Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [7/17-7/23] major news events regarding Iran.

Akbar Ganji's hunger strike: The world is taking notice.

• Eli Lake, The NY Sun reports that Ganji was near death in an Iranian prison.
• Rachel Zabarkes Friedman, National Review reported that Iranian dissident Ganji's health has been deteriorating, and some say he could be near his end.
• Iranian blogger, Farideh Nicknazar, Iran Scan writing about Ganji, asked Why can‘t the student have sit-ins in front of Evin every day? Where are the thousands of students in Tehran? A friend responded.
• Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that officials at Iran's Evin prison sent political prisoner Akbar Ganji to Tehran's Milad hospital.
• The Wall Street Journal said, right now the task that confronts people who care about freedom is not to admire Mr. Ganji's prose but to save his life.
• There are several new blogs discussing the plight of Akbar Ganji: Ganji Resistance and Human Rights News on Iran.
• The United Nations released a statement on Akbar Ganji calling for medical treatment.
• Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Majlis Speaker Gholam ali Haddad Adel said, Ganji's case is unlikely to turn into a plight and reach the point that satellite networks, databases and Mr Bush are talking about. A response.
• IranMania claimed a member of the committee following up the condition of Akbar Ganji said Ganji’s family visited him at Milad Hospital.
• Releaseganji.net published an interview with Masoumeh Shafiei, Akbar Ganji's wife.
• Eli Lake, The NY Sun quoted former Soviet political prisoner, Natan Sharansky, as saying that the American government should make the fate of the hunger striking dissident journalist Akbar Ganji "a test case" in its relationship with the Iranian regime.
• Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that dissident Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji may be pardoned for the remaining six months of his jail sentence.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News suggested that Akbar Ganji could be Iran's Boris Yeltsin. A must read.
• Farideh Nicknazar, Iran Scan reported that Mr. Ganji's situation in the hospital is even worse than in prison and that Iranian officials are intentionally releasing false information to the media in order to confuse the public.
• Islamic Republic News Agency reported a demonstration is planned for Monday, in front of the University of Tehran to support Political Prisoners and demand their immediate release. In related stories they also reported Ganji has told his wife that they can not return my living body to prison.
• FrontPageMagazine published excerpts of a letter by Iranian political prisoner Akbar Ganji, smuggled out of prison.
• NY Daily News reported on Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji saying, the world seems largely unconcerned about the fate of one courageous man.
• Shaheen Fatemi, Iran va Jahan produced a Profile in Courage: Akbar Ganji.
• The Globe and Mail reported that the Iranian capital, Tehran, has a street named after Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army militant who starved himself to death in a British prison in 1981. When hunger strikes are turned against Tehran, though, it seems the regime feels rather differently.
  

The Unrest in the Kurdistan area of Iran.

• Iran Focus reported that a senior paramilitary police commander was killed last night in the course of clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces in Iran’s Kurdish town of Mahabad.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s security forces have arrested dozens of Kurds in the town of Bukan, northwest Iran, in clashes that have been going on for three days.
• DozaMe.org reported that martial law was declared in Mahabad, tension high.
• Kurdish Media reported that demonstrations in Mahabad have resulted in the spread of the demonstrations to other cities in Iranian Kurdistan.

The London Bombing.

• The Independent UK reported that the Guardian newspaper is refusing to sack one of its staff reporters despite confirming that he is a member of one of Britain's most extreme Islamist groups.
• Yahoo News reported that Britain protested furiously to Iran over comments by a leading Iranian politician that the London bombings might have been deliberately carried out by the British government.
• The Times UK reported that the top al Qaeda of Briton called the London bombers just before the attack.

Ahmadinejad's Presidency.

• Iran Focus reported on the appointment of Ali Larijani as the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

More on the Election Fraud.

• IranMania reported that Iran's hard-line poll watchdog insisted that the outcome of last month's presidential election was final saying, There is no reason for a recount.
• Iran Focus reported Rafsanjani renews firestorm over election fraud, seen as an escalation in the power struggle within Iran.

Iran's nuclear negotiations.

• Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the EU3 will present its comprehensive package to Iran in August. But the next round of EU-Iran human rights dialogue is foreseen for September.
• Reuters reported that Iran on Sunday accused U.S. and Israeli agents of tricking Iranian nuclear scientists abroad into giving away crucial information.
• Baku Today reported that European nations negotiating with Iran over its controversial nuclear program may be ready to help build nuclear reactors and supply them with fuel.
• Tehran Times reported that Iran will restart activities at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility in the near future.
• The Moscow Times reported that investigators will probe former Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov for his possible role in delays at the controversial nuclear power plant that Russia is building in Iran.
• Asia Times reported that the EU3 should be prepared for a possible change in attitude in Tehran.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran will resume uranium enrichment activities August 1st.
• Reuters reported that Rafsanjani said, giving up Iran's nuclear fuel program would be a "shameful stain" on the country.
• Arutz Sheva reported that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called upon the international community to impose sanctions on Iran.
• Yahoo News reported that French President Jacques Chirac warned Tehran the UN Security Council will have to become involved if agreement cannot be reached on Iran's nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that Iran told the European foreign ministers in London last week, telling them not to try to solve a nuclear dispute by asking Tehran to surrender atomic technology.

The Iranian Economy.

• Reuters reported in Iran a conservative storm is brewing over Iran's energy deals.
• Iranian blogger, Aras Hassan-Nia, Roozonline reported that trading in Tehran's Stock Market took a deep dive last week and analysts expect more black days ahead.
• Business Week reported that Royal Dutch Shell PLC disclosed in a filing this week that it faces risks of U.S. sanctions in Iran.

Human Rights/Freedom of the press inside of Iran.

• Iranian.ws reported that the man linked to murder of Canadian journalist is touted as Iran's new minister of justice.
• Roozonline took a look at another prison in Iran and the political prisoners forgotten there.
• Payvand reported four Iranians received Hellman/Hammett awards this year, in recognition of their courage in the face of political persecution.
• Reuters reported that an unprecedented report from Iran's conservative judiciary acknowledged that human rights violations were widespread in prisons.

• Fox News reported that free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes.
• The Red Herring reported on a roundtable at Harvard University on bloggers who are fighting censorship, the threat of jail time, and often physical violence and whether Western technology companies can be pressured to maintain U.S. speech protections.

Popular struggle for freedom inside of Iran.

• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s new police chief today called on the forces under his command to deal “decisively with criminals” and use live bullets if necessary.
• Iran Focus reported that an Iranian man arrested for taking part in an anti-government demonstration in Tehran on Tuesday died as he was trying to escape.
• Iran Focus reported that a colonel in the elite Qods (Jerusalem) Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed in a fashionable neighbourhood of Tehran.
• The World Tribune reported that Iran's opposition is targeting senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
• Monday Morning reported that Police in Tehran are preparing a fresh crackdown targeting “open examples of corruption in tourist and recreation resorts” around the Iranian capital.
• Iran Focus reported that more than 50,000 workers took to the streets of cities across Iran.

Can you believe this?

• Tehran Times reported that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in Tehran said terrorism does not emanate from any particular religion or ideology and we all must agree how to define it and adopt a comprehensive convention outlawing it. Still no comment on Ganji.
• Iranian blogger, Farah Karimi, Roozonline reported that a seminar in Berlin on the situation in Iran after the recent presidential elections in which some progressive thinkers proposed that regardless of who governs Iran, nuclear weapons are necessary for Iran’s national security.
• Tehran Times reported that Iran's Supreme Leader spoke out about the Iraqi insurgency saying that, The Zionists are probably involved in planning these events. A response.
• Iran Scan reported that Mehdi Karrubi, former speaker of the Parliament intends to launch a satellite TV station in the UK.
• The Financial Times reported that the "brain" of the reformist movement in Iran thinks U.S. pressure threatens democracy in Iran. ????
• MEMRI released a short video clip with first-hand evidence that the Terrorist Islamic Republic of Iran have trained and mobilized some 40,000 human bombs to target the U.S. and Israel.
  

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

• Saul Singer, The Jerusalem Post lamented that Bush has yet to publicly meet with a single Iranian dissident or declare that regime change in Tehran is a goal of the US government.
• Michael Ignatieff, The New York Times said, The political task ahead for the liberal thinkers of Iran is to find a program that links human rights and democracy to the poor's economic grievances. I responded.

Iran and the International community.

• Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post yesterday quoted yours truly, in her article discussing Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari recent trip to Iran.
• The Washington Times reported that Iran promised to help curb raging violence in Iraq, saying it has been cracking down on al Qaeda militants on its soil.
• The Peninsula reported that Iran demanded that ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein be tried over the 1980-88 war.
• Iran Press News reported on Syrian leader's surprise visit to Tehran described as vital, to meet with Iran's leaders.
• Iran Focus quoted Germany's Interior Minister as saying that while Iran and Iraq “are saying that they want to be closer, the coming to power in Iran of an Islamic fundamentalist who does not have an absolute distance with terrorism gives cause for grave concern.” Iran is furious.
• Mehr News reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will take part in President-Elect Mahmud Ahmadinejad's inauguration ceremony, August 4th.
• Khaleej Times Online reported that Germany accused Teheran of impertinence on Wednesday for presuming to lecture it on democracy.

Must Read reports.

• Craig Whitlock, Washington Post reported that al Qaeda was involved in the recent bombings but ignores Al Qaeda Leaders Iran connection.
  
• Dan Darling, The Weekly Standard exposed how one of Saddam's closest Baath party aides came to be an ally of militant Islamists.
• Iran Focus reported that several members of the United States Congress are expected to introduce a bill on Wednesday calling on the U.S. judicial authorities to begin legal proceedings against Iranians who were involved in the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
• Tim Mcgrick, Time Magazine went to Iran to learn about Hasan-i Sabbah, leader of the 12th century Middle Eastern terror cult known as the Assassins.
• Detroit Free Press reported House intelligence committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra and Rep. Curt Weldon met secretly in Europe last week with an Iranian exile who CIA dismisses.

The Experts.

• Michael Ledeen, National Review questions the reports that the young men involved in the London bombing were suicide bombers.
• Michael Ledeen, National Review speaking about the London bombings he said, The evil can't be explained by economic misery, or social alienation, or even by the doctrines adopted by the terrorists. The problem lies within us.
• Victor Davis Hanson, National Review said, Ever since September 11, there has been an alternative narrative about this war embraced by the Left. In this mythology, the attack on September 11 had in some vague way something to do with American culpability.
• Radioblogger released an interview with Victor Davis Hanson on fighting the war on terror.

Photos and cartoons of the week.

• Iranian blogger, Shahram Kholdi, S'CAN-IRANIC produced a Wanted poster for Saeed Mortazavi, the infamous Tehran Prosecutor.
• Cox and Forkum honor Akbar Ganji.
• On the Frontline of Iranian Student Protests in Support of Ganji
• Iran News Press: Demonstration in support of Ganji and other prisoners in Europe
• Iran News Press: The public execution of two youngsters in the city of Mash'had

And finally, The Quote of the Week.

A former political prisoner who was released temporarily from Evin prison at the end of June, Amir Abbas Fakhravar, told The New York Sun:

"Never in these past 25 years has the Islamic republic been in so much turmoil. The minute Akbar Ganji dies, you will see what a revolution looks like here."