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."

Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 7.23.2005: SPECIAL REPORT

The Washington Post ignores Al Qaeda Leaders Iran connection

Craig Whitlock, Washington Post: Experts Say Radicals In London, Egypt May Have Followed Orders

The back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East. READ MORE

The Washington Post fails to mention the role Iran is playing as the base of operations for al Qaeda's leadership. Read my report here.

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

• 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.
• Reuters reported that an unprecedented report from Iran's conservative judiciary acknowledged that human rights violations were widespread in prisons.
• The Washington Post reported that gunmen opened fire at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad.
• Kurdish Media reported that demonstrations in Mahabad have resulted in the spread of the demonstrations to other cities in Iranian Kurdistan.
• 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.
• And finally, Khaleej Times Online reported that Germany accused Teheran of impertinence on Wednesday for presuming to lecture it on democracy.

The Washington Post ignores Al Qaeda Leaders Iran connection

Craig Whitlock, Washington Post: Experts Say Radicals In London, Egypt May Have Followed Orders

The back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East. READ MORE

Investigators on Saturday said that they believed the details of the bombing plots in Egypt and Britain -- the deadliest terrorist strikes in each country's history -- were organized locally by groups working independently of each other. In Sharm el-Sheikh, where the death toll rose to 88 people, attention centered on an al Qaeda affiliate blamed for a similar attack last October at Taba, another Red Sea resort. In London, where 52 bystanders were killed in the subway and on a bus, police have identified three of the four presumed suicide bombers as British natives with suspected connections to Pakistani radicals.

But intelligence officials and terrorist experts said they suspect that bin Laden or his lieutenants may have sponsored both operations from afar, as well as other explosions that have killed hundreds of people in Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Morocco since 2002. The hallmarks in each case: multiple bombings aimed at unguarded, civilian targets that are designed to scare Westerners and rattle the economy.

The officials and analysts also said the recent attacks indicate that the nerve center of the original al Qaeda network remains alive and well, despite the fact that many leaders have been killed or captured since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States. Bin Laden may be in hiding, the officials and analysts said, and much is still unknown about the network. But they added that his organization remains fully capable of orchestrating attacks worldwide by recruiting local groups to do its bidding.

"What the London and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks may have in common are the people giving directions: This is what needs to be done, and this is how you do it," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Prince Turki al Faisal, the former director of foreign intelligence for Saudi Arabia who was named this past week as the kingdom's new ambassador to the United States, said in an interview, "All of these groups maintain a link of sort with bin Laden, either through Internet Web sites, or through messengers, or by going to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan and maybe not necessarily meeting with bin Laden himself, but with his people.

"Since September 11, these people have continued to operate," he said, speaking at his residence here, where he has been serving as ambassador to Britain. "They are on the run, but they still act with impunity. They can produce their material and get it to the media, it seems, anytime they like. Along with that, of course, are the orders they give to their operatives, wherever they may be."

Overthrowing the Saudi monarchy has been a longtime goal for bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi native who was once close to the kingdom's rulers but was stripped of his citizenship in 1994.

Some senior U.S. officials have argued that bin Laden has been effectively bottled up since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and question whether al Qaeda still has the ability to plan major operations such as the Sept. 11 attacks.

In April, for example, the State Department concluded in its annual report on terrorist activity around the world that al Qaeda had been supplanted as the most worrisome threat by unaffiliated local groups of Islamic radicals acting on their own, without help from bin Laden or his aides. The pattern of attacks in 2004, the report stated, illustrates "what many analysts believe is a new phase of the global war on terrorism, one in which local groups inspired by al Qaeda organize and carry out attacks with little or no support or direction from al Qaeda itself."

Some regional Islamic radical groups function independently of al Qaeda but enter into mutual alliances for specific operations or campaigns, experts say. In Iraq, for instance, one of the primary networks of insurgents fighting the U.S. military is led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has pledged his loyalty to bin Laden and acts publicly on behalf of al Qaeda but has developed his own organization.

But intelligence officials and analysts from European and Arab countries say there is increasing evidence that several of the deadliest bombings against civilian targets in recent years can be traced back to suspected mid-level al Qaeda operatives acting on behalf of bin Laden and the network's leadership. In some cases, counterterrorism investigators have concluded that bin Laden or his emissaries set plans in motion to launch attacks and then left it up to local networks or cells to take care of the details.

"The rather well-formed structure that they had prior to 9/11 does seem to be degraded," said a senior British counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But there is still a fairly potent, if diffuse network out there that still aspires to make decisions. We should be very wary about writing them off."

Saudi officials said the interrogation of terrorism suspects in that country, as well as intercepted electronic communications, show that bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, dispatched cell organizers to Saudi Arabia in 2002 and weighed in on basic strategic decisions made by the local al Qaeda affiliate. The al Qaeda leadership also gave direct orders to attack specific targets in the kingdom, Saudi officials said.

The local al Qaeda network carried out its first attack on May 12, 2003, driving explosive-laden cars into the gates of Western residential compounds in Riyadh, killing 35 people, including nine Americans. The explosion stunned Saudi government leaders, who only a few months before had said publicly that there were no terrorist groups operating inside the kingdom.

Less than one week after the Riyadh bombing, explosions hit Morocco, which has a long history of close relations with the United States and little history of terrorism. On May 16, 2003, suicide bombers launched multiple attacks on hotels, restaurants and other civilian targets in Casablanca, killing 45 people.

At first, counterterrorism officials in Saudi Arabia and Morocco saw no connection between the two attacks other than the fact that they occurred four days apart. They assumed that the timing was coincidental, or that the Moroccan bombings were prompted in part by the publicity generated by what happened in Riyadh.

Today, however, counterterrorism officials in both countries say there were connections between the two groups that carried out the attacks. Two Moroccan al Qaeda operatives suspected of helping to organize the Casablanca bombings, Karim Mejjati and Hussein Mohammed Haski, surfaced as leaders of the local al Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia and were named to the kingdom's list of most wanted terrorist suspects.

Mejjati was killed in a shootout with anti-terrorism police in a small Saudi town in April. Haski was arrested in July 2004 in Belgium, where he faces charges of helping to organize another sleeper cell with al Qaeda connections, according to Belgian officials and court documents. Both Haski and Mejjati were veterans of al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, documents show.

A similar connection has emerged between the Casablanca bombings and the March 11, 2004, train explosions that killed 191 people in Madrid. Spanish investigators have identified a suspected ringleader of the Madrid attacks as a Moroccan al Qaeda operative named Amer Azizi, who is also wanted by authorities in Morocco on charges of involvement in the network that organized the Casablanca attacks.

Like Mejjati and Haski, Azizi spent time at al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before 2001 and is believed to be a conduit to the al Qaeda leadership, intelligence officials said.

Counterterrorism investigators and analysts said it was highly unlikely that the people who organized the July 7 London bombings were directly involved in the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks. But they predicted that both plots would eventually be traced directly to al Qaeda.

Ranstorp, the terrorism expert in Scotland, predicted that Egyptian investigators would pursue possible links to Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born physician who has served as bin Laden's top deputy and al Qaeda's leading ideologue since the early 1990s. "I doubt very much that this was done by the same group of Pakistanis who were apparently responsible for what happened in London," Ranstorp said. "But this very well could have been directed by Zawahiri, in terms of activating the Egyptian front."

U.S. and European intelligence officials said they believe bin Laden and Zawahiri remain in hiding along the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where access and communications with the outside world remain difficult. But many other al Qaeda leaders have found refuge in Pakistan's urban areas, where they are freer to move around and make contact with operatives visiting from other countries.

Pakistani officials have confirmed that three of the four suicide bombers involved in the London attacks this month visited Pakistan for extended periods over the past two years, spending time in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan's largest cities. Investigators suspect they may have met with al Qaeda operatives who gave them instructions for carrying out the bombings.

British officials and counterterrorism analysts said the trail of the investigation was clearly leading to Pakistan, which has faced renewed criticism for giving haven to al Qaeda sympathizers and other Islamic radical groups. Several highly wanted al Qaeda leaders who have been captured in recent years by the FBI and CIA were caught not in the remote terrain along the Pakistani border, but in major cities such as Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore.

"Why is it that all the roads keep going back to Pakistan?" said M. J. Gohel, a terrorism analyst and chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think tank. "Is it a coincidence, or is there something more? The linkages there are just too strong and consistent. The whole backbone of the jihadi infrastructure is not being dismantled. It is still functioning."

The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pledged this week to renew his crackdown on "extremists" and Islamic radicals in the country and said officials were doing everything they could to cooperate with the investigation into the London bombings. But he bristled at the idea that Pakistan has remained a haven for al Qaeda.

Staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

The Washington Post fails to mention the role Iran is playing as the base of operations for al Qaeda's leadership.

MSNBC, in an updated report provided the location of al Qaeda's management team. Robert Windrem, Investigative producer forNBC News said:

Somewhere north of Tehran, living perhaps in villas near the town of Chalous on the Caspian Sea coast, are between 20 and 25 of al-Qaida’s former leaders, along with two of Osama bin Laden’s sons.

Men such as Saif al-Adel, the former military commander of al-Qaida, and Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the bespectacled bin Laden spokesman, are not in hiding but rather in the care — or custody — of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. ...

“We believe that they're holding members of al-Qaida's management council,” Fran Townsend, President Bush’s counterterrorism czar, said of Iran. ...

The management council went west, to northern Iran, where the United States had little sway and the Iranians had little interest in pushing for their arrests. ...

But Iran was either unable or uninterested in taking the al-Qaida members into custody. ...

There was also evidence that critical meetings regarding the future of al-Qaida were being held in the relative safety of Iran. But al-Qaida decided at a meeting in Iran in November 2002 that the pressure on it was so great that it could no longer exist as a hierarchy. ...

Publicly, all CIA Director Porter Goss will say is that Iran has “detained” al-Qaida elements.

“I don't have all of the information I would like to have,” he told Tom Brokaw. “But I think your understanding is that there is a group of leadership of al-Qaida under some type of detention — I don't know exactly what type, necessarily — in Iran is probably accurate. But I don't think I want to go too far into that — if you don't mind.” ....

...one former senior U.S. intelligence official .... “The Iranians will not give you specific names, or at least they would never give us specific names. They would always duck the question,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Radio Free Europe connected the dots back in December when it reported the al Qaeda leadership's located in Iran played a role in the Madrid bombing.

Reports nonetheless persist that hundreds of Al-Qaeda operatives along with some 18 senior leaders -- including Saif Adel, Al-Qaeda's military commander, and Osama Bin Laden's son, Saad, are living in Iran. Spain's top counterterrorism judge has dubbed this Al-Qaeda's "board of managers," according to the 1 August "Los Angeles Times." A French counterterrorism official says that these leaders have "controlled freedom of movement" inside Iran, AFP reported on 15 July, and the London-based Arabic daily "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" reports that some are even living in villas near the Caspian Sea coast town of Chalus, AFP reported on 28 June. Other accounts of their activities are far more disturbing. U.S. communications intercepts indicate that the 12 May 2003 attacks on the expatriate compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were orchestrated from Iran, according to the 1 August "Los Angeles Times," and though others may be involved, European government officials reportedly point to Adel as the primary suspect. ...

Spanish investigators believe that even the 11 March commuter train bombings in Madrid were at least partially planned from the Al-Qaeda base in Iran. Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, named by Spanish police as a primary suspect, is suspected of having operated from Iran, as is another suspect, Amer Azizi, who is believed to have spent time in Iran before returning to Spain to carry out the attacks, according to Spanish communications intercepts cited in the "Los Angeles Times." ...

The same report suggested that there are divisions within the Iranian leadership with regard to al Qaeda:

In August, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry foiled a series of assassinations allegedly being planned by Al-Qaeda's Adel along with a high-ranking leader of the IRGC...

it furthermore shows the deep divisions between the hard-line and reformist factions in determining Iranian foreign policy.

But in the battle between the reformists and the hard-liners, the hard-liners won.

So is there evidence of an al Qaeda connection with the bombing in Sharm el-Sheikh?

The Middle East Newsline reminds us of Iran's involvement in past attacks in Eqypt and Saudi Arabia.

Iran has helped plan and finance attacks on both Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the last year. They said an Iranian diplomat planned the strike on a petrochemical facility in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia in May 2004. The attack resulted in the killing of five Western engineers.

The Iranian diplomat has escaped Egypt but would be tried in absentia. Officials said the diplomat employed an Egyptian national who has been captured and would be charged with espionage and terrorist offenses.

Egyptian public prosecutor Maher Abdul Wahed identified the Iranian diplomat as Mohammad Reza Hosseindoust. Abdul Wahed said Hosseindoust paid the Egyptian detainee, identified as Mohammed Eid Mohammed Dabbous, who supplied information that facilitated the attack on Yanbu.

Recently, Asharq Alawsat provided a short bio on Seif Al-Adl, the Egyptian military leader of Al-Qaeda. It provides a peek into the al Qaeda operation.

In the article they state, Adl discussed an agreement with Al-Zarqawi:

It seems they had decided to set up a central leadership command circle in Iran, from which further sub-circles would branch off. ...

He accused Bin Laden's closest ally, Al-Zawhri, of being an agent, having:

... received money from the Iranians, implicating the ranks of the organisation in failed and unstudied operations. ...

after we were trapped in Iran, after being forced out of Afghanistan, it became inevitable that we would plan to enter Iraq through the north, which was free from American control. It was then that we moved south to join our Sunni brothers".

Al-Adl then moved to the question of Iran, and said "The steps taken by Iran against us shook us and caused the failure of 75 percent of our plan. Approximately 80 percent of Abu Musab’s [Al-Zarqawi] group were arrested. It was important to create a plan for Abu Musab to follow with those left with him. Where were they to go? The destination was Iraq, via the Northern Iran/Iraq border. The aim was to reach the Sunni areas in the center of Iraq and then to start preparations to combat the American invasion. It was not a random choice; it was a well studied one."

The connections between Iran and al Qaeda are many, the relationship sometime tenuous. But remember, the group responsible for overseeing al Qaeda in Iran is the elite Quds force which the new President of Iran, Ahmadinejad, was a founder.

So if al Qaeda's management team is in Iran, where is Bin Laden?

CIA director Porter Goss recently stated that he had an "excellent idea" where Bin Laden is. He said:

"...when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play. "We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community."

In conclusion, we cannot expect to win the war on terror as long as the present regime in Iran remains in power. The least costly means to ending their rule is to support the pro-democracy forces there. But time is running out.

A hunger strike in Iran

The Globe and Mail:

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. Iran's radical Islamic regime honoured the IRA man for his resistance to what it saw as British imperialism. When hunger strikes are turned against Tehran, though, it seems the regime feels rather differently. READ MORE

It has condemned journalist Akbar Ganji for staging a hunger strike in Tehran's Evin prison, accusing him of pointless grandstanding and calling hunger strikes "counter to religious principles." Leave aside the fact that this same regime smiles upon Palestinians who blow themselves up on the streets of Israel (starving yourself is a sin, but killing innocent bystanders isn't?). A regime that accuses Western countries of having a double standard about human rights can hardly praise a hunger strike against Britain as a noble gesture while at the same time denouncing a local hunger striker as an unredeemed sinner. As Iranian human-rights campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi puts it, "Isn't illegitimatizing the hunger strike of Iranian political dissidents a clear example of such a double standard?"

That, and much more. Mr. Ganji has been on a hunger strike for five weeks in an attempt to pressure authorities to release him from his cruel and unwarranted imprisonment. He was sentenced to six years in 2001 after writing articles that accused the regime of having a role in the killing of leading Iranian writers and intellectuals. Since he stopped taking solid food, subsisting instead on water and sugar cubes, he has lost more than 50 pounds (23 kilograms). On Thursday, his family said his health had deteriorated sharply since he was taken to hospital last weekend. Judicial officials said he had been admitted for knee surgery, much as they said in 2003 that Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi had died after falling down and hitting her head while imprisoned. It turned out she was beaten to death. The fact is that Mr. Ganji is very ill and perhaps near death.

If he were to die, there would be an outcry around the world. Like the murder of Ms. Kazemi, his strike has shone a spotlight on injustice under the Iranian theocracy. The regime has closed more than 100 reformist newspapers and magazines over the past five years on charges of spreading blasphemy or insulting (that is to say, criticizing) religious authorities. The charge against Mr. Ganji was "harming national security," a vague statute that is used against anyone who questions the regime.

The European Union has called for his release. So has U.S. President George W. Bush, who told him that "as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." Prime Minister Paul Martin should add his voice to those speaking up for Mr. Ganji.

Once in a while, regimes such as Iran's come up against an opponent so uncompromising, so morally tough, that they don't know what to do with him. Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky was one such person; so was Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng; so is Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Akbar Ganji is one of their number. He deserves the whole world's support.

Seems Ganji campaign against the regime is now catching world media's attention

Iran tells EU not to demand an end to nuclear work

Reuters:

Iran said on Saturday it had delivered a message to European foreign ministers in London last week, telling them not to try to solve a nuclear dispute by asking Tehran to surrender atomic technology. READ MORE

An EU troika of Britain, Germany and France has been negotiating with Tehran to try to defuse a crisis over Iran's nuclear program. The EU group has asked Iran to stop making nuclear fuel in return for economic incentives.

Iran says the nuclear fuel is destined for power stations rather than warheads, and argues it has every right to continue making enriched uranium.

The EU trio has until late July or early August to present Iran with a set of final proposals aimed at ending the dispute.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said a letter from Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani had been presented to the trio's foreign ministers before the proposals are submitted.

"We clarified to the Europeans that if the minimum requirements expected by the Islamic Republic are not taken into account, we will not accept their proposals," Asefi told a news conference.

When asked what the "minimum requirements" expected by Iran were, the official said: "Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear technology."

Iran insists it is entitled to turn the uranium it mines in its central desert into nuclear fuel and that there is no way it will give this up as a diplomatic gesture.

Rohani gave an interview to the Kayhan daily on Saturday, saying Iran already had a "significant" number of centrifuges, ready to start making nuclear fuel, should Iran decide to do so. Centrifuges enrich uranium by spinning it at supersonic speed.

Iran Report Says Rights Violations Common in Prison

Reuters:

An unprecedented report from Iran's conservative judiciary acknowledged that human rights violations were widespread in prisons, the ISNA students news agency said on Saturday.

According to ISNA, the report said prisoners faced solitary confinement, torture, unwarranted arrest and possibly sexual harassment when detained by Iran's judiciary, military and police.

Iran's former reformist-dominated parliament last year wrote into law an order from Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi that banned torture and solitary confinement.

"Any kind of torture used to extract confessions ... is banned and confessions made under such circumstances are not legal," the legislation said.

But the judicial report, parts of which were shared with ISNA, said the legislation had been ignored in several cases.

"The report accepts that torture and solitary confinement exist in detention centers and asks for measures to address this," wrote ISNA.

The report said a detention center run by the conservative Revolutionary Guard had refused to admit inspectors. READ MORE

The judiciary says it has the right to oversee all detention centers, but some security and military groups bar them.

Iran's constitution specifically outlaws the use of torture, but human rights groups say the Islamic Republic's security forces routinely use it to extract confessions.

Several journalists and political dissidents have said they were forced to make false confessions and were mistreated in detention.

ISNA said Abbasali Alizadeh, the head of Tehran's judicial department, who also heads a committee overseeing anti-torture legislation had shared the report with the agency.

Judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad was not immediately able to confirm details of the report to Reuters but said that he would check facts with Alizadeh.

Gunmen Shoot at Iran Mission in Baghdad

The Washington Post:

Gunmen opened fire at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad Saturday but there were no reports of injuries, Iranian officials said. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted sources from the embassy as saying the unidentified gunmen shot at the mission from building overlooking the embassy.

They said this was the third time the embassy has been targeted since Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's visited Iran last week.

The sources added the gunmen "managed to flee despite the quick intervention of the Iraqi police and embassy guards."

The Iranian state's repressive policy towards the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan

Kurdish Media:

Since the killing of Shuana Kardi, a Kurdish activist, on Saturday July the 13th by the Pastaram in the city of Mahabad, Iranian Kurdistan, the people of this city have come every day to the streets in order to protest against the Iranian state's oppressive policy towards the Kurds.

They expressed their demands for democracy, their national and cultural rights but the suppressive forces of the regime have attacked these demonstrations and about 100 people have been killed, arrested or crippled.

The city is surrounded by the military forces of the Islamic regime and people currently have no possibility to continue their normal life, but it should be mentioned that at the same time the people have reacted to this suppression in different ways and chanted slogans in which they demanded democracy, human rights and other democratic rights.

Iranian officials have answered to these demands and demonstrations with nothing but yet more oppression, killings and arrests.

Continuation of the above mentioned demonstrations in Mahabad has resulted in the spread of the demonstrations to other cities in Iranian Kurdistan. During the last few days, people in the cities of Piranshar, Sardajd, Mariwan, Rabat, Bokan, Narada, Ushnauia, Urumia, Salmaz, as well as Sanandaj and Kirmanshah through different means have demonstrated and shown their support to the people of Mahabad and their just demands. READ MORE

According to different Kurdish sources these demonstrations are becoming ever bigger. The Islamic forces use gas, guns and other illegal methods to suppress those demonstrations and the Kurdish people. The regime has now enforced a kind of military order all over Iranian Kurdistan.

According to different sources hundreds of people in other cities have also been arrested and wounded, and those who have been wounded cannot be transported to hospitals because they are afraid and are in a difficult situation.

We, Norwegian Kurds, would like to express our support for the peaceful demonstrations in Mahabad and other cities of Iranian Kurdistan, and condemn the oppressive policy of the Iranian state against these peaceful demonstrations of the people.

At the same time we demand:

- those who have killed Shvana Kadri, to face the justice.

- those who have been arrested during the recent demonstrations and other political prisoners should unconditionally be released as soon as possible.

- the oppressive forces which have surrounded the cities in Iranian Kurdistan should immediately withdraw back to their military barracks, and leave the cities.

- as we are very worried about what will happen, we ask that a Norwegian delegation travels to Iranian Kurdistan as soon as possible in order to prepare a report about and assess the situation in Iranian Kurdistan.

- the right to holding peaceful demonstrations and gatherings, which is a fundamental human right, to be respected and granted to the people of Iranian Kurdistan.

- the Norwegian Parliament, the Norwegian state, and humanitarian organizations in Norway to press the Iranian regime by all means possible to recognize the national and cultural rights of the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan.

- the international community, and especially the UN Security Council, to react against the state's oppressive policy in the Kurdish areas in Iran in order not to allow a new humanitarian catastrophe to take place as seen in Yugoslavia and Darfur in Sudan.

Oslo, 22 July 2005

Havkari - Coordinating centre of the Kurdish political parties and associations in Norway)

Germany Tells Iran: Don't Lecture Us On Democracy

Khaleej Times Online:

Germany accused Teheran of impertinence on Wednesday for presuming to lecture it on democracy, an unusually sharply worded response to Iranian comments that were critical of Interior Minister Otto Schily. "It is tough to beat this kind of impertinence, considering it comes from a country where human rights are regularly violated, where women are flogged after dubious trials and where critics of the regime are taken into custody for months without legal recourse," a German Interior Ministry spokesman said.

"If there is a need to respect democratic principles, as our colleague from the Iranian Foreign Ministry says, then I would advise him to focus on his own country." The comments were unusual because Germany, alongside France and Britain, is currently in talks with Iran to persuade it to abandon its nuclear ambitions. European diplomats have grown pessimistic about their chances of success in the negotiations following the election of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Friday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 7.22.2005:

Martial Law Declared in Mahabad, Tension is Striking High

DozaMe.org:

13 days after the killing of Shivane Qadri, demonstrations are raging on in the city of Mahabad in [northwestern Iran]. Two more Iranian soldiers have been reported killed by demonstrators.

The Iranian government has now declared martial law and curfew in the Kurdish city. ... the Iranian military is now setting up bases inside the city... Clashes between people and military are increasing and there is no more tranquility in the city...

Iranian security forces have also cut off the water ... Security forces have until now arrested more than 200 demonstrators and few who have been released report intensive torture of arrested protesters, including themselves.

Iranian soldiers and police are now patrolling the streets in hunt for demonstrators. ... groups more than three are being arrested. READ MORE

Persian news sites have been reporting for days now that cities throughout in the region are under martial law. This a major problem for the regime since it cannot indefinitely sustain large security forces in major cities like Tehran and at the same time in the entire Kurdish region. If unrest occurs in Tehran or spreads to other areas, such as the Balouch region, the regime will be in a very dangerous predicament. Radio Free Europe has more.

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

• 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 Sunday, 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.
• 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.
• The Guardian reported that the already demoralised Iranian reform movement had been dreading: the dawn of a new era of political repression.
• 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.
• Arutz Sheva reported that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called upon the international community to impose sanctions on Iran.
• Shaheen Fatemi, Iran va Jahan produced a Profile in Courage: Akbar Ganji.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Iranian blogger, Mehrdad Sheibani, Roozonline discussed a military attack on Iran.
• 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.
• Mehr News reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will take part in President-Elect Mahmud Ahmadinejad's inauguration ceremony, August 4th.
• And finally, Payvand reported four Iranians received Hellman/Hammett awards this year, in recognition of their courage in the face of political persecution.

Martial Law Declared in Mahabad, Tension is Striking High

DozaMe.org:

13 days after the killing of Shivane Qadri, demonstrations are raging on in the city of Mahabad in [northwestern Iran]. Two more Iranian soldiers have been reported killed by demonstrators.

The Iranian government has now declared martial law and curfew in the Kurdish city. Demonstrators who defy the curfew are still protesting on the streets. A clash on July 18 between Kurdish demonstrators and Iranian soldiers has left two soldiers killed.

For the first time after 10 years, the Iranian military is now setting up bases inside the city. Bases have been set up at the Independence Square, who has historically witnessed many popular revolutions, and at Shivane Qadris home district of Pisttep.

Clashes between people and military are increasing and there is no more tranquility in the city, Kurdish news agency MHA's war correspondent Sherko Mehabadi reports. Iranian soldiers have unsuccessfully tried to clamp down on the protesters, leading to tens of protesters and tens of soldiers injured.

Iranian security forces have also cut off the water in the Fergengiyan district and the gas in the Teppey-Qazi district, local sources report. Security forces have until now arrested more than 200 demonstrators and few who have been released report intensive torture of arrested protesters, including themselves.

Iranian soldiers and police are now patrolling the streets in hunt for demonstrators. Groups of more than three are being scattered brutally and during curfew, which starts at 22:00 (10 pm) every evening, groups more than three are being arrested.

Eastern Kurdistan has not felt this tension since the 80's. This has led to the governor of Mahabad threatening the Kurdish people in radio and TV statements saying, "Stop the demonstrations! You don't want the 80's back, I assure you".

Persian news sites have been reporting for days now that cities throughout in the region are under martial law. This a major problem for the regime since it cannot indefinitely sustain large security forces in major cities like Tehran and at the same time in the entire Kurdish region.

If unrest occurs in Tehran or spreads to other areas, such as the Balouch region, the regime will be in a very dangerous predicament.

Is Ganji safe in the hospital?

Farideh Nicknazar, Iran Scan:

There is too much conflicting news about Ganji's health and the reason he was rushed to the hospital. Now according to Ganji's wife, Akabar Ganji is still on hunger strike and he was rushed to the hospital because his health deteriorated rapidly. He was not taken to the hospital for knee surgery as the regime (prosecutor's office) wanted us to believe.

Ganji's friends have written a letter to Iran's judiciary chief, Hashemi Shahrudi, asking for his direct involvement. Apparently, Mr. Ganji situation in the hospital is even worse than in prison and he does not even have access to his requested newspapers. He is not allowed visits by his relatives, friends, and lawyers or telephone calls unlike other patients. According to this letter, It seems that the prosecutor's office and prison officials are intentionally releasing false information to the media in order to confuse the public. Please read the whole letter. (thanks ReleaseGanji website for translating)

It is not clear what is the game prosecution's office is playing, but one thing is for certain, according to Masoumeh Shafiei, Akbar Ganji's wife when she said, "God forbid, something happens to Akbar, I don't think THEY will benefit from it."

Rafsanjani Says Nuclear Work Will Go Ahead

Reuters:

Giving up Iran's nuclear fuel program would be a "shameful stain" on the country, a senior cleric said on Friday. Washington accuses Tehran of pursuing atomic weapons. Iran says it wants nuclear technology to generate electricity and not to make bombs.

Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers at Tehran University: "We will never abandon our obvious right, otherwise it will be a stain of shame on our history." READ MORE

France, Britain and Germany, who share the U.S. view Iran may be planning to build nuclear weapons, have been in talks to convince the Islamic state to drop making nuclear fuel in return for economic incentives.

Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Council, which arbitrates on legislative disputes between parliament and a hardline watchdog body, also hinted at Iran's readiness to work out a diplomatic solution to settle the nuclear dispute with the European Union.

"Prudently and by adopting proper measures, we should not let our legitimate right to be ignored," he added in the sermon broadcast live on state radio.

Iran has agreed to freeze some nuclear work while it negotiates a long-term arrangement with the EU, talks on which are due to resume in August.

Iranian officials have warned that Tehran would resume its enrichment program, which can produce bomb-grade fuel, if the talks failed.

Rafsanjani's comments echoed those of hardline President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who scored a crushing victory against the cleric in Iran's presidential election run-off in June.

"Nuclear states have no right to deprive developing nations from pursuing nuclear energy," said Ahmadinejad on Thursday in his first public appearance since his landslide win.

Iran has asserted that Ahmadinejad's win will not lead to changes in nuclear policy, as the final word on that and other matters of state lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Chavez to attend Ahmadinejad inauguration

Mehr News:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is due to visit Tehran and take part in President-Elect Mahmud Ahmadinejad's inauguration ceremony, the FARS News Agency reported on Friday. ..

Ahmadinejad will be sworn as Iran's next president on August 4.

Blogging for Free Speech

The Red Herring:

Defending free speech for authors of online journals in countries where expression may be limited by law is a new challenge for a journalist advocacy group.

The Paris-based activists at Reporters Without Borders are struggling to define who deserves support and whether Western technology companies can be pressured to maintain U.S. speech protections that may contradict laws in China, Cuba, Iran and Tunisia, for example. READ MORE

The group, which in its native French is known as Reporters Sans Frontieres, lists news and abuses by nations, and works to assist jailed reporters worldwide. In some countries, reporters are licensed by the national government or forbidden from writing specific facts or opinions.

At a roundtable Tuesday at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, project leader Mr. Julien Pain explained that authors of political Web logs, or blogs, are fighting censorship, the threat of jail time, and often physical violence against themselves and their families.

The importance of blogging as an outlet for news and opinion led the group to develop a guide aimed at protecting bloggers from prosecution and maintaining the ethical standards of reporting, Mr. Pain said. The document is expected by September. Financial sponsorship of certain bloggers is being encouraged to support news reporting outside official channels.

"In this new form of journalism, 'cyber dissidents' and freedom-of-speech issues deserve to be protected as much as professional journalists," Mr. Pain said.

The goal is not to decide which blogs or individuals deserve protection, he said. Rather, his group wants to help bloggers pursue their activities without fear of reprisal.

The guide will offer tips on a range of topics, including how to hide Internet protocol addresses that might offer clues on writers' physical locations. The group also is seeking a global accord that would protect authors or hosts of particular documents from prosecution outside their home countries. For example, a French author of an article on China and human rights could only be tried in France.

International pressure gained the release of 20 people who were tortured in Iranian prisons last year, Pain said, adding that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty international also are active on the issues.

The role of U.S. companies that are tailoring products to local markets also is raising concerns, said Mr. Derek Bambauer, a Berkman research fellow. Internet filtering in countries including China and Saudi Arabia can be studied from the United States because internal study may be illegal.

Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and other companies are enabling Internet censorship, he said, even though Western standards let filtering decisions be made by Web users instead of service providers or government agencies. Consumer pressure to encourage corporate responsibility may come to resemble the market pressure that forced shoemaker Nike to stop using children for labor, Mr. Bambauer said.

"A Microsoft blog tool in Chinese will censor the word 'democracy' and suggest another word for 'human rights,'" Mr. Pain said. "We have to respect certain ethical principles, but just obeying Chinese laws is not an answer."