Iranian Alert - January 9, 2005 - 25 years after revolution, Iranians eager to change regime

Regime Change Iran ^ | 01/09/05 | Freedom44

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Saturday January 8, 2005
The Guardian


Twenty-five years after the revolution, Kevin Rushby meets a new generation eager to shake off the fundamentalist legacy

The world was gone mad. The coach was a Volvo and on the door it said Millwall Football Club. The sound system was playing Elvis as we boarded,"... we can't go on together with suspicious minds..." and the video was Indecent Exposure with Clooney and Zeta-Jones. Outside the door, men were finishing their Winston cigarettes. A girl wore Levi jeans and touched the sticking plaster on her surgically improved nose. A mad world indeed - at least in terms of my expectations. This was the Islamic Republic of Iran during Ramadan on the super-luxe express coach from Kermanshah to Hamadan.

Later, when we were under way, two Iranian soldiers came down the aisle for a chat, berets under their epaulettes, not much interested in the film - they'd seen it before. Did I like Pink Floyd, they asked.

Iran is changing, and fast. The mullahs still hold the reins of power, but there is a new generation coming of age in the country, one born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and impatient for modernisation and freedom. Tehran is full of pizza joints, internet cafes, and cars. Teenagers communicate in Pinglish, a text messaging soup of English and Persian. New motorways and buildings are everywhere. A friend who has visited every year since 1978 warned me, "Now is the time to go, the place is changing so quickly I can barely recognise it."

Nowhere are the changes more evident than in Tehran, a huge polluted monster of a city dedicated to the car. More precisely the Hillman Hunter - they shifted the factory out here 30 years ago and have been producing them ever since. Sitting in jams and breathing their 70s-standard emissions is a Tehrani pastime, and a cheap one too, with petrol at about 7p a litre. Brief escapes can be had: there are the cavernous halls of the Archaeological Museum, the bowels of the National Bank (for the Iranian Crown Jewels) and many parks - with a bit of luck you might also stumble upon a tea shop like the one in Shahar Park, all rugs, hookahs and fin de siècle orientalist glitz. But I was glad to leave and head west on a huge loop that would take me deep into Kurdistan, to within 50 miles of the Iraqi border, catching buses or taxis as I needed them.

First stop was Soltaniyeh, a small town 200 miles west of Tehran, where a 13th-century invader decided to rest his bones. The Tomb of Oljaitu, the Mongol khan, scarcely registers on the tourist trails of the world, but this remarkable building has a 52m-high dome that spans 26m across a vast octagonal central hall.

Tiny spiral staircases rise up inside the walls, linking a series of balconies which allow close examination of the intricately tiled interior. The Mongol hordes swept through here in the mid-13th century, laying waste to cities and destroying six centuries of Islamic civilisation. Yet the barbarians were soon absorbed and civilised themselves, finishing Soltanieh by 1320.

I changed from bus to taxi there and found myself with the moustached holy man I dubbed Mystic Magdi, probably one of the few drivers who can explain the theory of metempsychosis while negotiating a hairpin bend. As the late sun danced through stands of poplar trees beside villages of mud-walled houses whose roofs were piled with winter fodder, we rose up into the mountains and Mystic Magdi declaimed: "People are thirsty for a religion of love. They are fed up with dry legalism. That kind of Islam has kept us dwarfed and stunted - human equivalents of those Japanese bonsai trees." His impressive mouth-veiling moustache trembled beneath the hawk-like nose as he spoke, like a terrified chinchilla.

At dawn next day, we watched the sun rise over the home of a pre-Islamic deity: Takht-e-Soleiman, a volcanic crater where Anahita, goddess of water, used to preside over the coronation of Persian kings. The lake is an irregular circle about 30m across and is faintly warm. According to locals, its level never falls, no matter how much water is drawn off, nor has anyone ever plumbed its depth.

Despite a fine new tarmac road, this miraculous site remains serene, lost in a landscape of arid mountains and sudden patches of green where most people still rely on donkeys for transport. We swept on westwards, Mystic Magdi proclaiming Universal Love and Brotherhood. "There is no Hell and no Heaven. God does not divide His creation."

I asked about that moustache: didn't the prophet Muhammad only have a beard? Magdi recalled the reply of a poet denounced by a pious mullah for having a dangerously un-Islamic moustache. "But it helps strain the dregs from my wine!"

At Sanandaj, capital of Iranian Kurdistan, I bought wild honey in the bazaar and admired the local costumes. Men wear tasselled turbans, bristling bandito moustaches and baggy trousers secured with a broad cummerbund. Women go for the Merlin the wizard look in bright colours, though sadly only the older generation. The youngsters are all in tightly belted raincoats and headscarves, the latter a legal requirement as women's hair is deemed sexy. I asked a mullah if a woman who shaved her head could go without a scarf, but I didn't get a definitive answer.

Next driver southwards was Amin the Animal, a one-man mongol horde who whipped his Hillman Hunter to a gallop and never let it stop as we plunged through yet more spectacular mountain scenery. "How long have you been driving?" I shouted from the rear seat and he took both hands off the wheel to delve into his back pocket. "There!" he cried triumphantly, turning to pass me a licence document. "Twelve years as..." He grabbed the wheel and yanked us out of the path of an oncoming petrol tanker."... as a professional driver."

Kermanshah's main attraction is the rock carvings in Taq-e-Bostan on the edge of the city. A soaring mountain face rises abruptly from the plain and a spring emerges: at this magical boundary, humans have carved images of gods and kings. Mithra is there, standing on a lotus flower with sun rays exploding from his head. Anahita too, presenting the diadem of royalty to Chosroes II, the last monarch before the Islamic invaders arrived.

"Those Arabs were barbarians too," Animal told me. "Lizard-eaters and drinkers of camels' milk from the desert, all coming here to Persia and thinking they can be kings." He was paraphrasing Ferdozi, 11th-century Persian chronicler, and a favourite quote for these times of heightened anti-Arab sentiment in Iran when the frequent cry is: "We are Persians, not Arabs."

At Hamadan, there was a reminder of another epoch, this one long ago and almost forgotten. At the shrine of Esther, I was shown by a member of the 28-strong Jewish community into a tiny sarcophagus inscribed in Hebrew and Persian. Hamadan was once known as Ecbatana, the capital of the Medes, Old Testament stalwarts and regional super-tribe until the 6th century BC. Esther achieved lasting glory for becoming wife to the Persian king (probably Xerxes in the fifth century BC) and saving her people from persecution.

In the early Islamic period, prior to Mongol invasion and destruction, the city was famed for its scholars, and in the town, buried in the centre of a traffic island, is one of the most important intellects Islam has produced, Avicenna, the 11th-century polymath whose important medical work qanun al-tibb, canon of medicine, introduced the word canon to English.

There's no disgrace, in modern Iran at least, to a traffic island burial. These extravagantly tasteless roundabouts are the new victory arch, the latest paradise garden, the ultimate unattainable pedestrian goal. While around them buzz Hillman Hunters in a smoky halo of obeisance, on top are the mad creations of untrained local sculptors. That night as we motored east to Kashan, I discovered several fine examples. One featured a set of artificial palm trees around a 20ft tall pile of dung, or perhaps it was a vast portion of chocolate ice cream, all lit up with red fairy lights.

Kashan's main attraction is the Bagh al-Fin, a walled paradise garden on the edge of town under the looming desert mountains. Built after the 1574 earthquake knocked down the previous incarnation, it is the oldest extant garden in Iran and one of the best. Water from a natural spring brims from stone cisterns, then tumbles through various tiled channels and pools, all lined with cypress and plane trees.

In the hammam at the side, the 19th-century prime minister Mirza Taki Khan was assassinated. He had wanted to modernise the country, bringing in alien concepts like "embezzlement is wrong". The Queen Mother, chief embezzler, ordered his death by bleeding, a warning to other would-be modernisers.

My next taxi driver, a former tae-kwando champion, was not impressed. "These mullahs have deep pockets, too," he muttered, then added, rather cryptically, "No one knows where they buy their clothes."

All down the roads in Kashan were signs of rapid modernisation. Traditional mud-domed houses lay fallen and disintegrating while concrete boxes rise proudly next to them. In the restaurants, Persian cuisine is taking a drubbing too: dumbing down towards a diet of kebabs, pizza and burgers. The best food I had was home cooking: bread baked under a fire by some nomadic shepherds; home-made tangy cheeses and butters; the mix of green olives, pomegranate juice and crushed walnuts, a grilled portion of Caspian sturgeon.

Reaching Isfahan, the old capital, I discovered a wonderful tea shop inside one of the pillars of the 17th-century bridge over the river. The five little window seats are the most popular spots in town for tea and a hubble-bubble pipe filled with apple scented tobacco. In private, the most popular smoke is opium, its aroma flavouring the air outside the doors and windows as you explore the city.

Central attraction is the Maidan Naqsh-e-Jehan, a vast public square, off which lies the equally immense Royal Mosque, with its cliffs of ornamental blue tilework and a dome that sends back an echo of the tiniest noise. Built in the early 17th century, the mosque's cool tranquillity stands in splendid contrast to the frenetic activity of the bazaar opposite.

Between Isfahan and Shiraz, travellers steel themselves for a marathon: first is Pasargadae, Cyrus the Great's tomb and ruined palace from the sixth century BC, then comes Persepolis, founded by Cyrus's successor Darius the Great in about 518BC. For this, I hired the most colourful character yet: Mr Mathematics. The 200 miles to Pasargadae went by unnoticed as he explained why the number seven does not exist - neither does my memory of how he proved this.

Pasargadae is said to be the world's oldest known site of a garden, a wonderfully evocative place with remnants of buildings scattered over a dusty plain, the stone reliefs showing strange chimerical creatures: a man-fish, a horned and winged angel, and a half-man half-bull whose impressive reproductive organs have been polished smooth by 2,500 years of visitors' hands.

Mr Mathematics took me over to Cyrus's tomb. "When Alexander the Great came in 330BC," he told me, "the body of Cyrus was still inside, in a gold coffin."

This most famous of invaders does not quite have the same image in Iran as we expect in the west. "A barbarian," opined Mr Maths. "Terrible man. Drunken, looting, uncivilised monster."

We headed off for Persepolis. Unmissable and extraordinary, it is the cultural highlight of any visit to Iran, excluding taxi driver conversations. As you enter through the Gate of All Lands, the graffiti creates a context of previous visitors: Henry Morton Stanley 1870 en route to find Livingstone, plus hosts of British officers on their way to death or glory in Afghanistan, India and Central Asia. That earlier vandal, Alexander, left a deeper impression when a drunken party ended with the burning of the palaces, the effects of which can still be seen in the Tachara, Darius's private palace, where the stone is clearly heat-damaged.

On the eastern staircase to the largest palace, the Apadana, is the treasure of Persepolis: the carved reliefs depicting ambassadors of dozens of nations coming to pay homage. Parthians in their pointy hats, Abyssinians, Greeks from Odysseus's Ionian islands, Bactrians, Arabs, Indians and Gandarans from Afghanistan - they all march forwards with their gifts, a memory of when the whole region was at peace.

As I examined the reliefs, a group of students came over. They didn't think much of my questions about Alexander - they wanted to talk about Iran now. "Alexander was like the Islamic Revolution in 1979," said one. "He destroyed everything. Now Iran is a very dark place and we are struggling to come to the light."

No one I'd met had a good word for the Revolution, but these young people were especially forceful. One of the students edged forwards, "Tell the world that we are not tourists," he said vehemently.

There was a silence. One of his friends, possessed of slightly better English, smiled apologetically, then corrected him. "I think he means: 'Tell the world we are not terrorists.'"

[freedom44]

[freedom44]

Iran protester sentenced to over five years jail, to be flogged 60 times Sat. 8 Jan 2005

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1181

Iran Focus

Tehran, Jan. 08 – An Iranian woman who took part in human rights protests in front of the United Nations office in Iran in October has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison and 60 lashes.

Mina Darabvand took part in protests organised by family members of political prisoners outside the UN building in Tehran calling on the world body to condemn “torture being carried out” on their relatives.

The judge sentenced Darabvand after concluding that it was “illegal” for the demonstration to have taken place without prior permission.

Last summer many relatives of political prisoners demonstrated outside the UN building as well as a number of embassies calling for foreign governments to stop negotiations with the clerical state.

A large number of political prisoners throughout Iran went on hunger strike at the time in protest to the Iranian regime’s use of torture against its opponents.

[freedom44]

Iranian judiciary warns those who allege prisoner abuse Sat. 8 Jan 2005

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1183

AFP

TEHRAN - Iran's hardline judiciary has threatened legal action against those who alleged that detained journalists and Internet writers were abused to extract confessions and apologies, official media reported Saturday.

"We will legally deal with those who have published unrealistic material that corresponds with that of the enemy media and that tries to tarnish the work of the police," said a statement from Tehran's prosecutor.

In recent months the judiciary has been engaged in a fresh crackdown on pro-reform press and Internet sites, detaining some 20 reporters. Four of them wrote letters of repentence after being arrested.

Last month the reformist government admitted that it was concerned over the confessions, and said President Mohammad Khatami had ordered an enquiry amid allegations that the detainees were subject to ill-treatment or threats.

But the judiciary's statement asserted that "after being confronted with proof of their criminal actions, almost all of those accused said that they regretted having cooperating with illegal sites and they accepted their errors."

The statement also pointed to "contradictory" comments over the treatment of detainees, pointing to the case of female writer Fereshteh Ghazi, who claimed her nose was broken in detention.

"The police consider her claim to be a lie, since after a medical check it turned out that she had had plastic surgery some months ago," the statement said. Her allegation was aimed at "distorting the public mind and providing fodder for the enemy and foreign media."

The statement also named former Iranian vice president and outspoken reformist Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who maintains a personal website complete with weblog, as one of the people circulating such allegations.

Abtahi quit Khatami's isolated government in October, saying that working with hardliners, who took control of parliament after most reformists were barred from contesting the February elections, had become impossible.

The judiciary statement said the case of the allegations of abuse "was going through its legal process and will be handed over to a court for prosecution."

[freedom44]

8 January 2005

http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001087.html

5000-year-old commercial seal discovered in Iran

The oldest known commercial seal, estimated to be about 5000 years old, was recently discovered at the historical site of Jiroft in southeastern Iran. The director of the archaeological team working at the site, Yusef Majidzadeh, said that the seal, which bears the image of a goat with its head leaning back, was discovered near the governmental structure of the site during the third stage of excavations. "The 2x2cm marble seal was skillfully made, indicating that the region was a developed economic center 5000 years ago," he added.

Over 20 Iranian and foreign archaeologists from France and the USA are currently working at the site. "During the previous excavation seasons, archaeologists found around 25 seals dating back to about 2300 BCE," Majidzadeh said.

Recent studies on seals unearthed at the ancient site of Jiroft clearly indicate that the area was once the most important economic center of the Iranian plateau and its residents had extensive trade ties with people living in other parts of the country. The inhabitants of ancient Jiroft packaged goods inside earthenware vessels and/or jugs and then covered the lid with mud and affixed the special seals, according to Iranian archaeologists.

Jiroft came into the spotlight nearly three years ago when reports of extensive illegal excavations and plundering of the priceless historical items of the area by local people surfaced. Since 2002, two excavation seasons have been carried out at the Jiroft site under the supervision of Majidzadeh, leading to the discovery of a ziggurat made of more than four million mud bricks dating back to about 2300 BCE.

[freedom44]

Missing component
In response to Hooshang Amirahmadi's "Viable option":

http://www.iranian.com/Letters/2005/January/jan7.html#8

Dear Dr. Amirahmadi:

During the past few years, you have been making overtures to the officials and members of the US Congress and administrations that they should adopt the policy of rapprochement to and appeasement of the regime of the mullahs in Iran. However, your argument is based on the fallacious assumption that the mullahs and their ideology are flexible and that they are amenable and persuadable to peace, evolution, and refinement!?

During the past three decades, several US administrations have unsuccessfully tried to encourage and tame the mullahs into respecting and abiding by the norms, rules, and laws of the international systems and communities. But, every time the mullahs have lashed back and reciprocated with more violence while the degree of their barbarity intensified at exponential rates. The disasters, misery, and destitute the regime of the mullahs have brought upon the people of Iran, the people of the region, and the whole world for that matter are at biblical proportions and are only comparable to those of the recent tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.

It is a known fact to the citizens of the world that the regime of the mullahs and their thugs are gangs of violent and barbaric criminals and murderers.

Mimicking their ex-Soviet counterpart (e.g., the Stalinist regime), the mullahs create crisis and chaos and use deception, intimidation, and violence to rule. That has been their strategy for the past 25 years and it will continue to be for as long as they are in power.

Therefore, Iranian people and the civilized communities around the world deeply, profoundly, and pathologically hate, despise, detest, reject, renounce, and condemn the regime of the mullahs and their ideology. The statistics collected and generated by the regime point to these sentiments.

Having described the beastie nature of the regime of the mullahs, the dynamics of the current situation in Iran point to one important observation! That is, the solution formula to its political impasse must consider the following that Iranian people and the civilized world can not and will not co-exist with these beasts (e.g., mullahs, their terrorist colleagues, and thugs.) A good analogy would be that people can not co-exist with dogs infected with rabies. It is imperative that you quarantine and shoot the infected dogs!

Hence, any solution to the problem at hand in Iran must have as a component the elimination of the beasts. Unfortunately, your recommended viable option of more carrots and less sticks will not work since it will only make the beasts salivate and attack for more!

A feasible option to the current situation in Iran would have to have military, economic, and political components. The latter two components must be used to encourage and support the people of Iran to achieve their long-desired objective, that is, a free and democratic society. The military component must be used to deprive the mullahs from all the wealth they have plundered and amassed over the years and for their complete annihilation! Whether or not this will result in another Iraq totally depends upon the level of cooperation by the Iranian people!

Best regards,

S. Dastangoo

[freedom44]

Quake-hit Iran still waiting for help

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-1-2005_pg4_20

TEHRAN: A year to the day before an earthquake and tsunamis in the Indian Ocean killed more than 160,000 people; an Iranian city was devastated by a quake that brought a flood of well-meaning promises to help.

But in the tents or prefab houses of Bam, a city that still looks like a wasteland, residents must have a sense of deja vu as they follow the horrific news from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and elsewhere. A major disaster hits, the international community pledges huge amounts of money, but then the promises of rapid reconstruction fail to materialise.

The ancient city of Bam was flattened in a quake that struck on December 26, 2003. More than 30,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless, and a year on most survivors are still living in makeshift housing.

Many victims, complaining of the slow pace of reconstruction, are blaming Iranian authorities, who in turn point the finger at what they say are broken promises from international donors. “The Westerners, with all their money, do not feel any pity,” top cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janatti complained in a sermon here on Friday, warning the Asian tsunami victims not to hold out for international help.

“For Bam, at first they said they would give hundreds of millions of dollars, and the people were happy that Bam would be rebuilt. But then the Westerners forgot. They are making the same promises now. But they don’t keep their promises.”

According to the United Nations, only 17 million dollars of the 32 million it asked for in a “flash appeal” to help after the Bam disaster has been received. afp

[freedom44]

Dinosaur Footprints Moulded In Kerman, Iran
Persian Journal

Iran News
Dinosaur Footprints Moulded In Kerman, Iran
CHN
Jan 8, 2005, 16:45

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/printer_5294.shtml

In a special project aimed at extending paleontological studies, Iranian paleontologists will identify and mould dinosaur footprints in cooperation with Iran’s Natural History museum.

Kerman province has long been called as the fossil paradise in Iran due to having many fossils from different geological periods. Experts have so far been able to identify in this region fossils of aquatics belonging to the 1st geological period, fossils of dinosaurs from Jurassic period, and fossils of mammals belonging to the 3rd geological period.

"As Kerman region is of great importance as far as discovering fossils is concerned and fossils of different types of vertebrates have been identified here, we began a special project aimed at identifying dinosaur footprints and moulding them", Amir-hossein Kokabi-nezhad, the paleontologist of the Natural History museum told CHN.

Since the Islamic revolution took place in Iran 26 years ago, paleontological studies began only 2 years ago in Maragheh fossil region. With the aim of extending these studies, experts chose Kerman province as the 2nd region.

The dinosaur footprints in question were discovered before the Islamic revolution by the foreign experts in Zarand region in Kerman province.


Iran is among the most important countries in the world fossil-wise, with fossil regions like Maragheh, Varzaghan, and Kerman. In the last 2 years, Iranian experts have found fossils belonging to gigantic animals dating back to over 1 million years ago.

[freedom44]

Ferrari for Tsunami

https://ssl20.pair.com/ri/ferrari/donation_ferrari_for_tsunami.html

As a symbolic gesture, Mr. Kamran Elahian, Board Chair of RELIEF INTERNATIONAL, donated a prized personal possession to RI's South Asia Tsunami Relief effort. In hopes of garnering more support for victims of the tsunami tragedy, he will be giving away his Ferrari in a raffle to donors who give $1000 or more.

When asked why he was parting with his '97 red Ferrari convertible, Mr. Elahian said that he was moved by the scale of the tragedy and found writing a check to be too easy. He felt that giving up a personal possession would be more appropriate.

Proceeds from the raffle will support the Revolving Credit Fund for Livelihoods for surviving families. For example, the Revolving Credit Fund for Livelihoods will allow fishermen to receive loans to repair or replace family-owned boats.

"When tens of thousands of fishermen have lost their boats and cannot secure food for their families, I can easily give up a Ferrari and use the increased support to replace boats for hundreds and perhaps thousands of families," comments Mr. Elahian.

On February 1, 2005 RELIEF INTERNATIONAL will hold a raffle to select a winner from among those who donate $1,000 or more to the South Asia Tsunami Relief effort.

To donate and participate in the raffle, please fill out the information below. An email confirmation will be automatically sent to you. All entries must be dated before 11:59pm January 31, 2005. RELIEF INTERNATIONAL staff, volunteers and their families are not eligible for this raffle.

If you prefer to donate by check, please make it payable to Relief International. Please write "South Asia Earthquake Response" in the memo of the check and send to:

Relief International
Tsunami Relief
1575 Westwood Blvd. Suite 201
Los Angeles, CA 90024

If you prefer to donate by phone, please call +1 (310) 478-1200 or +1 (800) 573-3332.



Relief International uses industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to protect the security of your transaction and the confidentiality of your personal information.

Please Note: Fields marked with an asterisk * are required to be filled in.

[freedom44]

Empress Farah Pahlavi of pre-79 Iran and granddaughters Noor and Iman spent the first day of 2005 in the quaint French winter resort of Barmes. The Empress is seen here signing her memoirs for enthusiastic fans

[DoctorZIn]

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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

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Problems with Syria, Iran should not be aired publicly: Allawi

Sat Jan 8, 6:40 AM ET Mideast - AFP

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050108/wl_mideast_afp/iraqsyriairanallawi_050108114049

DUBAI (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he would use all available means to defend Iraqis against neighboring states harboring "terrorists," but appeared to rebuke his defense minister who has repeatedly slammed Syria and Iran.

"The interim Iraqi government is entrusted with ensuring the security of Iraqi citizens with all available means -- be they diplomatic, political or otherwise -- and we will not hesitate to use them," he told the Dubai-based daily Al-Bayan on Saturday.


"Some neighboring countries host terrorist elements who make plans to undermine (Iraqi) national security from inside these countries," Allawi said.


But asked about Defense Minister Hazem al-Shaalan's "fiery" remarks about Syria and Iran, which he has repeatedly blamed for violence by anti-US insurgents in Iraq (news - web sites), Allawi said differences within the government were not about substance but about "ways of dealing" with the issue.


"In my judgement, that should be (through) diplomatic channels, not in a media auction that does not help resolve any problem with this or that country," he said.


"A positive relationship with Syria is at the top of my priorities," Allawi added.


Allawi himself has made public statements critical of Syria and asked it to hand over Iraqis implicated in the ongoing violence in Iraq.


In his latest diatribe against Syria and Iran, Shaalan threatened Friday to instigate violence in these two countries.


"We do not want to be a party in harming either Syria or Iran ... (But) we have the means of shifting the battlefield from the streets of Baghdad to the streets of Tehran and Damascus," said Shaalan, whose remarks were reported by Arab satellite channels.


"But believe me, neither I, nor the prime minister, nor the president, nor the ministers, nor even the (US-led) coalition forces intend to meddle in Syrian or Iranian affairs," he added.


His remarks were accompanied by the release of a video purporting to show confessions by a top insurgent that militants received help from Iran and Syria.


In the interview with Al-Bayan, Allawi charged that neighboring regimes feared a democratic Iraq would make it impossible for them to survive in office if their peoples demanded similar democracy.


He said his government wanted two things of its neighbors: "control their borders with Iraq and prevent infiltration (of insurgents), and stop media mobilization campaigns ... whereby terrorism is called 'resistance'."


Both Syria and its key regional ally Iran have repeatedly rejected US-led accusations that they are meddling in Iraq.

[freedom44]

/8/05
Final statement of Jordan meeting incorporates Iran's demands: Iranian Official

http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1074.html

Amman, Jan 8, IRNA -- Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Gholam Ali Khoshrou said in Amman on Friday the final statement issued at the end of a four-hour meeting of Iraq's neighboring states incorporates Iran's demands and views.

Talking to IRNA, Khoshrou said the discusssions that took place during the meeting with the Iranian delegation were positive and that the delegation was able to convey the important principles Iran had always emphasized.

"The necessity of holding direct elections in Iraq at the time scheduled with the participation of all groups in the country were among the demands of the Iranian delegation," he added.

In connection with the upcoming elections, "Iran has called for a condemnation of terrorist activities against the defenseless Iraqi nation and an end to the aggression on the holy sites in the country respected by Muslims and these have been included in the final final statement of the meeting."

He stressed the importance of the election as one that would put in place a new government chosen through a democratic process that would have the credibility and acceptance necessary to establishing peaceful ties with its neighbors.

Khoshrou further stated that participants of the Amman meet stressed the importance of the new Iraqi government honoring its commitments to international and multilateral agreements.

Iran also asked for the trial of former Ba'ath Party members who were responsible for launching attacks against the Iranian and Kuwaiti nations and the murder of thousands of innocent Iraqis, he noted.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister said that on the sidelines of the meeting he conferred with foreign ministers of Iraq's neighboring states on bilateral relations.

Foreign ministers of Iraq's neighboring states wrapped up their four-hour meeting on Iraq's upcoming election in the Jordanian capital Amman Thursday night with the issuance of a final statement.

In the statement, the participants declared their support for the holding of elections in Iraq as scheduled by the interim government on January 30 as a prelude to an independent and sovereign Iraq.

Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Syria are the neighboring states of Iraq which sent foreign ministerial delegations to the meeting.

[DoctorZIn]

Minister's 'advice' on Iran jet deal

Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
Sunday January 9, 2005
The Observer

A senior minister wrote a personal letter of advice to the husband of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on side-stepping a strict US trade embargo against Iran, The Observer can reveal.

The letter from the Foreign Office Minister, Baroness Symons, to Jowell's husband, David Mills, reveals she gave him advice on how to proceed with a controversial $200 million deal to sell jet aircraft to the Islamic regime in Iran.

In the wake of the David Blunkett scandal, opposition politicians have been quick to seize on the leaked letter as providing fresh evidence of Labour ministers being especially helpful to their friends. They have demanded a full explanation from the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.

The US has a strict embargo on selling jets to Iran. Any British company or individual caught flouting the law would be blacklisted in the US.

In 2003 The Observer revealed how Jowell's husband lobbied Symons about the potentially lucrative deal to provide Iran with several British Aerospace jets after he sat next to her at a dinner party. Mills then went on to write to her, asking for help to push the deal through.

At the time Straw and Symons were adamant that Mills did not receive any special treatment. However, the leaked letter from Symons, written on headed government notepaper, suggests that this was not the case.

Symons wrote: 'Dear David. Given the obvious political sensitivities you will need to tread very carefully with this one. This is a difficult time to be raising Iran policy in Washington. The advice I have been given, with which I am inclined to agree, is that our official support for you with the administration would raise the profile of the case and, by so doing, increase the chance of eliciting a negative response.'

She advised Mills: 'So you will need to think very carefully about a lobbying strategy calibrated to achieve the right result. I am pleased that Allan Flood [the British Aerospace director] will be in Washington next week and that he will be calling on the Embassy to discuss this further. They are best placed to advise on next steps.'

Symons, whose portfolio includes the Middle East and international security, concluded: 'If after that meeting, you need further advice or help from me, please let me know. Yours sincerely, Liz.'

Opposition parties have accused Symons of giving Mills preferential treatment on a deal that could have had significant consequences for Britain's foreign relations. They argue that she should have written back telling him his request was being handled by an official.

The shadow Foreign Secretary, Michael Ancram, said: 'How many other businessmen would get such an immediate and helpful response from a senior minister?'

Last night a spokeswoman for Symons said: 'David Mills received no special treatment.'

Mills admits to looking for loopholes in the US law, but stressed he would never do anything illegal. He denied he had received any special treatment from Symons.

Mills said: 'I sought no favours and had none. It was dealt with in a completely, routine and proper way and, moreover, once I received the letter I took no further action to pursue the matter.'

[F14 Pilot]

bump for SHAHBANOO of Iran

[DoctorZIn]

Rice drops hardliner who scorned Britain's stance on Iran

By Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 09/01/2005)

John Bolton, one of the most powerful hawks in the Bush administration and a robust opponent of Britain's "softly-softly" approach to Iran over its nuclear programme, has lost his job at the State Department.

Condoleezza Rice, who will be confirmed as secretary of state at congressional hearings next week, rebuffed pressure from conservative hardliners, believed to include Dick Cheney, the vice-president, to promote Mr Bolton as her deputy.

	Tough: John Bolton is expected to return to the private sector

Instead, he will leave his post as under-secretary of state for arms control and international security after Dr Rice chose other candidates for her new team.

Mr Bolton, a tough-minded, Yale-educated lawyer, was not available for comment. He is expected to return to the private sector or academic world, although there is speculation that he might join Mr Cheney's staff.

An aide insisted that he had not openly campaigned for the post of deputy, but made clear that he would have been happy to accept it.

Mr Bolton, a veteran of Republican politics, played a far more powerful role than his title indicated. He headed the president's Proliferation Security Initiative, aimed at policing the trade of illicit arms and weapons of mass destruction.

His exit will be a source of relief for Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, and his fellow European foreign ministers.

Mr Bolton was scornful of efforts by Britain, France and Germany to persuade Iran's ruling clerics to abandon their nuclear weapons ambition by diplomacy.

Mr Bolton believed that Teheran should be isolated by United Nations sanctions and, if it would not back down, confronted with the threat of military action. He was also uncompromising about North Korea, describing life in the Stalinist dictatorship as a "hellish nightmare". Pyongyang responded by calling him "human scum".

It was apparently Mr Bolton's abrasive approach as much as his unflinching politics that prompted Dr Rice to choose Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, as her deputy instead.

Her choice reflects the fact that Dr Rice wields far greater influence in the administration than her predecessor, Colin Powell. He often found himself at odds with Mr Cheney's office and the Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, and Mr Wolfowitz.

By contrast, President Bush has unstinting trust in the loyalty and political instincts of Dr Rice, for four years his National Security Advisor.

She is keen to improve relations with Germany and France, most notably, and believes that America should adopt a less confrontational approach to its old foes without compromising security or the international war in terror.

"There is a change in emphasis and approach, but don't think this means that the administration is going to go soft on Iran and North Korea," said a senior Republican political operative at the State Department. "It means that Condi wants her own people in place and the President trusts her go get the job done."

[windchime]

Bump!

[JerseyHighlander]

Excerpt from a slashdot thread: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/07/2252220&tid=153&tid=95

Re:Distributed Annonymous WebProxy (Score:4, Interesting)
by bahamat (187909) on Saturday January 08, @05:16AM (#11295762)
(http://digitalelf.net/)

I'm the sr. sysadmin for Anonymizer and we have a contract with VOA to provide free proxy service to Iran.

It's based off of PrivateSurfing (which you can try out for free at the Anonymizer [anonymizer.com] homepage, sorry you can't surf /. with it...Rob hates me). Added features for the Iran proxy is full time SSL, URL encryption, Farsi language support, and we switch the proxy website about once a month (every time the Iranian government blocks us). We perform checks on the service from within Iran to see if our site is actually blocked (yes, it works), and we maintain a database of all known e-mail addresses that we can detect as being located in Iran. Every time we switch the proxy site we send an e-mail informing them of the new free proxy location so the citizens of Iran can find it. The sites are also broadcast via radio and TV into Iran by the VOA. To be honest, we're usually about a day behind the blocks, due mostly to time zone differences.

The systems that run the Iran proxies are dedicated and used quite heavily. Much more than any of the servers that we have for everything else. The loadav is pretty high, and we're working on upgrading them in the next few months to increase capacity.

Most of our customers are under NDA so I don't mention where I work much, but the VOA [anonymizer.com] is one of our very few public contracts due to it's anti-censorship nature.

[dandi]

"In his latest diatribe against Syria and Iran, Shaalan threatened Friday to instigate violence in these two countries."

If Iraq is stabilized and begins to prosper, there won't be any "instigating" necessary.

[RaceBannon]

bump

[beavus]

'Tell the world we are not terrorists.'

No, but the fanatical mob and mad mullahs who seized and control your country are. We'll try to limit our bombs to them.