Free Republic

Top News Story The Washington Times Iran Leader Linked To '79 Embassy Crisis Excerpt: Joyce Howard Priceand David R. Sands, The Washington Times:Americans held in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Iran said yesterday they clearly recall Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad playing a central role in the takeover, interrogating captives and demanding harsher treatment for the hostages. "As soon as I saw his picture in the paper, I knew that was the bastard," said retired Army Col. Charles Scott, 73, a former hostage who lives in Jonesboro, Ga. "He was one of the top two or three...

Top News Story 29 June 2005 U.S. Calls on Iran To Release Imprisoned Journalist Akbar Ganji Ganji has investigated abuses by Iranian security forcesThe United States has called on Iranian authorities to release Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji from prison, where he is being held, the State Department said, for his political views and peaceful activities in support of free speech and journalistic integrity.  Ganji is known for his efforts to uncover information on extra-judicial killings by Iranian security forces.In a June 29 statement, the State Department expressed particular concern about recent reports that Ganji is in failing health and...

Top News Story 'No More Mullahs' An Excerpt: Amir Taheri, The Wall Street Journal:In one of his rare outings during the Iranian presidential election campaign last week, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the man then designated as the likely winner by almost everyone, ran into a spot of bother. An old woman broke through his security ring, shouting, "May I have a word with you?" Once allowed to approach Mr. Rafsanjani, the woman removed his turban with a blow and shouted, "No more mullahs!" A couple of nights before that, Mr. Rafsanjani had been booed by students at Tehran University with...

Top News Story 'I am proud of being Iran's little servant and street sweeper' By Colin Freeman in Teheran(Filed: 26/06/2005)By official edict there were no victory parades for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the streets of the Iranian capital yesterday.   Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad The mayor of Teheran, who shocked the world with his surprise victory in Iran's presidential run-off poll on Friday, is an ultra-conservative who craves a return to the ideol-ogies of the Islamic revolution of 1979.Yesterday, the people of Iran were given, perhaps, an early taste of things to come, as public celebrations and opposition demonstrations...

Top News Story National Nine News Iran will press ahead with its controversial nuclear program and the Islamic republic has no real need for ties with arch-foe the US, hardline president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. In a sign that Friday's surprise election result would prolong decades of enmity between Tehran and Washington, Ahmadinejad and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld traded negative remarks in their first comments since the vote. But the ultra-conservative former mayor of Tehran said Iran would not abandon nuclear talks with the European Union although negotiations would be based on the Islamic Republic's "national interest". Europe shares...

Top News Story Iran’s ruling clerics fear street protests Iran Focus:A day after the surprise election of the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran as the new President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the country'’s security forces were placed on heightened state of alert throughout Saturday to prevent any street demonstrations. The move reflected fears in the ruling clerical circles that a dissatisfied young population could react with fury to what many see as a 'coup'” by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the hard-line institutions under his control to consolidate their power. The furious reaction of the loser, former...

Top News Story Hardliner Scores Landslide Iran Election Win Excerpt: By REUTERS Filed at 9:28 p.m. ETTEHRAN (Reuters) - Ultra-conservative Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept to a landslide win in presidential elections on Saturday, spelling a possible end to Iran's fragile social reforms and tentative rapprochement with the West.Ahmadinejad, 48, received the backing of the religious poor to defeat moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was supported by pro-reform parties and wealthy Iranians fearful of a hardline monopoly on power in the Islamic state.``The figures show that Ahmadinejad is the winner,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani told reporters.He will...

Top News Story NY Sun WASHINGTON - The choice for Iranians tomorrow in the presidential runoff is between "bad and worse," according to a leader of the July 9, 1999, Tehran University uprisings, Ahmad Batebi. In a phone interview yesterday with The New York Sun, Mr. Batebi said, "The candidates were never elected by the people, the selection of the candidates are from the supreme leader. The people of Iran had no power in choosing any of them." Mr. Batebi is currently on the lam, avoiding authorities in Iran where he is still wanted for his crime of endangering...

Top News Story Don't pin hopes for reform on Rafsanjani, Britain warnsBy Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor(Filed: 22/06/2005)Britain adopted a more confrontational policy towards Iran yesterday when officials assailed the credibility of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the likely winner of Friday's presidential election run-off.Many Iranian reformists, alarmed that his opponent, the hardline former mayor of Teheran Mahmood Ahmadinejad, came second in the initial round of voting, have called on supporters to switch their votes to the 70-year-old Mr Rafsanjani despite the fact that he is a veteran of the regime.The wily cleric, who served as president from 1989 to...

Top News Story Iranian Student Union, Tahkeem Vahdat: Boycott the bogus elections, this regime is not reformable Iran Press News: The University Student offices of Tahkeem'eh Vahdat has sent out a bulletin reiterating it's stance: "based on an all points boycott of this bogus election and the immovability and unreformability of the regime ruling over Iran; we consider this fake election to be disastrous, highly restrictive and utterly ineffective and the office of the president should be castigated for this pathetic show of force."In several parts of this bulletin, the members of Tahkeem'eh Vahdat have referred to this as...

Top News Story Editor: Myself A weblog on Iran, technology and pop culture, by Hossein Derakhshan The coming coup Iranian blogger, Hoder.com:Things are really getting nasty here. After Karrubi's unbelievably blunt letter to the Supreme Leader, everything is suddenly changing. All non-fundamentalists are rallying behind Rafsanjani. Many are talking about a possible coup by Sepah and Basij after Friday's second round results. It's also rumoured (now confirmed ) that Eqbal and Aftab, pro-reform newspapers, were seizes in the printing house last night after they published full text of the letter. Karrubi for the first time has publically challenged the...

DoctorZin reports, 6.19.2005:Bloggers must demand more from the mainstream media in its reporting on Iran. I have been reporting for days now that the elections in Iran were rigged. Now that the NY Times is reporting it perhaps the blogosphere will also. I also published statements of several candidates inside of Iran that are also claiming this as well. The blogosphere can either lead or follow the mainstream media. I hope we will lead. With the election runoff in Iran slated for Friday, we must demand that the mainstream media visit polling stations throughout Iran to report their own...

Reports of Iranians voting in the US Robert Mayer of PublisPundit has just released his length and valuable report on the polling station in Tuscon. It includes photos and a fascinating with the poll watcher and his views of America. Will of Willisms produced a two similar reports from Houston, Texas. One, Two. Photos included. Finally, SMCCDI published a report of their success in closing down the LA polling station. Aryo B. Pirouznia, the SMCCDI Coordinator, and several other Iranian political activists were wounded by Islamists and mercenaries hired by Islamic republic regime. These aggressions took place, yesterday, in...

First Reports on the Iranian Election - Why the media is getting it wrong The western media is reporting a close election in Iran and some are claiming that it is so close that the government has extended the hours of the polling places in order to accommodate the voting public. What is wrong with these reports? According to various news accounts, the international media in Iran for the election is estimated between 70 and 200 foreign journalists. Opposition leaders claim that each journalist is required to have a government minder present with them. They also report that these...

Top News Story Statement by the President Bush on Iranian Elections[Excerpts] President Bush, The White House: In recent months, the cause of freedom has made enormous gains in the broader Middle East. ... And as a tide of freedom sweeps this region, it will also come eventually to Iran. ... Today, Iran is ruled by men who suppress liberty at home and spread terror across the world. Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy. The June 17th presidential elections are sadly consistent...

Top News Story CNN plays a dangerous game of softball with Rafsanjani Excerpt:CNN.com:Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani -- now seeking another term as the Islamic republic's elected leader -- said Tuesday the United States has been hostile toward his country for more than 30 years. The man widely expected to win Friday's presidential election told CNN the United States has taken "steps in the right direction" but must do more to prove to Iranians that it has relinquished what he called "a hostile attitude." READ MORE DoctorZin:CNN's report reminded me of Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein. It...

Top News Story Hakha movement press release The Popular Hakha Movement for Freedom in Iran has called for peaceful uprisings on June 16th starting at 10 a.m. Tehran time of the current year against the oppressive and terrorist Islamic Republic of Iran. Under the leadership of Dr. Ahura-Pirouz Khaleghi Yazdi, the people will not rest until freedom and democracy have been established in Iran. The Iranian people have demanded and will take their self-determination. The aim of this national uprising is to overthrow the despotic regime in order to institute national self-determination, the principles of secular democracy, the doctrine...

Top News Story Some analysts suspect bin Laden slipped into Iran Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times:Some within the U.S. intelligence community think Osama bin Laden is in eastern Iran, instead of the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan's northwestern frontier, where most American officials think he is still on the run. U.S. officials said in interviews that the Iran theory, which is held by a minority, is based on bits of intelligence information and the fact that months of CIA intelligence operations, along with search-and-destroy sweeps by thousands of Pakistani troops, have failed to find the al Qaeda leader or...

Top News Story New York Times TEHRAN, June 12 - Hundreds of women staged an unauthorized demonstration in Tehran today, protesting sex discrimination under Iran's Islamic leadership just days before the June 17 presidential elections. There were reports that the police clubbed several women, though there were no hospital reports of injuries. Demonstrators said they saw some women being detained and dragged away by officers. But the situation appeared to stabilize, and after about an hour of demonstrating, the women disbanded without further incident. "We will continue such protests because it shows that women are aware of their rights,"...

Special Report: Iranians Unite! Pro-Democracy Iranians Boycott Islamic Republic'’s Rigged Anti-Democratic Elections In an historic show of unity, Iranian opposition leaders together drafted and signed the following declaration. The leaders represent a broad spectrum of Iranian groups around the world calling for a boycott of the June 17th Presidential election. READ MOREMore than 17o leaders have signed it, still others are seeking to. It is important to let the media know that Iranians from a range of political views are now united in boycotting the June 17th election. Also important: I have begun a schedule of Pro-Democracy events for...