Saturday, June 11, 2005

Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [6/5-6/11] major news events regarding Iran.
 Iran's Presidential Elections:
Iran's trouble making outside of Iran:
Iran and the Al Qaida:
Iran's nuclear negotiations:
    Iran's Economy:
    US Policy and Iran:
    Human Rights/Freedom of the press inside of Iran:
    Popular struggle for freedom inside of Iran:
    Popular struggle for freedom outside of Iran:
    Iran and the world community:
    Must Read reports:
    The Experts:
    Photos of the week:
    And finally, The Quote of the Week:
    Michael Ledeen wrote in the National Review:
    Continued silence and inaction on Iran are shameful and cowardly, unworthy of any serious nation, let alone the world's lone superpower.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 06:56:00 PM  

    Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

    DoctorZin reports, 6.11.2005:

    Special Report: Iranians Unite! Pro-Democracy Iranians Boycott Islamic Republic'’s Rigged Anti-Democratic Elections
    In an historic show of unity, Iranian opposition leaders together drafted and signed the following declaration. The leaders represent a broad spectrum of Iranian groups around the world calling for a boycott of the June 17th Presidential election. READ MORE
    More than 17o leaders have signed it, still others are seeking to. It is important to let the media know that Iranians from a range of political views are now united in boycotting the June 17th election.

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

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 12:32:00 PM  

    Reza Pahlavi in LA: Urges Polls Boycott, Launches Hunger Strike

    Agence France Press, YahooNews:
    The son of Iran's last shah, Reza Pahlavi, denounced Tehran's looming presidential polls as "theatrics" as he launched a hunger strike to support political prisoners of the Islamic regime.

    In an interview with AFP, Pahlavi called for a boycott of next week's polls organised by the Iranian government that toppled his father in a 1979 revolution that sent the imperial family into exile. READ MORE

    The 44-year-old royal said he would not eat or drink, save for water to avoid dehydration, for three days between Friday to Sunday to draw attention to the lack of human, civic and political rights of Iranians.

    "This is in solidarity with political prisoners inside Iran, to demand their freedom and protest the lack of human rights and political liberties in Iran," he said at the start of his protest.

    "My message to the people is that this transcends any kind of political grouping or ideology. We are all in it together as Iranians," he said, calling for Iranians to stay away from the June 17 poll.

    Pahlavi was poised to carry out his hunger strike publicly outside government buildings in Los Angeles, the hub of a region that is home to around 600,000 Iranian expatriates.

    He called on citizens of his country not to take part in the election, which said was not an expression of democracy and would likely be fixed, to avoid giving legitimacy to Iran's religious leaders.

    "We believe the boycott of the elections will be a very strong signal aimed at indicating to the world that Iranians are not going to give what the regime expects our of these theatrics: to claim legitimacy solely on the basis that people are participating," he said.

    Four hardline Islamists are among the candidates running to replace outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami in a race that is being led powerful ex-president and leading cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

    But Pahlavi said he had information gathered by activists in Iran indicating that the "majority" of voters in the country of 68 million people would boycott the election.

    The hunger strike and polls boycott form part of a wider campaign of civil disobedience ultimately aimed at giving Iranian opposition supporters moral support to achieve peaceful regime change, Pahlavi said.

    He noted that although Khatami was elected under a reformist banner he had been able to do little to break the conservative grip on power of Iran's religious leaders.

    "People have to see that, although there was an attempt to bring reforms eight years ago, (the regime) will not allow for political overtures," he said.

    He said Iranians had "long given up hope that this regime is reformable by any stretch of the imagination," and that a non-violent change of government and shift to a secular constitution guaranteeing political and human rights was essential.

    But the prince said he harbours few illusions that a popular boycott of next week's polls or a rise in political power of the opposition would change the outcome of next Friday's polls, he said.

    "We should not be surprised that the regime will have its candidate regardless. We urge the international media covering the elections that they (the government) will inflate numbers and cheat on numbers of popular participation," he said.

    The son of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and the empress Farah Diba also called on the world community, currently locked in a stand-off with Tehran over its suspect nuclear programme, not to sell out the interests of his people.

    He urged powers such as the United States and Europe not to reconcile their long-tense ties with Tehran at the expense of the people as the regime comes under pressure both internally and over its nuclear programme.

    "It's critical for my compatriots to know the world is not turning their back on them in the quest for self determination and liberty," he said, urging governments not to sell out liberty to commercial or other interests.

    But Pahlavi insisted he was not positioning himself to ascend the throne his father vacated 26 years ago.

    "This is has nothing to do with restoring the monarchy," he told AFP. "It's about self determination and freedom.

    "My aim is to serve the country, it doesn't matter in what capacity, as long as I can be of use and it's for the people to determine my future, if any.

    "My only focus is to get to a point where people are in a position to determine their own future," he said.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 10:24:00 AM  

    Will Iran's Presidential Election Make a Difference?

    The Economist:
    Turnout will be low and apathy is rife, but Iran's presidency still matters quite a bit.

    Disgruntled city-dwellers prepare to boycott a poll that, they fear, will only underline their powerlessness to influence the nation's destiny. READ MORE

    The eight contenders elicit more comment for their grooming and dress sense than they do for their campaign pledges. The run-up to the first round, on June 17th, of the contest to replace Muhammad Khatami, Iran's reform-minded president since 1997, is generating less enthusiasm than the national football team's bid to reach the 2006 World Cup finals (which it achieved this week in a frenzy of Iranian joy by beating Bahrain).

    Have Iranian elections, which the Islamic Republic once paraded as evidence that it is not a dictatorship, degenerated into a sham? It looked that way on May 22nd, when Mostafa Moin, the only well-known reformist candidate, was barred from running by the Council of Guardians, the same hardline body that disqualified more than 2,000 reformists from competing in last year's general election.

    But Mr Moin was reinstated, thanks to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Never mind that his intervention may have been unconstitutional or that the ayatollah is suspicious of reform; the poll is now being contested by all major political factions—though not by women, who were disqualified en masse. Now, Mr Moin's allies say, there is no need for voters to stay away from the polling stations.

    Muhammad Ghoochani, the young reformist who edits Shargh, Iran's most intelligent daily, agrees. In a recent editorial, he pointed out several happy differences between the current campaign and previous ones. The hardline judiciary is being a bit nicer to dissident journalists, satellite dishes that pick up anti-regime broadcasts are not being confiscated, and coverage by the conservative-run broadcasting monopoly has been fairly even-handed. Most important of all, Mr Ghoochani says, conservative candidates know that they stand a chance only if they speak the reformist language of “democracy, a free economy [and] the participation of women and young people”.

    A stroll around Tehran, the capital, is a surreal instruction in political reinvention. In one poster, a grinning conservative, Ali Larijani, appears under a snippet of verse by a dissident poet whose prestige Mr Larijani, a former broadcasting boss with a bent for airing Stalinist “confessions” on the screen, helped destroy. Former members of the Revolutionary Guard, now seeking the presidency, play down their military records, brandish questionably learned doctorates and appear in computer-enhanced photographs that hide their pates if they are bald and their turbans if they are clerics. Job creation and national rejuvenation are favourite themes. Hardly anyone, a hardline ayatollah has complained, mentions Islam.

    The spin is meant to attract a youthful electorate that has little love for revolutionary ideals but has worries aplenty about employment and prospects. The government recently announced that economic growth had dropped to 4.8% in the fiscal year to March (from 6.7 % the previous year), raising fears that there will be even fewer jobs for the 1m-odd Iranians who will enter the labour market this autumn.

    Which candidate stands to benefit from this combination of jitters and indifference? The conventional wisdom is that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has reinvented himself as a cautious democrat since serving as president in the undemocratic early 1990s, is the front-runner, and that Muhammad Ghalibaf, a former police chief, has made inroads with expensive advertising and a support base in the Revolutionary Guard. A low turnout would increase the likelihood of a two-man second round (to win in the first, you need more than half of the votes cast); the dull Mr Moin, a former higher education minister, is struggling to get that far.

    The eventual winner may find the trophy tarnished. As your correspondent's barber observed during a trim this week, “this country doesn't need a president; everyone knows who is in charge.” During his eight-year stint, the charming but ineffective Mr Khatami failed to prise away powers from Mr Khamenei and the rest of the conservative establishment. The presidency suffered as a result.

    Who will really be in charge?

    It is an open secret that Mr Khatami has little influence over strategic issues, such as Iran's campaign to retain its controversial nuclear programme and avoid referral to the UN Security Council for breaching the terms of its safeguards agreement under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mr Khamenei's largesse towards Mr Moin has further underscored the clout that the supreme leader enjoys from his pedestal of unaccountability. Of the eight candidates, Mr Rafsanjani alone has the experience and influence to challenge Mr Khamenei and, perhaps, restore lustre to the office.

    Some reformists regret that Mr Moin did not reject Mr Khamenei's gesture and stand aside from a flawed process. One such reformist is Iran's most famous political prisoner, Akbar Ganji. Earlier this month, after being temporarily released for medical treatment, he called on Iranians to boycott the poll and said that the supreme leader, who was appointed by a college of clerics, should put himself up for election. Mr Ganji also derides timid reformists; after the poll, he says, “they will go into a room and not raise a peep”.

    To some, Mr Ganji is a hero, whose fearless exposure of extra-judicial murders that took place during Mr Rafsanjani's last tenure was the most thrilling event of the Khatami presidency. Others point to Mr Ganji's fall from grace, and to Mr Rafsanjani's comeback, to support their view that it would be folly to take on the establishment directly.

    Mr Ganji argues that change cannot happen in the current system, but admits that boycotting the polls is the closest that most Iranians will come to civil disobedience. Gone are the heady days of Mr Khatami's first term, when brilliant reformists thrilled crowds and anything seemed possible. Except for Mr Ganji and a few others, the brilliant have been silenced and the reformist bandwagon has slowed, weighed down by conservatives who may not believe the slogans they utter.

    But Mr Ghoochani detects a “Tehran spring” in the air. The current, odd, election campaign does illustrate some important and encouraging truths. The Islamic Republic is a slightly nicer place than it was when Mr Khatami was elected; it should carry on getting nicer, albeit slowly, whatever the result on July 17th. Second, the Islamic Republic is an ideological state in name only. The election posters tell you that its Islamist zeal has faded.
    As typical, The Economist promotes the corrupt Iranian regime. They claim Iran has not confiscated satellite dishes, true, they jam the signal instead. They claim the reporting on the candidates has been even handed, but the broadcasters have dropped candidates to promote Rafsanjani. They excuse Iran's Supreme Leader's meddling in this sham election. Will the Economist ever learn?

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 10:22:00 AM  

    Ganji Back in Jail after Going Missing

    Reuters:
    An Iranian investigative journalist, jailed for linking officials to political murders, was back behind bars on Saturday and resuming a hunger strike after vanishing for three days.

    Akbar Ganji was granted home leave last month to have medical checks for asthma and back pains.

    Iranian authorities said he should have been back in jail on Wednesday but had given them the slip.

    On Saturday, Ganji returned alone to Tehran's Evin prison, clutching a hold-all and a bag of medicines.

    "Now that I have gone back to prison, I will resume my hunger strike," he told reporters. "All political prisoners must be freed." READ MORE

    He was jailed in 2001 after publishing articles implicating top officials to the murder of political dissidents.

    Human rights' lawyer Mohammad Saifzadeh said Tehran's prosecutor had turned down an extension to Ganji's home leave.

    "But the reason he did not show up for three days was to protest at the way agents raided his home," he told Reuters.

    Ganji's wife Massoumeh Shafii, waiting at the prison, said she had no idea where her husband had been for the last three days but thought he was in good spirits.

    "When they put pressure on him, he automatically picks up self-confidence," she added.

    Iran has a dismal record on press freedoms, closing down more than 100 liberal publications and jailing several journalists in a concerted crackdown on reformist media since 2000.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 10:20:00 AM  

    Student Revolutionaries Learn Harsh Lesson About Regime They Created

    Anthony Loyd, The Times:
    The pictures on the office wall were all of autumn landscapes, the dry leaves matched by the thin, reedy tones of the ageing former revolutionary behind the desk. “I’m not in a position to advise the youth on reform,” he said yesterday when asked what wisdom he had for Iran’s young electorate before presidential elections next Friday. “They should go and find out for themselves.”

    Few would recognise Abbas Abdi, 49, as the leader of the students who stormed the American Embassy in Tehran in October 1979. READ MORE

    High on the hope of a new Iran after the Shah’s deposition, the students from the capital’s Amir Kabir university caused an international crisis by holding US staff at the embassy hostage for 444 days.

    But most revolutions destroy their own vanguard, and Iran’s was little different. Mr Abdi was released from jail a month ago. It was his second term in the capital’s Evin prison, where he served 2½ years, much of it in solitary confinement.

    His freedom is at the whim of the regime, so his caution comes as little surprise. “I’m free only so long as they don’t send me back,” Mr Abdi said.

    The former hostage taker was incarcerated for an ironic crime. As a latter-day architect of reform and critic of the regime, his polling company published results suggesting that 74 per cent of Tehranis favoured dialogue with the US.

    He failed to defend himself, allegedly under duress, when he was tried for espionage in 2002. “I did not defend myself and I cannot tell you the reason now,” he said. “But polling wasn’t the reason I was sent to prison. It was just an appearance.”

    Mohsen Mirdamadi, 50, was one of Mr Abdi’s comrades in the embassy seizure, an ad hoc operation designed to prevent a US-backed counter-revolution. He went on to serve as a Revolutionary Guard for two years during the war with Iraq.

    “We thought we had established a democratic system with freedom of speech,” he said. “No one felt that we would move towards a new dictatorship. But now our freedom is sacrificed. Many of those students are still my closest friends and think like me. The hardliners of today weren’t even at the forefront as we were.”

    So what have the revolution’s expectations translated into, 26 years on? A country with the second-largest natural gas reserves outside Russia and 7 per cent of the world’s oil, Iran suffers chronic unemployment, economic malaise and corruption. While the Iranian regime’s dictatorship is in no way comparable with that of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, civil liberties and human rights suffer at the whim of the leadership’s small, entrenched cartel.

    Private political debate among the citizenry may be freer and more sophisticated than under the Shah, but the regime does not hesitate to close critical newspapers, imprisons outspoken journalists and breaks up peaceful demonstrations by force.

    The situation is typified by Akbar Ganji, another former Revolutionary Guard turned reformist journalist, who was jailed in 2000 after naming dissidents allegedly murdered during the presidency of Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the present favourite election candidate. Mr Ganji was temporarily released from jail last week but has disappeared.

    Karim Sadjadpour, representative for the International Crisis Group in Tehran, said of the regime: “Ideologically it is bankrupt. People don’t believe the leadership and they don’t feel they live in a country where there is a representative democracy . . . They have no allegiance with the revolution. The gulf will only increase with the coming years.”

    Former revolutionaries and foreign diplomats agree that the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which cost Iran 500,000 lives, allowed the revolution to be hijacked and diverted, handing the regime the chance to dispose of dissidents and critics behind the call for national unity.

    Mr Mirdamadi said: “Everything became overshadowed by the war. Everything was affected by it. Then, only one year after it ended, Khomeini died. His influence could have brought groups together but his death left us a vacuum of such a personality.”

    The political aftermath has caused such disillusion that a large proportion of the electorate seems certain to boycott next week’s vote.

    There are eight candidates, chosen by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the unelected Supreme Leader, and his 12-strong Council of Guardians. Of the eight, four of them are hardliners. Only one is a reformist. The winner will draw a Cabinet from a parliament already refined by the Council of Guardians.

    Reform is unlikely to have any significant leeway in Iran just yet. Foreign observers and Iranians suggest that the combination of disillusionment, fear, war-weariness and a lack of viable political alternative has eroded the chance of a new revolution. Meanwhile, veterans do not even enjoy their revolution nostalgia.

    One said: “My friends and I sit around at night talking about the violent protests of 1979.

    “We say, ‘Hey, you remember when you started fighting with the police or did such and such in this street or that? Yeah, you idiot, look where it got us’.”

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 10:19:00 AM  

    The Best of a Bad Choice

    Amir Taheri, Arab News:
    Imagine a Martian arriving in Tehran these days to observe the presidential election. The first thing he would remark is the low key in which the campaign is fought. With only a week to polling day, there is little sense of election fever. None of the candidates is holding mass rallies, ostensibly for security reasons, and few have bothered to visit the provinces to seek votes. The exercise looks more like a beauty parade with the candidates trying to catch the attention of the only person whose vote really counts: The “Supreme Guide”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    Our Martian might notice other facts. READ MORE

    There are eight candidates in the list approved by the “Supreme Guide”. Almost 1000 other wannabes, including several former dignitaries of the regime, were told they didn’t qualify. The candidates are all men, although women account for 52.1 percent of the population, according to the latest census. The average age of the candidates is 62 while two-thirds of the 45 million electors are under 30.

    All the eight candidates are government employees with civil service or military careers.

    Two are mullas who have branched into politics. Three others are sons of mullas, although the Shiite clergy consists of around 300,000 men in a population of 70 million.

    Five candidates have a military background as former or active members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a parallel army created by the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

    Our Martian may be forgiven for forming the impression that the eight are siblings.

    With the exception of the two mullas, they all wear the same kind of “khaksari” style clothes, that is to say suits that, although of costly fabric, are made to look scruffy, almost proletarian.

    The candidates also use a vocabulary of around 80 to 100 words and phrases that sounds more like group-speak than political lexicon.

    The substance of what they say is also similar.

    They keep repeating that the system established in Iran by Khomeini is the best that mankind could imagine.

    “Our system is the envy (of peoples) all over the world,” says Mahdi Karrubi one of the two mullas in the race.

    “Our Islamic Republic is a model for Islam, indeed for mankind,” insists Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the other mulla standing for the presidency.

    Other candidates express similar sentiments.

    And, yet, they also say that the country has reached “an impasse”, and that the regime is heading for “systemic crisis.”

    “We must put the revolution behind us,” says Rafsanjani.

    “We cannot build the future on old foundations,” says Mostafa Moin, a former education minister and candidate of the remnants of the coalition that backed Muhammad Khatami eight years ago.

    All the candidates pay tribute to Khomeini whom they describe as “the man who revived Islam” or “the leader who saved humanity from darkness.”

    They call on the voters to go to the polls to “give joy to the soul” of the late ayatollah, not to back a political program.

    This is not surprising because none of the eight has presented a coherent platform. All that they offer is vague promises to curb corruption, to create jobs for the mass of unemployed youths, to house the homeless, and tame inflation.

    It is not only the domestic policies of the candidates that remain a mystery. Although commentators are looking for “moderates” and “hard-liners”, statements made by the eight show that none has a clear vision of the kind of foreign policy that the nation needs.

    This is not surprising if only because the president has little power to set the agenda. That power belongs to the “Supreme Guide” who has the final word on all matters, with a small role allocated to the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Council of the Custodians of the Constitution.

    Because none of the crucial issues could be openly debated in a system that does not tolerate serious debate, the candidates are forced to speak obliquely, dropping a hint here and a hint there, and depending on their persona rather than discourse to win support. A Persian proverb says: Look at what is said, not who is saying it! In this campaign, however, the advice is: Look at who is saying, not at what is said!

    On that basis the candidates could be divided into three groups.

    In the first we find Ali Larijani, the former head of the state-owned Radio and Television and Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nezhad, the current mayor of Tehran. They believe that the source of the problems that the nation is facing is the weakening of the “revolutionary spirit.” They wish to build cultural walls around Iran to save it from “invasion and ultimate conquest” by the global culture which they see as a concoction of the American “Great Satan.”

    In the second group we find Muhammad-Baqer Qalibaf, a former police chief, Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, a former Revolutionary Guardsman, and Rafsanjani. These are ambitious politicians with business interests who wish to be under the limelight. If our Martian is kind he would call them pragmatics rather than opportunists. Don’t be surprised if one of them, Rezai, drops out in favor of another member of the quartet, after making a deal.

    The third group consists of Karrubi and Moin.

    Our Martian might label them “lost souls.” These are disillusioned Khomeinists who have not mastered the courage to admit that they were wrong to worship the radical ayatollah. They dream of Khomeinism without its essential ingredients of tyranny and terror — something like chicken curry without chicken and curry. They know that the system cannot be reformed but still hope to reform it without undermining its foundations.

    So, who is the best choice? Our Martian might ask.

    The answer is that, as far as the long-term interests of Iran are concerned, the best choice is not on the ballot. What is left is a pragmatic choice.

    Karrubi and Moin are out because they represent pale copies of Khatami whose failure is now acknowledged even by his younger brother Muhammad-Reza. Either Rafsanjani or Qalibaf could help the system weather its current crisis.

    Rafsanjani could reassure the business community, mobilize the bureaucracy for cosmetic reforms, and avoid heightening tension in Iran’s foreign relations.

    Qalibaf, who is 44, might energize the estimated 3.5 million men who have so far served in the Revolutionary Guard, and speak to younger generations who feel alienated. The election either of Qalibaf or Larijani’ would be a signal that Khamenei has decided to assume direct control.

    With the Majlis and other organs of the regime now controlled by Khamenei the conquest of the presidency by his camp could end establishment’s internecine feuds. It would send a signal to the people of Iran, and the outside world, that they are dealing with a radical regime pursuing messianic dreams.

    And that, paradoxically, may be the best of a bad choice. It is almost always better to deal with a regime that is true to itself than one practicing taqiyah (dissimulation).

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 10:17:00 AM  

    The Second Reinvention of a Murderous Mullah

    The US Alliance for Democratic Iran:
    On May 5, 1989, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then Iran’s powerful Speaker of Parliament and acting Commander-in-Chief, called on Palestinians to kill Americans and other Westerners. Speaking at a Friday prayers congregation, he told the crowd, “If in retaliation for every Palestinian martyred in Palestine they kill and execute, not inside Palestine, five Americans, or Britons or Frenchmen,” the Israelis “would not continue these wrongs.”

    He continued, “It is not difficult to kill Americans or Frenchmen. It is a bit difficult to kill [Israelis]. But there are so many [Americans and Frenchmen] everywhere in the world.”

    It took the ever-cunning Rafsanjani just a few weeks to re-invent himself as a “moderate” establishment leader whom the West could deal with. READ MORE

    Less than a month after his tirade, Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of Iran’s terror-sponsoring theocracy, died. As a result of a series of power sharing arrangement between the regime’s leaders, Ali Khamenei became the supreme leader and Rafsanjani positioned himself to be the next president, a post occupied by Khamenei till then.

    Sixteen years later, Rafsanjani is at it again with another revolting charm offensive, which looks more and more like a rehash of his 1989 campaign, tailored mainly for his Western audience.

    The reoccurring fascination in the West with elections in Iran seems rather misplaced given that they are futile exercises aimed at legitimizing a rogue regime. The ruling regime consistently exploits the electoral process to generate an appearance of democracy to camouflage its tyrannical theocracy.

    Rafsanjani’s campaign promises today are not substantially different from those he made in 1989, however both Iran’s and Rafsanjani’s political positions are vastly different from what they were 16 years ago.

    Back then, he skillfully sold his agenda to the West as a “moderate” or “pragmatist”. Rafsanjani cunningly boasted that his presidency would usher Iran into an era of achieving economic and social progress, relaxing restrictions on political freedoms, and paying attention to the issues of youth and women. He also deceptively pledged that Iran will end its rogue behavior abroad. His two terms in office as president proved just the opposite.

    He was so disgraced at the end of his term that he could not even win a seat in the February 2000 parliamentary election. So despised is Rafsanjani that most of his election posters use his middle-name “Hashemi” rather than his last name “Rafsanjani.”

    As for Iran, the demography and political landscape have drastically changed since 1989. The country has been the scene of many uprisings nationwide. Although uprisings were brutally suppressed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) and other security forces, their recurrence and sustained objective of toppling the clerical regime, clearly show the mullahs’ lack of popular legitimacy.

    Never before, have the mullahs been so desperately in need of an appearance of legitimacy. Domestically, they are despised by the majority of Iranians, and internationally they are scorned for their determined campaign to acquire the A-bomb, sponsor international terrorism, and sow seeds of instability in Iraq.

    By all accounts, the vast majority of Iranians will boycott the election farce. Don’t, however, expect the clerical regime to release the actual voter turnout. There are reports that the clerical regime has already decided that the margin will be declared to be around 55 to 65 %, regardless of the actual voter turnout.

    Agence France Presse quoted a government official as saying, "For the first time in an opinion poll, 23 percent of the electorate is saying that they won't be voting. It's an important figure because ahead of the last presidential elections, just five percent of people said they wouldn't vote". And the inflated official figure of the last presidential election was just about 66 percent.

    The mullahs’ supreme leader Khamenei recently warned Iranians that, “The enemies will use every means to discourage the electorate from taking part in the June 17 election" and that “casting a ballot is like firing a bullet into the heart" of US President George W. Bush.

    In March 1990, one year into his first term, , the “moderate” Rafsanjani mocked President Bush Sr. for taking a telephone call from someone posing as Rafsanjani. “America is very much in need of talking to Iran, and praise be to God, is deprived of this. Iran is so important that the biggest power in the world, the biggest bully on earth, tries to contact its officials by telephone,” Rafsanjani said.

    The hoax set up by Rafsanjani’s faction then sought to embarrass President Bush over the issue of American hostages in Lebanon. Sixteen years later, one wonders what sort of hoax Rafsanjani is working up to trick George W. Bush over the issue of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

    What is abundantly clear is that Rafsanjani will try to reinvent his image to preserve and perpetuate the clerical regime but we shouldn’t expect his murderous methods to stop anytime soon.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 10:16:00 AM  

    Special Report: Iranians Unite! Pro-Democracy Iranians Boycott Islamic Republic’s Rigged Anti-Democratic Elections

    In an historic show of unity, Iranian opposition leaders together drafted and signed the following declaration. The leaders represent a broad spectrum of Iranian groups around the world calling for a boycott of the June 17th Presidential election.
    Millions of pro-democracy Iranians will boycott the rigged anti-democratic elections of the Islamic republic on June 17. Since the mullahs consider any vote in the election to be a vote for the regime, we urge all Iranians to boycott the regime’s anti-democratic election charade. READ MORE

    The Iranian people want freedom, democracy and human rights, and they realize that they cannot be free as long as the Islamic republic exists.

    The Islamic republic is a menace to Iranians and the world. The regime has brutally violated the human rights of the Iranian people, and there are thousands of political prisoners. Many political prisoners have been in prison since the massive student demonstrations of July 1999.

    Violations of human rights, lack of freedom of speech, and lack of freedom for pro-democracy political parties have caused strong resentment in millions of Iranians.

    Massive corruption and gross mismanagement have seriously damaged Iran’s economy and caused great discontent especially among millions of young Iranians who are unemployed.

    Unemployment among young Iranians is more than 30 percent. The annual inflation rate is more than 20 percent, while the personal income of most Iranians is stagnant, resulting in a persistent decline in the standard of living. The Iranian currency has lost 99 percent of its value since the creation of the Islamic republic, and as a result the savings of millions of Iranians have been eroded. These economic problems have resulted in millions of Iranians now living under the poverty line, and there are serious social and medical consequences.

    While the Iranian people have been impoverished, the mullahs have been plundering Iran’s national wealth. Furthermore, the regime spends hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian national wealth to support terrorists annually.

    The Islamic republic is the most active sponsor of global terrorism. The regime uses terrorism as one of its policy tools, and its support of terrorism will continue as long as the regime exists. The regime’s adventurist policies, meddling in other countries, and pursuit of nuclear weapons endanger the national interests of the Iranian people.

    Some people inside and outside Iran believed the claims of the leaders of the Islamic republic that the regime could be reformed. However, the brutal and repressive actions of the regime in the past few years have clearly demonstrated that freedom and democracy are not possible in the framework of the Islamic republic.

    Contrary to the regime’s propaganda, the Islamic republic has never had free and democratic elections. The mullahs handpick the candidates from among the regime’s Mafia families. None of the candidates that are approved by the mullah Mafia support freedom, democracy and human rights. Furthermore, because of the convoluted and despotic nature of the regime, the power is controlled by non-elected mullahs, and the elections are used as a tool to create the perception of legitimacy for the regime.

    The regime does not permit any pro-democracy candidates. All pro-democracy parties are banned by the regime. All television and radio programs are owned by the mullahs. Any publication that criticizes the leaders of the regime is closed. The regime uses intimidation methods to coerce government employees and students to participate in the rigged elections. Therefore, the regime’s so-called elections are anti-democratic and totally illegitimate.

    Because of the important reasons mentioned above, we urge all democratic governments and international pro-democracy organizations and individuals to condemn the rigged and illegitimate mullah elections, and support the inalienable rights of the Iranian people to freedom and democratic elections. Iranians will remember those who support the Iranian democracy movement, and those who appease the Islamic republic and its terrorist leaders.

    Tyrannies have been replaced by democracies in many countries in the past few years, and the process can be repeated in Iran. The world will be a better place without the mullah regime. We look forward to the day when Iran is liberated from the Islamic republic’s reign of terror, and Iranians enjoy freedom and democracy.

    This declaration is signed by many pro-democracy Iranians, including the following prominent members of Iranian society who have a distinguished record of serving the Iranian people:

    Ms. Dokhi Abdi President of Organization of Iranian Women in the United States
    Mr. Hamid Abdollahi Pro-Democracy Activist
    Ms. Narges Adib Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Parviz Afsari Iranian National Police Brigadier General
    Dr. Amiraslan Afshar Iranian Ambassador to Britain
    Dr. Keykavous Afshar Ghasemloo University Professor
    Mr. Mehdi Ahmad Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Mr. Fereydoun Amirfarzaneh Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Mehdi Amirnasri Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Cyrus Amoozegar Information Minister
    Dr. Iman Ansari Political Science Scholar
    Mr. Jamshid Ansari Member of Board of Alliance for Democracy in Iran
    Dr. Masoud Ansari University Professor
    Dr. Hooshang Anvar Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Mr. Fereydoun Arabfarsi Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Abolfath Ardalan Iranian Navy Admiral
    Mr. Nariman Ariaban Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Dr. Iraj Arianpour Writer
    Dr. Armand Ash VP of Alliance for Democracy in Iran
    Mr. Zia Atabay NITV Television CEO
    Mr. Morteza Badri Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Mr. Manouchehr Baghai CEO, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Bahman Batmanghelidj Chairman of Alliance for Democracy in Iran
    Mr. Ali Bazkiaei Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Heydar Boroumand Physician, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Hassan Ebrahimi Iranian National Police Colonel
    Mr. Mehrdad Ehsanipour Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Mohsen Eskandari Brigadier General, Member of Sarbaz Organization
    Mr. Ali Fargam Journalist
    Ms. Parvin Ghaffari President of Organization of Disabled Iranians
    Mr. Abdollah Gharegozloo Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Taghi Goltappeh Iranian National Police Colonel
    Mr. Sardar Haddad Member of Board of Alliance for Democracy in Iran
    Mr. Hashem Hakimi Iranian Ambassador to Sudan
    Mr. Saeed Hamzavi Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Masoud Haroun Mahdavi Member of Jebhe Melli
    Dr. Sasan Haroun Mahdavi Member of Jebhe Melli
    Mr. Youssef Hassanzadeh Iranian National Police Colonel
    Dr. Dariush Hashempour Vice President of Energy Corp.
    Mr. Behrouz Hatam Governor of Masjed Soleiman
    Ms. Mina Homayoun Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Aziz Hooshangi Iranian Army Colonel
    Mr. Kurosh Kalhor Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Dr. Fereydoun Kasmai Writer, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Amir Khatibi Iranian National Police Brigadier General
    Mr. Ardavan Khoshnood Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Arvin Khoshnood Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Masoud Khoshnood Physician, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Bahram Khoshnood Rashti Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Mehdi Khoshnood Rashti Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Parviz Khosravani Iranian Gendarmerie Major General
    Mr. Reza Madadvand Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Parviz Mahdavi Human Rights Activist
    Mr. Mohammad Reza Maher Iranian Army Colonel
    Dr. Abdolmajid Majidi Minister of Economic Planning and Budget
    Dr. Gholam Maleki Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Badreddin Marashi Deputy Minister of Economic Planning and Budget
    Ms. Shifteh Menalagha Artist
    Mr. Nasser Meymand Iranian Navy Captain
    Mr. Sam Mirian CEO, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Ms. Soraya Mohammadi Haghshenas Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Mohammad Mehdi Mohiti Iranian Army Colonel
    Mr. Rahim Morid Member of Pan Iranist Party
    Dr. Mohammad Hossein Moussavi Senator
    Mr. Sohrab Nabavi Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Mr. Kiumars Naimi Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Mr. Morteza Namdar Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Mansour Naraghi University Professor
    Mr. Morteza Naraghi Iranian Gendarmerie General
    Dr. Assadollah Nasre Esfahani Interior Minister
    Ms. Shohreh Nazar Member of Constitutional Monarchy Movement of Iran
    Dr. Khosrow Panahi University Professor
    Ms. Parichehr Parvahan Member of Jebhe Melli
    Mr. Nasser Pol Member of Pan Iranist Party
    Mr. Ahmad Pourdad Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Samad Rahmanzadeh Writer, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Hassan Rahnavardi Governor of Yazd Province
    Mr. Hassan Razavi Shabahang Poet
    Mr. Reza Razmi Iranian National Police Brigadier General
    Mr. Mehdi Rohani Iranian Air Force Lieutenant General
    Mr. Mehdi Sadeghi Iranian National Police Colonel
    Ms. Bahereh Sadighian Pro-Democracy Activist
    Dr. Fariborz Sadighian Pro-Democracy Activist
    Ms. Vajiheh Sadighian Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Parviz Safinia Iranian Ambassador to Indonesia
    Ms. Shahla Samii Writer, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Masoud Sepand Poet
    Mr. Ali Seyyedi Iranian National Police General
    Mr. Amir Shadjareh Pars Television CEO
    Mr. Behrouz Souresrafil Writer and Journalist
    Mr. Fereydoun Tofighi Journalist
    Ms. Nezhat Yahyazadeh Writer, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Fereydoun Yazdan Ashouri Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Jahangir Yazdan Ashouri Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Mohammad Yazdan Ashouri Pro-Democracy Activist
    Ms. Nahid Yazdan Ashouri Pro-Democracy Activist
    Ms. Narges Yazdan Ashouri Pro-Democracy Activist
    Mr. Abdolhossein Zahrai Iranian Army Colonel
    Dr. Iraj Zamanian Physician, Pro-Democracy Activist
    Ms. Mandana Zand Ervin Member of Board of Alliance for Democracy in Iran
    There are more than 17o leaders who have signed it, still others are seeking to sign the document. For more information on this effort you may contact the them at: iranianazad2003@yahoo.com. Here is an English and Persian version.

    It is important to let the media know that Iranians from a range of political views are now united in boycotting the June 17th election.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/11/2005 01:00:00 AM  

    Friday, June 10, 2005

    Request for help - Seeking the Best Media Contact List

    We are seeking the best email list of media contacts on the internet. We will be posting many news stories that we will need to ensure the mainstream media is aware of.

    We want to find the best, and most current list available.

    Please email us your favorite and include a link to the resource.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/10/2005 10:36:00 PM  

    More Photos of Iranian Pro-Democracy Forces

    Few students gathered in front of Akbar Ganji's apartment to demand his permanent release from the jail




    Group of students protesting in front of Evin Prison in Tehran, demanding release of Mr. Zarafshan, Attorney at law who defended detained students and political activists since 1998 and now in jail for speaking against the regime.





    Students in critical condition after days of hunger strike asking for a fair and free election.



    posted by Anonymous @ 6/10/2005 08:06:00 PM  

    Rafsanjani sees nuclear deal with EU

    Middle East Online:
    Leading presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has expressed optimism Iran can forge a deal with Europe over its nuclear programme, but warned against negotiations taking too much time.

    "We can reach an accord, but I cannot predict when that will happen," Rafsanjani told AFP in an interview when asked of the chances of reaching a deal in the talks with Britain, France and Germany.

    Rafsanjani, the hot favourite to win June 17's presidential election, reaffirmed Tehran's position that it wanted to resume uranium enrichment activities, currently suspended for the talks. READ MORE

    "We are against the negotiations being dragged out for no reason. The negotiations can continue longer, on the condition that we can resume our (uranium conversion) activities in Isfahan."

    The cleric said it would be "positive" for the talks if the United States joined the Europeans at the negotiating table, claiming Washington had conceded that Iran should be allowed to carry out low-level enrichment of uranium. ...

    Rafsanjani emphasised he had "always been hostile to the construction of nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction", confirming that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued a fatwa (religious decree) to that effect.

    Iran has pledged to suspend its activities linked to uranium enrichment, which makes what can be fuel for civilian power reactors or the explosive core of atom bombs, for the duration of the negotiations.

    But it insists it has the right to carry out enrichment within the framework of a peaceful nuclear programme. Washington alleges Iran's nuclear drive is geared towards producing weapons, charges fiercely denied by Tehran.

    posted by Anonymous @ 6/10/2005 08:02:00 PM  

    Photo Flickr - Iran elections 1384 / Pool

    Hossein Derakhshan, Iran Scan:
    We've started a photo pool, Iran Elections 1384 on Flickr for pictures related to the election. So far hundreds of interesting photos have been posted to the pool. You can also contribute to the pool if you have related pictures.

    I've also asked my Persian weblogs' readers to tag their election photos as 'election84' so we all know how to easily find them.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/10/2005 05:37:00 PM  

    Working for the people; Candidacy cosmetics

    Mr. Bedhi (Iranian blogger), Iran Scan:
    If there is one thing you may find in the plans of presidential candidates regardless of their political perceptions is the claim of working for the people. This is heard repetitively in TV shows from the candidates themselves or their supporters that they shall work passionately to solve problems faced by people. The focus is on the economy to win the vote of the low and middle class and the candidates of the right wing are focusing almost completely on economic issues, for which they claim having brand new practical theories. Many believe that Iran‘s corrupted economy is too ill for such cure and are concerned with the fact that the candidates are coming from within the Islamic republic‘s circle of trust; can we expect a real change? ...

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/10/2005 05:32:00 PM  

    Iran: New Worries Arise Over Military Involvement In Election

    Bill Samii, Radio Free Europe:
    Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said on 7 June that there was no doubt that there was military interference in the election process and this was "dangerous," IRNA reported. READ MORE

    Khanjani's statement is just the most recent warning about this issue. In early April, pro-reformist political commentators expressed concern about the planned presidential campaigns of individuals with backgrounds in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 11 April 2005).

    Now, with less than two weeks before the 17 June election, there are new concerns that the involvement of military personnel in supervising the election could lead to fraud.

    The Guardians Council is tasked with supervising elections. "There is no legal impediment to the presence of military forces in the [elections] executive and supervisory domains," council spokesman Gholam Hussein Elham said, according to "Eqbal" on 31 May.

    This triggered a quick reaction from the Interior Ministry, which runs elections. Interior Minister Abdolvahed Musavi-Lari said the law clearly stated that military and police personnel were banned from entering election headquarters or backing candidates at polling places, "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on 30 May. Expressing astonishment with Elham's comments, Musavi-Lari said the possibility that military personnel might play a part in the election process was a matter of great concern.

    "Behind the scenes, there is a whiff of preparations for interference by military men in the course of the elections," Interior Ministry spokesman Khanjani said at his 31 May news conference, according to IRNA.

    Council spokesman Elham responded that "whipping up a topic" that "springs from illusion" was tantamount to carrying out the plans of Iran's enemies. Elham went on to provide a detailed written response to questions about military involvement in the election, "Sharq" reported on 1 June. "According to the law, membership of the military in executive and supervisory boards has not been banned and their responsibility is something personal as far as they are concerned," Elham said. According to the law, Elham wrote, military personnel cannot campaign on behalf of or otherwise represent candidates, and government officials generally are prohibited from making statements, announcements, or placards for or against candidates. He added that military and police personnel's activities were barred if they acted on behalf of their institutions but said they were not barred from participating in election-related activities as individuals. Although the Guardians Council has not employed military personnel in its supervisory activities, he continued, there is no problem if it does so in isolated cases.

    Active-Duty Versus Reservists

    Elham wrote that barring Basij personnel from election-related activities was impractical, "Sharq" reported on 1 June. He explained that this would deprive the 20 million people who serve in the Basij of their rights.

    The 20 million figure is most likely an exaggeration based on revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's November 1979 decree creating the Basij. Khomeini said at the time that "a country with 20 million youths must have 20 million riflemen or a military with 20 million soldiers; such a country will never be destroyed" (http://www.irib.ir/Special/Azar/basij/html/en/basiq_culture.htm).

    Full-time active-duty personnel serve in the conventional armed forces and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. The Basij is part of the Guards Corps and is made up mostly of boys, old men, and those who recently finished their military service. There are about 90,000 active-duty Basij members who are full-time uniformed personnel, and there also are up to 300,000 reservists, according to a 2005 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. That study adds that the Basij can mobilize up to 1 million men.

    The real figure for Basij personnel falls somewhere between these extremes, if one includes members of the University Basij, Student Basij, and the former tribal levies incorporated into the Basij (aka Tribal Basij). Middle-school-aged members of the Student Basij are called Seekers (Puyandegan), and high-school members are called the Vanguard (Pishgaman), "Kayhan" reported on 6 November 2003.

    General Mohammad Hejazi, commander of the Basij, stressed on 1 June that his personnel would not be allowed to participate in the campaign, ISNA reported. He added that some Basij members are not salaried and are only answerable to the organization when they are on duty. Their participation in the election is not prohibited, he said.

    Brigadier General Alireza Afshar, deputy commander of the armed forces headquarters for cultural affairs and defensive promotions, stressed on 5 June that no military personnel would be involved in supervising or conducting the election, IRNA reported. As for the Basij Resistance Force, Afshar said Basij personnel were considered members of the armed forces only when they were on duty.

    A Force Apart

    Numerous commentators asserted that the Guards Corps voted in overwhelming numbers for the reformist candidate in the 1997 presidential election. Yet there is no solid evidence for these claims, such as exit poll data. Subsequent events -- such as commanders' threats against critical newspapers and reformist political figures -- put these claims in serious doubt and showed that the Guards Corps considers itself a praetorian force that holds itself above the civilian leadership and elected officials.

    In 2003 municipal council elections and 2004 parliamentary elections, furthermore, the Guards Corps was linked with the political activities of the hard-line Islamic Iran Developers Coalition (Etelaf-i Abadgaran-i Iran-i Islami). In the former case, Basij facilities were used for the Developers Coalition campaign activities, and in the latter case Guards Corps officers were given lists of Developers Coalition candidates for whom they and their troops should vote.

    The role of the Guardians Council in vetting candidates always raises questions about the democratic nature of elections. The potential involvement of military personnel in supervising the election puts in greater doubt an already dubious process. The military personnel can ensure that their favorite candidate gets the majority of votes. Furthermore, military and law-enforcement personnel in polling places can intimidate or interfere with voters. Soldiers who vote in military installations or in the presence of their officers can be ordered to vote for specific candidates.

    Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi-Kermani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the Guards Corps, claimed on 6 June that the corps is unbiased and backs no specific candidate, ISNA reported. Nevertheless, four of the candidates in the upcoming presidential election have Guards Corps backgrounds. The other four candidates have no such association.

    It is up to the Iranian people to decide who they will vote for, but military interference in the 17 June presidential polls undermines Iran's already weak democratic process.

    posted by DoctorZin @ 6/10/2005 05:31:00 PM