Iranian Alert -- September 28, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 9.28.2003 | 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]

Flyer Alive After 17 Years

September 28, 2003
Herald Sun Sunday
Jay Bushinsky

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/990890/posts?page=19#19

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[xJones]

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

Shutting down all cell phones must have Iranians boiling mad, but hiring foreign thugs to beat up Iranians is the pits. Is it because they can't recruit/trust enough Iranian police anymore?

[DoctorZIn]

Iran Says Israel Engineered Arrest of Ex-envoy

September 28, 2003
Reuters
MSNBC News

TEHRAN -- Iran on Sunday accused Israel of being behind Britain's arrest of a former Iranian diplomat, following a press report that the ex-envoy could be used as a bargaining chip to get information on a missing Israeli airman.

Hadi Soleimanpour, Iran's ex-ambassador to Argentina, was arrested in Britain in August in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

Asked about an Israeli newspaper article that said Soleimanpour could be traded for information on an airman whose disappearance in 1986 Israel blames on Iran-backed Hizbollah, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said:

''The Zionist regime's behaviour, saying they are ready to swap him for some Israelis, completely proves Israel was behind it (Soleimanpour's arrest).''

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking in a TV interview on Thursday, said Israel had some bargaining chips for prisoner swaps that the Iranians would be very keen to get.

When asked to elaborate, Sharon said: ''All I can say is that it is not here in Israel, it is in a European state.''

Although this may refer to Britain, Germany also holds in jail an Iranian convicted of murdering four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant in 1992, an attack a German court said was ordered from Tehran.

Soleimanpour's arrest has strained relations between London and Tehran which denies any involvement in the Buenos Aires bombing. Britain has allowed several of its diplomats to leave Tehran temporarily after a series of shooting incidents at its diplomatic mission apparently related to the Soleimanpour case.

Israel holds Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group and its Iranian backers responsible for the fate of navigator Ron Arad whose warplane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Hizbollah has repeatedly denied having any information on him.

Asefi said the Islamic Republic was not involved.

''The issue of Israeli hostages has nothing to do with Iran,'' he told reporters at a weekly press conference.

Hizbollah said on Saturday it had met in Beirut with Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to discuss an exchange of prisoners with Israel.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters09-28-073629.asp?reg=MIDEAST

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Today: September 28, 2003
Iran Says It'll Work With U.N. on Nukes
WASHINGTON (AP) -

Iran's foreign minister said his country is willing to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear agency as the United States and Russia press Tehran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program.

"We are trying and we are determined to cooperate" with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

He also indicated that Iran was receptive to resuming talks with the United States. Talks last were held in May in Geneva, under the auspices of the United Nations.

Discussions began not long after the Afghan war started in the fall of 2001 and initially were largely limited to developments in Afghanistan. They grew to include exchanges on Iraq, with which Iran fought an eight-year war in the 1980s. Iran shares long borders with Afghanistan and Iraq.

"To start any dialogue between Iran and the United States, this has to be based on mutual respect and equal footing," Kharrazi said in the interview, taped Saturday. "Otherwise, there's no meaning to have such a dialogue."

He said Iran does not want the Bush administration "to interfere in our internal affairs. We want the United States to take gestures to prove that it's sincere in its call for a dialogue."

Relations with Washington were severed after Iranian militants overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held U.S. diplomats hostage until 1981.

Officials in the Clinton and Bush administrations have suggested from time to time that there was a reformist surge in Iran that could have a moderating influence on the Muslim fundamentalist government.

Still, the State Department this year again accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism. Iran also is accused regularly of trying to undercut peace efforts in the Middle East.

Asked if Iran was prepared to restart the talks, the foreign minister replied, "If it is useful."

On Saturday, President Bush and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Putin, though, gave no indication he was willing to pull back from an $800 million deal to build a nuclear power plant in southern Iran, although Bush has pressed the Russian leader for two years to abandon the project.

The IAEA said last week it had found new evidence that Iran is enriching uranium.

Kharrazi said the "contamination" of the uranium had occurred outside Iran. He said, however, that uranium enrichment "is legal, and nothing is wrong as long as it is under the auspices of the IAEA and the inspection regime."

In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman reaffirmed his country's commitment to its nuclear program.

"Relinquishing peaceful nuclear technology or enriching uranium is not a subject Iran can compromise on," Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States needs "to have all questions with respect to their nuclear weapons programs answered."

He told ABC's "This Week" that over the past year, "the evidence that has come forward ... has made it clear to the world that there is something going on in Iran with respect to nuclear weapons development that goes beyond their nuclear power industry."

Putin, after meeting with Bush at Camp David, said Russia would "give a clear but respectful signal to Iran about the necessity to continue and expand its cooperation" with international inspectors.

Iran says its nuclear programs are to produce energy and that the traces of weapons-grade material were imported on equipment purchased from abroad. "We want to make sure that we can continue with enrichment facilities to produce fewer needed power fuels," Kharrazi said,

The United States and its allies argue the only purpose of Iran's nuclear efforts is for weapons programs.

The U.N. agency has set an Oct. 31 deadline for Iran to prove that its nuclear program is for energy purposes and not for weapons.

Asked about the deadline, Kaharrazi said, "We want to make sure that this is enough and is going to solve our problems and remove all suspicions."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/sep/28/092805824.html

[F14 Pilot]

Progress Reported in Israel-Hezbollah Prisoner Exchange Negotiations

Ross Dunn
Jerusalem
26 Sep 2003

Israeli officials say Germany is ready to release an Iranian and a Lebanese prisoner to help Israel secure the return of its missing soldiers. The offer comes as Israel is attempting to conclude a prisoner swap with the militant Islamic group, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says that prisoners held in Europe might be part of an agreement with the Hezbollah. The prisoners are being held in German jails.

Israeli media reported that the prisoners, one Iranian and one Lebanese, were convicted in 1997 for their role in the murder of a Kurdish-Iranian dissident in a Berlin restaurant in September 1992.

German mediators are involved in the negotiations between Israel and the Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran.

Hezbollah has been holding Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum captive since October 2000.

The militant Lebanese group also has the remains of three Israeli soldiers, killed during a kidnapping operation along the Lebanese border in the same period.

As part of a possible deal with the Hezbollah, Israel is considering releasing two prominent Lebanese prisoners, and setting free hundreds of Palestinian detainees. In return, Israel is demanding Mr. Tannenbuam be released and the bodies of the three soldiers returned.

Israel is also demanding information on the fate of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

Israeli officials say Mr. Arad was held captive in Lebanon for two years, before being handed over to the Iranian government.

On Friday, Israel's High Court ruled that Mr. Arad's family be given a copy of an Israeli government commission report on his disappearance.

The copy, however, is to be censored by the Israeli military to prevent the disclosure of what it says is sensitive information related to the nation's security.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=C127E1E0-3816-49E6-956F21418027828C

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Report: Israel may destroy Iran's nukes

TEL AVIA, Israel, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Israel, alarmed by the failure of international community to move against Iran's nuclear weapons program, may do so on its own, says a report.

In a report from Tel Aviv, the Middle East Newsline said senior Israeli government and military officials have been mulling over this possibility.

The report said the clearest warning came on the eve another effort by the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate suspected Iranian violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The suspected violations include the unauthorized enrichment of uranium.

"The fact that a country like Iran, an enemy (of Israel) and which is particularly irresponsible, has equipped itself with non-conventional weapons is worrisome," Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said.

"At the moment there is continuing international diplomatic activity to deal with this threat, and it would be good if it succeeds," Ya'alon added, the report said. "But if that is not the case we would consider our options."

http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/09280000aaa05f22.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=WORLDNEW&Type=News&Filter=World%20News

[Pan_Yans Wife]

"At the moment there is continuing international diplomatic activity to deal with this threat, and it would be good if it succeeds," Ya'alon added, the report said. "But if that is not the case we would consider our options."

What if it is doomed to failure, devised to fail, so that Israel can handle the situation accordingly, like with Osirak?

[DoctorZIn]

"Every militiaman is an atomic bomb"

AFP - World News (via Iranmania)
Sep 28, 2003

TEHRAN -- Iran has no need to develop an atomic bomb as every member of its Islamist Basij militia is a nuclear weapon, a top general was quoted as saying Sunday.

"Every Basiji is an atomic bomb, which is why we don't need to make an atomic bomb," General Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards land forces, told the Hambestegi newspaper.

He also warned the United States and Israel against comsidering attacking Iranian nuclear installations, notably the power plant at Bushehr which is being developed with Russian assistance.

"Such an action by the United States, which is allied to Israel, would be considered a declaration of war and we would respond," said Jafari, whose country the United States accuses of working to develop nuclear arms.

According to official figures, Iran's Basij force comprises about 10 million men. The force, created in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution, is under the command of the Revolutionary Guards.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2598.shtml

[nuconvert]

"What if it is doomed to failure, devised to fail, so that Israel can handle the situation accordingly, like with Osirak?"

That would make it a conspiracy.
Now why hasn't the regime thought of that yet?

[AdmSmith]

"Ron is a soldier. Israel does not abandon it's soldiers."

Perhaps, but they are stupid enough to trade in the exchange of terrorists. This will only increase the frequency of kidnappings.

[AdmSmith]

Tehran Putting its Spies in Iraq

The interesting thing is that they are not coordinating the work of the various intel org. and sooner or later we will see a big mistake(?) involving Sadr jr.

[PhilDragoo]

The UN is what it's always been a place for hypocrites to seek selfish ends.

[nuconvert]

DEMONSTRATION

Main Cities, Iran (On 10/06/2003)

Iranian teachers, qualified as Iranian's "Spiritual Mothers and Fathers" by SMCCDI, and their supporters will gather in order to protest against the empty promises made to them and the expell of several of their colleagues following last year's protests.

On Monday October 6, 2003
From 11:00 (Local Time)
In front of the offices of Teachers Funds and Ministry of Education

http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/cat_index_10.shtml

[DoctorZIn]

Iran Wants Envoy in Hizbullah Swap

September 28, 2003
The Jerusalen Post
Matthew Gutman

Iran on Sunday accused Israel of engineering Britain's arrest of a former Iranian diplomat, believed to be connected to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina, in order to gain bargaining chips for a possible prisoner swap.

The swap, in which Israel would trade senior Lebanese detainees, Palestinians, and other Arabs in exchange for the release of Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three kidnapped soldiers, Benny Avraham, Omar Sawayid, and Adi Avitan, among others, is currently being negotiated with Hizbullah representatives.

On Friday Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the general secretary of Hizbullah met with Islamic Jihad leaders in Beirut. On Saturday he met head of the Hamas politburo Khaled Mashal. Apparently Nasrallah and his Islamic Jihad and Hamas counterparts discussed the list of prisoners which could be attached to the deal.

Iran's former ambassador to Argentina, Hadi Soleimanpour, was arrested in Britain last August in connection with the bombing of the AMIA building in Buenos Aires which left 85 people dead.

Referring to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's statement Thursday night that Israel might posses certain bargaining chips in Europe, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said that the "Zionist regime's behavior, saying they are ready to swap him for some Israelis, completely proves Israel was behind [the arrest]," Reuters reported.

While conspiracy theories continue to swirl round the unsolved AMIA blast, Israel holds Hizbullah, in collusion with Iran, responsible. In his TV interview Sharon also hinted that Israel seeks to cash in on the bargaining chips located in a "European state," for information regarding missing IAF navigator Lt.-Col. Ron Arad.

Sharon's reference to assets "in Europe" likely refers to Soleimanpour, but could also include Iranians serving life sentences in Germany for killing four Kurdish dissidents in 1992. Germany, whose chief security man Ernst Urlau is mediating negotiations between Israel and Hizbullah, stated that the order for hits on the Kurds came from Teheran.

This weekend saw more personalities involved in talks related to what Hizbullah sources have been saying is the imminent hostage swap. Hizbullah has sent aid to the Islamic Jihad and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades as well as liaisons to promote terrorist operations, both Israeli and Palestinian sources say.

In an effort to glean support among Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon Hizbullah has been reporting for weeks that as many as 400 Palestinian prisoners, though likely around 200, could be included in the deal. Israel has refused to corroborate the figures, though it has denied that Tanzim boss Marwan Barghouti will be included.

According to other Palestinians sources, the Palestinians, not only Hizbullah, but Fatah members, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are in close contact with Hizbullah in drawing up the prisoner lists. The contacts have been ongoing for several months.
Israel has been pressured to widen the negotiations to include Arad, captured by Lebanese detainee and Amal leader Mustafa Dirani in Lebanon in 1986. According to Dirani, he "sold" Arad to Iran in the late 1980s, but Israel has had little concrete information regarding the missing navigator since 1987.

Adding to the turbulence in Israel over the prisoner swap are moral and ethical questions tied to the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom, Hizbullah says, have been involved in terrorist activity. Furthermore, intense debates have swirled in the security establishment regarding the swap for Tannenbaum, who a senior security source called, "no saint," Ma'ariv reported.

Tannenbaum was abducted by Hizbullah in unknown circumstances while doing business in Dubai in October 2000, a source close to the case told The Jerusalem Post. Much of the information regarding Tannenbaum's location and business deals before the kidnapping is censored.

However the Arad family, which last week filed a NIS 100 million claim against Dirani, is to receive a boon by the end of this week. On Friday the government told the High Court of Justice that it will present a copy of the Winograd Report to the family of MIA Ron Arad. The state's declaration came in response to a petition by the family demanding to see the report a comprehensive study of the possible fate of Arad before any prisoner exchange takes place with Hizbullah.

The Arad family has demanded that Dirani's released be linked directly to the fate of the missing navigator. Their position was strengthened by leaks from the report indicating that there is a possibility that Arad may be alive.
Sensitive security information will, however, be censored from the report.

The report was handed to the army several weeks ago. Ron Arad's wife, daughter and brothers petitioned the High Court last week, demanding to read the document and asking for an interim injunction prohibiting the government from going through with the prisoner exchange before they are given a copy.

The state's representative Attorney Shai Nitzan wrote Friday that in a recent meeting with the Arad family, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had promised to show them the report as soon as army security had approved it. Nitzan added Sharon was prepared to meet the Arad family again before the government makes an official decision regarding the prisoner exchange.

Dan Izenberg contributed to this report.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1064735043752

[DoctorZIn]

Kazemi Case Hits Snag, Iran Says

September 28, 2003
myTELLUS
mytelus.com

Iran's intelligence ministry says an investigation into the death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi has "veered off course."

In a statement issued Sunday morning, the ministry blamed a lack of evidence for a court decision to rule out premeditated murder in the case.

The judge has "no proof, no testimony…or no document to make such a decision," the statement read.

Last week, an Iranian judge charged an Iranian Intelligence Ministry agent with "semi-premeditated murder" in Kazemi's death. A second agent was acquitted earlier in the week.

The 54-year-old photojournalist died in July from head injuries sustained while in Iranian custody. She had been jailed while taking pictures of a jail in Tehran.

Her son had requested his mother's body be returned to Montreal, but she was buried in Iran.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham has called for a full and transparent investigation into her death

http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=cbc/world_home&articleID=1420602

[DoctorZIn]

Iran's Hardliners Suspend Leading Reformist Daily

September 28, 2003
Reuters
MSNBC News

TEHRAN -- Iran's conservative judiciary has banned a leading reformist daily from publishing for 10 days after it failed to give top billing to a judiciary statement, one of the board of editors of Yas-e No said on Sunday.

The statement was a judicial riposte to Yas-e No's articles on the welfare of imprisoned pollster Abbas Abdi who published a survey that found three-quarters of Iranians in favour of resuming dialogue with arch-foe the United States.

Vahid Pour-Ostad said the paper had been told to hold its presses for 10 days from Monday after it refused to reprint the judiciary statement which it had originally tucked away in the middle pages.

The judiciary had demanded the paper reprint the statement, splashing it across the front page.

''We received an order from a deputy at the prosecutor's office to close our office from Monday,'' he told Reuters.

''We do not even see the first demand to print as lying within the boundaries of press law,'' he added.

Some 90 newspapers have been banned by Iran's judiciary in the last three years and scores of reformist journalists jailed.

One analyst, who declined to be named, commented that Yas-e No was closed because it was going to encourage a day of political fasting on Monday in protest at closed-door trials and the detention of political prisoners.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters09-28-092012.asp?reg=MIDEAST

[DoctorZIn]

Bush Happy With Russian Assurances On Iran

September 28, 2003
The Associated Press
KSAT

President George W. Bush says he's "very satisfied" with Russian assurances on Iran's nuclear program.

However, there's no sign Russia's ready to halt its help in building an Iranian power reactor that Washington thinks could help Tehran get the bomb.

After two days of talks at Camp David, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters they don't want the Iranians armed with nuclear weapons.

And Putin says he's sending a "clear but respectful" message to Iranian leaders to submit to U.N. oversight.

Iran denies any weapons program. However, recently, U.N. experts discovered traces of bomb-grade uranium at two sites.

During the two days of meetings at Camp David, the two leaders did not hide their differences over Iraq.

Putin refused to help rebuild the country until he first sees a new U.N. resolution.

Still, Bush is voicing fresh optimism about getting other countries to help out in post-war Iraq. He says he's pleased with the cooperation U.S. officials are receiving.

Putin told reporters Russia's ready to lend a hand in Iraq -- though he can't say exactly how until there's a new U.N resolution.

He did say Russia wants to see Iraq a "free, democratic and united state."

Administration officials have been huddling with their counterparts on a resolution that would give U.N. and Iraqi authorities more control in Baghdad. However, Bush has insisted there be no "hurried" handover to Iraqi self-rule.

The Bush-Putin talks in the Maryland mountains also covered North Korea's nuclear efforts, the Mideast and Russian complaints about U.S. visas.

Bush told reporters Putin's "a good fellow to spend quality time with."

http://www.ksat.com/news/2516324/detail.html

[DoctorZIn]

Bush Happy With Russian Assurances On Iran

September 28, 2003
The Associated Press
KSAT

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/990890/posts?page=38#38

[PhilDragoo]

The Pentagon believes that Iran is building a bridgehead of activists inside Iraq, ready to destabilize the country if that serves its future interests.

Destabilize Iran first.