Iranian Alert -- August 17, 2003 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 8.17.2003 | DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

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.

Thanks for all the help.

DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

Iran Blames Uranium on Contamination

August 17, 2003
Reuters
Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA -- Iran says highly enriched uranium traces U.N. inspectors found in the Islamic republic resulted from contamination and not because it is secretly enriching uranium, according to diplomats familiar with the matter.

However, diplomats told Reuters they wanted the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to investigate Iran's explanation for the presence of what could be weapons-useable uranium in an environmental sample taken at a nuclear site.

''We can't be satisfied with excuses,'' a Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. ''We don't expect the case to be closed at this point. The pressure must continue on Iran to cooperate with the IAEA.''

But diplomats said the contamination explanation could not be ruled out and should be taken seriously, though suspicions remained that the uranium was enriched inside Iran.

Iran initially denied a July 18 Reuters report that IAEA inspectors had found traces of highly enriched uranium.

However, diplomats who declined to be identified said Iran recently told the IAEA that contaminated machinery purchased abroad was the source of the enriched uranium particles found at Natanz, 250 km (155 miles) south of Tehran.

The Western diplomat said there was still ''a lot of doubt'' about whether Iran's nuclear programme was dedicated to the peaceful generation of electricity -- as Tehran insists -- or whether it is a front for a nuclear weapons program.

Iran is building two uranium enriching facilities at Natanz. One is a pilot enrichment plant, which is expected to house some 1,000 centrifuges. The second facility is to be a full-scale enrichment plant with more than 50,000 centrifuges.

Centrifuges are used to separate fissile uranium from non-fissile material to purify it for use as nuclear fuel -- or in weapons.

Diplomats have said they suspect Iran has done live testing of centrifuges without notifying the IAEA, which could viewed as a serious violation of its IAEA Safeguards Agreement. Such violations must be reported to the U.N. Security Council.

Iran denies having tested its enrichment systems with nuclear material.

IRAN UNDER PRESSURE

Diplomats said that when the IAEA Board of Governors meets next month to discuss the agency's most recent inspections in Iran, some of the 35 board member states would push for a strongly worded resolution criticising Iran's repeated failure to inform the IAEA about all aspects of its nuclear programme.

The board would, however, almost certainly not agree to declare Iran in non-compliance with its Safeguards Agreement, the Western diplomat said.

Diplomats said the hardline view of the United States, which accuses Iran of having an extensive clandestine nuclear weapons programme and would not oppose reporting Tehran to the Security Council, had few clear supporters on the board.

''I think the European countries take a very hard view of Iran but want to keep up the pressure on Iran to cooperate with the IAEA,'' said the Western diplomat, adding that he was eager to see the agency's new report on Iran.

The European Union -- one of Iran's key trading partners -- warned the Tehran government last month it would review relations on the basis of the upcoming IAEA report.

The IAEA board cited Iran in June for failing to declare many aspects of its atomic programme and called on Tehran to clear up a number of open questions, including the nature and history of its ambitious uranium enrichment programme.

Agency spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei would be finalising the confidential Iran report in the coming days, before giving it to IAEA board members.

He said the agency would not comment on its ongoing inspections in Iran.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-17-060404.asp?reg=MIDEAST

[DoctorZIn]

Iran Blames Uranium on Contamination

August 17, 2003
Reuters
Louis Charbonneau

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/965430/posts?page=41#41

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

[DoctorZIn]

Several dead in violent protests in central Iran

World News
Aug 17, 2003

TEHRAN - Several people have been killed during violent protests in the central Iranian town of Samirom against planned changes to its local administration, state radio reported Sunday.

Individuals set fire to tyres and smashed windows of shops, homes, cars and public buildings, leading to the deaths of several people, the radio said.

Both police and protestors were also wounded in the demonstrations, which erupted Saturday, it added.

The demonstrators were protesting against the interior ministry's decision to incorporate the village of Vardasht within Samirom municipality, which lies in the far south of the central province of Esfahan.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1784.shtml

[DoctorZIn]

Larijani Urges Resistance to Atomic Demands

August 17, 2003
Reuters
MSNBC News

TEHRAN -- A senior Iranian official said on Sunday the country should resist Western demands over its atomic programme as international pressure mounts on the Islamic republic to allow snap inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Western countries and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog have urged Iran to sign a protocol allowing unfettered inspections of sites which the United States argues could be used for developing atomic bombs.

''If we resist the West's illogical demands, their stance regarding Iran will change,'' the official IRNA news agency quoted Ali Larijani, a member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying in a speech to war veterans.

Larijani is also head of Iran's state broadcaster, appointed directly by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran denies it has any military nuclear ambitions and insists its programme is purely to meet increasing demands for electricity.

It has resisted calls to sign the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which would allow more intrusive inspections.

Reformists allied to President Mohammad Khatami's government have spoken out in favour of accepting tougher inspections. But some hardliners fiercely opposed to Western interference in Iranian affairs have suggested that instead of signing the protocol, Iran should pull out of the NPT altogether.

''What is the guarantee that after Iran joins the protocol, they will not accuse us of building atomic weapons,'' IRNA quoted Larijani as saying.

Officials from the pro-reform government have said Tehran has no intention of pulling out of the NPT and Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said last week the country had a ''positive view'' on the protocol.

Tehran says it should get access to Western atomic power technology in return for signing the protocol.

''There is no reason to join the protocol while the IAEA and its members have not helped Iran to obtain the nuclear technology,'' Larijani said.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-17-083352.asp?reg=MIDEAST

[McGavin999]

Ah, things are heating up faster than I expected. I was thinking it would be another month before they started again.

[DoctorZIn]

AT LEAST EIGHT PEOPLE KILLED BY POLICE IN THE CITY OF SEMIROM

TEHRAN, 17 Aug. (IPS) At least eight people were killed and 150 others wounded, some of them seriously after people in the small city of Semirom clashed with Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) on Saturday and Sunday, officials at the office of Esfahan General Governor told the media.

The clashes erupted after armed policemen, backed by security services and plainclothesmen attacked a large crowd of angry Semirom people protesting a government decision to redraw the municipal border.

Clashes went on through the night and morning, but the city was reported quiet by Sunday afternoon, after the Interior Ministry announced that the project had been called off.

The protest movement against separating the agricultural-rich region of Vardasht from Semirom, some 100 kilometres south of the central city of Esfahan, had started several days ago, but it turned violent after conservatives-controlled police and thugs attacked protesters, according to eyewitnesses.

Mr. Mehdi Taheri an official with the office of Esfahan General Governor told the independent Students news agency ISNA that violence started after some "trouble-makers" and young people looking for fun had joined the crowd that had gathered in front of the municipality.

"At least eight people were killed, two or three of them policemen and 150 other injured. The town hall and the office of the city’s representative to the Majles were badly damaged", he said, adding that 11 people had been arrest, some of them freed later in the day.

But residents joined by telephone blamed part of the violence on the State-run, leader-controlled Radio and Television for describing the protesters as "hooligans and trouble-makers".

"We are not trouble-maker nor hooligans. We had the best of relations with our police. The real troublemakers are those who, in the radio and television, deliberately insult the people, inciting them to violence", one angry resident commented, adding that the protesters chanted anti-regime slogans after they heard the news on the radio and watched it on the television.

At about the same time, another big demonstration was taking place in the city of Qa’en, situated some 250 kilometres south of Mash-had, the capital of the north-eastern province of Khorasan, protesting another project for breaking the huge province into 2, 3 or even five regions.

The Qa’en residents oppose one of the projects that call for dividing Khorasan in two northern and southern parts, with the city of Birjand as the centre of the proposed southern Khorasan. On its Sunday session, the Majles decided to refer the plan to the National Security and Foreign Affairs Commission for further studies.

"Like Semirom and Qa’en, the whole of Iran is a barrel of powder, waiting for a match to explode. Believe it or not, the matchstick is in the hands of the ruling conservatives", a senior Iranian scholar in Tehran told Iran Press Service EWNDS

http://www.iran-press-service.com/

[DoctorZIn]

AT LEAST EIGHT PEOPLE KILLED BY POLICE IN THE CITY OF SEMIROM

TEHRAN, 17 Aug. (IPS)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/965430/posts?page=46#46

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

[nuconvert]

Is there more background regarding the redrawing of the borders of these regions?
There have been several posts, but I don't understand if this is occurring for political reasons before upcoming elections, or tax reasons, or ?

Thanks for any info.

[F14 Pilot]

Managing director of Mardom Salari daily appears in court

Tehran, Aug 17, IRNA -- Managing Director of daily `Mardom Salari'
Mostafa Kavakebian appeared at Bench Four of the Court of Civil
Servants' Offenses on Sunday to respond to three counts of charges
raised against him.
A member of the Central Council of Mardom Salari Party Mehrdad
Masoodi told IRNA here on Sunday that Kavakebian had responded to all
the charges of propaganda against the Islamic Republic establishment
and publication of false reports.
Masoodi said Kavakebian faces charges for printing articles about
the late journalist Zahra Kazemi and recent statement by the late Imam
Khomeini's grandson Hojatoleslam Hassan Khomeini.
He said another complaint is related to publication of a report on
students.
The source said the court's prosecutor had issued a bail of rls
50 million against Kavakebian, who met it.
Meanwhile, Managing Director of daily `Etemad' Elias Hazrati went
to Bench 1083 of the Penal Court in charge of dealing with offenses of
civil servants and the media on Sunday to respond to charges of
publication of false information and spreading lies.

http://www.irna.ir/en/tnews/030818185902.etn08.shtml

[F14 Pilot]

Iran's exports to France down by dlrs 970,000 in 1st 4 months

Tehran, Aug 17, IRNA -- Iran's non-oil exports to France in the first
four months of current Iranian year (started March 21) dropped by
dlrs 970,000 to dlrs 6,644,000 from more than dlrs 7,621,000 in the
match period the previous year.
Iran's Customs Administration said in a report that more than
2,400 tons of non-oil commodities were exported to France in the first
four months, a figure standing at more than 14,320 tons in the same
period the previous year.
France ranked Iran's 11th major trade partner among European Union
members in the quantity of goods it absorbed in the first four months
of last year.
Carpets, floor coverings, clutch, spare parts, saffron, grapes,
pistachios, and copper alloy sheets were among the items Iran exported
to France.
In addition, Iran's imports from France in the period under
investigation rose both in value and weight compared to the same
period the previous year.
Iran imported more than 94,000 tons of goods, worth more than
dlrs 553.686 million, from France in the first four months of this
year.
Iran's imports from France stood at more than 316,649,000 dollars
in the same period the previous year.

http://www.irna.ir/en/head/030817175902.ehe.shtml

[F14 Pilot]

Posted on Sun, Aug. 17, 2003

Rioters, Police Crash in Iran; 8 Die
Associated Press


TEHRAN, Iran - Rioters clashed with police in a central Iranian city in violence Sunday that killed eight people and wounded 150, sparked by a plan to redraw the municipal border, Iranian state media reported.

The rioting began Saturday night in the city of Semirom, when angry residents took to the streets, state-run radio and television reported. Windows of the city's municipal offices and adjoining buildings were smashed.

Clashes went on through the night and morning, but the city was quiet by Sunday afternoon. The government announced Sunday that the redistricting plan was rescinded.

An undisclosed number of people were arrested for allegedly inciting the riots, the radio said. Two of those killed were police officers.

The violence was sparked by the plan to rework the boundaries of the city, 330 miles south of the capital, Tehran. The people who took to the streets were apparently alarmed that if their districts were transferred from Semirom to the jurisdiction of the neighboring city of Shahreza, they would suffer economically. Semirom is a larger and wealthier city than Shahreza.

On Sunday, an official of the Interior Ministry in Isfahan went on state television to say that the redrawing had been called off and that the more than 20 districts concerned would remain part of Semirom.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6555604.htm

[F14 Pilot]

Iran FM says US ban on armed opposition "positive"

TEHRAN, Aug 17 (AFP)-- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has described Washington's decision to toughen its ban on the armed opposition People's Mujahedeen as "positive", in a warming of the Islamic regime's response, state radio reported Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi :We should not lose sight of the fact that the leaders of this terrorist group are in Iraq, which is under the control of the Americans.

The minister said it was a shame that the US administration had not acted sooner against the group's political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and added that Tehran still expected Washington to take stronger action against the group's militiamen in US-occupied Iraq.

"In accordance with the list of terrorist groups published in the past by the United States, the US should have acted against this group and have prevented their activities," Kharazi said.

"Nevertheless the decision of the United States, within the framework of its international responsibilities, is a positive step.

"We should not lose sight of the fact that the leaders of this terrorist group are in Iraq, which is under the control of the Americans, and the United States must act against the group's activities," Kharazi added.

"To destroy terrorism, all countries, including the United States, must act against this sinister phenomenon with determination and transparency and in a nonselective way."

A earlier official commentary carried by state television had criticised Friday's decision by Washington to ban the People's Muhajedeen under all its aliases as not going far enough.

"The American decision is necessary but insufficient.

To prove it is not practising double standards towards terrorism, Washington must show sincerity and persistence in its action against the hypocrites," the commentary said, using Tehran's usual term of abuse for the armed opposition.

The People's Mujahedeen set up base in Iraq in 1986 in the midst of Iran's bloody 1980-88 conflict with its western neighbour. The group had lost out in a bitter power struggle with the Islamic regime in the early 1980s.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17501&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

[F14 Pilot]

6 Iranians killed during protests
By
Aug 17, 2003, 21:36

Violent clashes in central Iran have left four protesters and two riot policemen dead.

The demonstrations were sparked by planned changes to local government boundaries.

Setting fire to tyres, damaging cars and smashing shop windows, hundreds of protestors confronted riot police in the central Iranian town of Samirom.

At least four demonstrators and two police officers were killed in the clashes, while dozens have been reported injured.

The protesters were angry about a decision to extend the boundaries of the local government.

Similar changes have triggered bloody riots in Iran in recent years.


© Iranian.ws

http://www.iranian.ws/news/publish/article_273.shtml

[F14 Pilot]

The beast of Mashhad

Saeed Hanaei believed prostitutes were a 'waste of blood'. So he murdered 16 - and became a hero for Iran's Islamic militants. Dan De Luce on a shocking documentary

Monday August 18, 2003
The Guardian

When the drought ended and the rains came, Saeed Hanaei believed that it was a sign from God that his killing spree had divine approval. "I realised God looked favourably on me. That he had taken notice of my work," Hanaei said. With 12 prostitutes already dead by his hands, Hanaei carried on his "work" and strangled at least four more women after luring them to his house in the Iranian city of Mashhad.
And Along Came a Spider, which had its UK premiere at the Edinburgh festival yesterday, tells the disturbing tale of a murderous psychopath who found an alarming degree of ideological sympathy among Islamic militants in Iran. The serial killer and his trial attracted a media frenzy in Iran and exposed deep divisions in a society where a conservative-minded minority feels threatened by social change.

The director of the documentary, Maziar Bahari, says he believes Hanaei was a murderer by nature who was catapulted to folk-hero status by religious extremists. "Hanaei was living in a very claustrophobic environment and he could somehow justify his killings through ideological slogans that are acceptable in that environment," Bahari says. "He is basically a terrorist. He's not as technologically advanced as some, but the result is the same."

Bahari's documentary provides an extraordinary glimpse into the attitudes of a working-class district in Mashhad and the desperate world of prostitutes entrapped by drug addiction, poverty and patriarchal cruelty. Newspapers dubbed the murders the "spider killings" because of the way victims were drawn into Hanaei's home and then strangled with a scarf. He then dumped the bodies by the roadside or in open sewers, wrapping them in their chadors, the long, flowing black garments that cover a woman from head to toe.

Hanaei confessed to the killings, smiled for news photographers and proudly told the court that he was fighting a crusade against moral corruption and vice. He and his lawyer cited an ambiguous provision in Iranian and Islamic law that refers to sinners as a "waste of blood", arguing that Hanaei deserved lenient treatment.

The case provoked a debate between reformers who condemned the authorities for failing to catch him earlier and some conservatives who shared the killer's disgust with a rise in prostitution.

"Who is to be judged?" wrote the conservative newspaper Jomhuri Islami. "Those who look to eradicate the sickness or those who stand at the root of the corruption?" Such sentiments are expressed by the killer's merchant friends at the Mashhad bazaar, one of whom says with a laugh: "He did the right thing. He should have continued."

The argument over the spider killings represented a kind of microcosm of a wider battle still being waged in Iran over the proper role of Islam in society. Reformists in parliament and government have tried to push for a relaxation of the country's theocratic system, advocating what they call a "democratic interpretation of Islam". Their opponents fear the reformists will only undermine Islam and open the floodgates to secular, western influences.

The most disturbing defence of Hanaei comes from his own 14-year-old son, Ali, who says his father was cleansing the Islamic republic of the "corrupt of the Earth". "If they kill him tomorrow, dozens will replace him," Ali says. "Since his arrest, 10 or 20 people have asked me to continue what my Dad was doing. I say, 'Let's wait and see.' "

Those who sympathise with Hanaei remain powerful and vocal, but the majority of Iranians want to see a more tolerant, less ideological society, according to Bahari. "I think they are in the minority, and their numbers are decreasing," he said.

Between the scenes of Hanaei recounting his crimes in a matter-of-fact tone, we see haunting photos of the victims before and after they were killed and we meet two children whose mothers were murdered. Interviews with 10-year-old Sahar and eight-year-old Sara provide some of the documentary's most powerful moments.

Firoozeh, the 14th victim, went out to buy opium one day at about 5.30pm, says her daughter, Sahar. "We were all waiting for her but she never came home." We see a drawing in crayon from Sara, with a bearded Hanaei in handcuffs, her mother lying dead and a little girl kneeling in despair. Sahar looks away from the camera and says she hasn't spoken to anyone at school about what has happened. She says she wants to be a journalist when she grows up because she hopes to document what happened to her mother.

Hanaei served as a volunteer in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and described his murders as a "continuation of the war effort". He first became obsessed with "street women" after his wife was mistaken for a prostitute by a taxi driver. We learn from a journalist that Hanaei went looking for men who were soliciting prostitutes and got beaten up. "So he turns to the people who don't have the power to fight back," says the journalist, Roya Karimi.

Hanaei had plenty of opportunities to prey on the powerless in Mashhad, a city with all the ingredients for a thriving prostitution trade. While millions of pilgrims visit the city's holy Shia shrine every year, massive amounts of opium pour over the border from neighbouring Afghanistan and are transported through the city. Growing levels of poverty and unemployment, with rural families migrating to cities, have fed the increase in "street women".

The spider case forced the invisible world of prostitution into the public arena and government officials can no longer pretend otherwise. But prostitution remains a sensitive issue and Bahari's documentary, which has been shown throughout Europe, has yet to be broadcast in Iran. The criminal code's vague reference to victims deemed to be a "waste of blood" has come under increasing scrutiny from lawyers.

Despite Hanaei's confession in prison that he had "improper relations" with his victims, some ideologues still sympathise with the spider killer. This month a hardline paramilitary group, Ansar-e Hizbollah, warned in its weekly publication that declining morality among women could lead to more such killings: "It is likely that what happened in Mashhad and Kerman could be repeated in Tehran."

Although Hanaei was sentenced to death, he was shocked and angry when the moment came for his hanging in April last year. Unlike at his highly publicised trial, there were no cameras around to record how he screamed in protest, baffled that his ideological allies never came to his rescue. "Even until the last second before his execution, Hanaei thought someone in the government would come to save him," Bahari says.

Hanaei's case had sparked debate and morbid fascination but not much mourning for the death of the 16 "street women". And Along Came a Spider commemorates these women and grants them a degree of dignity they never received while they were alive.

· And Along Came a Spider is at the Filmhouse tonight and on Wednesday. Box office: 0131-623 8030.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1020703,00.html

[DoctorZIn]

This thread is now closed.

Join Us at the Iranian Alert -- August 18, 2003 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

Live Thread Ping List | 8.18.2003 | DoctorZin

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

[F14 Pilot]

Iran's exports to UK down by dlrs 6.547m in 1st 4 months

Tehran, Aug 18, IRNA -- Iran's non-oil exports to the United Kingdom
in the first four months of the current Iranian year 1382 (started
March 21) dropped by 6.547 million dollars compared to the same period
of the previous year.
According to Iran Customs, over 4,083 tons of non-oil commodities
valued at over 6.63 million dollars were exported to the United
Kingdom in the first four months, the figure showing a hike of more
than 14,975 tons compared to the figure for the same period of the
previous year.
Britain currently is Iran's 4th major trading partner among
European Union members and its 5th trading partner as far as exports
of non-oil commodities are concerned as shown by the figures above
stated.
Carpets, floor coverings, dates, stone and mineral products,
grapes, pistachios, shrimp, leather and tanned animal skin were among
the major items Iran exported to Britain.
In addition, Iran imported over 95,000 tons of commodities valued
at 239.98 million dollars over the same period, the figures showing a
hike in weight and a dip in value compared to the figures for the same
period in the previous year.
Iran imported more than 57,000 tons of goods worth some 252.469
million dollars from the UK in the first four months of the previous
year.

http://www.irna.ir/en/tnews/030818103720.etn08.shtml

[nuconvert]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/magazine/13MUJAHADEEN.html

This was posted on the Iran Thread July 14, 2003. It's from a Sunday NY Times article. A bit lengthy, but worth the read for background info. Yes, they are the group arrested in France. And a scary bunch they are.

[Miss Marple]

Thanks! I will take a look at it!