Iranian Alert -- DAY 14 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

"Several patrol cars and public materials were set ablaze by the angry crowd as several members of the plainclothes milia, carrying talkie walkies, were identified and beaten in retaliation."

Now we're talkin'!

"The situation of this usually calm city and its neighboring cities are very tense and many young are known to have taken refuge in the mountains and the dense forrets in order to create commando groups intending to carry and "armed Rebellion" against the regime."

I admit that, over the weekend, I was not able to read every article, but this is the first I've heard of this! Were there earlier reports of this that I missed?

I hope you were able to get some rest and regroup this weekend.

Much appreciation, again, for all of your hard work on this thread!

Iran Students Warn Clerics Over Protest Crackdown

Sun Jun 22, 7:16 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Paul Hughes and Arshad Mohammed

TEHRAN/DEAD SEA, Jordan (Reuters) - Iranian student leaders said Sunday a crackdown on protests against Islamic clerical rule could make them adopt more radical and violent methods.

The warning was made as the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog called on Iran to ease concerns about its atomic program. Washington accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its program is only for electricity.

The student leaders gathered outside parliament to protest against what they said were the arrests of hundreds of colleagues after a wave of demonstrations, hailed by the United States as a cry for freedom.

"Even if they send us to prison and take us to solitary confinement there are others who have more daring slogans than us and they will confront the system with more violent methods," Saeed Razavi Faqih, one of the student leaders, told Reuters.

"Today we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Anyone who wants to play with this fire will be burned."

The protests began in Tehran two weeks ago and spread to other cities in the most outspoken demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Officials say 500 "hooligans" were arrested during recent protests in Tehran but only a handful of students were among them.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), whose country branded Iran a member of an "axis of evil" along with Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Iraq (news - web sites) and North Korea (news - web sites), said Sunday Washington wanted to encourage and support "those...seeking the right to speak out."

"But for some to go beyond that and say the United States is getting ready for something aggressive or looking for another place to have a conflict, it is absolutely wrong," he told a session of a World Economic Forum (news - web sites) meeting in Jordan.

Washington has warned it reserves the right to use military action to prevent Iran making nuclear weapons, but says this is just one of many options and low on the agenda.

Iran, sandwiched between Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites) where Washington now has strong military presences, accuses U.S. officials of interfering in its internal affairs. It denies any military nuclear ambitions and rejects other U.S. accusations of involvement in terrorism.

U.N. WATCHDOG CALL TO IRAN

Iran says it is ready to work more closely with U.N. inspectors, but has refused to allow samples to be taken from a facility where components for uranium enrichment equipment were assembled. It says the site is non-nuclear.

"We have seen some cooperation, but I'd like to see that cooperation accelerated... extended," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters Sunday.

His agency reprimanded Iran Thursday for repeatedly failing to report nuclear material, facilities and activities as required under an agreement with the IAEA.

While venting most of their anger at the conservative opponents of reformist President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites), protesters have also called on him to resign for failing to deliver promised reforms in justice, democracy and social freedoms after six years in power.

Diplomats said the arrests appeared to be aimed at snuffing out the protests, which have all but fizzled out.

Among those arrested was the son of a reformist member of parliament. Students said it highlighted the impotence of Khatami's government compared with powerful unelected conservative clerics who have opposed his reformist agenda.

Some 166 of the 290 lawmakers signed a statement condemning the arrests and attacks on student dormitories by vigilantes loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Outside Iran, the head of the main exiled opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was placed under formal investigation by a French judge Sunday and remanded in pre-trial custody.

Maryam Rajavi and 16 followers are under investigation for possible links to terrorism after raids last week in which 159 suspected members of the People's Mujahideen, the military arm of the NCRI, were rounded up by French police.

The son of the late Shah of Iran, toppled in the 1979 revolution, said it was only a matter of time before the present Iranian administration fell and called on the United States and the rest of the international community to back the protesters.

"Clearly the regime is panicking," Reza Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States, told CNN.

(Additional reporting by Peg Mackey and Caroline Drees in Jordan, Christopher Noble in Paris)

SMCCDI: More of Lebanese Hezbollah members transferred to Iran

More of Lebanese Hezbollah members transferred to Iran
SMCCDI (Information Service)
June 23, 2003

More of the Lebanese Hezbollah members have been transferred in the last days to Iran in order to reinforce the security preparations to smash the popular rallies and demos that will take place on July 9th at the occasion of the commemoration of the 4th anniversary of the 1999 Student Uprising.

Already, the regime is using thousands of its foreign mercenaries recruited among the Iraqi and Afghan refugees living in Iran and also among radical and fanatic muslim activists harbored in the country, such as, from Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria, Indonesia and Moracco.

These troops and have been deployed in most cities from the beginning of the current wave of unrests and are known for their extreme brutality in dealing with the demonstrators.

Hundreds of them have been lodged in the northern and central caserns of the Pasdaran Corp. in Tehran which has caused tensions among many Iranian members of this armed wing of the regime. False statement has been made by their superiors stating that these troops are the Iranian Arabs legions transferred from the cities of Bushehr and Bandar Abbas and that they're not foreigner.

Source: SMCCDI

http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/cgi-bin/smccdinews/viewnews.cgi?category=5&id=1056375490

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BTTT!

BUMP

Reza Pahlavi: It's Just a Matter of Time for this Regime to Fall

CNN ^ | 6.23.2003 | Wolf Blitzer
Posted on 06/23/2003 9:16 AM PDT by DoctorZIn

Reza Pahlavi: It's Just a Matter of Time for this Regime to Fall (Excerpt)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/934089/posts

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That is very nice!

Thanks for the ping !

Cascading ping coming!

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This just in...

It appears the work slow down and strikes in the country are already starting. The protest movement has been pointing to July 9th as the big day, but there are reports that the slowdown has already begun.

Everybody, listen to

Ey Iran, the National Anthem of Free Iran

Re #30

Great. Must be starting ahead of schedule.

Monday, June 23, 2003

Iran Bans Public Protests on Anniversary of Unrest

June 23, 2003 Reuters Jon Hemming

TEHRAN -- Iran said on Monday it would ban any demonstrations outside universities to mark the July 9 anniversary of 1999 student unrest following a wave of sometimes violent democracy protests that prompted a crackdown this month.

Hundreds have been arrested over the protests by thousands of people demanding an end to clerical rule. Student leaders, who have been praised by Washington, have said the crackdown could make them adopt more radical and violent methods.

''The Interior Ministry will not give permission to any gathering outside universities,'' government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told a news conference.

Newspapers said hardline militia who have attacked students and other demonstrators with clubs and chains had also been denied a request to gather outside Tehran University on July 9.

It was the same plainclothes Islamic militants who attacked the university dormitory four years ago, triggering days of riots in which a student was killed.

Iran's longtime arch rival the United States has applauded the latest protests which not only targeted conservative clerics but also criticised President Mohammad Khatami's moderate government for failing to push through reforms.

While the demonstrations have all but fizzled out, authorities are eager not to see them erupt again around July 9.

Ramazanzadeh said universities could decide whether to allow events to mark the July 9 anniversary inside their campuses. ''Each university can decide independently and the government will not interfere,'' he said.

The spokesman said some 470 people had been arrested in Tehran by police and intelligence agents for public order offences, but an unknown number of people had also been held by the Islamic vigilantes.

He condemned the plainclothes militants, fiercely loyal to conservative clerics, for taking the law into their own hands and demanded they hand over those they held to judicial authorities.

''No one under any name and for whatever reason should be allowed to disturb public order,'' Ramazanzadeh said.

He also called on the conservative-dominated judiciary to treat equally student protesters and Islamic militants detained during the unrest.

''We are expecting the judiciary to dispel suggestions which have existed in the past that the main elements are not being confronted,'' he said

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For those who have seen articles about the arrest in France of members of the MEK, a left wing counter insurgency group trying to topple the Iranian regime I thought you should be aware of this article.

Islamist, Marxist, Terrorist
June 23, 2003
The Wall Street Journal

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news_en.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=06&d=23&a=6

The article is written by one of the finest journalists in the middle-east, Amir Taheri.

I will quote the end of the article for you.

“More than 300 U.S. legislators from both parties have at one time or other signed petitions in support of the MEK, and MEK spokesmen say they have offered the sect's services to the U.S. in case of war with Iran. But there is little possibility of the U.S. accepting the services of an organization that it classifies as "terrorist." The French, however, seem to have additional reasons. With Saddam gone, France has no friends left in the Middle East and seems to have decided to score points with Tehran by dismantling the MEK. That may well encourage the mullahs to warm to France, especially as the prospect of a direct clash with the U.S. begins to take shape.”

...While the demonstrations have all but fizzled out, authorities are eager not to see them erupt again around July 9. ...

Well Reuters once again has it wrong. I am still hearing reports across the country of continued protests. They do appear to be in a kind of stand off. The tactics of the protesters make it harder for the media to follow the story. The protesters produce a demonstration in one part of a city and them create another in a different part of the city.

Due to the heavy traffic jams at night the regime is having trouble bringing overwhelming force to all areas at once. I assume the media, which is banned from such sites, is also having trouble getting to the demonstrations. Also, my guess is that the "newness" of the story has worn off and therefore they are waiting for the next major "shoe to drop."

The date to watch for is July 9th, the anniversary of the 1999 crackdown on protesting students (just 16 days away). The regime has just issued a ban on any such demonstrations on that date. The demonstrators are also planning massive strikes to begin on that day. This is harder to stop. I have heard that the regime is paying select employees within the oil industry 200% of their salary to stay on the job. But we are also hearing, as I reported earlier, that the slowdown in the oil industry appears to already have begun.

I am also hearing that the regime is trying to discourage the late night traffic by stopping cars and getting the names of all those driving late at night. This is an obvious attempt to intimidate the public.

Just a reminder, it appears the regime has been forced to bring in paramilitary support from Lebanon and Syria to keep up with the protests. This appears to me to be a good sign that the protests are effective after all and that the regimes forces are running out of steam. This is consistent with what I was reporting a few days ago.

I will report back in as soon as I have any fresh news…

"It destroyed one presidency — Jimmy Carter’s — and it rubbed the gloss off another — Ronald Reagan’s"

I realize this is Britain, and that the British press hates America as much as the American press....but Jimmah destroyed his own chances in the Oval Office. HE turned his back on the Shah. HE was unable to rescue the hostages held for 444 days. In addition, HE presided over 20% interest reates and 18% - 20% unemployment. He darned near destroyed this country. If it weren't for the Great Man, Ronald Reagan, there would indeed have been a revolution. We were that close. In addition, Iran-Contra rubbed no one's gloss off. That's ludicrous. If the public were so stupid we couldn't see that Iran-Contra was manufactured, George HW Bush would not have been elected.

The guy is so close to the truth...I can't see how he missed the cigar. Carter has nothing to do with it. The actions of the Iranian people (with the aid of the Western news media) have a LOT to do with it.

We DO wish the Iranians success...but we're still dealing with the remnants of another nasty regime, complete with the Iranian-trained mullahs insisting the Americans are after nothin but their women, while echoing the catchwords of the late '70'2: "Death to America".

Oh, there are lotsa reasons to go in, but none of them are important enough to satisfy international law...yet.

No matter what the news media says, the Iraq situation satisfied international law 50 times over. I'm not sure that even the Iraqi-Americans allied with the coalition understood fully all the reasons we HAD to end Gulf I.

I'm talking about our national interests, which to us must remain primary.

Good article by Sullivan. He's got it right. America SHOULD and WILL continue to back the grass roots effort of the Iranian people to achieve freedom. And continue to warn the mad mullahs not to commit massacres in response to peaceful protests.

These students are freedom fighters. REAL ONES, not Reuterized ones. Any news about trials yet? Are the mullahs making good their threat to execute protestors?

I received this from a parent of one of the protesters in Iran. I don't know if I should show many of these pictures but they want it shown, so here is what I received...

Dear XXXXXXXX,

I am one of the Iranian people, who is living under the force of Islamic terrorist regime. My son is captured by Civil guard of The leader Khamenei.

He was released for one day, and we took a picture of backside of his body, they captured him again 2 days and we have no news of where he is now.

In Iran there are many people like me that are looking for their sun or daughter or husband, they may be in very bad condition in jail or they are killed by the Islamic terrorist regime.

Please help us,

M. F. From Esfahan