Iranian Alert -- August 12, 2003 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Woman Risks Iran's Wrath to Protest Canadian's Death

August 12, 2003
Toronto Star
Ali Akbar Dareini

TEHRAN - A woman activist held a three-hour sit-in outside Iran's most notorious prison today to protest the July death of a Canadian photojournalist while in police custody and "lack of security" for prisoners....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/962437/posts?page=20#20

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EU wants Iran to ensure transparency in nuclear programme

World News
Aug 12, 2003

Brussels - European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, wants Iran to fulfill her obligations as a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by taking steps to adhere to the relevant international instruments, such as the IAEA Additional Protocol, ensuring adequate transparency of Iran's nuclear programme.

In response to a question addressed to him by Portuguese member of the European Parliament (MEP), Paulo Casaca, on Iran's nuclear program, the foreign policy wizard of the European Commission, Chris Patten said; "We recognize Iran's right as a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but strongly support that Iran must be fully transparent and in compliance with this treaty (NPT)".

Expressing his concern over what he described as Iran's failure to fulfill some of her obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards agreement, EU commissioner Patten said the European Commission, welcomed the June 2003 report of Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but recognizes the right of Iran to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The EU has repeatedly stated that the issue of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) constitutes one of the major areas of concern in its relations with Iran. While recognizing Iran's right as a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, the European Commission strongly supports the view of the EU that Iran must be fully transparent and in compliance with this treaty, Patten underlined.

In response to another question sent by the MEP, the EU Commissioner Chris Patten said, The Commission would hesitate to refer to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) as `the democratic opposition' to the regime in Tehran.

EU believes that more intense economic relations with Iran can be developed only if satisfactory progress is reached in the four areas of concern, namely human rights, terrorism, non-proliferation and the Middle East Peace Process.

The European Council of minister had been expressing concern over the development of the Iranian Nuclear programme and over the proliferation risks. The Council time and again reiterated its expectation that Iran show full transparency and co-operate fully with IAEA and meet its requests, in particular those referred to in the last Board of Governors meeting.

An urgent and unconditional acceptance, signature and implementation of an IAEA Additional Protocol on safeguards is of the utmost importance as it would be considered by the international community as a sign of the Iranian commitment in the field of non-proliferation an official at the EU headquarter opined.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1705.shtml

Iran step up arrests of activists

By Dan De Luce
Aug 12, 2003

Iran's hardline clergy has begun arresting and interrogating journalists, students and political activists in a new attempt to intimidate opposition before next year's parliamentary elections.

In the most extensive wave of detentions in recent years, plainclothes security agents have detained hundreds of student activists as well as journalists and reformist commentators.

"This is not a new process," Reza Yousefian, an MP in the reformist movement, told the Guardian. "But it has accelerated. They want to prepare themselves for the next round of parliamentary elections.

"Newspapers and students are the two engines of reform and they have been damaged and disrupted in some way by these arrests."

The most recent detentions include the arrest of Abolghasem Golbaf, the editor in chief of the political monthly Gozaresh.

Ever since the election of reformist Mohammad Khatami as president six years ago, conservative militants acting through the judiciary and shadowy security services appear to have waged a campaign of repression to undermine the reformist movement.

A number of President Khatami's allies have been imprisoned, a senior adviser was murdered three years ago and dozens of newspapers have been shut down.

Reformist activists say the pro-democracy demonstrations which erupted in June have provided a fresh opportunity for the conservative clergy to go after the most strident voices demanding reform of the country's theocracy.

The minister of science, research and technology, Mostafa Moin, submitted his resignation last week amid speculation that he had objected to political interference at universities and had come under pressure to punish student activists after the June demonstrations.

Upon release, many students and other activists are less ready to speak their minds and some journalists choose to stay away from "sensitive" topics. After being freed on bail, dozens of journalists and activists operate under the cloud of a pending trial.

But despite the imprisonment of more than 20 journalists in recent months, the news media and dissident voices are growing increasingly defiant as they test the limits of the system.

Details of psychological torture are emerging and a flurry of open letters to the powerful supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have castigated "authoritarian methods".

In a 32-page letter published last month, Abbas Abdi, a reformist held in solitary confinement, described how the authorities put inmates under extraordinary pressure to extract confessions.

A former student radical who helped to seize the US embassy in 1979, Mr Abdi was imprisoned and accused of plotting with foreign powers after his firm published a poll last year showing more than 70% of Iranians favoured restoring relations with the US.

The death in custody last month of a Canadian photojournalist of Iranian descent, Zahra Kazemi, shocked the country. Revelations that she died of a blow to the head and that authorities might have tried to hush up details of her case have underlined the reformists' long-held concerns that hardliners are operating parallel security services and unregistered detention centres outside legal authority.

Many voters, disappointed with the pace of reform, are expected to boycott elections next February, allowing the conservatives to win back control of parliament.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1706.shtml

Iran step up arrests of activists

By Dan De Luce
Aug 12, 2003

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/962437/posts?page=23#23

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"Burned Land"

Scorched Earth...it seems I've heard of this policy somewhere before.

Azam Taleqani is a brave woman. I pray for her safety.

Thanks for your posts!

This is very bad news, Doctor.

"Iran's hardline clergy has begun arresting and interrogating journalists, students and political activists in a new attempt to intimidate opposition before next year's parliamentary elections."

This vicious cycle is starting all over again.
Announcing the release of a few, and arresting dozens more.

"Many voters, disappointed with the pace of reform, are expected to boycott elections next February, allowing the conservatives to win back control of parliament."

They CAN NOT allow this to happen. They made this mistake before. It does them no good.

Iran's Leader Says Reforms Have Stalled

ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president admitted Tuesday that his program of democratic reforms has largely failed, but said he will not break his promise to voters to promote democracy and freedoms.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami made the remarks amid continuing attempts by ruling hard-line clerics to undermine his reform agenda and deepening public discontent over the country's slow pace toward democratic change.

"Lately, speaking for me has become difficult because I feel many of the ideas and programs I sincerely offered and the people voted for have not materialized," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khatami as saying.

Last month, Khatami said he would resign if Iranians - dissatisfied over his failure to deliver promised reforms - want him to.

"Perhaps part of the population, especially the youth, who want quick realization of their demands, have become disappointed," he was quoted as telling the National Congress of Non-Government Youth Organizations in Tehran.

In June, thousands of Iranians held a week of nightly protests, railing not only against their usual targets - Iran's unelected hard-liners who control key institutions - but also against Khatami for failing to introduce greater political, social and economic freedoms.

Khatami, however, said he still had some hopes for success.

"A ray of hope still exists. Considering the circumstances (in the country) I believe there is no way other than continuing the path we have begun. With patience and wisdom, hopefully we will succeed," IRNA quoted him as saying.

Khatami's hopes for a compromise with hard-liners have been thwarted in recent weeks after the Guardian Council, which vets all parliamentary legislation, rejected two key reform bills presented by the president.

Those bills would have given greater powers to Khatami to stop constitutional violations by his hard-line opponents and would have barred the Guardian Council from arbitrarily disqualifying candidates in legislative and presidential elections.

The soft-spoken president has said the closure of more than 90 pro-democracy publications in the past three years, the arrests of dozens of prominent intellectuals and writers and the holding of closed trials without jury violated the constitution. Hard-liners have ignored his warnings.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6517154.htm

Iran's Leader Says Reforms Have Stalled

ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/962437/posts?page=27#27

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Saudi Official Says Key Al Qaeda Figures in Iran

Tue August 12, 2003 04:59 PM ET
By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several key al Qaeda members, including the security chief and Osama bin Laden's son, are in Iran, which has not responded to a request by Saudi Arabia to hand over any of its citizens among them, a senior Saudi official said on Tuesday.

He said those in Iran included: Saad bin Laden, an older son of the Saudi-born al Qaeda leader; Egyptian Saif al-Adel, believed to be the network's security chief; Kuwait-born Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, al Qaeda's spokesman; and Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi, who has suspected al Qaeda ties and is accused of plotting the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Amman last year.

"We are very much confident, actually, that those names are there as well as others," the Saudi official told a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity.

"We are aware that there are at least another 10 or 12 major Qaeda fish ... as well as many others who could be supporters," he said, without identifying the others. "We know they are in safe houses under Iranian control."

Iran had "total control" over the al Qaeda members in the sense that "they won't be able to pack and leave let's say without Iranians knowing about it," the official said.

"We don't know if they can still engage in terrorist activities," he added.

Al Qaeda, led by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, has been blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed about 3,000 people.

STILL AWAITING A RESPONSE

Saudi Arabia has asked Iran to hand over Saudi nationals among that group but has not received a response.

The last time the issue was raised on a senior level was during Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal's visit to Iran in June when he met with Iran's President, Mohammad Khatami, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, and other officials, the Saudi official said. "And we have yet to hear back from them," he said.

Before Prince Saud's visit, Saudi Arabia sent a team to Iran to help identify any Saudis among the al Qaeda members, but they were not given access to them, the Saudi official said.

He would not comment on whether the United States knew the identities of the al Qaeda members in Iran, but said that there was information-sharing between Saudi and U.S. authorities.

"If they don't know exactly who every Tom, Dick and Harry who is there, we have a good idea," the Saudi official said.

Iran said last month it was holding several key members of al Qaeda who had fled from Afghanistan and Pakistan, but denied U.S. accusations that it has been harboring them, saying it has arrested and deported more than 500 suspects in the past year. It refused to name those it is holding.

Earlier this week, Iran said it planned to try any al Qaeda members it cannot extradite. "If their citizenship is not clear and no country will accept them, then ... they will be tried in Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Monday.

Saudi officials had been "optimistic" about a resolution to the issue around the time of Prince Saud's visit to Iran, "but we are losing our patience," the Saudi official said.

"We feel that we would be willing to wait up to a point to be honest with you and then we have to see where do we go then," the official said. "We would want this issue to be solved."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=3266439

Saudi Official Says Key Al Qaeda Figures in Iran

Tue August 12, 2003 04:59 PM ET
By Tabassum Zakaria

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/962437/posts?page=29#29

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It is interesting to me that all of this news from Iran is rather muted in the media. Either they are missing it, or they are willfully suppressing it.

My bet is for the latter.

Sometimes I wonder if the fact that the Iranian people are largely pro-Bush and pro-USA has something to do with their lack of interest in covering the story.

Wonder no more.

"They CAN NOT allow this to happen. They made this mistake before. It does them no good."

Maybe they ought to go vote in February afterall, and write in W next to President.

That ought to send a message.

Who is this ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press?

Awfully pro Khatami, isn't he?

"...I feel many of the ideas and programs I sincerely offered and the people voted for have not materialized," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khatami as saying.

Big DUH, and he's full of crap.

A Grandson?s Remarks Hint at Unrest in Iran and Iraq
12 August Nicolas Birch Eurasia News

A Grandson?s Remarks Hint at Unrest in Iran and Iraq Nicolas Birch: 8/11/03 Eurasia News The image of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran?s theocracy, looks down from posters in Shia districts of Baghdad. Iran, officially neutral in the US-led invasion of Iraq, has bristled when American President George W. Bush has warned it against interfering in Iraq?s post-invasion chaos. But an August 5 statement by Khomeini?s 45-year-old grandson, Sayyid Hussein Khomeini, shows how that chaos can have Iran?s ruling clerics on the defensive.

"Iranians insist on freedom, but they are not sure where it will come from," Khomeini told journalists in Najaf August 5. "If it comes from inside, they will welcome it, but if it was necessary for it to come from abroad, especially from the United States, people will accept it." These startling remarks quickly circulated around the world?s newswires, deepening awareness that Iran?s ruling clerics are facing unprecedented challenges to their legitimacy.Khomeini, by vaulting himself into the global spotlight, may have been positioning himself as a champion of Iran?s millions of disaffected youth. If he taps Iraqis? yearnings for freedom as well, Khomeini could contribute to turbulence in both countries.

A little over a year ago, Iran?s fundamentalist strain seemed to be growing inexorably stronger. The clerics who retain final authority in the government are still pressing to capitalize on reform-minded voters? impatience with President Mohammed Khatami and his allies. But they are being careful about making overtures to Iraq. The country has responded to Bush administration scolding by saying that "no one has the right to interfere in another country?s affairs." Amir Mohebbian, a columnist for the hard-line daily Resalat, professes that Tehran?s policymakers have "no intention" of forcing their "political model" on Iraq. Khomeini?s remarks may suggest that the model in question faces too much friction at home to be exportable.

Some observers dispute this, noting that senior ayatollahs in Qom have backed a young cleric in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf and that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been known to work closely with Iraqi-born members of the Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. A Khamenei representative accompanied that group?s leader, Ayatollah Bakr al-Hakim, when he returned to Iraq in May. Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, an expert on Islamic law at Tehran University, argues that Iranian fundamentalist rulers see attractive prospects for a "clone theocracy" in Iraq. He sees liberation from Saddam as a chance for "those wishing to conform to the age-old precepts of Shia tradition ? the pious, apolitical links between senior ayatollahs and their followers." But these links would not necessarily entail political devotion. Indeed, shortly after al-Hakim arrived in Iraq, Iranian press said he professed himself "a religious clergyman" rather than a politician.

It is not clear how Iranian fundamentalists can deploy client Iraqis like Hakim, who have at times made conciliatory gestures toward the Bush administration. Western observers who have fixated on Khatami?s failure to push broad reforms through the power structure may overestimate the fear that the ruling clerics command in Iran.One London-based clerical opposition group estimates that of approximately 5,000 ayatollahs in Iran, only 80 wholeheartedly support the regime. And of 14 exalted "Grand Ayatollahs" inside Iran, many ayatollahs now question the marriage of governing power with religious purity. And the younger Khomeini?s remarks about freedom indicate that the clerics? muted ideology corresponds to a muted authority.

Some Iranian analysts see signs that dissatisfaction in Iran is beginning to spread to traditionally pro-regime clerics. They point to remarks in May 2002 by Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, deputy head of the conservative Assembly of Experts. "The regime cannot maintain itself in power by force," he told a crowd in Qom then. "Society is on the verge of an explosion." More than a year later, these remarks by an official of a group that can appoint or remove the Supreme Leader cannot easily be discounted as alarmist.

One phenomenon that the young Khomeini?s remarks highlighted was the contrast in reputation between his grandfather and the current Supreme Leader. The older Khomeini, for all his vitriol, had a reputation as a peerless scholar. Khamenei does not. "Senior clerics treat his theological pronouncements with disdain," says Nadeem Kazmi, spokesman for the London-based Imam Al-Khoei Benevolent Foundation, a charity with close links to a revered but apolitical ayatollah based in Najaf. Critics say that Khamenei has compensated for his lack of credentials with efforts to stifle dissent among clerics. An indeterminate number of dissenting clerics ? perhaps as many as 60 ? have been executed on the orders of special clerical courts since 1989.

In this context, the young Khomeini?s remarks about the United States looking like an acceptable agent for liberation may block any inroads clerics might have hoped to forge into Iraq. Some doubt whether Shia in general can incite Iranians who have lived with a generation?s worth of disappointment under the clerics. "Young people are far more interested in Cyrus the Great and all that nationalist claptrap" than in Shia, says Ali Ansari, who teaches Middle Eastern history at the University of Durham. Sayyid Hussein Khomeini?s ideas may tap those young Iranians? anxiety for a new political model. That could foster instability in Iran and Iraq.

Editor: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and the Middle East.

http://www.iranexpert.com/2003/unrestiniraniraq12august.htm

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Join Us at the Iranian Alert -- August 13, 2003 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Live Thread Ping List | 8.13.2003 | DoctorZin

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"Young people are far more interested in Cyrus the Great and all that nationalist claptrap" than in Shia, says Ali Ansari, who teaches Middle Eastern history at the University of Durham."

"..nationalist claptrap"...now there's a revealing phrase from the Middle Eastern history teacher