Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 7.2.2005:

Iran's New Leader Suspected in '89 Attack

William J. Kole, The Associated Press:

Austrian authorities have classified documents suggesting that Iran's president-elect may have played a key role in the 1989 execution-style slayings of an Iranian Kurdish leader and two associates in Vienna, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Austria's Interior Ministry and the public prosecutor's office are investigating alleged evidence pointing to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's possible involvement in the attack, the daily Der Standard reported. READ MORE

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

• Christian Science Monitor reported that analysts no longer speak of an Iranian "reform movement" at all but The Iranian street is like a sleeping elephant.
• Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release of Yosef Azizi Banitrouf and pointed out other journalists are still in prison.
• WebIndia reported that the State Department has concluded that Iran's president-elect is not the student militant seen in a photograph from the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy.
• Joe Katzman, WindsOfChange.net took a look at some leftist think tanks reaction to the Iranian election and asks, whose side are they on?
• Yahoo News reported that a top former secret agent Saeed Hajjarian said that the person in the photograph which shows a U.S. hostage and an Iranian during the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, was a militant-turned dissident who later committed suicide in jail.
• Boston.com reported that for Iranians, fervor over the 1979 US Embassy takeover has faded.
• Stefania, The American Thinker suggested the Agenda the G8 should have towards Iran.
• The National Leadership Assembly for Opposition to IRI issued its first declaration: Lack of legitimacy of Islamic Republic of Iran and its elections.
• Axis Information and Analysis reports that an advisor close to Ahmadinejad said Iran plans to deliver a preventive missile strike on the territory of Azerbaijan.
• Iranian Shirin Neshan wrote that the terrorist Islamic Republic in Iran will terrorize America.
• Iranian blogger, Windsteed, Iran Hopes 2005 reported on Ganji's recent letter from prison and asked, I just wonder what has happened to us Iranians. Why don't we do anything for Ganji? What has happened to us?
• Iran Focus reported that Rafsanjani, warned of serious dangers threatening the theocratic regime.
• The US Alliance for Democratic Iran said in case you missed it, a well-organized political coup last week propelled an obscure radical with a wicked past.
• The Telegraph UK argued that the EU3 calculated that through negotiation they could strengthen the hand of moderates within the clerically dominated regime. They have lost their gamble.
• BBC Monitoring Service provided a translation of recent Iranian news commentary on why they believe Britain and the U.S. are behind the recent bombings in Iran.
• The Guardian took a look at the humble beginnings of Ahmadinejad.
• Amir Taheri said the election signals the beginning of the first major shift in the balance of power within the Khomeinist regime since 1981. A must read.
• Arab News reported that Rafsanjani called on Iranians to unite behind election winner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• BBC Monitoring Service provides an excerpt of a recent Iranian press story reminding Iranians of the regime's vision of exporting their revolution world wide.
• Iranian blogger Ramin Parham, Iran-Shahr Blog argued that Ahmadinejad's rise to power is not just an attempt to seize power but is a step meant to prepare for the world revolution.
• Kenneth Timmerman, The Jerusalem Post reported that Iranian defectors told him Iran has assembled 15 nuclear warheads.
• The New York Times reported approximately 70 percent of the electorate who voted for reformists or boycotted the election, sought above all to limit Ayatollah Khamenei's increasing despotism.
• SMCCDI reported an increase of repressive measures lead to clash in Iran.
• And finally, Jawa Report has an update on the Ahmadinejad photos. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Photo Debunked: Hostages Still Adamant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Was Involved.