Friday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 7.15.2005:

Ganji's Second Letter to the Free People of the World

Akbar Ganji, FreeGanji.blogspot.com: in his own words.

This candle is dying out, but its voice will not

Today, Sunday July 10, 2005 exactly 30 days have passed since I started my hunger strike. In two phases of hunger strike (11 days in late May, and 30 days since June 11) my weight has reduced from 77kg to 55kg, which is a loss of 22kg in 41 days. Many inside and outside the country ask why I have gone on hunger strike and why I am trying to reach legitimate ends through self-destruction. ... Here I shall try, despite the extreme physical weakness that has completely worn me out, to share my views clearly with everyone. READ MORE

For those wondering why this man would be willing to die rather than keep his silence, read this letter. In it he shares his view of man, governments, competing ideologies, why the Islamic Republic has failed and why he chooses death rather than submit any longer.

His ideas and those like them of other dissidents are the seeds of a new Iran. The Persian version of the letter.

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

• Michael Ledeen, National Review reported on the silence of so many to the plight of Iranian dissident's such as Akbar Ganji, as well as the growing unrest in Iran and the recent evidence of Iran’s support for bin Laden and al Qaeda. A must read. Dan Darling has a follow up post.
• The Voice of America outlined the views of the United States government on Akbar Ganji.
• Yahoo News reported that the pressure on as jailed Iranian dissident hints death is near.
• Gulf Daily News reported that Iran's judiciary said yesterday hunger-striking jailed journalist Akbar Ganji would not be released.
• FrontPage Magazine called for the release of Iranian dissident Ganji.
• Yahoo News reported that the State Department said it was disturbed by reports that peaceful protesters who demonstrated in support of a jailed Iranian dissident were treated brutally by Iranian police.
• IranMania reported that Iraqi Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is to travel to Iran on Saturday.
• Iran Focus reported that at least 200 agents of Iran’s State Security Forces on Monday conducted a midnight raid in the central park in Tabriz, arresting anyone in sight.
• Council on Foreign Relations reported Henry A. Kissinger as saying, says that if Iran secures nuclear weapons, nonproliferation may cease to be a meaningful policy.
• Yahoo News reported that President Mohammad Khatami said, "We are further from it (a resumption of dialogue) today than we have been for some years," and that "The United States must take the first step."
• Iranian blogger, Nazanin Namdar, Roozonline reported the deputy police chief said “one cannot deny torture in detention centers.” He is quick to add that “… it is an illegal act.”
• Roozonline reported that at Tuesday's demonstration in support of Ganji the military was under strict orders to engage protestors and would see to it that such demonstrations were put to an end.
• Iranian blogger, Ali Mohammad Abtahi, Webneveshteha reported Khatami as saying, I ask Ganji to write a letter asking for freedom and I ask Ayatollah Shahroodi to set him free.
• Christian Science Monitor reported that Iranian journalists say they have been instructed by judiciary officials in recent days not to write about the Ganji case. Plus an excerpt of one of Ganji's letters from prison.
• Axis Information and Analysis reported a Russian official as saying, Iran in fact is an island of a relative stability in the center of perhaps the most unstable region in the world.
• International Relations and Security Network reported that Argentina now admits failure in the bomb probe that implicated Iran in a 1994 attack on a Jewish center there.
• Fourth World War reported that a junior member of the State Department's Policy Planning staff is blocking the expenditure of $3 million to promote pro-Western democratic forces in Iran.
• The Washington Times reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presence is already felt in the political circles and the streets of Tehran. Since his election, under the banner of a renewed Islamic revolution, the clerical regime hanged six people and sentenced another to death in the past week alone.
• Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that as three senators joined President Bush's call for the Iranian regime to release dissident journalist Akbar Ganji from prison, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, yesterday refused to comment as did Senator Lugar.
• And finally, the latest photo of Ganji in prison and another cartoon.