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Senators urge US support of Iran's democracy movement Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com WASHINGTON, July 8 (AFP) - As Iran prepares to mark Wednesday's fourth anniversary of bloody student riots, US lawmakers said Washington should do more to support students agitating for the regime's reform or ouster. "America must make it clear that we see the difference between the Iranian regime and the Iranian people, and we support the people," said Senator Sam Brownback, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has held several hearings on the political and social situation in Iran. "We must do...

Say You Want a Revolution? By Amir Taheri For almost a quarter of a century the United States and Iran, under its Khomeinist rulers, have been locked in a mini-version of the Cold War. During that period Iranian agents seized and held more than 100 Americans as hostages, releasing them only after Teheran extracted concessions from Washington. Several hostages were murdered, including a US Marine colonel, hanged by the Hizbullah in Beirut, and the CIA station chief in Lebanon who was transferred to Teheran and died under torture during interrogation. In the same period, Teheran organized terrorist attacks in which...

IRAN'S SEEDS OF LIBERTY By AMIR TAHERI for the NY Post June 27, 2003 -- AS the Iranian opposition to the mullahs gathers momentum, a chorus of self-styled experts in the United States is trying to belittle the pro-democracy movement, presenting the Khomeinist regime as a solid and urging Washington to seek détente with Tehran. These "experts" present the pro-democracy movement as a student revolt with no popular base, no program and no leaders. In fact, it has a strong popular base. Its support cuts across class, religious, ideological and generational boundaries.

Students and a number of Tehrani clashed late Tuesday night with Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) backed by plainclothes men from pressure groups at Tehran University dormitory and neighbouring areas, leaving an undisclosed number of wounded, according to eyewitnesses. The clashes occurred after some 1.000 to 2.000 students protested to plans aiming at privatising universities, according to the independent students news agency ISNA. "LEF and thugs charged the students with chains, electric cable and clubs, after slogans saying death to Khameneh'i, death to Rafsanjani were chanted", one eyewitness told Iran Press Service, adding that hundreds of ordinary people had joined the...