Iranian Alert -- DAY 39 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

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

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

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

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Please continue to join us here, post your news stories and comments to this thread.

Medical probe into death of Canadian-Iranian journalist

Thursday, July 17, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com

A medical team in Iran has completed its probe into the cause of death of a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist who died after her arrest here, the student news agency ISNA reported Thursday, the day after the country's vice president said her brain haemorrhage was caused by a beating.

The agency did not give the results of the findings, but said they had been passed on to a cabinet team and judge appointed by President Mohammad Khatami to investigate the death, which has severely damaged Iran's image and strained relations with Canada.

ISNA said the government team, including Health Minister Massoud Pezeshkian and 15 surgeons from the coroner's office, discussed the findings for six hours. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Zahra Kazemi was arrested on June 23 for taking photographs of protestors outside Evin prison in northern Tehran who were demanding the release of relatives locked up during last month's wave of anti-regime protests, demonstrations that were met with a tough crackdown.

She was transferred three days later to Baghiatollah Azam hospital -- which is run by the hardline Revolutionary Guards -- where she died. Iranian authorities initially said Kazemi fell ill while she was being questioned.

But on Wednesday, reformist Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi made the dramatic allegation that the death of 54-year-old Kazemi was linked to a wave of arrests carried out by regime hardliners who, he said, were seeking to undermine the embattled pro-reform camp.

"She died of a brain haemorrhage caused by a beating," Abtahi told reporters after a cabinet meeting, giving a preliminary result of a government inquiry.

However, the Iranian government has refused demands by Canada to conduct its own autopsy. Iran does not recognise dual nationality.

The case has dealt a major blow to Iran's relations with Canada, which, like the European Union and in contrast to the United States, has been seeking to engage the Islamic republic's elected reformist government.

Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien pressed Iran on Wednesday to punish those responsible for Kazemi's death, saying that "if crimes have been committed, we're demanding of the Iranian government to punish those who committed the crime."

"And we will push that case because if it is the case, it is completely unacceptable that the journalist go there to do professional work and be treated that way."

Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham for his part said Canada holds Iranian authorities responsible for Kazemi's death "until proven otherwise."

But he added: "We must give the Iranian government time to complete its investigation."

He said he had spoken by phone with his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharazi, who told him the photographer had died of a "cerebral fracture." Kharazi did not say she had been beaten.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17044&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

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Since where Powell stands on the war on terror is important to the Iranian protest movment, I thought you might be interested in this development...

Powell Panel Has Surprising Slant

Critic: Not a Bush List, a State Dept. List
New York Sun, 7.17.2003
By IRA STOLL Staff Reporter of the Sun

It has a former CNN official — but no one from Fox News.

It has an official of the dovish Israel Policy Forum — but no one from more mainstream or centrist Jewish organizations.

It has one member who donated to the Gore-Lieberman campaign, another who gave to Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign, and two who supported the Arab American Leadership Council Political Action Committee, which funds extremist critics of President Bush’s foreign policy and of Israel such as Reps. Jim Moran, Earl Hilliard, and Cynthia McKinney.

A group on the left-wing fringe of Democratic foreign policy? Nope, this is an advisory group to the Bush administration named this week with the approval of Secretary of State Powell.

The 14-member panel, known as the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World of the U.S.Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, held its first meetings in Washington on July 8 and 9, before its members were publicly announced.

A commission spokesman, Matt Lauer, told The New York Sun that the group’s chairman, Edward Djerejian, “did work with Secretary Powell” and an assistant secretary of state, Patricia Harrison, in coming up with the members of the group. A State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that Mr. Powell “did sign off” on the appointees.

The group came under immediate criticism from some Middle East policy analysts.

“It’s a curious list. It’s essentially a Democratic list, I mean, big-D Democratic,” said the director of the Middle East Forum, Daniel Pipes, who was a Middle East policy official in the Reagan administration.

“It’s not so much a Bush administration list as it is a State Department list,” Mr. Pipes said.

The director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Hudson Institute, Meyrav Wurmser, called the group “imbalanced” and “obviously very onesided.”She warned that the group’s recommendations would probably reflect the people on the panel.

A press release announcing the panel said,“The advisory group was assembled at the request of Congress to study the efficacy of the Department of State’s public diplomacy efforts aimed in these regions and recommend policy initiatives.The advisory group, through the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, will report its findings and recommendations to the President, the Congress, and the Secretary of State.”

Mr. Djerejian, a former American ambassador to Syria, is scheduled to appear on July 24 at a public meeting in Washington of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. There he’s expected to update the full commission on the advisory group’s activities.

“Public diplomacy” has become a buzzword in foreign policy circles following the terrorist attacks of September 11, in part owing to a view that may be crudely summarized as the notion that if America could only explain itself better on television and radio and in Arab newspapers, fewer terrorists would want to attack Americans.

Mr. Lauer, the commission spokesman, called the members “a good group” that “represents a variety of different positions.”

The State Department official noted that the group does include at least some Republicans and is intended to be bipartisan in nature.

Some of the members have previously and publicly expressed views on public diplomacy. Mamoun Fandy, for instance, told PBS’s NewsHour, “It would be probably very good if the person carrying America’s message to the Muslim world is a Muslim himself, or a native speaker of the language that he’s broadcasting. So at least there is a level of trust, and the basic problem between America and the Muslim world is the gap in trust.”

Of the other members, Stephen P. Cohen was identified in the release as being affiliated with the Israel Policy Forum. He was the subject of scrutiny last December when he acknowledged that he “made contacts between business people in Israel and the Arab world” engaged in a Middle East business deal while functioning as a Middle East policy analyst.An associate of one of his partners in the deal told an Israeli newspaper that the partner “made millions” through commissions on gas and cement deals between Israeli companies and the Palestinian Authority.

George Salem, a Washington lawyer, and John Zogby, a pollster, both donated to the Arab American Leadership Council Political Action Committee. Mr. Salem also donated individually to Rep. Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat.

Harold Pachios, another member of the group, gave to the Bradley campaign.

Shibley Telhami, another member of the group, gave to the Gore-Lieberman campaign.

Judy Milestone, another member of the group, is a former senior vice president of CNN.

Mr. Zogby’s polling firm conducted a survey of 3,800 Arab adults that was commissioned by the Arab Thought Foundation, a charity funded with at least $17 million from Saudi royalty and prominent businessmen, including $1.5 million from Bakr Bin Laden, the estranged brother of Osama bin Laden.

A spokesman for Mr. Djerejian, who is the director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University, said Mr. Djerejian was traveling and unavailable for comment yesterday evening.

Officials familiar with the panel, whose members serve on a part-time, unpaid basis, said that no federal financial disclosure forms are required for members.

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Shifting US Policy on Iran

Seyfi Tashan 7.18.2003

Now that the U.S. military has supreme authority in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has presence in Central Asia, it has the possibility of exerting heavy presence on Iran, once a strategic partner of the U.S. Iran's attempts to develop nuclear capability, ostensibly for civilian purposes, is not a new phenomenon. During the days of the rule of late Shah, an order was placed to a German company for the construction of a large nuclear power plant. At that time the U.S. did not object to this project because the Shah of Iran was a friend of the U.S. Nevertheless, the construction work was interrupted because of the revolution. Only several years later, to the chagrin of the U.S., Russia became the principal source for developing Iranian nuclear capability that included a regeneration plant that could produce weapons grade uranium and plutonium.

Immediately after the war in Iraq eyes were turned on Iran as a potential U.S. target; saber rattling was heard loud and clear. Iran accepted to put all of its installations under the control of an appropriate nuclear agency and Russia assured the U.S. that it would not allow any weapons technology transfer. The possibility of a U.S. attack on Iran has rescinded substantially may be for several reasons:

Iran's nuclear program is supported by the entire nation irrespective of political tendencies. Too much criticism and an act of aggression on this account will bring the Iranian nation together against the U.S. As moderate Iranians are seeking a dialogue with the U.S. such a move would undercut dissent against the conservative Shiite rule and weaken their campaign to topple the system.
Iran is a pivotal country in the region extending from the Gulf to Central Asia and the Caucasus. With U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. would like a friendly regime in Iran not an enemy. Iran is a candidate to play a useful role for U.S. interests in the region as it did under the Shah during the Cold War. Particularly after the coolness that developed in Turkish-U.S. relations during and after the Iraq war, the need for friendly Iran has become even greater.

Last but not least is the influence of Iran on Shiites that constitute more than two-thirds of the population of Iraq. Britain & the U.S. have not yet succeeded in pacifying the people of Iraq. Discontent with the shortages in Iraq is on the increase and the occupying powers are blamed. An attack on Iran, if it cannot be justified in the eyes of the Shiites in Iraq, would mean even greater unrest among the Shiites of Iraq even if Iran may not provide open support.
An additional consideration may be that for the U.S. it may be easier to fight a war against a mismatched enemy; but establishing a post-war regime is extremely difficult. Transition to a government system that could provide good governance and peace to the people in Iran dwarfs the difficulties in Iraq.

For these reasons the U.S. policy, while supporting dissent in Iran, no longer talks about military solutions, and the U.S. seems to have shifted its attention to problems in Africa where prospects of success would also help the administration's re-election campaign among the coloured voters, while trying to overcome the impediments for peace in the Middle East and law and order in Iraq.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for.htm#f6

Iran needs $17b of investments next year

Shiraz, Fars prov, July 17, IRNA -- Deputy Economy and Finance Minister Mohammad Khazai said here Thursday that the national economic plans call for close to dlrs 17 billion of investments in the next Iranian year (stars March 20, 2004).

Khazai, also Head of Foreign Investments, Technical and Economic Assistance Organization (FITEAO) said this level of investments aims to create 900,000 new jobs, "so that the unemployment rate is controlled and lowered to about three percent."

Speaking at a gathering of domestic and Dubai-based Iranian industrialists, he said expert studies indicate that each employment opportunity requires close to dlrs 18,000 of investments.

Attracting this amount of investments is not possible with domestic resources and "we should be thinking of drawing foreign investments and to prepare the grounds for inflow of foreign capital."

The Third (2000-2005) and Fourth (2005-2010) Socio-Economic velopment Plans call for dlrs 20 billion of investment annually.

Khazai further said grounds are prepared for foreign investments in the country, adding "foreign investors need to feel secure to invest in a country and have to be rendered serious support on the part of officials in the country."

On the political front, Khazai said reducing tension with other countries, notably the Persian Gulf littoral states, has been a right step in drawing foreign investments.

He also brushed aside comparisons likening foreign investments to "beggary from abroad."

"Using other countries financial resources is a common policy throughout the world and taking advantages of its fruits is an art which is rooted in a viable and vibrant national economy."

Khazai said foreign investment does not only entail garnering financial resources and covering budget deficit, it also means greater access to new technologies, employment, generating schemes, and increased productivity and more efficient management.

He said the number of applications for foreign investments rose in Iran last year and equaled the total foreign investment commitments in the past decade.

Khazai said with the passing of the new foreign investments law investments applications have topped four billion since last July.

Iran has been hard at work to promote foreign investments in the country.

Earlier in July, Khazai said in the decade 1992-2002 close to 4.5 billion of foreign investments were committed in the country.

Mining sector drew dlrs 1.242 billion and industrial sector dlrs 1.4 billion of foreign investments in recent year up to March 2003.

However, "even if all the requests are approved it will equal only one-fourth of planned foreign investments target."

He also cautioned that the amount of foreign investment in Iran is insignificant to the neighboring nations and some other developing countries.

Foreign investments in Malaysia, Turkey and Azerbaijan were dlrs 3.5 billion, dlrs 783 million and dlrs 691 million in 1999-2000 (before the September 11 attacks in the US) respectively.

"In the same period Iran drew about dlrs 89 million of foreign investments," Khazai underlined.

In addition foreign investments is an impetus for closer diplomatic and economic ties through easier access to international capital markets and financial sources. NB/YS

http://www.irna.ir/en/tnews/030718215451.etn08.shtml

Comment:

They not only belief in Khomeini, they also belief in Santa Claus! How do they think that they will get 17 bn USD next year if they behave as they do.

The Blog Shall Make You Free

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105848499831453000,00.html?mod=opinion

The story of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, who Iran has finally admitted died from brain injuries sustained when Iranian secret police beat her, made international news this week. More surprising is that Westerners are hearing about Iranian journalist Sina Motallebi, arrested for the crime of blogging.

Technology has played a huge role in modern democracy movements, whether it was faxes during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising, or e-mail during the Russian overthrow of its dictators. Iran, for its part, has discovered blogs. In less than two years an estimated 10,000 blogs have popped up under the very noses of mullahs, mostly written in Persian, and all of them giving Iranians a new free-speech outlet.

Thanks to these blogs, Iranians are gabbing fairly freely about everything from entertainment and poetry to technology and personal diaries. Iranian women (who can take different names online) use blogs to talk about dating, sex and other taboo subjects. And, of course, the blogs are playing a real role in Iran's democracy movement. Bloggers provide firsthand accounts of student protests, political criticism and even attract politicians -- who comment on postings.

Iran's mullahs might be slow but they're catching on. They have started blocking sites they deem subversive (including Voice of America's Persian-language site) and have occasionally shut down student sites and blog-hosting services like persianblog.com. They also decided to make an example of Mr. Motallebi. A journalist for a paper that was shut down by the government, Mr. Motallebi began a blog. His site, while rarely political, was very popular. In April he was arrested on undisclosed charges, and is now awaiting trial.

That Westerners know about Mr. Motallebi is largely the result of another blogging phenomenon: Iranians who run English-language blogs outside of Iran. Pedram Moallemian, born in Iran but now living in California, runs a blog (www.eyeranian.net) and started an online petition to protest Mr. Motallebi's arrest. Hossein Derakhshan, who runs a Iran-focused blog (www.hoder.com) in Canada, helped bring the story to the attention of well-known blogs like InstaPundit and Buzz Machine, which means a lot of Americans now know the story. Mr. Derakhshan has also provided Iranians back home with the technical information to set up blogs.

The Internet won't bring down Iran's dictators. But the blogging phenomenon shows that human freedom and expression will not be denied, and that technology will only continue to make the job of dictators that much harder.

Murdered by Mullahs

By ANDREW SULLIVAN

New York Sun 7.17.2003

A Western journalist is taken into custody by an authoritarian regime and suffers a brain hemorrhage that is subsequently described as the result of a police beating. She was covering anti-government demonstrations when she was attacked. She subsequently dies of her injuries and the authorities will not release the body for an autopsy in Canada. Eventually, a government official in Tehran conceded that Zahra Kazemi “died of a brain hemorrhage resulting from blows inflicted on her.” Don’t you think this is big news? No one else seems to. CNN’s coverage of the event led yesterday with Iranian hardliners’ claim that Ms. Kazemi had “fallen” and suffered the blow to the head. The New York Times ran some buried Reuters stories; the Washington Post did better — with an A-Section piece. But government-sponsored murders of journalists seem to me to merit far wider and deeper outrage. Is the lack of interest because such a murder is committed by a regime targeted by the Bush administration? Or is it because news organizations still need to cozy up to the Tehran authorities to keep their correspondents free from harassment? (excerpt;from #45 previous Thread Day 38)

Excellent!

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