Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [12/11-12/17] major news events regarding Iran. (The reports are listed in chronological order, not by importance)

Ahmadinejad.

• Mark Steyn, Chicago Sunreviewed the international response to Ahamdinejad's recent statements on Israel.
• Servihoo.com reported that Iran's parliament approved President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fourth nominee for oil minister, the ministry's current caretaker Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, ending a three-month-old dispute over the key post.
• Reuters reported that the Iranian regime is "shocked" by the international reaction to Ahmadinejad's remarks on Israel.
• Safa Haeri, Iran Press Service published a report: Who is Ahmadinejad and what is he up to?
• Aljazeera reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stood by his latest attack on Israel and asserted the world was "on the verge of change."
• EUbusiness reported that Germany will ask EU leaders to sign up to a joint declaration condemning the latest anti-Israeli statement from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• RIA Novosti reported that Ahmadinejad's recent statement on Israel is unacceptable to Russia.
• Iran Focus reported that Rafsanjani defended Iran President’s anti-Israel stance.
• Ha'aretz explains why Ahmadinejad can continue to smile while the world argues.
• Spiegel Online reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be moved to Alaska.
• The New York Times reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the Holocaust was a myth.
• CNN.com reported on Germany's warning over Ahmadinejad's most recent remarks.
• ABC News reported that the United States and European Union has expressed outrage and shock after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the Holocaust as a "myth".
• The Daily Telegraph reported that Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said "Thank God, Israel has the means at its disposal to bring about the downfall of this extremist regime in Iran. There will be no second 'final solution'."
• ABC News reported that European Union leaders will address the Iranian president's denial of the Holocaust as a "myth," at a EU summit beginning Thursday in Brussels.
  
• Paul Hughes, Reuters considered the question: Is there method behind Iran's anti-Israel remarks?
• Pepe Escobar, Asia Times reported that Vienna will feel like Alaska next Wednesday when Iran resumes negotiations on its turbulent nuclear dossier with the EU-3. It's all got to do with Israel.
• Louis Charbonneau, Reuters reported that German officials are weighing up imposing some form of travel restriction on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• The Associated Press reported that Arab governments appeared reluctant to condemn Iran's president for calling the Holocaust a "myth."
• Reuters reported that a senior Vatican cardinal sharply criticised Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for claiming the Holocaust was a myth.
• UPI reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad`s recent anti-Semitic remarks may have dealt a fatal blow to the already fragile negotiation process due to restart next week over Iran`s nuclear program.
• The Guardian reported that European leaders warned that patience with Iran is running thin.
• Iran Focus reported that one of the bodyguards of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed and another wounded when an attempt to ambush the presidential motorcade was thwarted in the southeastern province of Sistan and Balucestan. Plus Michael Ledeen's thoughts.
• Alan Peters discussed the recent assassination attempt on Ahmadinejad's life and possible connections to the C-130 crash in Tehran last week. Photos.
• Monsters & Critics reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the conditional suspension of the additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed into law a bill that lays the foundations for a new military organisation to develop ballistic missiles.
• Radio Free Europe reported that European Union leaders have formally condemned Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's remarks on Israel.
  

Ahmadinejad's Worldview.

• Iran Press News reported that the Islamic regime's radio praised Ahmadinejads anti-Semitic comments calling them “accordant with Islamic rule”.
• Hossein Bastani, Rooz Online reported that Ahmadinejad is claiming to be in touch with the 12th Imam.
• Rooz Online reported that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi launched special classes for his disciples to prepare them to run for the upcoming elections to the State Experts Council for Leadership that reviews the work of the Leader and confirms his position or elects a new one.
• Shervin Omidvar, Rooz Online reported that Mesbah Yazdi said: Universities must become Islamic.
• Maryam Kashani, Rooz Online published several strange accounts of Ahmadinejad's recent trip to Saudi Arabia.
• DEBKAfile reported that a sort of collective delusional hysteria is sweeping the Iranian populace. War preparations?
  

Power Struggle inside of Iran.

• BBC News reported that a group of Iranian MPs launched an attempt to sack the country's defence minister over the crash of a military plane in Tehran on Tuesday.
• Hamed Irani, Rooz Online warned that Ahmadinejad’s new diplomats are incompetent and lack basic language skills.
  

Iran's Nuclear Program.

• The Sunday Times reported that Israel's armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior US State Department official said reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for defiantly pressing ahead with its suspect nuclear program is just a matter of time.
• The Associated Press reported that Mohamed ElBaradei said the United States will need to give Iran a security guarantee before a final agreement can be reached.
• The Associated Press reported that the Bush administration is ruling out a guarantee not to attack Iran to induce it to halt development of nuclear weapons.
• Reuters reported that President Bush called Iran a "real threat."
• Hemscott reported that Condi Rice said Iran is a problem that must be dealt with. Plus full text of her speech to the Heritage Foundation. A must read.
• The Heritage Foundation published a backgrounder report: Countering Iran's Nuclear Challenge.
• Agencia Internacional de Noticias reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declined to rule out the possibility that Israel might launch a preemptive air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday there is no evidence that Iran intends to back down in a diplomatic standoff over its disputed nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an "odd guy."
• Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post warns us that Iran is arming for Armageddon. A must read.
• Reuters reported that the United States and Europe have stepped up planning for tougher diplomatic action should Tehran follow through on threats to resume critical nuclear activities.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran meets Wednesday with America's three main European allies for a showdown over the Iranians' nuclear program.
  

Israel's Military Option.

• Ze'ev Schiff, Ha'aretz examined the question: Is There a Military Option?
• IranMania reported that most Israelis want their government to use diplomacy rather than military power.
  

Iranian Dissidents.

• Iran Press Newsreported that political prisoner Mehrdad Lohrasbi suffers grave illness in the horrific Rejaiishahr prison.
• Shervin Omidvar, RooZ Online reported that Abdol-Fattah Soltani the lawyer defending a group of student activists will remain behind bars.
  

Human Rights/Freedom of the press inside of Iran.

• Iran Press News reported that the Islamic regime publicly executes a man on International Human Rights Day.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that European Union foreign ministers called on Iran Monday to show greater respect for human rights.
• Amnesty International reported it is outraged that once again Iran has carried out the execution of a juvenile offender.
• The Telegraph reported that Ahmadinejad has packed his government with former security and intelligence officials responsible for serious human rights abuses.
• Human Rights Watch: Iran’s new Minister of Interior is implicated in grave human rights violations over the past two decades, possibly including crimes against humanity.
• Phyllis Chesler, FrontPageMagazine published a speech given before the US Senate this past week: Islamic Gender Apartheid.
• Iran Focus reported that the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution censuring widespread human rights violations in Iran.
  

Iran's troublemaking.

• Iran Focus reported that Iran is setting the grounds to influence Thursday’s parliamentary elections in Iraq by sending its agents across the border in large numbers.
• The Telegraph reported that an Iraqi insurgent group has kidnapped four Iranians.
• The Sun Herald reported that the Iranian-backed militia the Badr Organization has taken over many of the Iraqi Interior Ministry's intelligence activities.
• Drudge Report reported that Iraqi border police seized tanker truck that had just crossed from Iran filled with thousands of forged ballots.
• The Washington Times reported that an Iraqi general formerly in charge of special Interior Ministry forces said that a senior Iranian intelligence officer was in charge of a network of detention centers in Iraq where suspected insurgents were routinely tortured and sometimes killed. A must read.
• Iran Focus reported that Iranian agents in Iraq carried out a widespread campaign of poll manipulation to ensure victory by Shiite groups allied to Tehran.
  

Iran's Military.

• Newsweek International reported on the new military capabilities Iran will gain from its billion dollar purchase of Russian weapon systems.
• Israelinsider.com reported that Iran commissioned its second domestically built submarine, a craft that can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously.
• Daily Times Pk reported that Iran has successfully tested surface-to-sea missiles with a range of 110 kilometres.
• Deutsche Presse-Agentur:German intelligence believes Iran has now bought 18 longer-range missiles from North Korea, giving Teheran the capability to attack targets in central Europe.
  

Iran and the International community.

• Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported that Hamas chief met with Iranian leaders.
• Nina Shea, National Review Online reported why Ahmadinejad is making the Saudis nervous.
• The Financial Times reported that a court in Italy has ordered the freezing of an Iranian government account in what lawyers say represents an unprecedented legal victory for three US families seeking compensation from Iran.
• TurkishPress reported that Football's world governing body FIFA has no intention of banning Iran from the 2006 World Cup finals despite Germany politicians call for a ban on Iran.
• Agence France-Presse reported that Hamas will step up attacks against Israel if the Jewish state takes military action against Iran.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that the Swedish parliament ceased all bilateral contacts with the Iranian parliament.
• Freedom for Eqyptians reported that an Iranian extremist group is producing a film on late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat assassination in 1981, entitled “34 Bullets for the Pharoah”.
• Reuters reported that the leaders of six pro-U.S. Gulf Arab states meet on Sunday to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions.
  

Can You Believe This?

• FOX News reported that Iran offered the United States a share in building a new nuclear power plant.
• Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki voiced Iran's concern over the increasing human rights violations of the US.
  

Inside Iran.

• Asher, Dreams into Lightning introduced us to a new Iranian blogger: Ghazal Omid.
• The Economist asked: How should a theocratic state raise awareness of a lethal virus that is commonly spread through sexual promiscuity?
• The Telegraph reported that young Iranians are seeking out the ski slopes of Iran for a taste of freedom they fear they will soon lose under Ahmadinejad.
• Alan Peters reported that while modern Iranian women have been pushing the limits, his sources inside of Iran are saying that President Ahmadi-Nejad's has decree that in future all women had to wear a black tent-like garment called a "chador." A photo analysis of present Iranian dress and where Ahmadinejad wants it to go.
  

Inside Iran, the Air Crash in Tehran.

• BBC News reported that a group of Iranian MPs launched an attempt to sack the country's defence minister over the crash of a military plane in Tehran on Tuesday.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran's outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged a "serious investigation" into the crash of a military plane in central Tehran.
• Morteza Mohseni, Rooz Online reported that the minister of intelligence is curbing reporting on the air crash.
• Omid Memarian, Rooz Online reported that air crash victims families are complaining about the government response.
• Kiarash Kianmehr, Rooz Online reported that some of the passengers on board the C-130 military transport aircraft that crashed last week died of asphyxiation due to the lack of emergency oxygen on board.
  

US Policy on Iran.

• Arutz Sheva reported that John Loftus, an intelligence expert with contacts in the Pentagon said "One of the intelligence agencies, which shall remain nameless, asked me to hold a conference of dissident groups in Iran. We are holding that conference and getting ready for regime-change."
• Reuters reported that President Bush called Iran a "real threat."
• Hemscott reported that Condi Rice said Iran is a problem that must be dealt with. Plus full text of her speech to the Heritage Foundation. A must read.
• Reuters reported that an influential Republican congresswoman expressed frustration on Friday over President George W. Bush's approach to Iran.
  

Must Read reports.

• Saul Singer, The National Review warned the Europeans that by failing to deal with Iran, and wrapping themselves most tightly in international law are actually those responsible for turning that law into a dead letter.
• The Washington Times reported that an Iraqi general formerly in charge of special Interior Ministry forces said that a senior Iranian intelligence officer was in charge of a network of detention centers in Iraq where suspected insurgents were routinely tortured and sometimes killed. A must read.
• Iranian.ws argued that the forces inside and outside Iran that they think they can change the political structure of Iran are wasting their time and deceiving the people of Iran.
• Claudia Rosett, The Wall Street Journal reported on the murder of a brave and respected Lebanese journalist, just days after a Hebollah rally calling for his death.
• The Washington Times discussed Iran's undeclared war.
• The Heritage Foundation published a backgrounder report: Countering Iran's Nuclear Challenge.
• Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post warns us that Iran is arming for Armageddon. A must read.
• The New York Sun reported that Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom said: Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started.
  

The Experts.

• Dean George, The IndyStar reviewed Ken Timmerman's book: "Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran."
• Frederick Kempe, The Wall Street Journal produced an excellent interview with Bernard Lewis. A must read.
• Amir Taheri, New York Post reported that as Iraqis prepare to go to the polls, the media have focused on the insurgent and terrorist threats, the real dangers that Iraq faces may be elsewhere.
• Michael Ledeem, The National Review reminded us: The enemy is among Us.
  

Photos, cartoons and videos.

• Cox & Forkum published another cartoon about the Weblog Awards and they endorsed this blog for best Middle East blog.
• Cox & Forkum published another cartoon, a Jay Leno comedy video interview with an Iranian astronaut and photos of the latest demonstration in Tehran.
• AsianNews.ir published a photo of Tehran smog.
• A photo that answers the question: Where do the Iranian people get their news?
• A Cartoon about Ahmadinejad: Mullah's Wild Dog.
  

And finally, The Quote of the Week.

Michael Scott Moore, Spiegel Online reported that while speaking before thousands in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, Ahmadinejad said, referring to Europeans:

"Today, they have created a myth in the name of the Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets."

"This is our proposal: give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to (the Jews) so that the Jews can establish their country."

Sunday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 12.18.2005:

Iran President's Bodyguard Dies in Ambush

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

One of the bodyguards of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed and another wounded when an attempt to ambush the presidential motorcade was thwarted in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, according to a semi-official newspaper and local residents.

“At 6:50 pm on Thursday, the lead car in the presidential motorcade confronted armed bandits and trouble-makers on the Zabol-Saravan highway”, the semi-official Jomhouri Islami reported on Saturday.

“In the ensuing armed clash, the driver of the vehicle, who was an indigenous member of the security services, and one of the president’s bodyguards died, while another bodyguard was wounded”, the newspaper, which was founded by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote.

Ahmadinejad traveled to the restive province, where ethnic Baluchis have been fighting for years for autonomy, on Wednesday and returned to Tehran on Friday afternoon. Tehran often refers to anti-government activists and political opponents of the Islamist regime as “bandits” and “trouble-makers”.

The newspaper report made no mention of Ahmadinejad’s whereabouts during the attack on his bodyguards’ vehicle, but Zabol residents reached by telephone said there were rumors in the town that the hard-line president himself was the target of the attack, which took place near Zabol. READ MORE

The Balouch are fiercely independent.

However, for months now there have been rumors that the Rafsanjani and Khatami factions may attempt to have Ahamdinejad assassinated in hopes of obtaining a "grand bargain" with the international community which leaves the regime in place while they continue their secret nuclear program. Ahmadinehad has been threatening many in the Rafsanjani and Khatami factions with arrest under corruption charges.

Whether this has anything to do with this report is unknown, but assassinating Ahmadinejad without also assassinating the rest of the leadership is likely to have a negative consequences, as it would give false hope to the international community desperate for solution.

The losers would be the democratic forces in Iran and likely give Iran time to go nuclear.

Michael Ledeen's thoughts.

Alan Peters discussed the recent assassination attempt on Ahmadinejad's life and possible connections to the C-130 crash in Tehran last week. Photos.

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

• Monsters & Critics reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the conditional suspension of the additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed into law a bill that lays the foundations for a new military organisation to develop ballistic missiles.
• Iran Focus reported that the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution censuring widespread human rights violations in Iran.
• Radio Free Europe reported that European Union leaders have formally condemned Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's remarks on Israel.
• Reuters reported that the United States and Europe have stepped up planning for tougher diplomatic action should Tehran follow through on threats to resume critical nuclear activities.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran meets Wednesday with America's three main European allies for a showdown over the Iranians' nuclear program.
• DEBKAfile reported that a sort of collective delusional hysteria is sweeping the Iranian populace. War preparations?
• Reuters reported that the leaders of six pro-U.S. Gulf Arab states meet on Sunday to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions.
• The Telegraph reported that young Iranians are seeking out the ski slopes of Iran for a taste of freedom they fear they will soon lose under Ahmadinejad.
• And finally, Alan Peters reported that while modern Iranian women have been pushing the limits, his sources inside of Iran are saying that President Ahmadi-Nejad's has decree that in future all women had to wear a black tent-like garment called a "chador." A photo analysis of present Iranian dress and where Ahmadinejad wants it to go.

Ski slopes the last resort from oppression in hardline Iran

The Telegraph:

Maryam swept expertly down the mountainside before swivelling to a halt, sending a spray of snow over her male companion who was waiting for her by the chair lift at the base of the slope.

The 21-year-old lifted her Raybans from her eyes, ran her fingers through her bleached blonde tresses and leant towards him for a congratulatory kiss.

Such coquettish behaviour, although officially banned, has become commonplace on the ski-slopes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The country's middle classes fear that under the hardline fundamentalist presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected in June, their freedoms will soon be curtailed - so they are enjoying themselves while they still can. READ MORE

Every weekend, convoys of BMWs and Mercedes carry the young middle classes of Teheran away from the political tensions of the city to three nearby ski areas, high in the Alborz mountains, where they enjoy freedoms similar to that of any ski resort in the West.

Young women leave the regulation scarf and compulsory dark manteau at home and take to the mountains in tightly fitting fluorescent ski suits and bobble hats. Gone are the days when men and women had segregated slopes and separate chair lifts.

Instead, they mingle unchaperoned - showing no inhibition about sipping bootleg brandy from hip flasks - and openly criticise the government as they squeeze into the cable cars or lounge in the restaurant by the piste.

"It's a different world up here," said Maryam, who plans to spend every weekend of the winter on the slopes, as she surveyed fellow skiers at Tochal - more than 12,000ft high and reached by a 45-minute cable-car ride. "There isn't much for young people to do in Teheran. At the moment we are taking advantage of the freedoms we enjoy up here because we may not have them for long now this headbanger is in charge of the country." At the ski resorts, as at the frequent social gatherings within private homes in the wealthy suburbs of northern Teheran, politics is rarely off the agenda even when hedonism seems the principal pastime.

Older Iranians, who lived through the trauma of the 1979 Islamic revolution followed by the hardship of the long, bloody war with Iraq, are also deeply concerned about their country's future.

They have vivid memories of the 1980s and early 1990s when they were routinely harassed on the streets by the Basij, the Islamic militia, who would stop cars and search for illegal music or pictures of uncovered women.

Homes were raided and people arrested for fraternising with members of the opposite sex. Some were whipped for committing "moral" crimes such as kissing or holding hands.

Under the "reformist" rule of the last president, Mohammad Khatami, the structures of the theocratic regime remained but many of its worst excesses were curbed, and such occurrences became rare.

Now, Iranians are bracing themselves for Mr Ahmadinejad, who himself rose through the ranks of the Basij, to usher in a return to the more fearful times.
His victory has led many to worry that what little breathing room Iranians had under Mr Khatami could now disappear. They also foresee the new president turning Iran into a pariah state, making it difficult for Iranians to travel abroad or to have contact with foreigners who visit.

A Teheran lawyer who represents wealthy Iranians said that over the past few months he had been advising them to convert their assets into dollars and invest overseas.

"Those with dual nationalities have put the Iranian side of their business on hold and are investing overseas," he said. "Dubai [in the United Arab Emirates] is a big draw because it is so close and the economy is booming.

"Many wealthy Iranians have bought property over there, primarily as an investment but also because, if the worst happens, it offers a base if they are forced to leave Iran quickly." They fear that with the Iranian stock market steadily falling - it has dropped by 35 per cent since the elections in June - the economy is becoming unstable.

Over coffee in the lobby of the Laleh, Teheran's only five-star hotel, a former official under the Khatami government confided: "It took seven years under Khatami for Iranians to begin to enjoy the individual freedoms they had been denied since before the revolution.

"Iran was beginning to lose its reputation as an international outcast. It was a slow process but people really felt that the country was getting somewhere. Now we can see how easily all the good that was done can be quickly reversed."

Commenting on Iran's controversial nuclear programme, he said: "With one statement alone, the President has undone all Khatami's work to improve international relations with Iran."

He was referring to the international outcry that was provoked in October, when Mr Ahmadinejad publicly called for the state of Israel to be "wiped off the map", and again last week when he dismissed the Holocaust as nothing but a myth.

"It was an explosive outburst and a stupid one to make," the former official said.
"Although there is a lot of anger over the Israeli issue, his sentiment was not a helpful one and not one that is shared by educated Iranians."

Iran's president orders conditional suspension of IAEA protocol

Monsters & Critics:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the conditional suspension of the additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Fars news agency reported Saturday.

In a written order to his vice-president Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, who is also head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, Ahmadinejad called for the implementing of the recently approved law to suspend all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA if the Iranian nuclear case is referred to the United Nations Security Council. READ MORE

The Iranian parliament last month approved a bill urging the government to conditionally suspend the IAEA additional protocol.

According to the bill, the government will be urged to limit or even stop IAEA inspection of Iranian nuclear sites if Teheran is referred to the Security Council.

Ahmadinejad said last Wednesday that there should be no doubts whatsoever that the government will not retreat one inch from realising the legitimate right of the Iranian nation to have nuclear technology.

Experts from Iran and the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany are scheduled to resume talks aimed at resolving Iran's nuclear crisis on December 21 in Vienna.

The talks were suspended in August over Teheran's refusal to halt nuclear conversion, the first step in the nuclear cycle, at its Isfahan plant in central Iran.

Iran says that it will not only continue the conversion process at Isfahan but will also push to start uranium enrichment at a neighbouring plant at Natanz.

Iran’s President orders new missile projects

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed into law a bill that lays the foundations for a new military organisation to develop ballistic missiles, the government-owned Fars news agency reported on Saturday. READ MORE

The Aerospace Industries of the Armed Forces (AIAF) will be formed by the Ministry of Defence to conduct “all activities related to research, planning, production, procurement, sale and maintenance of missile systems and the related technology”, Ahmadinejad, who is also chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, wrote to Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, himself a veteran Revolutionary Guards officer.

The new law authorises the AIAF to set up companies to facilitate procurement activities outside Iran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards already have a network of front companies operating in different countries to procure sensitive materials for the country’s nuclear and other military projects.

UN censures Iran's human rights violations: Update

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

The United Nations General Assembly adopted on Friday a resolution censuring widespread human rights violations in Iran.

The Assembly expressed its serious concern over the continuing harassment, intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders, non-governmental organisations, political opponents, religious dissenters, journalists, and students through undue restrictions on freedoms of assembly, press and expression, arbitrary arrests, as well as the disqualification of large numbers of prospective candidates during the June 2005 presidential elections. READ MORE

The resolution had 75 votes in its favour and 50 against, with 43 abstentions.

It called on Iran to end the persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders.

It went on to say that Iran must “eliminate the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman punishments, end impunity for violations of human rights, abolish public executions, particularly those who were under the age of 18 at the time of their offence, and eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against women and minorities”.

Iran’s theocratic regime has been repeatedly censured by the General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Commission for continuing human rights abuses.

U.S. and Europe Step Up Planning on Iran

Carol Giacomo, Reuters:

Faced with an increasingly hard line from Iran, the United States and Europe have stepped up planning for tougher diplomatic action should Tehran follow through on threats to resume critical nuclear activities, according to U.S. officials and European diplomats.

The U.S. and its European allies are seeking agreement among themselves on precisely when Iran's nuclear program will have progressed to the point that the matter should be taken to the U.N. Security Council and what kinds of sanctions might be pursued there, the officials and diplomats said. READ MORE

Tehran insists it only aims to produce civilian nuclear energy. Allies say the program is to produce weapons.

Russia, which is building Iran's nuclear power plant at Bushehr in southern Iran, remains a serious impediment. The United States fears that weapons grade plutonium could be extracted from the Bushehr reactor once it goes on line.

The United States and major European nations -- Britain, France and Germany -- have long threatened to bring the issue to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

But negotiations appear at an impasse and new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has alarmed the world with aggressive calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

"Increasingly, we feel the Iranians are just not interested in any sort of privately negotiated solution to this problem, that what they are interested in is a political confrontation over it," one European diplomat told Reuters.

Under the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which Iran signed, member states are guaranteed the right to develop a full nuclear fuel cycle but are banned from making weapons.

The Bush administration is under growing pressure from Congress and pro-Israel groups to soften its stance towards Tehran. They want the nuclear issue referred to the U.N. Security Council, where sanctions could be imposed.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph, who oversees nonproliferation issues, was in Europe this week for meetings that included discussions on Iran.

U.S. and European experts are to meet Iran next week to see if negotiations can resume, but the outlook is pessimistic.

"I think there are a lot of different pieces moving towards an interesting point on Iran, especially the nuclear piece," a U.S. official said.

A pro-Israel advocate said administration officials "are considering harder approaches. Things are moving on a faster track."

A second European diplomat said while there was a U.S. trend to "toughen the position" on Iran, some Europeans preferred to keeping trying to draw Russia into a unified position.

Efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program would suffer if the issue was moved to the Security Council and the council was too divided to take action, some analysts said.

U.S. officials say if the Security Council discussed Iran's nuclear program, sanctions would not be imposed immediately, while the council tried other diplomatic pressures.

WHERE IS THE 'RED LINE'?

Also under discussion is what the United States and other states would consider their "red line" -- the point at which Iran has crossed into a dangerous activity that cannot be tolerated.

"We cannot achieve anything until we are certain we see things the same way," the second European diplomat said.

Iran froze work at its Isfahan nuclear facility in late 2004 under a deal with Britain, France and Germany but resumed uranium conversion in August 2005.

Tehran has threatened to go further and begin uranium enrichment, the most sensitive part of the nuclear cycle. The United States, Britain, France and Germany generally agree any further steps would be unacceptable but Russia is more lenient, officials said.

EU Leaders Issue Warning for Iran

Radio Free Europe:

European Union leaders have formally condemned Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's remarks on Israel, and warned that time is running out for a diplomatic solution on the Iranian nuclear issue. In a statement adopted early today at the end of a summit in Brussels, Belgium, the leaders of the 25 EU member states condemned as "wholly unacceptable" Ahmadninejad's call for the eradication of Israel and his denial of the World War II Holocaust of Jews.

The statement called on Iran to join the international consensus on the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The statement also said the EU is gravely concerned over Iran's failure to build confidence that the Iranian nuclear program is exclusively peaceful. It said the EU continues to work towards a diplomatic solution, but that the window of opportunity for such a solution will not remain open indefinitely.

EU and Iranian representatives are due to hold their next meeting on the nuclear issue on 21 December in Vienna, Austria.

Will Allies Harden Stance on Iran?

Gerlad F. Seib and Carla Anne Robbins, The Wall Street Journal:

For months, the U.S. has been trying to convince Iran that international patience with its nuclear program is running out. Next week, Iran may see just how true that is.

Iran meets Wednesday with America's three main European allies, France, Britain and Germany, for a showdown over the Iranians' nuclear program. Diplomats predict the session will almost certainly end in rancor. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad darkened the atmosphere ahead of the talks last week with his statement that the Holocaust is a "myth," only the latest of his declarations to raise international hackles.

For their part, France and Britain have been preparing to circulate to world powers preliminary language for a diplomatic statement suggesting that the Iranians are secretly pursuing a nuclear weapon. The document, which would be presented to Iran on behalf of all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, would question whether Iran is living up to its commitments under the nuclear-nonproliferation treaty, which calls on states without nuclear arms to refrain from receiving "nuclear weapons or ... any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.'' READ MORE

The document also would call on Iran to cooperate more with the U.N.'s nuclear-watchdog agency to resolve questions about the country's behavior. The U.S. has reviewed the document, and will support it. If Russia and China sign on, that would send Tehran a clear message that it can no longer depend on those countries for protection from international rebukes, as in the past. And it would mark a significant step forward in the American campaign to bring concerns about Iran to the Security Council for possible punishment.

Iran pulled out of negotiations last summer over Western demands for curbs on its nuclear activities, and soon resumed converting uranium into gas -- a first step toward production of nuclear fuel for either a power plant or a weapon.

Last month, a report from U.N. nuclear inspectors said that Tehran had admitted receiving information from the nuclear black-market network of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan on how to cast uranium into a shape usable for a nuclear weapon.

But there's no guarantee the talks next week will produce a tougher, unified international stand. By working together on the new diplomatic protest to Iran, Britain and France are illustrating that they want to take a harder line, though not quite as hard as the U.S. would like. Germany has in the past been the least willing of the partners to confront Iran, and its posture isn't yet as clear. If the Europeans and Americans aren't united, it could be harder to persuade China and Russia to go along with a tougher posture toward Tehran.

Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com and Carla Anne Robbins at carla.robbins@wsj.com

Tehran Whips up Crisis Frenzy - at Home too

DEBKAfile:

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, echoed by the ayatollahs, persists in making outrageous hate statements, directed mainly at Israel.

His latest called the Holocaust a myth and proposed the Jews be resettled in Europe or Alaska - two months after he was condemned worldwide for saying Israel should be wiped off the map. These statements aggravate tensions in the West – especially around Iran’s nuclear intentions. But the stream of hate continues to issue from Tehran in the face of the European summit’s threat of UN sanctions Friday, Dec. 16, for its president’s “unacceptable” statements and the West’s growing impatience with diplomacy for halting Iran’s advance towards a nuclear weapon. US secretary of state Condoleezza said she sees “no evidence that Iran is interested in a deal that is going to be acceptable to an international community that is extremely skeptical of what the Iranians are up to.”

At home too, Iran’s rulers are bent on generating a sense of high crisis and menace. Their methods were described exclusively in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 233 on Dec. 9.

A sort of collective delusional hysteria is sweeping the Iranian populace, induced by the Islamic republic’s extremist clerical rulers for reasons of their own. Wonder and hate are invoked by fake miracles and myths, demons and monsters.

The president seems bent on portraying himself as a charmed figure. READ MORE

On a visit to one of the elite ten grand ayatollahs of the regime, Javadi-Amoli, in Qom this week, Ahmadinejad came out with this rigmarole:

“When I addressed the UN General Assembly, a dazzling aura formed around my head. This I learned from one of the heads of state listening to my speech. He told me that they were all sitting at the edge of their seats to drink in the message from our Islamic regime.

That was in September. In mid-October, Ahmadinejad suddenly ordered a well in northern Iraq to be declared the sacred gate to the tunnel leading to the Shiite Messiah – Mahdi in Arabic, Emam-e Zaman in Farsi. The faithful were encouraged to toss notes into the pit bearing their secret wishes, and a set of lavish mosques, hotels and restaurants ordered built around the magic shrine to accommodate hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. The Islamic regime in Tehran was declared the guardian of this holy place.

To further charge the atmosphere, a miraculous dog was fabricated to star in a pious film circulated in hundreds of thousands of copies in Tehran. The dog was shown bowing at the tomb of the eighth Shiite Imam Reza in the northeastern town of Mashad, before climbing atop the marble edifice and bursting into canine tears. The episode caused great excitement and was widely covered in Iran’s media - until a coolheaded cleric reminded the dog-worshippers that Islam regards dogs as unclean creatures. The episode was then exposed as a fraud concocted by a film director who had trained his dog for the part.

Amid these absurd episodes, ayatollahs at the head of government have begun spouting the grossest form of hate rhetoric heard even in Tehran to demonize all of Iran’s opponents and Western infidels in particular.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, chairman of the Council for Preserving the Constitution, declared that only Shiites were human beings and the rest of the world’s inhabitants were corrupt animals fit only to be destroyed. Non-Muslims, he said, were evil monsters which defiled the planet earth.

These words aroused anger even in Iran, especially among minorities. The Zoroastrian leader demanded an immediate retraction and apology. However there was more to come. The director of Friday sermons in Qom, Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, last Friday described the United States and Britain as cancerous growths that destroy any country they penetrate and must be rooted out.

(This Friday, Dec. 16, the same Meshkini said Ahmadinejad’s comment denying the Holocaust is completely logical and what all Iranians think. He was addressing Friday worshippers at the Qom religious center. Meshkeni is the powerful chairman of the Assembly of Experts which oversees supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.)

Ayatollah Mohamad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, the president’s religious mentor, told his congregation: “Shiites must avoid contact with their enemies, even if they are on the point of death. Never ask a non-Shiite for bread.”

No doubt impressed by Michael Jackson’s song in praise of Islam, Yazdi produced a grandiose plan for dispatching 5,000 missionaries to the United States to spread the true faith. It goes without saying that each of these “missionaries” would form a center for recruiting and training “martyrs” for killing infidels.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Iran experts recall that in the 1980s, the founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini resorted extensively to pious and religious symbolism to invoke a sense of menace and electric anticipation in the country. His purpose was to galvanize young men to sacrifice themselves as martyrs in Iran’s holy wars and export of its revolution. Plastic keys to heaven, mass-produced cheaply in the Far East, were handed out to each soldier. Troops fighting in the Iraq-Iran war were entertained by misty visions of the glorious Messiah prancing on his white horse to the front.

The atmosphere of hysteria and dread drummed up in Iran today may be the ayatollahs’ proven way of preparing the country for some new sacrifice.

GCC Fears Iran 'Getting out of Hand'

Heba Kandil, Reuters:

Leaders of six pro-U.S. Gulf Arab states meet on Sunday to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions and a U.N.-Syria standoff, concerned that an escalation of these disputes could rock a region already suffering from instability in Iraq.

"There is concern that Iran's nuclear program could be weaponised. At the end of the day they (Iranians) are building a nuclear reactor across the Gulf," one Gulf official said.

"There is also concern that if there is any military action (on Iran), Iran might retaliate and attack pro-U.S. allies in the Gulf," he said ahead of the two-day annual meeting held in the United Arab Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi. READ MORE

Foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meet on Saturday ahead of the summit, which some analysts expect will call for intensified diplomacy with Iran. The GCC groups Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

"GCC countries are getting worried that things in Iran are getting out of hand," N. Jahardhan, analyst at independent think thank Gulf Research Center.

"The GCC realizes Iran is definitely a threat...Things have reached a critical stage and they feel they will bear the brunt of any escalation. It is clear that there is no defined policy in Iran about what to do if it is attacked."

Iran's controversial nuclear program is fuelling regional and Western fears that it is seeking to develop weapons, which Tehran denies.

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's verbal salvos at Israel -- in which he called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map -- are stoking fears about its nuclear activities and making Gulf states even more anxious.

Any talks by the Sunni-led GCC with Shi'ite Iran would also focus on Tehran's growing influence in Iraq where Shi'ites gained power after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Saudi Arabia has bluntly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs.

STRONG WORDS FOR SYRIA

A Saudi official said Riyadh was keen the Gulf leaders demand Syria cooperate with a U.N. probe into the killing in February of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who enjoyed close ties with the kingdom.

"King Abdullah has taken the lead to persuade Syria to meet U.N. demands and Riyadh expects the summit to reflect Saudi desire for full Syrian cooperation," the official said.

Another Gulf official said the GCC is likely to issue a strongly worded statement on Syria. "They want Syria to comply with the United Nations and stop dragging its feet," he added.

The Security Council is reviewing a report by investigator Detlev Mehlis, who said new evidence implicated Syria in Hariri's murder. Syria insists it had no role in the killing.

Saudi Arabia had helped broker a deal between Syria and the United Nations by persuading Damascus to agree to the questioning of five Syrians over Hariri's murder.

On the economic front, analysts expect talks to focus on turning bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) between member states and other countries into deals with the whole bloc.

The GCC has reluctantly agreed to individual bilateral FTAs with Washington, even though they infringe on a joint tariff deal, but said trade pacts may not be signed with other states.

Saudi Arabia's Labour Minister Ghazi al-Gosaibi has also said ministers will propose a six-year limit for expatriates to stay in Gulf states, which rely on millions of foreign workers.

He said the move aims to pre-empt any international laws which might force states to grant citizenship to long-term residents.

Iran's new mandatory Chador

Alan Peters: Editors note: Modern Iranian women have been pushing the limits. Althought they have been required to wear the veil they have added a modern touch.

Sources inside of Iran are saying that President Ahmadi-Nejad's has decree that in future all women had to wear a black tent-like garment called a "chador" (literally meaning a tent) and would no longer be permitted to wear long coats and headscarves. This is as close to a Burkha as Iranian tradition goes.

Examples of modern Iranian women:




But Ahmadinejad is preparing to enforce the dress below:

The women of Iran are likely to oppose this aggressively.

The name “Alan Peters” is a nom de plume for a writer who was for many years involved in intelligence and security matters in Iran. He had significant access inside Iran at high levels during the rule of the Shah, until early 1979.

Assassination and the C-130

Alan Peters:

The new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, whose Hojattieh beliefs put him among the lunatic fringe category of Islam was last Thursday reportedly the target of an assassination attempt in the south Eastern Province of Sistan/Baluchistan. (see my article on him and the Hojattieh at and some other of my writings on Iran),

The independent, warrior Baluchi tribes, Sunnis not Shia, who live on both sides of the border between Iran and Pakistani Baluchistan have always hated the Khomeini take over and frequently clash with the Revolutionary Guard paramilitary. Thus offering a nurturing launching point for any anti-Mullah operations either by US Special Forces or even the Mossad.

The failed attempt which killed one bodyguard and wounded another is already being touted as an Israeli operation in response to Ahmadi-Nejad's verbal attacks on Israel. Other sources believe it could have been the old guard Mullahs trying to obliterate their mistake in allowing this fanatical man from bringing the whole of the world down on Iranian heads.

Neither mainstream news media, nor cable news, have so far mentioned the event and information is still scant as to what he was doing there, whether he was in fact in the convoy when it was attacked. A search is being made for additional facts through contacts.

In the meantime, some claim the killing attempt was in retribution for his being the main cause of the deaths of some 119 people in the recent C-130 crash at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. Two experienced Iranian military pilots refused to take off in the aging cargo aircraft, which had failed to pass all mechanical and safety checks.

Eventually, senior military personnel prevailed on a junior airforce pilot to take off with the sixty-five or so journalists and some other passengers, twenty five of whom have still failed to be identified.

Shortly after take-off, the pilot ran into technical difficulties and sent out a Mayday but was told to stay aloft till permission was obtained for him to land at Mehrabad. Why? Because President Ahmadi-Nejad was departing Mehrabad in the brand new "holy" aircraft purchased by Supreme Leader Khamenei, to go to Saudi Arabia and airspace was closed till his flight left. Emergencies and the potential loss of life apparently carried no weight.

When the pilot requested permission to take the C-130, which lands easily on desert terrain south of the capital and land in the desert, he was ordered to stay in the vicinity of Mehrabad airport. Sources reveal that the powers that be at Mehrabad did not want a plane full of reporters to land safely in the middle of nowhere and to have to deal with the resultant media outbursts as to the poor quality control and servicing of military aircraft.

After more than 30-minutes of the crippled aircraft trying to stay up and Ahmadi-Nejad finally leaving the ground, the pilot was given permission to land. In his effort to avoid military housing complexes his course took him too close to a couple of ten story residential buildings and he clipped one with a wing, sending the aircraft plunging and killing those one board as well as people on the ground.

Here are some photos of the incident and the makeshift storage of victims bodies and slabs of ice brought in to keep them from rotting.

Crash site

Lower view of site

Victims piled into a room

Ice slabs being brought in

Ice draped bodies

Relatives picking up victims' personal belongings

The Majliss (parliament) is currently meeting to impeach the Iranian Minister of Defense over the C-130 air crash.

Sources in Iran also indicate that efforts are under way to impeach the new President, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, but that a parallel effort has been working on sending him back to Allah and opinion has it, he will not complete his term in office.

The name “Alan Peters” is a nom de plume for a writer who was for many years involved in intelligence and security matters in Iran. He had significant access inside Iran at high levels during the rule of the Shah, until early 1979.

Iran President's Bodyguard Dies in Ambush

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

One of the bodyguards of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed and another wounded when an attempt to ambush the presidential motorcade was thwarted in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, according to a semi-official newspaper and local residents.

“At 6:50 pm on Thursday, the lead car in the presidential motorcade confronted armed bandits and trouble-makers on the Zabol-Saravan highway”, the semi-official Jomhouri Islami reported on Saturday.

“In the ensuing armed clash, the driver of the vehicle, who was an indigenous member of the security services, and one of the president’s bodyguards died, while another bodyguard was wounded”, the newspaper, which was founded by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote.

Ahmadinejad traveled to the restive province, where ethnic Baluchis have been fighting for years for autonomy, on Wednesday and returned to Tehran on Friday afternoon. Tehran often refers to anti-government activists and political opponents of the Islamist regime as “bandits” and “trouble-makers”.

The newspaper report made no mention of Ahmadinejad’s whereabouts during the attack on his bodyguards’ vehicle, but Zabol residents reached by telephone said there were rumors in the town that the hard-line president himself was the target of the attack, which took place near Zabol. READ MORE

“Many people have been rounded up for questioning after the attack and the authorities here were clearly shaken by the incident”, a Zabol resident told Iran Focus.

The Sunni Baluchis have faced years of religious and racial discrimination under Iran’s Shiite clergy-dominated government.

Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a “myth” on Wednesday, on the first day of his trip to the province.

“They have fabricated a legend under the name 'Massacre of the Jews', and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves”, he told a crowd in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan and Baluchestan.

The presidential office and other government officials have refrained from making any comment on the ambush.

Iran’s state-controlled media have given much prominence to Ahmadinejad’s visit to the impoverished province.

The Balouch are fiercely independent.

However, for months now there have been rumors that the Rafsanjani and Khatami factions may attempt to have Ahamdinejad assassinated in hopes of obtaining a "grand bargain" with the international community which leaves the regime in place while they continue their secret nuclear program. Ahmadinehad has been threatening many in the Rafsanjani and Khatami factions with arrest under corruption charges.

Whether this has anything to do with this report is unknown, but assassinating Ahmadinejad without also assassinating the rest of the leadership is likely to have a negative consequences, as it would give false hope to the international community desperate for solution.

The losers would be the democratic forces in Iran and likely give Iran time to go nuclear.

Michael Ledeen's thoughts.

Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 12.17.2005:

German Intelligence Warns That Iran Has New Missiles

Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

German intelligence believes Iran has now bought 18 longer-range missiles from North Korea, giving Teheran the capability to attack targets in central Europe, the German daily newspaper Bild reported Friday.

The study by the foreign intelligence service BND said the BM-25 missiles were being purchased from Pyongyang in the form of kit sets. The mobile missiles, which are based on the Russian SS-N-6 missile for submarine launch, will have a nominal range of 2,500 kilometres.

However it was possible to upgrade them to hit targets 3,500 kilometres away, the Munich-based BND said. READ MORE

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

• Dow Jones Newswires reported that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday there is no evidence that Iran intends to back down in a diplomatic standoff over its disputed nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an "odd guy."
• Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post warns us that Iran is arming for Armageddon. A must read,
• Ze'ev Schiff, Ha'aretz examined the question: Is There a Military Option?
• The New York Sun reported that Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom said: Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started.
• Iran Focus reported that Iranian agents in Iraq carried out a widespread campaign of poll manipulation to ensure victory by Shiite groups allied to Tehran.
• IranMania reported that most Israelis want their government to use diplomacy rather than military power.
• Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki voiced Iran's concern over the increasing human rights violations of the US.
• Reuters reported that an influential Republican congresswoman expressed frustration on Friday over President George W. Bush's approach to Iran.
• Kiarash Kianmehr, Rooz Online reported that some of the passengers on board the C-130 military transport aircraft that crashed last week died of asphyxiation due to the lack of emergency oxygen on board.
• Maryam Kashani, Rooz Online published several strange accounts of Ahmadinejad's recent trip to Saudi Arabia.
• Phyllis Chesler, FrontPageMagazine published a speech given before the US Senate this past week: Islamic Gender Apartheid.
• A photo that answers the question: Where do the Iranian people get their news?
• And finally, a Cartoon about Ahmadinejad: Mullah's Wild Dog.

Islamic Gender Apartheid

Phyllis Chesler, FrontPageMagazine:

A speech for the 12/14/05 Senate hearing organized by the American Committee for Democracy in the Middle East.

According to one Iranian dissident, “being born female is both a capital crime and a death sentence.” Today, the plight of both women and men in the Islamic world, and in an increasingly Islamized Europe, demands a sober analysis and a heroic response. In a democratic, modern, and feminist era, women in the Islamic world are not treated as human beings. Women in Iran and elsewhere in the Islamic world are viewed as the source of all evil. Their every move is brutally monitored and curtailed. The smallest infraction – a wanton wisp of hair escaping a headscarf – merits maximum punishment: Flogging in public, or worse. This is happening in Iran even as we speak. In 2005, a hospital in Tehran was accused of refusing entry to women who did not wear head-to-toe covering. In 2002, in Saudi Arabia, religious policemen prevented 14 year old schoolgirls from leaving a burning school building because they were not wearing their headscarves and abayahs. Fifteen girls died. READ MORE

Today, George Orwell's Thought Police are, rather ominously, everywhere in the Arab and Islamic world. Orwell's Thought Police pre-date the Afghan Taliban or Iran's or Saudi Arabia’s Virtue-and-Vice squads, who arrest men and women for the smallest sign of "individuality", difference, or female-ness.

Women in Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and increasingly in Egypt, are veiled from head to toe. They live in purdah and lead segregated lives. Women are also forced into arranged and polygamous marriages, often when they are children, and often to much older men or to first cousins.

Girls and women are routinely beaten. Woman-beating is normalized and culturally sanctioned and those who dare protest it are shamed, beaten savagely, and sometimes even honor-murdered by their own families. According to the Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran, two out of every three Iranian women have experienced serious domestic violence. Eighty one per cent of married women have experienced domestic violence in their first year of marriage. In addition, every year, millions of Muslim women are genitally mutilated—and this is not only happening in Muslim Africa. It is increasingly happening in Iran and in Europe and in North America where the procedures are quietly carried out in hospitals.

In many Muslim countries, women are not allowed to vote, drive, leave the house, or leave the country without male permission and a male escort. Most runaway girls in Iran are raped within the first 24 hours of their departure. The majority of such runaway rape victims are rejected by their families after they are raped. When Iranian girls or women run away from abusive homes, they are also quickly trafficked into prostitution, which has increased alarmingly in the last decade in Iran and which now includes temporary marriages that allow men to “marry for only an hour.” Rape victims and suspected prostitutes are quickly jailed and repeatedly raped, and often impregnated, by their guards. In 2004, nearly 4,000 women were arrested in Tehran alone. Six hundred and forty nine were girls below the age of 14.

Iranian women are worn down every minute and in every way in their private lives. For example, in the summer of ’05, a court in Tehran barred a young woman from working after her estranged husband complained that she was only allowed to be a housewife. This woman had been battered and she had fled the marriage two years earlier. But the court confirmed her husband’s right to bar her from working outside the home. In November of ’05, an 80-year-old husband clubbed his 50-year-old wife to death, “because he could not tolerate her wearing makeup outside the home”. In October of ’05, female civil servants at Iran’s culture ministry were forced to leave the office by dusk “to be with their families”. One female journalist, who works nightshifts at an Iranian newspaper said: “This decree means that I will be jobless soon.”

And then there are the public and terrifying atrocities.

Increasingly in Iran, women are publicly hung or are slowly and painfully stoned to death for alleged adultery or for having been raped. Public amputations, floggings, and executions are “almost a daily spectacle”. If women (and men) publicly protest such heartbreaking barbarities, they are slandered as “anti-Muslim,” arrested, and often murdered by the state.

The bravery of Iranian demonstrators is therefore heart stopping. They know precisely what can and will happen to them and still they demonstrate. In Tehran this past summer of ’05, women protested Iran’s clerical rulers. They chanted “Freedom, freedom, freedom!” and called for a referendum on religious rule. They chanted “Unequal law means inhuman justice” and “Misogyny is the root of tyranny.” Earlier in March of ’05, demonstrators at Tehran University demanded that women have a right to choose what they wear; that women must be free to choose their husbands and to marry or to divorce; that any kind of sex trade and human trafficking should be forbidden; that polygamy must be illegal.

Many Muslim women are also honor murdered by their families—yes, by their mothers as well as by their fathers and older brothers for the crime of wanting to go to college, marry for love, end abusive marriages, or go to the movies. Honor murders are usually horrific, very primitive. The girls or women are be-headed or they are stabbed many times, or slowly choked to death. I write about all this in my most recent book, The Death of Feminism. What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom.

I call this systemic mistreatment: "Islamic gender Apartheid."

If we do not oppose and defeat Islamic gender Apartheid, democracy and freedom cannot flourish in the Arab and Islamic world. If we do not join forces with Muslim dissident and feminist groups; and, above all, if we do not have one universal standard of human rights for all—then we will fail our own Judeo-Christian and secular western ideals. We will also inherit the whirlwind. If we do not stop Islamic gender and religious Apartheid abroad, be assured: It is coming our way soon. Indeed, it is already here. I document Islamic gender Apartheid in both Europe and North America in my new book The Death of Feminism. What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom.

It is dangerous to say what I have just said on most campuses in Europe and North America. If one describes the barbaric human rights violations being carried out in the name of Islam, one is instantly accused of being a “racist,” a “Zionist,” an American “imperialist,” and, the worse epithet of all, a “pro-war neo-conservative.” Islamic associations in the West, radical mullahs and Muslim leaders abroad, and culturally relativist western thinkers will sue you, shout you down, refuse to publish you, and refuse to listen to you.

Some personal disclosures are now in order.

First, I am a feminist and an American patriot. Yes, one can be both. I am also an internationalist. I believe in one universal standard of human rights for everyone. Finally, I am a religious Jew and am sympathetic to both religious and secular world-views. Being religious does not compromise my feminism. On the contrary, it gives me the strength and a necessarily humbled perspective to continue the struggle for justice.

Second, Afghanistan matters to me, it has touched my life. Once, long ago, in 1961, I was held captive there and kept in fairly posh purdah; some women were exceptionally kind to me. I will never forget them. I believe that my so-called “western” feminism was forged in that most beautiful and tragic of countries. Let me share some details.

I had married my college sweetheart and we traveled to Kabul to meet his family. I had no intention of staying there. In Afghanistan, a few hundred wealthy families lived by European standards. Everyone else lived in the Middle Ages. When we landed, airport officials confiscated my American passport. I never saw it again. Then, I discovered that my father-in-law had three wives and 21 children. Finally, like all upper class Afghan woman, I was placed under house arrest.

Individual Afghans were charming, funny, humane, tender, enchantingly courteous, and sometimes breathtakingly honest. Yet, their country was a bastion of illiteracy, poverty, and preventable disease.

I never put on the headscarves, long coats, and gloves. Instead, I would take a deep breath, go out, and stride at a brisk, American pace. Sometimes, I'd take a bus. The buses were quite colorful except inside, fully sheeted women sat apart from the men at the back of the bus. The first time I saw this, I laughed out loud in disbelief and nervousness.

There soon came a time when I knew I would have to leave. I presented myself at the American Embassy. They could not help me. They told me that as the "wife of an Afghan national," I was no longer an American citizen entitled to American protection. Each time, the Marines would escort me back home. I came to understand that once an American woman marries a Muslim, and lives in a Muslim country, she is a citizen of no country. She is no longer entitled to the rights she once enjoyed. Only military mercenaries can rescue her.

A woman dares not forget such lessons—not if she manages to survive and escape. Which I did—though weighing 90 pounds and with hepatitis.

Firsthand experience of life under Islam as a woman held captive in Kabul has shaped the kind of feminist I became and have remained—one who is not a multicultural relativist. I learned, early on, how incredibly servile oppressed peoples could be and how deadly the oppressed could be toward each other. My husband's mother was very cruel to her female servants. I understood that women internalize sexism just as men do. It was an observation that has stayed with me.

What I experienced in Afghanistan taught me the necessity of applying a single standard of human rights, not one tailored to each culture.

Let us now return to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1990, Iranian journalist, Freidoune Sahebjam, published a haunting and carefully rendered account of how, on August 15, 1986, a 35-year-old woman was stoned to death in Kupayeh, Iran. It is titled: The Stoning of Soraya M. Soraya, (peace be upon her), was lynched by the villagers with whom she had lived all her life. Her own father, her two sons, and her lying, greedy, heartless, criminal-husband, Ghorban-Ali, all threw the first stones.

When Soraya was only 13, an arranged marriage with the 20-year-old Ghorban-Ali took place. Soraya was docile, obedient, and fertile. She did everything uncomplainingly. Her husband routinely insulted, beat, and then abandoned her and their children; he also consorted with prostitutes and brought them into the marital bed. Soraya dared not say a word. A "complaining" wife is easy to divorce.

On his say-so, she was sentenced to die—on the very day her husband accused her of adultery. The villagers chanted: "The whore has to die. Death to the woman." The villagers--who had known Soraya since her birth--cursed her, spit on her, hit her, and whipped her as she walked to her stoning. According to Sahebjam’s account, a "shudder of pleasure and joy ran through the crowd", as their stones drew blood. Soraya died a slow and agonizing death. Afterwards, the villagers all literally danced on the spot where Soraya had been murdered.

I must emphasize that this ghastly, local stoning cannot be blamed on the alleged crimes of the American or Israeli Empire. Like evil, barbaric customs also exist in the world. The West has not caused them. This is a very important point—as is the question: What can or must we do about it?

Dare to argue for military as well as humanitarian and educational intervention—and you will be slandered as a “racist”—even when you are arguing for the lives and dignity of brown- and black- and olive-skinned people. In the name of anti-racism and political correctness, the Western academy and media appear to have all but abandoned vulnerable people—Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, and Hindus—to the forces of Islamism. Such cultural relativism is, today, perhaps the greatest failing of the western academic and media establishments.

If we, as Americans, want to continue the struggle for women's and humanity's global freedom, we can no longer allow ourselves to remain inactive, anti-activist, cowed by outdated left and European views of colonial-era racism that are meant to trump and silence concerns about gender. The Western academy has been thoroughly “Palestinianized”. Even feminists have come to believe that the “occupation of Palestine” is far more important than the occupation and destruction of women’s bodies, worldwide.

As I see it, everything is at stake. This is not the time for ideological party lines. It is a time for action, clarity, and unity. As Americans, we must acknowledge that Islamic religious and gender Apartheid are evil and have no justification. I would like us to support Muslim and Arab dissidents in their fight against Islamic gender apartheid and against tyranny. To fail this opportunity betrays all that we believe in.

I share the vision that Natan Sharansky and Ron Dermer have spelled out in their book The Case for Democracy. The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror. I, too, believe that "democratic nations, led by the United States have a critical role to play in expanding freedom around the globe." Both women and religious minorities in non-western and Muslim countries, and in an increasingly Islamized Europe, are endangered as never before. In my new book, I argue that America must begin to factor both gender and religious Apartheid into our evolving foreign policies.

What must be done? We must combat the hate propaganda against America, Israel, and women that characterizes so much of the Arab and Muslim world today. This is a long educational and cultural process. We must defeat jihad. We must fight back. And, we must peg every peace and trade treaty with a Muslim country to the status of women in that country. I have a list of ten things that must be done in this regard vis a vis Iran. My esteemed colleague, Professor Donna Hughes, has begun to spell out what an American feminist foreign policy might be towards Iran.

American and Western leaders cannot turn their backs on Muslim dissidents, on the people in the Arab and Muslim world—or on the endangered Jews in Israel or on the Christians in Muslim countries. Our American vision of freedom and equality for women must also become part of American foreign policy. This is the feminist priority of the twenty-first century.