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Iran's FM warns Israel of retaliation during ABC interview

Reuters - World News
Sep 28, 2003

WASHINGTON - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, denying his country has "any program to produce weapons of mass destruction," warned Israel that Iran would respond to any strike on its nuclear facilities.

In an interview aired on Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Kharazi
said the possibility of an Israeli military strike on its nuclear program was "a threat, no question."

Israel has warned that Iran's nuclear program posed a threat
to the world and was reportedly considering such a strike if Iran is pursuing a nuclear option.

Kharazi said: "Israel knows if it commits such an action, it would be reacted."

He declined to be more specific, saying simply "there will be a response" if Israel launched such a strike.

Iran faces mounting pressure to prove it is not developing nuclear weapons. Diplomats in Vienna last week said the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, had discovered traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium at a second site in Iran.

The IAEA has given Tehran until Oct. 31 to prove it does not have a secret atomic arms program or be reported to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

On Saturday, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Tehran give up any ambitions to build nuclear weapons.

Early last week, Iran paraded six of its newly deployed medium-ranged missiles, which military analysts say could reach Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf.

Iran insists its nuclear scientists are not working on a weapons program but are trying to meet the country's soaring electricity demand.

"Certainly, we don't have any program to produce weapons of mass destruction, that is for sure," Kharazi said in the interview taped on Saturday evening.

Iran is willing sign a new inspection protocol with the IAEA, but only if that makes clear "we can continue with enrichment facilities to produce fuel needed for our power plants," he said.

Iran says won't halt uranium enrichment Iran said on Sunday it would not give up its nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, despite international pressure to prove it is not developing atomic weapons.

"Abandoning nuclear activities or enrichment is not something that Iran is ready to compromise on," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

He had been asked whether Iran would halt uranium enrichment activities as demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a resolution this month.

Inspectors are due to arrive in Tehran on Thursday for a round of further inspections and talks with Iranian officials.

The IAEA has given Iran until October 31 to prove it has no secret nuclear weapons programme, as the United States alleges.

If doubts remain about Iran's nuclear ambitions in November it could be reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely geared to producing enough electricity from atomic power to meet growing demand and insists it has cooperated with the IAEA.

"We have been transparent. We have said we're not seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction," Asefi said.

"But we haven't received a reciprocal answer from the international community. The (IAEA) resolution that was passed was political."

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2610.shtml

Britain Demands Iran Come Clean on Nuclear Ambitions
9/29/03

Iran must declare "unequivocally" that it harbours no ambitions to develop nuclear arms, Britain's Europe Minister Denis MacShane said Monday.

The will of the European Union and the rest of the international community is "very, very clear", MacShane told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

"We want Iran to state unequivocally that there are no nuclear weapon possibilities that could be developed as a result of any nuclear programme in Iran," he said.

"We want Iran to cooperate fully with the international inspection agencies," added MacShane, standing in for Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at the EU meeting.

"That's what the entire international community wants from Iran and I hope Iran is listening to that common and uniform demand from everybody in the international community."

Iran on Sunday signalled its willingness to comply with the demands of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, but vowed to continue its uranium enrichment programme.

"We are trying and we are determined to cooperate" with the IAEA, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi told ABC television in the United States.

The IAEA has given Iran until October 31 to answer all its questions concerning allegations that it is seeking to develop atomic weapons.

The EU foreign ministers are expected to renew their demands for Tehran to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would allow IAEA inspectors to descend on its nuclear sites without warning.

The EU has warned that, without credible guarantees over the protocol, it will review its economic ties with Iran.

http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/030929085901.aok9bbfs

Minister Says al-Qaeda Was Active in Iran

September 28, 2003
The Financial Times
Guy Dinmore and Mark Turner

Iran disclosed on Sunday that the extremist al-Qaeda network had set up operational cells inside the Islamic republic and that a dozen suspects, caught after a gun battle, would soon go on trial behind closed doors.

Kamal Kharrazi, foreign minister, told the Financial Times in an interview that the al-Qaeda detainees, whom he declined to identify, had committed crimes against Iran's national security by "establishing cells" to plot operations elsewhere.

His comments were the first public admission that members of the network headed by Osama bin Laden were more than just fugitives from Afghanistan and were actually active in Iran, as alleged by the US.

But Mr Kharrazi rejected the core US accusation that senior al-Qaeda figures inside Iran had planned the May 13 suicide bombings in the Saudi capital Riyadh. More than 30 people including several American defence contractors were killed in the bombings.

The US broke off direct official contact with Iran after the bombings and demanded that the detainees, believed to have been given help by elements of the Iranian regime, be extradited to their home countries.

Mr Kharrazi said the suspects had been arrested before the Riyadh attacks and had no more contact with their network.

One Iranian intelligence officer lost both hands from grenades thrown by the suspects when they resisted arrest, the minister said.

A US official in Washington told the FT it was possible that official bilateral contacts could resume if the case of the al-Qaeda suspects was resolved.

Mr Kharrazi indicated Iran might be flexible, holding out the prospect that Iran might surrender the suspects after their trial. He said they could serve their sentences in Iran "or be exchanged or sent to their original countries".

US officials dealing with Iran believe that Tehran's hardliners are trying to to use the al-Qaeda suspects as bargaining chips in any resolution of the hostile relations between the two countries, involving Iran's nuclear programme and its influence in Iraq.

Mr Kharrazi said the US and Iran had common goals in seeking a stable, democratic Iraq, but different views on how to achieve this. Iran would consider reopening talks with the US on this.

"We could co-operate more fully on Iraq - but unfortunately the US administration is reluctant to consult with the neighbouring countries of Iraq."

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480174411

Amnesty Int'l Makes Plea to Iran to Free Protesters

September 29, 2003
Portsmouth Herald
Jesse J. DeConto

PORTSMOUTH -- Amnesty International’s Seacoast chapter has been campaigning for more than a year to free two young prisoners in Iran, with few signs of success.

Ahmad Batebi and Akbar Mohammadi were arrested in July 1999 as they protested a government closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam. The men were sentenced to death, but, as far as local Amnesty members know, they are still languishing in prison.

"We haven’t really received any responses from all the letters we’ve sent to Iran," said chapter President Peter Sommsich of Portsmouth. "Up to this point, it’s all pretty sad stuff."

During the Iranian New Year celebration n March of this year, Mohammadi was released from prison for a week to seek medical treatment for various illnesses, infections and injuries. In 2000, news reports suggested he was losing his right ear and kidney functions.

"They most likely were tortured many times," Sommsich said.

Though Amnesty is known for fighting human rights abuses around the globe, Seacoast Group 550 was the first chapter to take on an Iranian case since the 1970s. Because of poor relations between Iran and the United States, Amnesty International had been reluctant to petition leaders in Iran.

Thousands of Tehran University students were arrested and one was killed when they clashed with members of the vigilante student group Ansar-e Hezbolleh and government security forces over the state’s curbing of free speech in 1999. Batebi, a film student in Tehran, was detained and beaten while shooting footage of the attacks on the peaceful student demonstrators.

"When he heard about the disturbances, he went to cover the incident," said Katherine Greeley, a local Amnesty member.

Greeley, who has written to the Iranian judiciary on behalf of the two students every month since the spring of last year, said Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini condemned the police action and the men’s death sentences were later reduced, but they still have to serve 15 years in prison.

Amnesty International is concerned that Mohammadi and Batebi were sentenced after secret trials at special courts whose procedures fall short of minimum international standards for fair trial.

jdeconto@seacoastonline.com

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/09282003/news/52466.htm

Iran Says IAEA Inspections Will be Limited

September 29, 2003
Reuters
MSNBC News

TEHRAN -- Iran said a team of U.N. nuclear inspectors due to arrive in Tehran this week would only be given limited access to nuclear sites, a newspaper quoted an official as saying on Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said it hopes the visit, from Thursday, will enable it to verify Iran has no secret atomic arms programme.

The IAEA has given Tehran until October 31 to dispel doubts about its nuclear ambitions, which Washington says include making weapons.

But Iran, angered by a tough IAEA resolution passed this month which also called on it to halt all uranium enrichment activities, has said it will scale back its cooperation with U.N. inspectors.

''The inspections will only be within the framework of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,'' the Javan daily quoted Saber Zaimian, spokesman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, as saying.

Iran says it has no intention of developing nuclear arms and merely hopes to use nuclear technology to produce electricity.

Under the NPT Iran is only required to allow inspectors access to certain declared nuclear facilities such as the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran and the Bushehr reactor under construction in the southwest of the country.

Other sites, such as the Kalaye Electric Co in Tehran where Iran has said uranium enrichment centrifuges are stored and assembled, are not currently covered by the NPT.

In what it said was a gesture of goodwill, Iran earlier this year did allow IAEA inspectors to visit Kalaye.

Diplomats told Reuters last week that the IAEA found traces of arms-grade uranium at Kalaye. A similar find was made earlier this year at Natanz. Iran says the uranium finds were to due contamination from parts it had imported.

Zaimian said the six-member IAEA team would stay in Iran for up to seven days.

''There is still no specific schedule for their visit and after talks in Tehran we will decide about it,'' Zaimian said.

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, in an interview with U.S. television, said Iran was prepared to agree to wider, snap inspections of its facilities provided it was allowed to continue its nuclear programme, including uranium enrichment.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters09-29-025953.asp?reg=MIDEAST

Tehran Tries to Control Domestic Nuclear Debate

September 29, 2003
Radio Free Europe
Bill Samii

Iran's Supreme National Security Council has submitted to the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry its assessment arguing that the mass media should "refrain from discussing arguments and analyses or raising any issues that may cause misperceptions about the Protocol."

Iran's Supreme National Security Council has submitted to the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry its assessment arguing that the mass media should, in the words of the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) on 20 September, "refrain from discussing arguments and analyses or raising any issues that may cause misperceptions about the [Additional] Protocol [to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT]."

The Supreme National Security Council argued that media organizations should coordinate their reporting with government officials who deal with the issue, ISNA reported.

This is not the first government decree on the line that the media should follow in reporting on domestic affairs. And considering officials' contradictory statements about the nuclear issue, it is not surprising that the government wants to control the reportage.

Iranian representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Akbar Salehi said on 22 September that Iran does not have the technical capability of producing the enriched uranium needed for nuclear weapons, dpa reported, citing state television. "For all experts, it is quite clear that the enriched uranium was not made in Iran but imported as the country is technically not capable to make this process," he said. Salehi also said that Iran does not have the facilities or equipment for enriching uranium and rejected all accusations that Iran is seeking a nuclear-weapons capability.

Yet Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said in a 17 September speech that Iranians enriched uranium themselves (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 22 September 2003).

Further undermining Tehran's claims was the 25 September report from AFP, citing anonymous diplomats, that UN nuclear inspectors have discovered traces of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in environmental samples taken at the Kalaye Electric Company near Tehran. The inspectors do not know if the HEU was produced in Iran or if it was on equipment that Iran imported from another country. HEU was previously found in samples taken at Natanz. There is speculation that equipment Iran purchased from Pakistan could have been contaminated, but Pakistan has denied providing Iran with nuclear technology (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 1 September 2003).

While they are not united on the IAEA's 12 September resolution on Iran or on the wisdom of signing the Additional Protocol (see here and below), Iranian officials are united in denying that they have any intention of developing nuclear weapons. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, for example, told the United Nations on 25 September: "Iran does not have a nuclear-weapons program nor does it intend to embark on one. Thus we have nothing to hide and in principle have no problem with the Additional Protocol." Kharrazi had preceded that assertion by saying that Iran will continue to "vigorously pursue its peaceful nuclear program."

President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami stressed at the 22 September military parade in Tehran, state television reported, that Iran has a defensive military strategy and has "no intention of gaining access to weapons of mass destruction." Khatami also said, "Our region is the center of aggression, terror, and storage of weapons of mass destruction, and the center is the Zionist regime." "The biggest atomic arsenal is in Israel and the worst kind of state terror occurs in Palestine," he continued.

Ayatollah Khamenei, furthermore, said in a 20 September speech to members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and Basij of Mazandaran and Gulistan provinces that complaints about Iran's nuclear pursuits are untrue. Khamenei warned that an unidentified enemy has launched a massive propaganda campaign against Iran, state radio reported. "They have launched a deceptive propaganda campaign, saying that the Iranian nation is making efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," Khamenei said. "They are trying to portray the Islamic Republic of Iran as being a threat to regional and global peace." Khamenei went on to accuse the United States and Israel of threatening "regional and global peace." Khamenei accused the "tyrannical world powers" -- which he did not identify -- of being furious with Iran because of its Islamic faith....

http://www.rferl.org/iran-report/

EU to Warn Iran Trade Ties at Stake in Nuclear Row

September 29, 2003
Reuters.com
Reuters

The European Union was set to warn Iran on Monday that lucrative trade ties with the 15-nation bloc could be in jeopardy if it fails to restore international trust in its nuclear program.

In a draft statement obtained by Reuters, EU foreign ministers demanded that Tehran sign up for tougher inspections of its facilities and refrain from fuel enrichment which could be used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.

"Such action would also enhance perspectives for political and economic dialogue and cooperation," the draft statement to be issued later on Monday said.

It said ministers would review future steps in the light of the next report by the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, to the board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA, at Washington's urging, has given Tehran until the end of October to dispel the international community's concerns that it is secretly developing nuclear arms. Tehran has denied it has any such designs.

The 15-nation EU sought progress from Tehran in four areas before negotiations on a trade and cooperation agreement can move ahead. These include human rights, Iran's attitude to the Middle East peace process and cooperation in the fight against terrorism, as well as tough inspections of its nuclear program.

In July the EU issued its strongest warning so far about Iran's nuclear program and human rights record, and set Monday as a deadline for reviewing relations.

However, diplomats say the EU has since extended its deadline to coincide with the October 31 date set by the IAEA....

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3523876

Pentagon Targets Iran's Nuke

September 29, 2003
Mich News
Gordon Thomas

GLOBE-INTEL -- The Pentagon’s forward planners have targeted two Iranian nuclear facilities after weapons-grade enriched uranium has been found in one by UN inspectors. A UN report published this week says the country could acquire a nuclear bomb within two years.

Particles of weapons-grade enriched uranium were discovered at Natanz. Iran claims the particles were from “contaminated components” it bought on the black market in the 1980s when it was trying to set up its “peaceful nuclear programme” – and could not find a supplier in the West ready to help.

But both the CIA and MI6, who have now each made intelligence gathering on Iran a priority, discount Iran’s claim of how it came to have sufficient enriched uranium to make an effective “dirty bomb”.

Neo-conservatives around Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld have not discounted a pre-emptive strike against the plants at Natanz and Arak. They are sited south of Tehran, in the remote fastness of central Iran.

Unlike the rift that developed over the war with Iraq between the United States and the European Union, there is a consensus that it is “essential and urgent” for Iran to stop arming itself with nuclear weapons.

Washington is supporting a UN resolution – sponsored by Britain, France and Germany – that Iran must stop its nuclear programme by the end of October. Implicit in the resolution is a warning the plants could be hit by missiles fired from US warships in the Gulf.

The plant at Natanz is far bigger than anything Iraq ever had. Natanz is guarded by a heavily patrolled thirty-mile deep perimeter within the featureless landscape.

The Tehran regime claims the Natanz plant is only working to develop the country’s peaceful nuclear energy programme to bring power, heat and electricity to its hundreds of small towns and villages.

But British and German intelligence agents have pinpointed an underground complex capable of holding 1,000 personnel.

UN inspectors, diverted from searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, have confirmed the existence of the complex.

Buried thirty-feet below ground, it has eight-feet thick walls to protect two large halls.

In a report last week to the 35-member board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, the inspectors told their closed meeting in Vienna they are certain the underground complex is designed to carry out the process of turning enriched uranium into weapons-grade material.

The report states: “there are 1,000 gas centrifuges and components for the manufacture of 50,000 further centrifuges”.

Highly enriched uranium is an essential element in producing a nuclear weapon.

Iran has two plants – one at Arkadan, east of Natanz, the other near the historic town of Isfahan – to convert uranium ore into yellowcake, a processed form of uranium. The yellowcake can be converted into enriched uranium as well as producing hexaflouride gas, essential to drive the centrifuges.

Russian engineers are helping Iran to build a heavy water plant at Arak. Iran again claims the plant will be used only for peaceful purposes.

But the UN report states: “heavy water can also produce more plutonium than light water reactors, and therefore can produce significant quantities to be used in weapons”.

Kenneth Brill, the US ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna said last week that the evidence against Iran “already justifies an immediate non-compliance verdict”.

Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the UN Security Council could introduce crippling sanctions against Iran. That would most certainly place the United States on a collision course with one of the nations President Bush has named as being part of the “axis of evil”.

There is also a clear danger that Israel could act unilaterally and launch its own air strikes against Iran’s nuclear plants. It has done so before – when it destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor outside Baghdad in March, 1981.

“We will not stand by and allow the Iranians to use the same cat-and-mouse games over their nuclear plants that Saddam used over many years”, said a senior Israeli intelligence officer in Tel Aviv. “There is a need to take a touch line now. In two years time, it could be too late”.

The prospect of military action came that much closer after Hashemi-Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s most influential clerics and the country’s former president, called on Muslim states last December to use nuclear weapons against Israel.

Mossad analysts told Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, that the appeal was directed not only at Pakistan, the one Muslim nation known to have nuclear weapons, but also to Iran’s partner in the “axis of evil” – North Korea.

That possibility has led to the Pentagon forward planners continuing to prepare their own missile strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

As the Israeli intelligence officer said: “it could be a race who presses the button first – us or the Americans”.

http://bigjweb.com/artman/publish/article_1176.shtml

IRAN SETS CONDITIONS FOR SIGNING THE NPT PROTOCOLS

TEHRAN 29 Sept. (IPS)

Iran confirmed indirectly that it is determined to continue its program for enriching uranium despite urgent and categorical demand by the United Nations nuclear watchdog to stop it before the end of October.

In an interview with the American television network ABC, Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Kamal Kharrazi said the Islamic Republic would sign the Additional Protocols to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) "provided it is assured that it can continue enriching uranium for its nuclear-powered electricity plants" and also be provided with modern atomic technology for peaceful purposes.

Though Mr. Kharrazi has reiterated and repeated that all its atomic projects are for civilian use, but experts, both Iranian and foreign say Iran is after the nuclear bomb, hence its insistence for enriching uranium.

"What the decision-makers are after is to buy as much time as they need for building the atomic bomb or to get close to it", Mr. Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di, a prominent Iranian political dissident and respected lawyer and university professor told the Persian service of the Radio France International in an interview last week.

Last week, President Mohammad Khatami had made it plain that iran wants the nuclear technology to make itself strong miliatrilly.

The conditions put by Mr. Kharrazi for signing the Protocols are difficult to understand since the enriched uranium needed for Iran’s first atomic-powered electrical plant, which is under construction in the Persian Gulf of Boosher, would be provided by Russia, the country that is building the 1000 megawatts, 800 millions US Dollars station.

Last week, diplomats at the Vienna-based International Atomic energy Agency (IAEA) disclosed that experts from the Agency had discovered new uranium-contaminated materials at a new site near the Capital Tehran, the Kalaye Electric factory operated by the government.

This is the second plant where Iran is enriching uranium. The first one is located near the central city of Natanz, built several years ago secretly, without being reported to the IAEA.

According to Mr Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s Ambassador at the IAEA, Iran is already producing enriched uranium with some 163 centrifuges it has purchased many years ago when it was not compulsory to report them to the Agency.

He also said that the finds were due contamination from parts it had imported. "Iran would have needed large numbers of centrifuges operating for a long period of time to produce the level of uranium enrichment found", Mr. Salehi explained last week, adding that both the IAEA and we know that such a thing does not exist (in Iran).

The signing of the additional Protocols is opposed by the ruling Iranian ayatollahs, as it allows inspectors to visit Iranian nuclear sites at will, without any preconditions or restrictions, a condition that hard liners in the Iranian clerical establishment compare to an "unconditional surrender" to the Americans.

In repeated articles, conservatives-controlled newspapers urges the government of the embattled and powerless Mohammad Khatami to leave the NPT and follow the path adopted by the communist regime of North Korea, the Islamic Republic’s main supplier of technologies for making missiles and atomic weapons, alongside with Pakistan, the first Muslim nation to possess the A-bomb.

"It is naive to think that after accepting the protocol (on snap inspections) America, the European Union and America's allies will stop accusing Iran", the independent Iranian Students News Agency ISNA quoted Mr. Hoseyn Shari’atmadari, a high-ranking intelligence officer specialising in interrogating intellectuals and political dissidents appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i as editor of the hard line "Kayhan" newspaper.

"Signing or rejecting the Protocols lead the Iranians to the same dead end road", Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di told the RFI, explaining that by signing, they would give international experts unrestricted access to all Iranian atomic-related sites, but if they refuse, they would expose the country to sanctions by the UN’s Security Council.

On 12 September, the IAEA’s Board of Governors gave Iran until the end of October to sign the Protocols and stop all its uranium enriching programs or the matter would be transferred to the Security Council for decision, including imposing economic sanctions on Iran.

Iranian government’s official spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said on Monday that negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program will get underway on Thursday after the arrival of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.

The experts were due in Iran on Sunday, but Tehran had demanded a short delay to "prepare itself", as officials are not able to decide what to do with the Protocols.

Commenting that all nations, including Iranians, are entitled to peaceful application of nuclear energy, he said that no compromise could be made on such matters. "Iran will not give in to any restriction to the peaceful application of atomic energy", he reiterated, according to the official news agency IRNA.

In reply to the question whether the IAEA inspection trend will be conditional, he said, "We have so far fully complied with our commitments towards the IAEA and continuation of cooperation will depend on the outcome of negotiations", IRNA added. ENDS IAEA IRAN URANIUM 29903

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Sept-2003/iaea_iran_uranium_29903.htm

Web Site Takes on Repressive Government

September 29, 2003
San Mateo Times

Francine Brevetti
9.29.2003

As developing countries increasingly acknowledge the importance of high technology to their economies, those with centralized economies nevertheless tend to restrict their populations' Internet access.

This typifies the approaches of the governments of Burma, China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and, to some degree, Singapore.

China, for instance, arrested a Web surfer last week who expressed his anti-government sentiments in chat rooms.

This past May, the Iranian government blocked access to a reported 15,000 Web sites. An unknown number are foreign news sites that would give Iranians access to news unmanipulated by the government in Tehran.

"People are hungry for news not controlled by the government" said Ken Berman, manager of the Internet anti-censorship program for the International Broadcasting Bureau. The IBB provides the administrative and technical support for U.S.-sponsored international broadcast services other than military ones. The Voice of America and Radio Free Europe may be among its best known services.

To keep Iranians in touch with Western Web sites, the IBB contracted with San Diego Internet security company Anonymizer to circumvent Tehran's censorship, as it has done previously for users within the People's Republic of China. The value of the contract would not be disclosed.

"Anytime the VOA Web site is blocked, it's a good bet other sites are as well, (for example) the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC and a whole host of other Western news sources. We went through a similar situation in China with Internet users trying the VOA or Radio Free Asia sites," Berman said.

When Tehran cracked down on surfing, numerous listeners reported to the IBB they couldn't access the VOA Web site anymore or that of Radio Farda, according to Berman. Radio Farda, also supported by the IBB, provides Iran with local news and stories that would not be carried through international commercial channels.

But since the adoption of Anonymizer's technology, the IBB has received positive feedback that attests to the satisfaction of Iranian listeners, said Berman.

This is how it works, according to Lance Cottrell, founder and chief executive officer of Anonymizer: The company e-mails in bulk to Iranians the name of a URL where they can find the VOA or Radio Farda without government intervention. Berman said Radio Farda also announces the URL on the air.

When an Iranian surfer goes to this Web site, called a proxy, it redirects them to the VOA or Radio Farda Web sites. There the surfer can also input any other URL that he wants.

Although the user accesses the proxy, the government cannot track what sites he is now surfing by virtue of the Anonymizer technology.

With the proxy URL being publicly announced, the Iranian government will surely catch up with it and block it eventually. But the URL is changed daily.

"We change it faster than they can block it," Anonymizer's Cottrell said.

Cottrell recalled that Iran's theocracy had been censoring print and broadcast before it became aware of the Internet's power to transmit criticism of the government or Islam.

Cottrell said that when he founded the company 1997 he was inspired to protect free speech online from tracking and monitoring.

Today, he insisted, the Internet worldwide is "absolutely more censored" than it was five years ago, especially among Third World countries.

"More and more countries are waking up to the importance of the Internet," he said -- to the detriment of free speech in the case of certain governments.

China is particularly a concern since it is attempting to circumvent the technology that Anonymizer provides.

"China is taking our box and reverse engineering it," he said. "First they just started blocking (Web sites), but now they are more subtle. Now they are redirecting (users). You try to go to the New York Times (Web site) but wind up at China Daily. And then they know you were trying to go to the New York Times."

Cottrell also despairs the many American companies whose technology, whether routers and servers or filtering software, sell their products to China, which uses them to subvert user access to the Internet.

Even as China keeps its iron fist on access, the government has proclaimed its future lies with high-tech and broadband communications. The IBB's Berman said the Chinese government is "spending billions putting fiber up and down the coast. Every new construction project has broadband throughout the office."

The Chinese government is contemplating a domain name registration system in Chinese characters rather than in the Roman alphabet.

Vietnam too has thrown its weight behind high technology to ensure economic growth, even while it, too, censors residents' Web access.

The Global Internet Freedom Act was introduced into Congress this summer. It would provide the IBB with funds to counter other governments' efforts to block and jam sites and the persecution of those who use the Internet.

Francine Brevetti can be reached at (510) 208-6416 and fbrevetti@angnewspapers.com

http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1664603,00.html

Ayatollah Rohallah Khomeini's Grandson Promotes Freedom and Democracy

September 29, 2003
Washington File
William Armbruster

Washington -- Hossein Khomeini, grandson of the late Ayatollah Rohallah Khomeini, who led the Iranian revolution, called "freedom and democracy a basic means of life and living."

During a September 26 appearance at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, he said there is no one in Iran at present to lead the Iranian people's struggle for freedom.

Referring to the Iranian Revolution, he stated that "25 years ago the Iranian people hoped for freedom."

"An important goal for the revolution was the creation of democracy and freedom," the younger Khomeini declared. "This was not achieved. There are no freedoms in Iran."

He discussed the reasons for the acceptance of religious authorities as political rulers, pointing out that, at that time, "the religious leaders had legitimacy."

Now, he went on, "The Iranian people have experienced theocracy. They have come to understand that religion and government cannot be one and the same."

He denied the necessity of religious training for governmental positions, declaring, "Democracy is compatible with all the basic values of Shi'ism and Islam." He pointed to the earliest Islamic traditions that "Faith is free and individuals can follow or not follow a particular religion as they wish."

"If everybody was supposed to become a Muslim, God Himself would have turned everybody into Muslims," he pointed out.

He introduced the current political issues, saying, "At the present time, the question is how we can get to democracy and freedom in our communities in the Middle East."

He said that Iran "is ready but there is no leadership" to bring the country to freedom. He speculated that if there were "a center for leading Iranians..., maybe then a movement would be started in Iran."

Khomeini expressed his surprise and admiration that "The United States, in a world of cold, heartless thinking, could go to Iraq and free that country." He doesn't "see any kind of material reason for the United States to go to Iraq and free that country." He called the U.S. liberation of Iraq "really a blessing for the people of Iraq and I admire that."

He thinks the United States is paying more attention to Iran because "Iran is intervening in Iraqi affairs extensively."

He said his current round of speeches and presentations has "stressed and asked for all free societies in the world to think and be concerned about those countries in the Middle East if they want to be in peace and security here."

"They should try to create hope in these people in the Middle Eastern countries."

He compared Iran, where some are economically well off, with Indonesia, where people are not as well off economically but now have hope due to the recent introduction of democracy. The lack of hope in Iran has caused young Iranians (70 percent of the country is less than 30 years old) to be depressed, he said. The oppression they face causes frustration, which leads to melancholy in some and extremism in others, he added.

"Establishment of freedom and democracy in Islamic countries is the guarantee of international peace and security," Khomeini said. He explained that the psychological imbalance in oppressed peoples leads to hatred. "Religious radicalism has nothing to do with religion," Khomeini declared. But it comes from psychological imbalance "due to lack of freedom and democracy in these societies," he said. This needs to be taken very seriously in the free societies, he explained. Otherwise, he added, they will not be left in peace in their own countries.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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