Wednesday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 6.15.2005:

CNN plays a dangerous game of softball with Rafsanjani

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

CNN's report reminded me of Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein. It was more of an infomercial for the axis of evil than a legitimate news report.

CNN has an opportunity to ask the hard questions of Rafsanjani. Where were the tough questions about:

• the recent demonstrations in Iran over women's right?
• the imprisonment and hunger strike of its political dissidents?
• about the coming boycott of the election?
• about the fact the real power in Iran is with the Supreme Leader making the election a mere show for the western media?
• and the many hard questions about Iran's nuclear program?

If in the next few days, the rest of the mainstream media follows CNN's example, the people of Iran will once again be silenced. If these same media outlets had done this with the Soviet dissidents we may have never seen the collapse of that evil system.

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

• The New York Times reported that Iran has admitted to experimenting with producing plutonium, much more recently than it originally told the U.N.
• Times Online points out the dangers of a Rafsanji President and that few Iranians want an Iranina nuclear bomb. They fear that the possession of a nuclear bomb would entrench the hardline regime.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that some 300 Iranian Kurds celebrating the election of their leader to office in Iraq clashed with police in northwestern Iran.
• SF Chronicle, says Iran's mullahs have a problem. Obliged to hold a presidential vote Friday, they've cleared the field of most dissidents. But will voters buy this rigged setup and keep the clerical kingdom intact?
• VOA News reported that two members of Congress want to ban gasoline shipments to Iran.
• Iran va Jahan reported that four young Iranians in London staged a hunger strike in front of the Islamic Republic Embassy, includes the text of their brochure. Well said.
• U.S. Department of State reported Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying, I have to say that a process by which the candidates were pre-selected by the mullahs before they could run doesn't really fit my definition of a free and democratic election.
• Reuters reported that Police on Wednesday broke up a protest outside Tehran's Evin prison by more than 100 people demanding the release of all political prisoners.
• Reuters reported that a group of leading international human rights organizations said the Iranian judiciary should immediately release prisoners of conscience, particularly those in urgent need of medical treatment.
• Sify.com reported that Rafsanjani won the support from the oil and nuclear sectors.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran presidential candidate Moin hints at bombings being “insider job.”
• In a Press Release, the Hakha Movement claims the Islamic Republic of Iran will be overthrown June 16.
• The NY Sun reported that an analyst for the Pentagon, Lawrence Franklin, conspired to funnel classified information to Israel.
• IranMania reported that UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Mohamed Elbaradei said, "Iran's nuclear dossier at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be closed once all remaining questions would be promptly answered."
• And finally, Gene Sharp, author of some of the finest work on non-violent regime change methodology is being forced to close his Albert Einstein Institution due to lack of funding.