Free Republic

August 14, 2006 -- Reports from Iran say authorities are continuing their crackdown on Western television channels, raiding rooftops in search of banned satellite dishes. Iran's media today quoted Tehran police chief Morteza Talai as reminding residents that the use of satellite dishes is prohibited by law. Eyewitnesses say police have been raiding apartment blocks in Tehran's northern and western neighborhoods in the past few days, looking for prohibited dishes. AFP quoted a Tehran resident as saying security forces seized scores of satellite television equipment on August 13 in Velenjak district. The Iranian parliament in 1995 passed a law...

Thousands arrested in Tehran after the schools reopen Friday 23 September 2005 The regime's brutal disciplinary forces over the recent days arrested thousands of innocent Iranian people, calling them hoodlums and scum. The regime, which considers the reopening of the schools and universities as a threat, has deployed its security agents all around Tehran in order to make their presence felt. Revolutionary Guard Zaareii, the Commander of the disciplinary forces of the regime in Tehran spoke at a gathering of other squadron leaders; he shared his apprehension of the reopening of the schools and what troubles can lay ahead due...

KIRKUK, IRAQ – Seven years ago, a customer walked intoFalah Abdulrahman Mohamad Salih's television store and insisted on a barter: One of your televisions for one of my satellite dishes. Under Saddam Hussein, who kept an almost Orwellian lid on information, satellite dishes were banned. So Mr. Salih tried to hide the round, white saucer inside some laundry lines. A few days later at 4 a.m, security police came to his door and, with his wife and children crying, hauled him off to prison. The six grueling months there in 1996 makes these days all the sweeter. Salih was the...