Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [7/10-7/16] major news events regarding Iran.

Akbar Ganji's hunger strike: The world is beginning to take notice of Iranian dissident.

• Joe Katzman, WindsOfChange.net also took a look at the Ganji/Vaclav Havel comparison.
• Khaleej Times reported that Iran’s most prominent jailed dissident, journalist Akbar Ganji, has completed one month of hunger strike and is now demanding his unconditional release.
• Roozonline referring to the New York Sun in a lead editorial on Akbar Ganji being the Vaclav Havels of Iran, said several dissidents imprisoned by the Islamic Republic report that during interrogations they were repeatedly told that Iran refuses to allow any Vaclav Havels to speak out.
• DoctorZin's Special Report on Ganji, Tuesday, following President Bush's statement in support of Ganji's release.
• New York Sun in a editorial reminded us that dissidents in the Soviet Union played a key role in the fall of the that regime and argued Iranian dissidents may play a similar role in the fall of the Iranian regime.
• Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that as Tehran University students clashed with police in Iran yesterday during demonstrations demanding the release of political prisoners, President Bush joined the growing movement calling for the release of dissident journalist Akbar Ganji.
• Khaleej Times reported that Iranian political activists on Wednesday asked the United Nations to intervene for the release of Iranian journalist, Ganji.
• Gooya News published an urgent call to action in support of Akbar Ganji. A good brief on Ganji.
• Iran Press Service reported that an Iranian MP was “advising” Mr. Ganji to continue his hunger strike until he dies.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran's government said Wednesday that President Bush shouldn't intervene in the case of a jailed Iranian dissident, particularly given allegations of U.S. human rights violations.
• BBC News reported that five Iranian MPs say they want to meet the jailed dissident Akbar Ganji, soon.
• Human Rights Watch claimed Ganji's life is in danger.
• Akbar Ganji, FreeGanji.blogspot.com: in his own words. Ganji's Second Letter to the Free People of the World.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Khaleej Times reported that Ganji he fainted and was transferred to the prison clinic where a serum was administered intravenously.

The London Bombing.

• The Sunday Times UK reported that the Mastermind of Madrid is key figure. Do the London Bombings Lead Back to Iran? Dan Darling reminded me of Nasar's connection to Iran.
• Colin Freeman, The Telegraph UK reported that the editor of the world's leading Arab newspaper has launched a scathing attack on Muslims in Britain.
• Rudolph W. Giuliani, USA Today discussed what's next in the war on terror.

More on the Election Fraud.

• Iran Focus reported that Mehdi Karroubi said fake ballots were used in two provinces to bolster the vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• Payvand reported that Mehdi Karroubi urged President Mohammad Khatami to publish the report on the violations that had taken place during the recent presidential elections.

Iran's Troublemaking Outside of Iran.

• Iran Focus reported that Iran has been blamed for three attempts to assassinate a key Kurdish dissident leader.
• The Associated Press reported that as Hamas moves to the mainstream, Islamic Jihad (funded by Iran) seeks to upstage it with violence.
• 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.

Iran's nuclear negotiations.

• IranMania reported that a top official in Iran said it has managed to ease concerns that it is seeking nuclear weapons and therefore should soon resume sensitive enrichment activity.
• Reuters reported that Iran insisted its nuclear policy would not change.
• Press Trust of India reported that Iran will have new ideas on its contentious nuclear program the country's ultraconservative president-elect has said.
• Eurasia Daily Monitor reported that an Iranian nuclear team arrived in Moscow seeking new partnerships.
• Iran Focus published an interview with a defector from Iran’s secretive nuclear establishment, who says that Iran is close to a nuclear bomb.
• Daily Times top negotiator Hassan Rowhani was quoted as saying, with the end of the mandate of the current government; my tenure will come to an end just as is the case for other ministers.
• Yahoo News reported the White House as saying, there needs to be a permanent end to Iran's uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. We have made that very clear."
• WorldNetDaily reported that the Iranian Mullah's goal is nuclear terror in the U.S.
• Khaleej Times reported that once again, Iran said, no incentive would make Iran drop its nuclear fuel program.
• World Tribune discussed the South African link to Iran's nuclear program.
• SwissPolitics reported that the EU3 foreign ministers will agree to press on with a diplomatic initiative to try to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions despite gloom since the election of an Islamic hard-liner as president.
  

The Iranian Economy.

• Red Nova News reported that the Ukraine is increasing energy machinery deliveries to Iran.
• India Express reported that India spurred by Pakistan’s eagerness on the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, has stepped on the gas pedal.
• IranMania reported that the British government issued $182 m in financial support for UK companies doing business with Iran.

Human Rights/Freedom of the press inside of Iran.

• Iranian.ws reported that Iran will soon have women only parks built in all the cities of Tehran Province.
• 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.”
• Dozame.org reported that Iranian prisoner Cehangir Baduzade was punished with 25 whiplashes because of his hunger strike.

Popular struggle for freedom inside of Iran.

• Iranian blogger,Windsteed, Iran Hopes 2005 was a witness to the July 1999 crackdown of the student in Iran. With the collapse of most demonstrations yesterday in Iran, he concluded, Let the regime be happy for the moment that it has silenced the people. But it is only silence before the storm.
• Roozonline reminded us on the sixth anniversary of the July 9th Student Uprising no one is yet to be charged with the murder of Ezzat Ebrahimnejad.
• Iran Focus reported that a government official from the town of Chabahar (southeast Iran) was gunned down by unknown assailants.
• Reuters reported that a little-known Sunni Muslim group has beheaded an Iranian security agent abducted last month in officially Shiite Iran and has issued a video tape of the killing.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran's State Security Forces on Sunday opened fire at youths in the north-western volatile Kurdish town of Mahabad, leaving one young man dead, dragging his body through the town. Graphic photos.
• Kurdmedia reported that thousands of Kurds protested the murder of the Kurdish youth by Iranian Pasdarans in the city of Mahabad.
• Tehran Times reported that Iran’s new national police chief said, Our society is a young one... we must deal with them patiently.
• 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.
• Iran Focus reported that at least 100 demonstrators were arrested and 60 buses damaged in clashes that erupted Saturday in Iran's second largest city.
• Iran Focus reported that unrest continued in Mahabad. Close to 1,000 people gathered in the main path leading to Independence Square and started to march forward. They were joined quickly by several thousand of the local population shouting anti regime slogans. The regime retaliated brutally.

Popular support outside of Iran for the pro-democracy efforts in Iran.

• 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.

Iran and the International community.

• The Washington Post reported that Iraq's defense minister said Monday that a military agreement reached with Iran last week does not include any provision for the Iranian armed forces to help train Iraqi troops.
• IranMania reported that Iraqi Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is to travel to Iran on Saturday.
• The Washington Times reported that the Iraqi government is increasingly turning to Iran for investment, refined oil products, electricity and other needs.
• BBC News reported that Iran said more than 1,000 members of al-Qaeda have been apprehended in the country and that some 200 suspects remained in custody. A pre-emptive attempt to calm Iraqi concerns over al Qaeda role in the Iraqi insurgency.
  
• 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.

Must Read reports.

• The Weekly Standard published a major report on the Al Qaeda/Iraq connection.
• Jeffrey Gedmin, The Weekly Standard argued that if the United States is serious about preventing the mullahs from getting the bomb, we have two choices: either preemption or regime change.
• The Financial Times reported that Curt Weldon, a senior Republican politician will ask the Central Intelligence Agency to investigate whether a former agent endangered US national security by allegedly leaking the identity of an Iranian dissident to journalists.
• 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.
• 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.
• Ramin Parham, Iran Shahr Blog compares key elements in the fall of the Soviet Union and sees parallels with the Iranian regime.
• Iran Focus reported that a recent survey found that the majority of Arabs believe that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will have a negative impact on stability in the Middle East.

The Experts.

• Michael Ledeen, National Review said he, ... does not know if the Iranians were involved in the London bombings, but it really does not matter, for Iran is the most potent force in the terror network.
• Victor Davis Hanson, National Post outlined how to lose the war on terror.
• Michael Ledeen, National Review explains Blair's strange omission of Israel and Iraq from his list to nations facing terrorism.
  
• 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. Dan Darling has a follow up post.
  

Photos and cartoons of the week.

• Iranian.com published photos of Ganji on his 33rd day of his hunger strike.
• The latest photo of Ganji in prison.
• Ganji: a cartoon.
• The body of Shavaneh Qaderi. They are disturbing and very graphic. Beware. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  

And finally, The Quote of the Week. An old quote but relevant.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox: To sin by silence...

To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. ...