Free Republic

A man was arrested in New York City's international airport with uranium destined for Iran hidden in the soles of his shoes, the US Justice Department said. Patrick Campbell, 33, who was arrested Wednesday as he arrived at the John F Kennedy airport from Paris, is accused of trying to act as an intermediary to sell Iran 1,000 tons of purified uranium, in violation of US law. The Sierra Leone-based Campbell had been under surveillance since May 2012, when he responded to an ad on the site Alibaba.com by someone looking to buy uranium 308, or yellow cake. The buyer...

Western diplomats at the Rouhani inauguration Sunday should challenge him to release political prisoners The inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as president of Iran on Sunday has stirred considerable hope among some Western observers for the start of a new era of liberalization in the Islamic Republic. Mr. Rouhani may prove to be the reformer his supporters claim, but the luxury of such optimism isn't available to the hundreds of dissidents who have run afoul of the Islamic Republic and are trapped in its prisons. Since Mr. Rouhani's election in mid-June, the regime's executions of prisoners—a good barometer of a government's...

The name of Iranian ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi is little known outside his own country, which is unfortunate. Ayatollah Boroujerdi has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since 2006. Boroujerdi, aged 50, is an heir to a distinguished Shia clerical family. He was born in Tehran and educated in the Shia religious center of Qom. Like his father, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Ali Kazemeyni Boroujerdi (1924-2002), Boroujerdi preaches the pre-Khomeini interpretation of Iranian Shiism, which calls for religion to be kept apart from politics. His health has been badly affected by the conditions of his imprisonment, yet he...

SNIPPET: "Majlis National Security Committee chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Egyptian parliament, Muhammad Al-Fiqi, has authorized the members of the Iranian flotilla, which is to arrive via the Suez Canal, to enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing. Boroujerdi clarified that this flotilla, which includes Majlis members, is distinct from the one being organized by the Iranian Red Crescent."

Do you remember the brave moderate Iranian Ayatollah Boroujerdi who was arrested by the regime last year??? ... Not much has been reported on Ayatollah Boroujerdi since his arrest except one story that claimed he was suffering terribly and that he was sentenced to death. Boroujerdi's only crime is that he stood up to the hardliners in the brutal Iranian regime. Today Michael Ledeen at Pajamas Media is asking readers to sign ** this petition ** to help save Ayatollah Bourujerdi from death.

Ayatollah Boroujerdi (son of the prominent shia cleric Seyyed Mohammad Ali Kazemeini Boroujerdi) has been sentenced to death together with 17 of his followers. The secular ideology of this Shia cleric is that the “Hidden Imam” is the only one who has the legitimate competence to rule and pass judgment based on Islam, not the “Supreme Leader” and other self pro-claimed “Marjas” (Council of Guardian) who have the ultimate power in Iran, one after the other above the mostly symbolic president and parliament. The popularity of Kazemeini made the regime very uncomfortable last year after many speeches he gave against...

Sorry for the delay in this but I have been preoccupied with a few matters that have been developing. You have all heard by now that at 4 a.m. on Sunday, the Islamic Regime sent in various law and security enforcement agencies backed by armored vehicles, water cannon trucks spouting boiling water and even firing live rounds on the demonstrators to finally arrest Ayatollah Boroujerdi. Publicly treating him in a shameful and degrading manner after they had their hands on him. Several aspects and questions came to light: 1. To what extent were outside forces involved in this quite significant...

According to the Anti-Mullah blog a mullah in Iran has called for Iran to become a "secular" and called for the people to revolt against the regime that is currently in power! Here is an excerpt from the blog: LATEST UPDATE - all phones in the area of the Ayatollah's house have been disconnected and his numbers, which worked till just now have a recording saying "they never existed". Monitored from live communication with Iran and the Ayatollah Boroujerdi himself by Voice of Iran Radio (KRSI) and local citizens calling in from Tehran to KRSI. Shots were being fired around...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric who has challenged Iran's system of clerical rule was arrested on Sunday after his supporters clashed with police outside his house in the Iranian capital, Iranian news agencies reported. Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi was detained with several supporters, Iran's student news agency ISNA quoted the deputy governor of Tehran, Abdollah Rowshan, as saying. The Iranian authorities are wary of any challenge, particularly from top clerics, to the system of clerical rule that was established after the 1979 Islamic revolution by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Analysis: Iran's Ahmad Chalabi? Claims Iranian students favor U.S. intervention By Jacob Russell UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON -- Amir Abbas Fakhravar may be the "Ahmad Chalabi" of Iran, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, founder and director of the Syracuse University's Middle Eastern Studies program and Associate Professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School. Fahkravar was arrested several times for his political activities while still a student in Iran. He wrote a book in 2000, while imprisoned, called "Inja Chah n ist," or "This Place is not a Ditch." The book follows the last months of 1979 to 2000 in Iranian politics, though...

Breaking news - Saturday (PST) - After Midnight Sunday - Tehran time (TT) LATEST UPDATE - all phones in the area of the Ayatollah's house have been disconnected and his numbers, which worked till just now have a recording saying "they never existed". Monitored from live communication with Iran and the Ayatollah Boroujerdi himself by Voice of Iran Radio (KRSI) and local citizens calling in from Tehran to KRSI. Shots were being fired around the Ayatollah's home at Sard (cold) Park, Avesta Avenue, Sard Street #9 close to Freedom Square. Fires are springing up in the region at major intersections....

Iran: At least 40 followers of Ayatollah Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi arrested Source: Amnesty International At least 41 followers of Shia cleric Ayatollah Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi were reportedly arrested in the courtyard of his house in Tehran during the morning of 28 September. They are thought to have been taken to Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran, which is run by the Ministry of Intelligence. One was reportedly later released. There are fears that the Ayatollah may be at risk of imminent arrest. On 30 June 2006 the Ayatollah conducted a large religious ceremony at the Shahid Keshvari...

An Ayatollah Under Siege ... in Tehran October 04, 2006 OpenDemocracy Nazenin Ansari   The Tehran regime's persecution of a dissident Shi'a cleric and his supporters reveals not just its own ruthlessness but the depth of opposition to its rule, says Nazenin Ansari. 28 September 2006, 8am, Avesta Street, Tehran: seven women and thirty-four men, aged between 23 and 60, leave the modest house after having spent another cold night in its courtyard guarding Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi - a cleric who has become a thorn in the side of the ruling ayatollahs in Iran. Unbeknownst to them, they...