed to symbolize an archetypal Islamic mother.

The neighbourhood, like the rest of Iran, has been observing Moharram. The first month of the Islamic year is marked not by celebratory festivals but by mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in Karbala (in present-day Iraq) some 14 centuries ago. Observances, including massive processions in which men flagellate themselves, peak on Ashura, the tenth day of the lunar month, which this year fell on Mar. 2.

''My friends and I lament and beat our chests gently during the first ten days of the mourning month of Moharram and listen to rhythmic lamentations while we go riding in our cars,'' said Amin, speaking in his French-style decorated dinning room.

”When we were small kids in the first decade of the Islamic revolution, we did not feel like joining these sorts of mourning ceremonies but for the past few years, the Heia't (makeshift mosque) in our neighborhood has been our gathering place,” he added.

''On the way to Heia't, we exchange phone numbers with the young girls who bump into us on the pavement. For some of the young boys who fancy themselves as Muslims, it truly is a pick-up scene,'' Amin said, adding that he regarded this as an insult to the holy month.

But Kambiz Pejman, 24, said he and the many girls who are among his friends saw no contradiction between the lamentation processions and the young crowd's parallel ”Hussain parties.”

''I respect Imam Hussain and his companions who were martyred in Karbala,'' he said as he looked over his shoulder in case vigilantes were eavesdropping. ''They were justice seekers from my point of view but commemorating him does not have to be at odds with fancying girls.''

As some tell it, young men who beat themselves on the chest and young women who wear trendy dresses and muted makeup are drawn to the processions increasingly by a desire to be seen and to be found appealing.

''By avoiding eye-catching makeup during these days I intend to show my tribute to the Karbala tragedy and Imam Hussain's martyrdom but at the same time I am on the trail of the parade to see and to be seen. What is wrong with that?'' said Farideh Agahi, 20, a student at Tehran Azad University, in the capital's affluent northern district.

Over the years, new musical instruments, fashions, rhythms and eulogies have been incorporated into the mourning ceremonies in Tehran.

''Many things, such as drums, flutes and synthesizers, today are common but were unthinkable ten or 12 years ago,” said shopkeeper Ali Hassani, 60.

Western couture is a relative newcomer, and it stands in stark contrast to Mader roundabout's sculpture, which serves as a constant reminder of acceptable dress for Muslim women.

”For the first time, the new middle class mourning fashion almost spontaneously popped up in the aftermath of the Sep.11 tragedy,'' said Nader Forghani, 35, who runs a boutique featuring the latest Italian and French fashions on the northern side of the roundabout. She was referring to the 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Since then, it has become common for the neighbourhood's middle-class residents to descend on the roundabout for a candlelight vigil to mark the tenth of Moharram, Nader said.

The new ways enjoy sympathy from some older Iranians.

''People have rights to be Muslim or to worship their God in their own way,'' said Hashem Navazi, 70, manager at an air conditioner repair shop near the roundabout. After all, he added: ”I am Muslim but I do not feel like participating in elections in this so-called Islamic regime.''

Others have been less tolerant. Local media reported that vigilantes attacked participants in the Ashura candlelight vigil with iron bars and heavy chains. Some of Amin Mazaheri's friends were among the victims.

”The vigilantes were about 15 to begin with but suddenly turned out to be around one hundred,” Amin said. ”I recognized some of them as my playmates from elementary school. That's why I was not beaten up. They looked at me and shouted 'run away'.''

''We are Muslims in our own way and I think our Islam has nothing to do with the established Islam advocated by the regime,'' he added.

Sociologist Karamat Azimi, 60, said the vigilantes had misjudged the situation.

''Before the Islamic revolution, middle class and educated people used to convert covertly and overtly to different schools of thought such as Marxism, even various Islamic or Protestant Christian denominations. But nowadays, they try to individualize the official version of Islam,'' Azimi said.

''By attacking these young fashionable mourners, nothing changes and the young people will be more agitated and come up with new approaches,” he added.

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=22777

Allies in Terror

March 17, 2004
The Wall Street Journal
Amir Taheri

It may take weeks before the identity of those responsible for the 3/11 bombings in Madrid is established, and by then a new government, led by the Socialists, will be in power in Spain. But one thing is already certain: Europe has not yet taken the full measure of the terrorist threat to its way of life, indeed its existence as a zone of peace and prosperity in an unstable world.

Within hours, the Spanish political and media establishment was divided into two camps: one blaming the Basque-separatist ETA, the other pointing the finger at Islamist terrorists. In other parts of Europe, too, those who had supported Spain's decision to join the war of liberation in Iraq tried to portray the attacks as part of ETA's campaign of terror. Those who had opposed the intervention in Iraq, on the other hand, presented the attacks as an understandable, though not necessarily justifiable, retaliation by "Muslims with hurt feelings."

But the partisan approach to the understanding of the Madrid tragedy could harm efforts to develop a coherent European strategy in the context of the global war on terror. The two sides of the European divide, still squabbling over the Iraq war, have ignored a third possibility -- that ETA and al Qaeda might have worked together to bring about the Madrid tragedy.

* * *

This is not as fanciful as it might sound. Terrorism is a doctrine based on the maxim, "The ends justify the means." In the current debate those who try to exculpate ETA imply that it is, somehow less evil than al Qaeda. That assumption is both wrong and dangerous.

The difference between ETA and al Qaeda is one of means and methods not of nature and category. Until last week ETA had never managed to kill more than 30 people at any given time. But that was not for want of trying. Nor is ETA's relationship with Middle Eastern radical groups new.

ETA established contact with the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970. A number of ETA militants were trained in various PFLP camps both in Lebanon and Libya. British and Spanish intelligence have also established ETA's link with Libya at least until 1986. During that period Libya supplied the Basque terror group with money and arms.

An ETA delegation has visited Tehran every year since 1985 to participate in an annual gathering of "anti-Imperialist" movements that is held annually from Feb. 1 to Feb. 11. (The Tehran terror-fest, known as "The Ten Days of Dawn," celebrates the victory of the 1979 Islamist Revolution). Indeed, the list of ETA and Islamist-terrorist links is long and well-documented:

• In 1986, the French police identified one Vahid Gorji, an attaché at the Iranian Embassy in Paris, as the mullahs' liaison officer with European terror groups, including ETA. (Gorji was subsequently allowed to fly home under escort as Iran and France severed diplomatic ties.)

• In 1993, ETA -- along with a dozen other Western terrorist organizations -- had observers in the largest ever gathering of Islamist groups held in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. The conference elected a nine-member "steering committee" that included Osama bin Laden.

• In 1998, Spanish police arrested another Iranian agent, Rahman Dezfouli, on charges of contacts with ETA. He, too, was subsequently expelled because he was the holder of an Iranian "service passport."

ETA's literature, as disseminated over the past three decades, is replete with expressions of sympathy for various Islamist causes including "wiping Israel off the map" and "driving the American Imperialists out of the world." In exchange, al Qaeda literature has paid tribute to ETA's "heroic struggle" for Basque independence. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al Qaeda second-in-command, has spoken of his dream of "liberating Andalusia," the part of Spain once ruled by Muslims, presumably letting ETA rule its own neck of the wood in the Basque country.

Spain was targeted by Islamist groups long before it joined the war to liberate Iraq. These groups blame Spain for having "sold" the Spanish Sahara to Morocco while refusing Muslim rule over the two North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

The more militant of the Islamist groups openly preach revenge for what they see as an unjust expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 15th century. That sentiment is also reflected in school textbooks in many Muslim countries from the Persian Gulf to the eastern Mediterranean.

Some analysts claim that ETA, a leftist and nationalist group, cannot ally itself with Islamists who are on the extreme right and firmly reject nationalism. But so great is the terrorist groups' hatred of democracy that alliances across the ideological divide cannot be excluded.

An objective alliance of radical groups, from the extreme left to the Islamists, is already in place in many countries. This alliance has organized numerous marches opposing the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and conducts a vigorous campaign against any attempt at "imposing" democracy on any other Muslim country. The core of this alliance's ideology consists of an acute form of anti-Americanism which assumes that the U.S. represents evil in a Manichean view of the world.

The truth is that there is no good terrorism and that the current European wave of anti-Americanism cannot but encourage those who wish to impose their will on the world through terror. Whether or not they actually joined forces to plan and execute the Madrid attacks, ETA and al Qaeda remain objective political allies.

Mr. Taheri is the author, most recently, of "L'Irak: Le Dessous Des Cartes" (Editions Complexe, France; 2003).

http://online.wsj.com/public/us

White House Plays Down Suggestion of Iran Dialogue

March 17, 2004
Reuters
Reuters.com

WASHINGTON -- The White House played down suggestions that a new U.S. dialogue with Iran could help resolve a growing controversy over Tehran's nuclear program on Wednesday, just as President Bush prepared to meet with the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

"We have not received any official proposals from Iran," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

"There are a number of serious concerns we have with regard to Iran ... that they need to work to address. Obviously, we've always said in the past that there are established channels of communication when we have issues of mutual concern to address."

Official U.S.-Iranian contacts currently take place through Swiss diplomats who have acted as intermediaries since Washington severed ties with Tehran after militant students seized the U.S. Embassy in the wake of the 1979 revolution.

McClellan's remarks came hours before Bush was scheduled to meet with Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

ElBaradei put forward the idea of a U.S.-Iran dialogue at meetings this week in Washington, according to U.S. sources. The sources said he told U.S. officials that dialogue could lead to a deal on the nuclear issue in exchange for a U.S. move toward normalized ties with Tehran.

The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons and has been pushing to put the issue before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

"Our policy toward Iran is quite clear, and has been quite clear," said McClellan.

"We continue to insist that Iran abide by all its IAEA and (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) commitments, that it end the abuse of its citizens' human rights, stop supporting terrorism, halt meddling in its neighbors' internal affairs and turn over to their home governments the al Qaeda terrorists it is now harboring."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4589569&section=news

UN Nuclear Chief Can't Rule Out Iran A-Bomb Program

March 17, 2004
Reuters
Louis Charbonneau

WASHINGTON -- The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Wednesday he could not rule out the possibility that Iran has been pursuing atomic weapons as the United States contends.

Speaking to a House subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, Mohamed ElBaradei was asked if Iran had begun the process of nuclear weaponization.

"We have not yet seen that, but I am not excluding that possibility," said ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The jury's still out," he added.

ElBaradei said the IAEA had to be very careful with its statements about a country's potential nuclear arsenal.

"Our statements can make the difference between war and peace. That's why we have to be careful," he said.

The crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear program was sparked in August 2002 when an exiled opposition group broke the news that Iran was hiding a massive underground uranium enrichment plant at Nananz and a heavy-water production plant at Arak.

Washington accuses Iran of using its nuclear power program as a front to build a bomb. Iran denies the allegation and says its nuclear program is solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.

Asked why he though Iran had made the decision to pursue the complete nuclear fuel cycle, enabling it to mine, process and enrich uranium, ElBaradei said:

"They know it's a deterrent. If you can enrich uranium, you don't need a weapon tomorrow. It sends a message."

In November, the IAEA said in a report on Iran that it had no evidence so far of a nuclear weapons program. In a February report, the agency made no reference to whether it had obtained any evidence of a weapons program.

The statement in the November report infuriated some members of the Bush administration, with one U.S. official calling the conclusion "impossible to believe."

ELBARADEI MEETS BUSH

ElBaradei meets with President Bush later on Wednesday, where he is expected to discuss way to strengthen the global non-proliferation regime.

In its 13-month investigation of the Iranian nuclear program, the IAEA has uncovered traces of bomb-grade uranium at Natanz, as well as experiments with plutonium and polonium, a substance that can be used to initiate a chain reaction in an atom bomb.

Iran kept the full extent of its uranium enrichment program hidden from the IAEA for nearly two decades, a program it began during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

In October, Tehran submitted a declaration on its program that it said at the time was complete, though it failed to include information on its research on advanced "P2" centrifuges capable of making bomb-grade uranium.

On Saturday, the IAEA board passed a resolution that "deplores" the omission of the P2 and other items.

On the other hand, Tehran has signed the IAEA Additional Protocol, granting the IAEA much more extensive inspection powers, and has suspended its enrichment program in order to build confidence.

ElBaradei told the subcommittee that the agency needed intelligence if it was to effectively police the world and smoke out covert nuclear weapons programs.

"We need much more intelligence," he said. "We need to be able to buy (satellite) imagery...We work against a moving target."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4589699

Criticism About Bush, Iraq War Won't Stand Over Time

March 14, 2004
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bruce Chapman

During World War II, when the 1944 presidential election came around, Republican candidates targeted Franklin D. Roosevelt's competency and motives. They unearthed government procurement scandals and corporate "war profiteering." Some even hinted that FDR was complicit in the war's outbreak.

But they could not oppose the war they had voted for and the public approved. They whooped up political excitement, but Roosevelt won re-election on a motto of "Don't Change Horses in the Middle of a Stream."

In today's war on terrorism, in Iraq and elsewhere, it is helpful to step back from the partisan bashing of George W. Bush and note that the critics' dire warnings of only a year ago already have flunked the test of time. Bush could lose on other issues, but contesting the war is unlikely to benefit his political adversaries.

If you take the partisan rhetoric out of this issue, you can see that the war effort expresses American foreign policy objectives enunciated by Republicans and Democrats over a dozen years.

The struggle to defeat Islamist terrorism is necessary for America's national security and for world peace. Simply put, that is why the public continues to support the war.

Another reason for the public's sustained resolve is the success of the war so far.

There have been mistakes and setbacks. But there also have been hundreds of arrests of terror suspects, and so far no new attacks on our soil. Some 650 American military have lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not in vain. Those countries are now more hopeful places, and less dangerous to their neighbors and to us.

In Iraq lately, the paramilitary assaults of Baathist Party agents and imported terrorists have begun to abate. Turning their wrath on civilian Shiites has not helped the terrorists to foment a civil war, but instead has encouraged all Iraqi religious and ethnic factions to compromise on a new interim constitution. Credit goes to the long-suffering Iraqis, but also to the diplomacy of the Bush administration.

Recall, in contrast, what critics predicted. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi deaths. The "Arab street" was going to rise up. Hordes of new terrorists would be recruited and descend on us. Friendly Moslem governments in the Middle East would fall and unfriendly ones become bellicose.

But none of that happened.

The Arab street, for the first time, is learning that democracy is possible in their region. Press freedom in Iraq is the envy of other Arab countries. Women's civil rights have increased. Friendly governments were not destabilized; rather, unfriendly ones, including Syria and Iran, have come under new pressure. With Saddam gone, Iraq no longer finances suicide bombers in Palestine.

The United States, meanwhile, showed its lack of imperial ambitions by removing its troops from Saudi Arabia and the Saudis finally are cooperating in eliminating al-Qaida-affiliated cells in their country. Destroying such cells is crucial to preventing the funding and training of terrorists who could mount new attacks on the American.

While the war has not yet uncovered stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it did help reveal them in Libya, Iran and Pakistan.

Cynics cannot dispute that Libya has had WMDs because Moammar Qaddafi now admits building them, and has agreed to get rid of them. The Iranians have admitted the advanced state of their nuclear development to the International Atomic Agency, a United Nations organization they previously had fooled. The Pakistani role in providing nuclear technology to rogue states has now been stopped, thanks to the courage of President Pervez Musharraf.

Criticized unfairly for "unilateralism" when he led coalition troops into Iraq, President Bush surpassed the number of nations actively supporting the United States in the Gulf War. There are 49, with 34 of them providing troops. (Some unilateralism!)

The vital progress to date would not have been possible without Bush's bulldog determination to take the war to the states that foster terrorism, rather than waiting to fight the terrorists here. Called a "liar" and a "coward" by shrill opponents, he actually has been a far-sighted and courageous leader.

His policy, of course, was not all that new. It was the Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998, signed by President Clinton, that first called for "regime change" to prevent the spread of terrorism. Clinton's speeches then sound very like those made by his successor since 9/11. The main difference is that Bush followed through.

Election-year spin and shrill name-calling won't change the reality that global terrorism still threatens America. Bush realizes that the threat cannot, as Sen. John Kerry suggests, chiefly be handled by "intelligence and law enforcement." Sometimes, it has to be confronted militarily. In non-political moments, both parties and three administrations have grasped this truth. So, I believe, do most Americans.

Bruce Chapman, president of Discovery Institute, is a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations organizations in Vienna, including the International Atomic Energy Agency.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/164309_march14bruce.html

Drifting, Dangerously

March 17, 2004
National Review Online
Michael Ledeen

We must support freedom.

ROME, ITALY — There are two competing explanations for the Spanish vote on Sunday: Either the Spaniards were intimidated by the terrorists, or they punished Aznar for trying to trick them into thinking it was the Basques, when he had strong evidence that the jihadists were involved. I rather think it was the latter — it would be hard for me to think of Spaniards as easily intimidated — but whichever is correct, the political consequences are the same. The terror masters believe that they have successfully toppled a Western government by the use of force, and that will encourage them to do more of it.

We will no doubt learn a lot more about the specific components of the terror network that operated in Spain, but one important element in the story has been universally ignored in the Western press to date. Judge Balthazar Garzon, who has been a tower of strength in Spain's antiterrorist campaign (against jihadists and ETA as well) publicly announced several weeks ago that the evidence unmistakably pointed to the fact that al Qaeda has reconstituted itself in Iran. The mullahs do not take kindly to this sort of exposure, and if, as is quite likely, they were involved in the network that struck Madrid, this would have been an additional motive, and an additional reason for satisfaction at the results.

As for incoming prime minister Zapatero, the new hero of the European and American Left, his original proclamations — retreat from Iraq and willingness to sign the draft of the European constitution — have been both feckless and foolish. Feckless because he would have been in an excellent position to obtain considerable favors and concessions from Bush if he had said "let's talk, and see if there is an acceptable compromise," while now he is so firmly committed to his position of total appeasement that it is very difficult for him to back off. And foolish, because Aznar had held out against enormous Franco-German pressure to sign a constitution that would give Spain a position weaker than their current standing in the European Union. If Aznar had ever decided to accept the document, he could have exacted a considerable price for it, but Zapatero has sold out for an empty bowl. He will have to beg for his porridge.

Less than one might have expected from a law professor. But perhaps his quasi-official nickname, "Bambi," is psychologically as well as physically accurate.

So the previously sound "new Europe" has been deprived of its strongest pillar, and undoubtedly the other two principal supporters of the war against terror, Italy and Poland, are imminent targets. If the terrorists are as cabalistic as it seems (the eerie fact that March 11 arrived exactly 911 days after 9/11 has been noted, and should be underlined), then one possible target date is 6/11 — six being an inverted nine — which comes a couple of days before the Italian vote for the European parliament. Probably a good day to visit Baghdad.

It is not easy to judge the mood in Washington from this distance, but many of the public statements from our leaders are a bit disconcerting. Like the Europeans, the administration, Congress, and the media are narrowly focused on the consequences for our efforts in Iraq. But Iraq is only one battlefield in a larger war, and we cannot solve Iraq without bringing down the terror masters in Damascus and Tehran, without bringing freedom to Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The peoples of those countries know it and show that they know it. In the past few days there have been enormous demonstrations against the tyrants in Syria and Iran. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets, demanding freedom. (And do not listen to the sly journalists who tell you, accurately so far as it goes, that these demonstrations grew out of unrest in a soccer stadium in Syria, or from frustration at being prevented from celebrating the traditional Iranian New Year, Norooz; that only tells you about the spark, but the enormity of the inflammable material is the important thing. Mere soccer hooligans don't demand the political transformation of the country.)

This administration has been carrying on for some time now about the importance of democratizing the Middle East. It follows ineluctably that we should be supporting these freedom fighters in the streets of our worst, and most totalitarian enemies in the region. But instead, the State Department sends diplomats to calm the situation in Syria, and our diplomats cluck their tongues about the unpleasantness in Iran.

About which there are two things that need to be said. First, we are indeed at war, but this president does not have a war cabinet. This kind of behavior is business as usual for Foggy Bottom; it is not what we need to destroy our enemies. Second, Secretary of State Powell by now owes the Iranian people profound apologies for the many times he has failed to vigorously support them, and proclaim regime change in Tehran to be our heart's desire. This policy is more urgent than ever, given the events in Madrid. It should be our policy even if there were no war against terror, simply because the mission of America is to support freedom whenever we can. We are not there yet, not by a long shot.

And so we drift on, led by a president with uniquely good instincts and rare courage, but who seems not to understand that many of his people are weakening the strength of his message and even, on occasion, acting in a direction counter to what he has long said was our national mission.

The terrorists will now be encouraged to strike whenever and wherever they can. We cannot possibly defend all their possible targets. This war cannot be won by playing defense, which is a chump's game. We have once again been offered a glorious opportunity to take the offensive, by supporting all those brave Syrians and Iranians who are crying out for freedom. Will we betray them again? Only the president can insist on supporting them, because it is clear that the others will not.

If we do not, the wheel will turn once again. The terrorists will strike, we will debate, and it will all become ever more difficult and costly. Meanwhile, innocents die and hopes dwindle, and our enemies march on, convinced that the West does not have the will to resist.

As I wrote when Baghdad fell and most believed that a glorious victory was at hand, we can still lose this thing.

Faster, please.

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200403171337.asp

Iran Sets Conditions for Nuclear Cooperation

March 17, 2004
The Associated Press
Columbia Daily Tribune

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran will work with the U.N. nuclear agency to show its nuclear program is peaceful as long as that cooperation remains in its interests, President Mohammad Khatami said today.

Khatami said Iran won’t accept any decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency denying it the whole nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment. Cooperation also will end if U.S. calls for tougher treatment of Iran continue. "We will continue cooperation with the IAEA as long as our interests require and as long as we know various plots led by the U.S. are ineffective," he said.

The United States accuses Iran of deceiving the IAEA and has lobbied that Iran be declared in breach of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Washington wants Iran referred to the U.N. Security Council, where economic sanctions could be imposed.

The United States points to Iran’s decision suspending inspections last weekend after the U.N. agency adopted a resolution deploring discoveries of uranium-enrichment equipment and other suspicious activities that Iran failed to reveal. Iran then reversed its position, and inspections are to resume March 27.

"We have no obligation toward anybody other than what our interests require," Khatami said. "We cooperate with the IAEA voluntarily."

Khatami said Iran has suspended uranium enrichment temporarily to build trust with the IAEA, but he reiterated Iran’s position that it won’t give up that work forever.

Khatami said the inspections freeze was meant to show Iran’s displeasure with the IAEA resolution. He called it "a warning to the IAEA not to be influenced by the U.S."

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Mar/20040317News023.asp

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