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<p>Iran to Prosecute British Sailors Tuesday, June 22, 2004 TEHRAN, Iran — Tehran will prosecute eight British sailors and Marines for allegedly entering Iranian waters aboard three military patrol boats, according to Iranian state-run television. British officials are demanding access to the men, who were detained in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway (search) on Monday as they were delivering a patrol boat to the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. The waterway, the outlet of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers into the Persian Gulf, runs along the southern border between Iran and Iraq.</p>

IRAN-BACKED TERRORISM -- A MORE IMMEDIATE THREAT. A Weekly Review of Developments in and Pertaining to Iran RFE/RL Iran Report 14 June 2004, Volume 7, Number 19 IRAN-BACKED TERRORISM -- A MORE IMMEDIATE THREAT. The International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors is meeting on 14 June to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions and its lack of cooperation with the nuclear watchdog. While the world worries about a nuclear-armed Iran in the future, it must not forget about a terrorist Iran today. The U.S. State Department first designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism in January 1984, and it has...

Negotiating Human Rights in Tehran? Intellectual Conservative Nooredin Abedian June 15, 2004 The European Union's approach to Tehran is to engage in "dialogue," even as political detainees are being tortured in the presence of judges, held for weeks in absolute solitary confinement, and denied basic due process rights. The European Union's human rights delegation to Iran began its two-day session with Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday, June 14. The Regime's official news agency, ISNA, speaks of the "fourth roundtable talks on human rights between the Islamic Republic and the EU," inaugurated, according to the agency, in an atmosphere of...

The World Bank Props Up the Iranian Mullahcracy National Review Online Mohammad Parvin June 15, 2004 Even as the Islamic Regime of Iran accelerated the number of arrests, tortures, and death sentences it carried out, on May 29, the World Bank awarded it with two loans totaling $369 million. As justification for granting the loans, the World Bank claims they were awarded to help the people of Iran. "In many countries we have enfranchised civil societies," the Bank's president, James D. Wolfensohn said at a luncheon. "Should we stop doing that and wait until we had perfect countries before we...

An official of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has threatened the United States and other Western nations with suicide and missile attacks aimed at 29 sensitive sites. "Our missiles are now ready to strike at their civilization, and as soon as the instructions arrive from leader ['Ali Khamenei], we will launch our missiles at their cities and installations," the Revolutionary Guard adviser said in a speech reported by the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, according to Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI. He also threatened to "take over" Britian. The paper reported "an Iranian intelligence unit has established a center called...

<p>AS the U.S. is distracted between preparing to hand over Iraqi sovereignty, the Abu Ghraib scandal and the ongoing fighting, Iran's mullahs carefully keep their eye on the ball - pursuing a nuclear-weapons capability, flooding Iraq with money and agents, infiltrating Afghanistan, supporting terrorism against Turkey and (with Syria) directing the Palestinian intifada. The U.S. government seems to have focussed mainly on the nuclear issues - though we've semi-officially noticed, if not countered, the meddling in Iraq.</p>

It's All About You, Sir! Nooredin Abedian/Intellectual Conservative May 17, 2004 Aytatollah Shahroudi, Iran's Chief Justice, recently ordered a ban on the use of torture, but it remains to be seen whether it will be put into practice. Two weeks ago, Ayatollah Shahroudi, Iran's Chief Justice, ordered a ban on the use of torture which the Islamic Republic's security organizations routinely use to extract confessions. "Any torture to extract confession is banned and the confessions extracted through torture are not legitimate and legal," the Chief Justice said in a 15-point directive to the judiciary. Human rights lawyers and political activists...

Torture: A Main Instrument of Iran's Rulers to Terrorize Restive Population May 06, 2004 The US Alliance for Democratic Iran USADI For those concerned about the abysmal human rights situation in Iran, but unfamiliar with its ruling tyrants’ double-talk and deception, recent news headline from Iran may have appeared comforting. Alas, the reality on the ground demands continued disgust with the way Iran rulers deal with the citizens and political dissidents. Besieged by a barrage of questions from frustrated students, President Mohammad Khatami acknowledged last week that the country had many political prisoners. A day later, Judiciary Chief Mahmoud Hashemi...

Iran Council Passes Law Banning Totrure Sun May 9, 1:46 PM ET TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line ruling Guardian Council has passed a law banning the use of torture, effective immediately, a judiciary official said Sunday. The council, which rejected at least three similar proposals in the past, approved the law's Thursday — one day after Iran's judiciary chief ordered it, said Nasser Hosseini, a judiciary official. "For courts, it's obligatory to implement the law after it is approved by the Guardian Council," he said. Human rights groups have long complained about the use of torture against detainees, including intellectuals...

<p>On April 4, 2004, Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, a pro-Iranian Iraqi cleric, called on his followers to "terrorize your enemy," meaning the Americans and all those Iraqis cooperating to bring about a constitutional government.</p> <p>This led tens of thousands of the cleric's armed and unarmed followers to attack U.S. and Coalition forces in four Iraqi cities. This was a preview of the violence and turmoil Iranian covert action could inflict in the coming months.</p>

RadioFarda Democracy and Human Rights Roundtable: Accountability Today's roundtable is devoted to accountability. In his New Year message, the Supreme Leader said the authorities are accountable to the people and to the nation's elite. •Frankfurt-based leftist activist Mehdi Khanbaba-Tehrani says: The Islamic Republic's organs, such as the judiciary and the supreme administrative court, cannot be trusted with the campaign against corruption. Furthermore, the Supreme Leader, who talks of accountability, does not consider himself accountable to any earthly being. Corruption cannot be prosecuted in societies where no democracy exists. •New Haven based human rights activist Ramin Ahmadi says: Unlike the US,...

ISLAMIC IRAN PARTICIPATION FRONT OFFICE SEALED OFF TEHRAN, 19 Feb. (IPS) The office of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), Iran’s largest political formation that controlled the outgoing Parliament was sealed on orders from the Judiciary, it was learned late Thursday night. The move, on the eve of the controversial elections, was expected, as the Judiciary, which is controlled by the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, had on Wednesday night shut down the party’s official organ Yas e No as well as the reformist daily Sharq. Mr. Ali Shakkoori-Raad, an outspoken reformist lawmaker barred by the leader-controlled...

Thousands of the regime forces have been mobilized in the Kerman Province and especially in the cities of Bam and Jiroft in order to prepare the "conditions" for the "future" visit of the Islamic republic leaders. Orders have been issued to arrest or shoot on any protester in the devastated areas under the label of "fighting looters". The Islamic regime knowing the degree of the popular hatered and the existing explosive situation has preferred to postpone these official visits and its leaders, such as Mohamad Khatami, haven't showed up on the scenes of the unprecedented devastation which stroke the region...

Iran's clerical rulers are nearing the 25th anniversary of their Islamic revolution under greater pressure than ever from "Great Satan" the United States, as they watch another neighbour swamped with American troops and feel the heat over its nuclear programme. It was a nerve-wracking 2003 for Iran's leaders: the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed in just three weeks under overwhelming US firepower, leaving many here to fear Iran - now effectively surrounded by American forces - could be the next "axis of evil" member to come under attack. In addition, the Islamic republic, founded in February 1979, found itself accused of...

A controversial Iranian ex-spy said he has discussed with the Pentagon using some of Saddam Hussein's hidden cash to launch a peaceful revolution against Tehran's clerical regime, Newsweek magazine reported Sunday. Manucher Ghorbanifar told the weekly he has been meeting with senior defense officials to discuss unseating Iran's Islamic regime, and said he knows how to find 340 million dollars in Saddam's cash. Ghorbanifar said he proposed using half the cash to finance an Iranian resistance and giving the other half to the US government, Newsweek said. A Defense official told Newsweek that any discussion about regime change with Ghorbanifar...

Iran demanded on Monday that former Iraqi President Saddam Hoseyn, who led a destructive war against the Islamic Republic between 1980 and 1988, is tried at an international court. "We want that the crimes of Iraq’s dictator are examined at a competent international court and he is put on trial" Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters at a weekly press briefing. His comment came more than 24 hours after the announce of the capture of the Iraqi tyrant by American Special Task Forces supported by Kurdish Peshmergas from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal Talabani, with so far not...

These five regimes must go - Mark Steyn lists the countries that must be dealt with if we are to win the war against terrorism New Hampshire George W. Bush is right. Tony Blair is ‘plenty independent’; he is no poodle. Or, if he is, he’s succeeded in dragging his master through some pretty sticky bits of dog poop. Many of the present difficulties — including the Saddamite restoration movement on the streets of London last week — derive at least in part from the influence of the junior partner. One or two readers may recall that a year and...

Iran's president Sunday ordered two Cabinet ministers to crack down on hard-line vigilantes who disrupt political meetings following an attack on one of his close aides, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. President Mohammad Khatami ordered Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi and Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari to provide security and protection for participants and speakers at authorized rallies, saying he won't tolerate further attacks as the country prepares for parliamentary elections slated for Feb. 20. ''I seriously want you to, firstly, make use of all the facilities available to provide security for legal gatherings. Secondly, no effort should be...

Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Guard forces under the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly killed a 10-year-old boy in the country's minority Baloch region yesterday, touching off a massive uprising against the Islamic regime countered by a deadly crackdown and imposition of martial law, according to sources on the scene. Amid burning banks, stores and government offices, at least 30 Baloch protesters are dead and 80 injured in the southeastern city of Saravan near the Pakistani border, said Malek Meerdora, who immigrated to Canada from the city in 1993. Meerdora told WorldNetDaily the Iranian government has attempted to shut off communication from the...

Khalkhali: "Kill Him! Next!" The Independent/ Adel Darwish November 29, 2003/After the establishment in 1979 of a fundamentalist Islamic republic in Iran under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian army occupied three Kurdish-Iranian towns for supporting the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, condemned by Khomeini as "un- Islamic". The hardline cleric Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali set up his Islamic revolutionary court to weed out "counter-revolutionaries" in the town of Saghez. Learning that a Kurdish defendant who was born in Orumiyeh had lost a hand to a grenade explosion during the Tehran uprising, Khalkhali asked what he was doing in Saghez. "I...