High-energy Neutron Experiments in Iran Raise Suspicions

The Mullahs of Iran have been conducting high-energy neutron experiments in Iran, according to:

a diplomat with close links to intelligence sources said "the combination of the existence of a neutron initiator in a secret facility run by the Revolutionary Guard, making high- and not low-energy neutron experiments is a sufficient good indicator to a suspected military program." more

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Canada returns Iranian activist to Iran

We must make it easier for pro-western activists to escape Iran or the Iranian people will lose all hope for help from the west. This is a sad chapter in Canadian history.

An Iranian woman deported from Vancouver was arrested within minutes of her return to Tehran, but was released after spending many hours in detention.

Haleh Sahba, 30, now faces charges of leaving Iran illegally.

Sahba lived in the Vancouver area for three years after fleeing her home country, where she had been jailed for defending women's rights.

She told Immigration Canada that she feared for her life if she was forced to return to Iran, but was refused refugee status and deported on Tuesday.

Sahba's family has now sent letters to every MLA in the province asking for their support to win her return to Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

We have an Iranian student who has escaped Iran but still has not found refuge in the west. We must find a way to correct this injustice.

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Tapping the hornets' nest

Michael Rubin shares his thoughts on Iran.

Students I met in Tehran during the 1999 democracy protests question whether after getting the bomb, the country's ideological guardians might engage in a crackdown "10 times worse than [China's 1989 assault on] Tiananmen Square." ...

the second Bush administration cannot afford to replicate the indecision of the first. more

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Iranian Dissidents to form united referendum front

IPS has published a brief introduction to the recent uniting of many Iranian groups towards a national referendum on the Iranian constitution. more

I will be publishing more on this soon.

In the meantime, please check out http://70000000.com

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Photo essay on yesterday's pro-Democracy Iranian students in Tehran.

I published a photo essay of pro-Democracy Iranian students lambasting Khatami during speech yesterday in Tehran. Click here.

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The Power of Freedom

This is the second in an important three-part series of excerpts from The Case for Democracy by Natan Sharansky with Ron Dermer. more

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Iranian Democrats Establish a United Front

Eli Lake of the NY Sun reports on the new call for unity among Iranians.

In an interview with The New York Sun, a founder of the new front, which comprises the major student groups as well as leading lawyers and activists inside the country, said organizers this week began fanning out across the country to collect the names of fellow citizens for a petition supporting changes to the constitution to allow a referendum.

"We think this is a good step that all the opposition groups are united in one direction, the direction of the referendum," Mohsen Sazegra said in a telephone interview from London. "As far as I know, this is a unique event. All groups from monarchists to republicans, from left to right are now behind us and they support the referendum movement." ...

Perhaps most important though, the new unified front includes the Islamic student organizations active in the country's universities. ...

So concerned have the mullahs been about the Web site, that they have blocked access to it inside the country, borrowing a tactic from communist China. more

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Iranian Journalists Escape from the Islamic Republic

The Marze Porgohar Party, an Iranian party promoting a secular democracy in Iran just reported some great news:

three of our members have successfully escaped from the Islamic Republic of Iran, following a new wave of press closures marked by a crackdown on journalists and web loggers aimed at restricting the flow of information and terrorizing the young leaders of the pro-democracy movement in the country. more

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Iraq, Jordan See Threat To Election From Iran

The Washington Post reports some disturbing revelations of Iran's effort to influence the Iraqi elections.

Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar charged that Iran is coaching candidates and political parties sympathetic to Tehran and pouring "huge amounts of money" into the campaign to produce a Shiite-dominated government similar to Iran's.

Jordanian King Abdullah said that more than 1 million Iranians have crossed the 910-mile border into Iraq, many to vote in the election -- with the encouragement of the Iranian government. more

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Iran's Defense Ministry Receives $2.5 B for Advanced Weapons

Radio Free Europe is reporting:

An anonymous brigadier general in the Defense Ministry said that $2 billion was withdrawn from the foreign exchange reserve in March and an additional $2.5 billion was withdrawn from the reserve in October in order to finance a project to equip missiles with nuclear, biological, and chemical warheads, "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" reported on 25 November. more

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U.S.: Iran's WTO prospects grim

The Washington Times is reporting the U.S. State Department was backing Iraq and Afghanistan's bids to join the World Trade Organization, but not Iran. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said:

"There has historically been a lack of consensus on Iran's application for membership," he said. more

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Bush administration planning to increase pressure on Iran

The Bush administration is gearing up to put greater pressure on Iran. This report details a few of the ideas being pursued.

the new campaign may be intended not to build support for military action against Iran, but to pressure Iran to change its behavior so military action isn't necessary. ...

The new, more aggressive tack is said to have the backing of secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser.

Among the steps under consideration, the officials said, are stronger public condemnations of Iran's human rights practices and treatment of women; increased U.S. broadcasting into the country; and financial backing for pro-Western groups. ...

The omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last month includes a provision, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., for $3 million to promote democracy in Iran.

Some of the funds could be used to stage a conference in the United States that would bring together Iranian dissidents, human rights advocates and nongovernmental organizations. more

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Egyptian Charged with Spying for Iran

The Egyptians have arrested an Iranian spy ploting attacks on Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed Eid Dabous gave Iran’s Revolutionary Guards “the best locations to carry out assassinations and terrorist operations in Egypt,” said general prosecutor Mahir Abdel Wahid. He said Dabous gave the information to a former Iranian employee in Iran’s diplomatic office in Cairo who is now on the run from Egyptian authorities. more

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EU, Iran to launch nuclear talks next week

The EU3 are scheduled to take up their negotiations with the Iranians next week with a goal of ending Iran's enrichment of uraninum. But prospects don't look good.

"As we have openly told the Europeans, Tehran is determined to keep its nuclear technology and Iran will not give it up easily," Rohani said. more

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Iran Says It's Self-sufficient In Nuclear Fuel

The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran had achieved the ability to produce its own fuel for nuclear reactors.

"Iran has attained full self-sufficiency in producing nuclear fuel for its nuclear power plants," state TV and radio quoted Hassan Rowhani as saying. ...

Rowhani's statement Tuesday appeared to be designed to emphasize the point ahead of negotiations due to start with the European Union later this month. more

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A Lowering of Arms: Few in the West expected the Soviet Union to collapse.

This is the first in a three-part series of excerpts from The Case for Democracy by Natan Sharansky with Ron Dermer. Taken from the book’s introduction. Here is a sample:

any state forced to devote so much of its energies to physically and psychologically controlling millions of its own subjects could not survive indefinitely. more

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The Mullahs' Playground

Amir Taheri takes a look at growing public dissatifaction in Lebanon of Iran's and Syris's prescence. Read here.

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Iran Mullahs to Confiscate Sites & Blogs, Replace Content

Iran's mullah-run ministry of culture and Islamic guidance has decided to launch new efforts to detect the directors of the Internet sites (and weblogs), active in Iran and replace it with own Islamic pro-mullah propaganda content. more

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Torture Used to Obtain ‘Confessions’

Human Rights Watch says "secret squads operating under the authority of the Iranian judiciary have used torture to force detained Internet journalists and civil society activists to write self-incriminatory “confession letters,” ...

interrogators have coerced them to write self-incriminatory letters that describe detention conditions as satisfactory and confess that civil society organizations are part of an “evil project” directed by “foreigners and counter-revolutionaries.” ...

“The Iranian government shouldn’t think for a minute that anyone will believe in the authenticity of these letters. They’re fooling no one,” more

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"Only Democracy would save Iran" Khatami

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, in a major speech criticized elements of the Iranian government.

“In the one hand, you have the president of the regime who calmly listens to criticism, even when some of them utterly unjustified and on the other, there are third rank organs at forces and the Judiciary that for the slightest criticism sends people to prisons”...

“I did my best to convince the Guardian Council to revise its stand. We held a meeting with members of the Council of the Guardians in presence of the Supreme Leader who urged them to shift their attitude. They accepted it in the meeting, but, they reneged on their promise later" ...

“Probably, our intelligence system is one of the best, more tolerant, efficient and hard working in the world, dedicated not to the security of the officials but that of the nation and the people”, Mr. Khatami insisted, adding that “if there are parallel organs, it is a problem that must be addressed.

But apparently the students didn't buy it.

“How can he be so vicious, or pretending to be ignorant, when every one in this country knows that there are several security systems running private jails, arresting and torturing dissidents”, one students said in the side lines of the meeting. more

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Iran Bans Commemoration

Officials in Tehran recently banned any public ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the deaths of Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar. These Iranian democracy activists were brutally killed six years ago, in a wave of murders of dissident intellectuals and journalists. According to the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, "none of the instigators of the 1998 murders has ever been questioned or detained." more

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Iran Has Put on Trial Al Qaeda Members

Reuters has a strange report on Iran's alleged trial of Al Qaeda members in Iran.

Iran's "high-ranking officials are satisfied with the issued verdicts," but did not elaborate on what the verdicts had been...

Western intelligence and Saudi sources believe Iran may have captured al Qaeda's security chief and a son of the group's leader Osama bin Laden.

The western media has been reporting their "capture"?

Hossein Mousavian, secretary of the foreign policy committee of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said in June that the suspects were middle-ranking al Qaeda members.

He said they had been: "plotting against the national security of Iran and they have planned for terrorist activities inside Iran." more

So Iran thinks it is now time to appear to be fighting Al Qaeda. Hmmm.

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Tehran altering ballistic missile

Janes is reporting important new information of Iran's missile program. Uzi Rubin, former director of Israel's Ballistic Missile Defence Organisation says:

"It appears that there are two competing teams in Iran working on its future medium-range ballistic missile. The version that was recently tested [in August] and presented in public already deserves the title Shahab 4, as it is completely different from the previous Shahab 3. Everything but the propulsion system was changed, the range was increased, as well as the re-entry vehicle."

The missile has a modified nose section allowing it to hold a larger warhead and thus provide additional room for a nuclear device. Israeli officials have said the larger nose section is capable of separation and visually appears similar to that used on the Russian SS-9 intercontinental ballistic missile. "It is not a copy of a known missile but the new Shahab has a major-league design. It's clear that it is the work of seasoned missile engineers, probably Russian, rather than an experimental beginners," version, added Rubin. more

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Students heckle Iranian president

Iranian students have interrupted a speech by President Mohammad Khatami to mark Student Day at Tehran university.

Students chanted "Shame on you" and "Where are your promised freedoms?" to express their frustration with the failure of Iran's reform movement.

A visibly-shaken Khatami defended his record and criticised the powerful hardliners who have closed newspapers and jailed dissidents.

He asked students to stop heckling and accused his critics of intolerance.

Students were once some of President Khatami's strongest supporters. more

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6000 Revolutionary Guards and "Basiji" enforcers battling "sound pollution"

The Islamic regimes has begun enforcing a fierce crackdown in the province of Hamadân in order to suppress "sound pollution" (listening to music) and bad "veiling" habits (for women) in cars. ...

"Since the inception of this plan in said province, in early October, 650 people have been apprehended." more

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Iran Hints It Sped Up Enriching Uranium as a Ploy

The NY Times is reporting thatIranian officials have hinted in recent days that they sped up their enrichment of uranium in the past year to put Iran in a better position to negotiate with the West.

"We are in a better negotiating position for political work than last year," the daily quoted him as saying. more

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Students clash with State Security Forces in western Iran

The protests continue.

Heavy clashes erupted between Iran’s State Security Forces (SSF) and students from the University of Qazvin (western Iran), after SSF agents raided university buildings and attempted to bring to an end a hunger strike that had been organized in protest to poor university conditions. more

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A nuclear Iran poses extreme threat to U.S.

An interesting overview of the Iranian threat by the Arizona Republic.

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Iran tells UN: sites off limits

IRAN said today it was not obliged to allow UN atomic energy agency inspectors to visit military sites alleged to be involved in secret nuclear weapons work...

The Vienna-based watchdog [IAEA] has asked Iran if it can visit the Parchin military base east of Tehran, where US officials have said the Iranians may be testing "high-explosive shaped charges with an inert core of depleted uranium" as a dry test for how a bomb with fissile material would work. ...

But Asefi said Iran has not been officially asked by the IAEA if it can inspect Parchin, although he did add that "we are ready to cooperate within the framework of our commitments with the IAEA."

The IAEA is also researching another site in Tehran, Lavizan II, which the exiled Iranian opposition has alleged is a site involved in the secret enriching of uranium. more

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UN nuclear chief angrily denies charges of collaboration with Iran

UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei, married to an Iranian, angrily denied charges he had collaborated with Iran ahead of publishing written reports on his investigation of the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear programme.

"We never show a report to any single member" of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "not the least of course an inspected country," ElBaradei told AFP in a telephone interview on Saturday. more

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At Crucial Juncture, Iran Seeks Edge on U.S.

Washington Post reports Iranian hardliners ever militant attitudes towards the US.

"If America uses military means against Iran, even if it attacks only one point, the result here will be a rise of militarism in Iran -- and the suppression of any democratic trend," said Mohsen Mirdamadi, a ringleader of the embassy seizure 25 years ago, who later became a pro-democracy member of parliament. "This is a problem for reformers," he said. ...

"The problem America has with Iran is not political, not economic. It's religion, now that the new conservatives . . . are behind Bush," said Mohammed Hashemi, a U.S.-educated member of Iran's Expediency Council, a body that weighs in during deadlocks between parliament and a top clerical panel. "U.S. policy toward Iran is based on a religious war." more

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Islam and Freedom - Commentary Magazine

James Q. Wilson answers the question, What are the prospects for the emergence of liberal societies in Muslim countries? Another worth while read. The entire issue of the magazine is worth reading.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
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Why Only in Ukraine?

Charles Krauthammer asks why do we only think the people of Ukraine can rise up against their government? A good read.

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IAEA 'bowed to pressure from Iran' on bomb materials

Why did the IAEA drop Iran's purchase of beryllium from the report?

The world nuclear watchdog dropped a claim that Iran bought large quantities of a metal used to trigger explosions in atomic weapons after bowing to objections from Teheran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency at first accepted Western intelligence reports that the Islamic republic had bought "huge amounts" of beryllium from "a number of nations", but removed the claim from its final report on Iranian compliance with nuclear non-proliferation rules, published 10 days ago....

But then

Jacky Sanders, the American ambassador to the IAEA, however, said that Iran's assertions that it has never acquired or used beryllium were no longer reliable. more

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