Iranian Alert -- DAY 49 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 7.28.2003 | DoctorZin

[nuconvert]

Correspondents Kasra Naji, Christopher Hines and Shirzad Bozorgmehr ...CNN 1999

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

I find this interesting that CNN says they have no representative in Iran. I just did a search at CNN on the name Shirzad Bozorgmehr, and I found 28 articles written in whole or in part by this person. All of them were related to Iran and they go back as far as March of 1997. I think CNN is lying again.

[nuconvert]

I think so, too. But for the record, they said they didn't have an office in Iran. They never said they didn't have a reporter. Apparently, he works out of a hole in the ground.

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

"But for the record, they said they didn't have an office in Iran."

Thanks for correcting me. It still sounds to me like CNN wants to imply that they do not have anyone in Iran, but clearly, they do.

[nuconvert]

Yep

[DoctorZIn]

...But for the record, they said they didn't have an office in Iran. They never said they didn't have a reporter....

A point of clarification.

Gooya.com and I never said they had an office in Iran.
We said the footage was given to CNN.

I have much more I want to tell you. It will become clear why I am holding back once I am free to share it with you. That may be few weeks away.

[nuconvert]

"Gooya.com and I never said they had an office in Iran.
We said the footage was given to CNN."

I noticed that.

Sometimes things get all mixed up.

Thanks for the teaser.

[DoctorZIn]

Your welcome.

[F14 Pilot]

Kasra Naji is now in India.

[F14 Pilot]

SCIENCE MINISTER’S RESIGNATION ANOTHER BLOW TO KHATAMI

TEHRAN 28 July (IPS) The lamed Iranian President Mohammad Khatami received another blow Monday after it was confirmed that his Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Mostafa Mo’in has submitted his resignation.

"When the minister of science is witnessing that for various illogical reasons obstacles are being thrown on the way of nation's scientific progress, he would be left with no alternative than resignation", explained Mrs. Mahdokht Boroujerdi, the Director General Ministry’s Public Relations Department.

This is the second time that the 52 years-old Mo’in resigns and though it is not clear yet if Mr. Khatami would accept it or not, but observers agree that it could produce major political impact, starting by encouraging other ministers who are not happy with the President’s soft attitude towards the ruling conservatives.

"Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Dr. Mostafa Mo’in handed over his resignation to President Mohammad Khatami on Thursday but the President gave no response to the resignation request", Mrs. Boroujerdi pointed out, according to a dispatch by the official news agency IRNA.

"Scientific progress of the country is on top of the agenda of the Science Ministry", she added, confirming indirectly that Moin's resignation was mainly due to the rejection by the leader-controlled Council of the Guardians of a bill aimed at restructuring his ministry.

But sources close to the Minister said he was mainly annoyed at the way the authorities treated the students in their last month’s protest movement, including the arrest of hundreds of students in the one hand and the numerous organs that interfere in the affairs of universities, particularly the personal Representative of the leader in the universities, on the other.

Mr. Mo’in resigned for the first time four years ago after Ayatollah Ali Khamehe’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, in agreement with President Khatami, ordered the revolutionary Guard, the basij militias and security forces to put down "at any cost" a protest movement staged by students, an event that has since become a landmark of popular demonstrations against the regime.

"By tendering his resignation, Mr. Mo’in not only shows the courage of protesting the present political situation of the country, but he also expresses what other ministers resents in private, meaning that under present conditions, it is difficult for them to carry on their duties", one observer said, asking for anonymity.

"Mr. Mo’in in fact is protesting to the Council of the Guardians who, by systematically rejecting government’s bills for reforms, including the last ones aimed at enhancing the powers of the President and curtailing those of the Guardians, are abusing of their illegal and unconstitutional powers", another analyst said.

Analysts said that after Hojjatoleslam Abdollah Noori, the former Interior Minister and Ata’ollah Mohajerani, the former Islamic Guidance and Culture Minister, both resigned under pressures from the conservatives, Mr. Mo’in is probably the most "political" minister of Mr. Khatami who tenders his resignation.

"No doubt that few conservatives would deplore Mr. Mo’in’s decision, but there is also no doubt that his resignation would send a very strong signal to the students, scholars, intellectuals, journalists, political activists and even the people who recently have increased their voices calling for replacing the present theocracy for democracy", a university professor noted.

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Jul-2003/science_minister_resign_28703.htm

[nuconvert]

Nov. 8, 1999
Iran Report
http://www.rferl.org/iran-report/1999/11/44-081199.html

"...Shirzad Bozorgmehr of "Iran News." (It is probably just a coincidence that Bozorgmehr also works for CNN.)"


"A recent point of contention arose over seemingly contradictory statements from Washington. In early-October, State Department spokesman James Rubin suggested that a military option is possible against whoever is responsible for the 1996 bombing that killed U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia, which in Iran was perceived as a direct threat. But in mid-October, Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk said the U.S. has not set preconditions for talks with Iran. Rubin clarified these statements in an interview with Shirzad Bozorgmehr of "Iran News." (It is probably just a coincidence that Bozorgmehr also works for CNN.) Iranian state radio responded on 28 October to Rubin's call for a dialogue by saying that, "as long as the U.S. continues to expand its hostile policies towards Iran, any type of discussion between the two countries would be fruitless." (excerpt)

[nuconvert]

"Iran has repeatedly said it is against terrorism, but it would like to be involved in a United Nations campaign," says Shirzad Bozorgmehr, deputy editor of the English-language Iran News, in Tehran."

From August 13, 2002 Christian Science Monitor

[nuconvert]

Naji gets around

[F14 Pilot]

Can we make a list of those press associations which have office in Tehran?
Let me search once again!

[nuconvert]

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR

[F14 Pilot]

Now, We know who Shirzad Bozorgmehr is.....
Then what? Start sending e-mail to CNN Offices?
I think, we should find his contacts in Tehran as well, then we can talk to him directly.
We better hear both sides first till Dr. Nourizadeh give us some new info.
Any Comment?

[DoctorZIn]

Be patient.

[dixiechick2000]

Late night bump!

Thank you both for this very interesting thread!

[F14 Pilot]

Time for Canada to Disengage From Iran

By Owen Rathbone on 07/28/03

Although the Iranian people have demonstrated by the thousands in past weeks for greater democracy and an end to clerical rule in their country, their plight has largely gone unreported in the Western media. The United States, in its resolve to bring terrorists to heel in the Middle East, has stood virtually alone in condemning the gross human rights violations of Iranians at the hands of the mullahs and their extremist supporters.

Given the world’s silence, it is not surprising that the Muslim clerics have brutally clamped down on dissent. With few international leaders beyond George Bush and Tony Blair willing to speak out against the atrocities that are occurring in Iran, religious authorities have been virtually given a carte blanche to terrorize the populace to maintain their hold on power. Beatings, abductions, arrests and executions have now become a regular feature of the Iranian political scene.

Canada, unlike its American neighbor to the south, has until recently opted to sit on the sidelines as history has unfolded in Iran. With the Middle Eastern country representing an export market worth some $500 million for Canadian wheat alone, Ottawa has chosen not to side with Iranian demonstrators or join with Washington in condemning the theocracy’s human rights infractions. Controlled engagement, as opposed to the U.S. policy of economic isolation, has been Canada’s preferred means to effect political change in the rogue nation.

The death of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi on July 10th, however, has awakened Canadians from their complacency and revealed the futility of continued trade and dialogue as a strategy to promote Iranian political reform. A dual Canadian-Iranian citizen, Kazemi, 54, was arrested while photographing protesters in front of the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, often called the “Iranian Auschwitz.” Brutally beaten by her abductors for refusing to admit she was a “spy,” the middle-aged Kazemi died of massive head injuries in a hospital run by the hard-line Revolutionary Guard three weeks after her detention.

Iranian authorities, as would be expected, have attempted to cover up and downplay the incident, much to the anger of Kazemi’s family and the Canadian government. Initially, the official Iranian news agency listed Kazemi’s cause of death as an accidental “brain stroke” that resulted from a fall. Under pressure, however, the government admitted it was a beating that caused the photographer’s death, promising to look into the matter.

The exact circumstances of Kazemi’s demise remain shrouded in mystery, given that the body was quickly buried in Iran and a full and impartial investigation has yet to be conducted. Kazemi’s son, Stephan Hachemi, has asked that his mother’s body be exhumed and sent to Canada for examination and burial, but the Iranian government has so far refused to honor this simple request. Iranian officials claim that Ms. Kazemi’s mother wished her daughter buried in the family hometown of Shiraz, though reports indicate the elderly woman was pressured into allowing the body to be buried there.

In a sign that the Canadian government may abandon its policy of engagement and adopt a harder line with Tehran, Prime Minister Jean Chretien expressed Canada’s displeasure with Iran’s handling of the affair and recalled Canadian ambassador Philip MacKinnon. Canada is also presently mulling over the possibility of imposing economic sanctions on Iran and slapping restrictions on Iranian business people and students traveling to Canada.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has called Canada’s decision to recall its ambassador as “unacceptable” and urged the Canadian government to tone down its “irrational” and “hasty” comments. To add insult to injury, Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari, a cabinet minister assigned by President Mohammed Khatami to investigate the affair, said the case "has nothing to do with Canada" since Iran does not recognize dual citizenship. Khatami as well has chided Canada for allegedly overreacting.

Such official reactions not only represent a diplomatic affront to Canada, but also reveal the moral bankruptcy and callousness of the clerical regime and the lengths Iran’s rulers will go to maintain their hold on power. So called “moderates” in the government such as Khatami appear to be no different from the hardliners who pull their strings behind the scenes.

If Canada truly wishes to take a stand for justice and freedom, it is time for Ottawa to disengage from Iran and encourage its allies to do the same. As recent atrocities in Iran such as the Kazemi murder illustrate, dialogue and trade have done nothing to alter the current regime’s behavior. Only economic sanctions and overt support for anti-mullah forces will change this ancient land for the better. Greater democracy, not terror, must be encouraged in Iran: Zahra Kazemi’s death should not be in vain.

http://www.americandaily.com/item/1811

[F14 Pilot]

'Bored' youths signal a discreet social revolution
By Rafael Behr
Published: July 26 2003 5:00 | Last Updated: July 26 2003 5:00

Helicopters buzz over Tehran's residential areas looking for the illegal satellite dishes that many Iranians, sceptical of state-controlled media, stow on balconies, behind flowerpots and between washing lines.


Enforcement of the widely defied ban was stepped up following mainly student-led demonstrations that were reported in dissident newscasts, beamed into Iran by diaspora communities abroad. Although the protests petered out, the broadcasts were seized on by hardliners in the government as evidence that the domestic reform movement was playing into the hands of Washington hawks seeking regime change in Tehran.

But this has little resonance for those most attracted to foreign media - the young and bored. More than half of Iran's population is under 25 years old. Unemployment is 15 per cent and young Iranians bemoan their lack of prospects.

This generation has grown up knowing only the draconian social restrictions of post-revolutionary Iran. Curiosity about all things taboo is in evidence in every internet cafe where teenagers scour the web for material that, while often politically anodyne, is also usually licentious. Pornography and pop music downloads clutter the hard-drives of public computers. Instant messaging services are especially popular.

This leaves young Iranians free to cultivate tastes and relationships that are incompatible with revolutionary ideology and hidden from conservative clerics, traditionally minded parents and police helicopters. The result is a discreet social revolution. "We are already Americanised in our outlook," says one 16-year-old. "We also want regime change."

Changing attitudes are most apparent in Tehran. The city's northern suburbs have cruising grounds where young men and women exchange telephone numbers through car windows as they pass in gridlocked traffic, risking lashes or imprisonment for illicit sexual liaisons.

Drugs and alcohol, long available on the black market, are being used more widely and more openly. Inebriated youths are sometimes seen teetering through Tehran streets, a sight that would have been unthinkable five years ago.

The erosion of traditional values has far outpaced the rise of the political reformers, led by President Mohammed Khatami, whose election in 1997 and renewed mandate in 2001 first raised expectations of social transformation. The reformers are stuck fighting a rearguard action against the conservative clerical establishment, forcing a split in their support between those who want to pursue change through the existing institutions and those who want to abandon the political process altogether. But so far the growing contempt for the Islamic state's social controls has not tipped over into a mass mobilisation demanding political freedoms.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1058868184588&p=1012571727172