Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [7/30/06 - 8/05/06] major news events regarding Iran. (The reports are listed in chronological order, not by importance) READ MORE

Iran behind Hezbollah's war on Israel.

• Reuters reported that the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said hardline forces should get ready to take revenge on Israel and the United States for the offensive on Lebanon. The regime later retracted the report.
• Los Angeles Times reported that to President Bush, the conflict in Lebanon is "a moment of opportunity" for the United States — with the most important target not Hezbollah or even neighboring Syria, but distant Iran.
• Amir Taheri, The Australian argued that Hezbollah in Lebanon is a state within a state thrives in the south modeled after the Islamic Republic of Iran.
• The Washington Times reported on Hezbollah's use of human shields.
• Michael Ledeen, The Corner found an interesting post on Hezbollah's "Civilian Shields."
• The Jerusalem Post reported that French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said of Iran: "In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region." One diplomat asked, "What planet is he on?"
• Rachel Ehrenfeld, The Washington Times argued that Israel is now fighting two of radical Islam's most virulent versions -- the Shi'ite Hezbollah and the Sunni Hamas and its ability to defeat them, will determine the survival of the United States and all Western-style democracies.
• Aljazeera.net reported that Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati called on Muslim countries to arm Hezbollah in its struggle against Israel.
• Radio Free Europe reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki continued his visit to Beirut with a meeting with Lebanese President Emil Lahud.
• Iran Press News reported that Hezbollah executes 18 Lebanese Christians & Druze for exposing Hezbollah hideouts.
• Reuters reported that Iran has freed, Saad bin Laden, a son of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sending him to the Syria-Lebanon border and the task of building Islamist terror cells and preparing them to fight together with Hizbollah.
• The Sacramento Bee reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a stern warning that Syria and Iran will face serious consequences if they continue working to destabilize the Middle East. "If they keep raising the stakes, they will find they have miscalculated."
• Amir Taheri, Gulf News looked at past cease fires in Lebanon and reasons why creating one between Hezbollah and Israel is full of dangers.
• Amir Taheri, The Times Online reported that all the wars in the Middle East of the past century revolved around secular issues and none had a messianic dimension, until now.
• Reuters reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other leaders from the Islamic world demanded a halt on Thursday to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.
• Yahoo News reported that according to Jane's Defence Weekly, Iran will supply Hezbollah with surface-to-air missile systems in the coming months, boosting the guerrillas' defences against Israeli aircraft.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran admitted for the first time that it did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hezbullah.
• Yahoo News reported that Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora in remarks published has accused Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki of "going over the limit" by criticising his plan to end the war between Hezbollah and Israel.
• Iran Press News reported on an interview with Mullah Ali-Akbar Mohtashami-pour, known as "The Godfather" of Lebanon's Hezbollah and also known as one of the leaders of the defeated and now-marginalized band of Reformists. He said: "while I was in Lebanon and Syria myself, we were able to organize at least 30 training sessions and each session was consistent of 300 trainees."
• Iran Press News reported that Hezbollah forces are dispatched to Iran in order to receive training by the Islamic regime and are then returned to Lebanon. A 30-member group, who were on a recent training visit to Iran, was instructed on the operations of the “Fajr” Missiles 3 and 5, the Russian-made SAM (Surface-to-Air Missiles) 7 and the Chinese QW1.
  

Ahmadinejad's promised message to the world coming soon... August 22nd?

• Yehudit Barsky, InfoIsrael.net reported that little attention has been paid to Tehran's preparations for a possible showdown with America and its allies for a confrontation code-named "Al-Qiyamah," which is Arabic for "Judgment Day."
• The Washington Post reported that Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state medal on Sunday for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff with the international community. Then quoted Chavez saying: "Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire."
• Daniel Hannan, The Telegraph argued that the Iranian Revolution of 1979 will one day be seen as an epochal event, as significant as the French Revolution of 1789 or the Russian Revolution of 1917. We must first recognize the magnitude of what we are up against.
• Michael Ledeen, National Review Online argued that we are witnessing a repeat of the same mistakes that the world made in the 1930's that led to WWII.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted United States policy in the Middle East and warned of an impending Muslim “jihad”, or holy war, against the West.
• Xinhua reported that Iranian Supreme Leader said: "Muslims in the world must understand the only method to fight back the savage wolf of Zionism and Great Satan's aggression is resistance."
• FortWayne.com reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel. "Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented."
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that France's foreign minister condemned Iran's call to destroy Israel, saying Iran is ruining its chances to play a positive and stabilizing role in the Middle East.
  

Iran's Nuclear Program & The UN Security Council.

• Yahoo News reported that Iran's president signaled that Israeli attacks against the Palestinian territories and Lebanon were causing Iran to harden its stance in the international row over its nuclear program.
• FOX News reported that Iran's foreign ministry warned Sunday that Tehran would abandon the West's package of nuclear incentives if the U.N. Security Council approves a resolution against Iran on Monday.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.N. Security Council passed a weakened resolution Monday giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that President George W. Bush applauded the United Nations Security Council resolution saying: "It's a strong resolution."
• Reuters reported that Iranian U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif rejected as illegal the Security Council demand that it suspend its nuclear activities.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that would give his nation until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment.
• Rooz Online reported that the spokesman for the Majlis Leadership said: The West will yield on the nuclear issue.
• Iran Press News reported that the Islamic Republic has now specifically announced that should their nuclear dossier be voted for referral by the United Nations Security all political prisoners, whether on furlough or in prison, will be summarily executed.
• CNN.com reported that a South Korean state-run think tank said North Korea has been working closely with Iran to develop its long-range ballistic missiles, possibly using Chinese technology.
• Fox News reported that Russia said that Iran must respect an Aug. 31 deadline set by the U.N. Security Council for it to suspend uranium enrichment in order to avoid further steps against it.
• The Times Online reported that Iran is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb. A huge shipment of smuggled uranium 238, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
  

Iranian dissident Mohammadi's murder and funeral.

• Iran Press News reported that a beloved student leader, Akbar Mohammadi, died as a result of brutal torture by Islamic regimes' judiciary at the infamous Evin Prison. Mohammadi had just been returned to his cell in ward 350 after a brutal torture session. He was on his 9th day of a hunger strike. He gave his life for freedom. Photos.
• Reza Pahlavi released a statement on the murder of jailed dissident Akbar Mohammadi.
• Iran Press News reported that the Islamic Republic has now specifically announced that should their nuclear dossier be voted for referral by the United Nations Security all political prisoners, whether on furlough or in prison, will be summarily executed.
• Yahoo News reported that the United States harshly condemned what it called Iran's "severe repression of dissidents" following the death of a jailed student activist, Akbar Mohammadi.
• Rooz Online reported more on the death of Akbar Mohammadi when his father, who has another son (Manoutchehr Mohammadi) behind bars as well, told Radio Farda that he had heard from other prisoners that prison guards had tried to beat Akbar out of his hunger strike.
• Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that the younger sister of Iranian student activist Akbar Mohammadi says her brother was tortured and then murdered at Iran's Evin's prison this past weekend. "I received two phone calls on Sunday from fellow inmates who told me, ‘Akbar was poisoned.'"
• SOSIran published a translation of a report on the condition of the body of the Iranian dissident. Graphic language.
• Iran Press News published photos of the funeral of Iranian dissident Akbar Mohammadi.
  

Human Rights and Freedom of the Press in Iran.

• Rooz Online reported that the office of Amir Kabir University's student association was demolished in the presence of management and faculty members and with the approval and support of Dr. Rahaiee, the chancellor of the University.
• Adnkronos International reported that Iranian authorities banned the human rights group founded four years ago by a group of lawyers including Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.
• Reza Pahlavi demanded the release of all Iranian political prisoners in Iran after the death in prison of Akbar Mohamadi, the Iranian dissident, this week.
• Iran Press News reported that August 2nd, over 50 workers and activists from the greater Tehran bus drivers Union gathered in front of the labor department in east Tehran and asked that their belated demands be investigated as promised.
• Iran Press News reported that the publisher of the economic and cultural publication, Asia was sentenced to 6 months in prison charged with “propaganda for activist groups opposed to the Islamic Republic.”
• Michael Ledeen, The Corner commented on our report, where Iran warned that should their nuclear dossier be voted for referral by the United Nations Security all political prisoners will be summarily executed, saying A regime that kills its own citizens will not hesitate to kill its external enemies.
• Iran Press News reported that since the Islamic regime was taken off-guard by recent demonstrations and protests by the brave people of Tabriz, they have been displaying their mercenaries in the streets under the guise of conducting “maneuvers for confronting uprisings and unrest in the cities”, the terrorism-financing Islamic regime aims to strike fear in the hearts of the people.
  

The Iranian Economy.

• Khaleej Times reported that Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said Teheran will import gasoline for the next few months, cooling speculation that politically inflammatory rationing could be imminent.
• Iran Press News reported that China and Iran have signed a $100 Billion memorandum of understanding for the export of Iranian liquid gas.
• Reuters reported that India and Pakistan were offering to pay only half the amount for Iranian gas that Tehran was seeking as part of efforts to agree a pipeline deal.
  

Iran and the International community.

• Boston Herald reported that Somalia’s prime minister accused Egypt, Libya and Iran of providing weapons for Islamic militants who have seized control of much of this country’s south.
• Iran Press News reported that the regime-run Kayhan newspaper is demanding that a transit for drug shipments from Iran into Europe be opened up.
• Mos News reported that Washington imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s leading arms firms over their links with Iran on Friday, a step Moscow said was a “clearly illegitimate” attempt to impose U.S. laws on foreigners.
  

The US Congress on Iran.

• Kamran Beig reported that Friday Congress will consider commemorating the 1906 Constitutional Revolution in Iran.
• Yahoo News reported that the United States hailed Iran's constitutional revolution on its 100th anniversary as a defining but short-lived advance toward democracy, and voiced support for Iranians it said who still hoped for an open society.
• TradeArabia News Service reported that Rep Tom Lantos, an influential lawmaker has met Iran's UN ambassador Javad Zarif at the envoy's New York home twice in 2006.
  

Must Read reports.

• Robert Tracinski, RealClearPolitics argued that the new Lebanon War is a war in which everyone knows the enemy's strategy, in which it is child's play to see through all of his ruses and propaganda tricks--and yet our leaders, rather than devising their own counter-strategy, fall for every ruse and play along,
• Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post argued that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the man to watch these days. And yet it would seem that those in positions of power are paying him little heed.
• Dennis Prager, Real Clear Politics argued that whenever you hear that "world opinion" holds a view, assume it is morally wrong. He explains why.
• The Times Online in an editorial argued that the West must remember what the Middle East conflict is about, a question of values.
• David Warren, Real Clear Politics asked what happened to all the coverage from Qana? As usual, when the "liberal" media begin to realize they've been had, the story disappears. But it is never properly corrected. An examination of the underreported aspects of the story. A must read.
• Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, The Weekly Standard explained: Why The Jihadist's Fight, in a review of Professor Mary Habeck's book Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror. A must read.
• Alan Peters, AntiMullah published a retrospective on his reign on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980). He compared the Monarch to what followed.
  

The Experts.

• Amir Taheri, The Australian argued that Hezbollah in Lebanon is a state within a state thrives in the south modeled after the Islamic Republic of Iran.
• Henry A. Kissinger, The Washington Post argued that while many assert that what is needed in relation to Iran is a diplomacy comparable to that which, in the 1970s, moved China, the challenge of the Iranian negotiation is far more complex.
• Michael Ledeen, The Corner found an interesting post on Hezbollah's "Civilian Shields."
• Michael Ledeen, National Review Online argued that we are witnessing a repeat of the same mistakes that the world made in the 1930's that led to WWII.
• Amir Taheri, Gulf News looked at past cease fires in Lebanon and reasons why creating one between Hezbollah and Israel is full of dangers.
• Amir Taheri, The Times Online reported that all the wars in the Middle East of the past century revolved around secular issues and none had a messianic dimension, until now.
• Michael Ledeen, The Corner commented on our report, where Iran warned that should their nuclear dossier be voted for referral by the United Nations Security all political prisoners will be summarily executed, saying A regime that kills its own citizens will not hesitate to kill its external enemies.
  

Photos, cartoons and videos.

• Herald Sun published photos smuggled out of Lebanon show Hezbollah fighters dressed in civilian clothing using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-caliber weapons. Photos.
• Iran Press News published photos of the beloved student leader, Akbar Mohammadi, who died as a result of brutal torture by Islamic regimes' judiciary at the infamous Evin Prison.
• Rooz Online published a cartoon: Student Leader Akbar Mohammadi finally free.
• Iran Press News published photos of the funeral of Iranian dissident Akbar Mohammadi.
• A Graphic entitled: A love so beautiful...Putin & his Ahmadinejad.
  

The Quote of the Week.

FortWayne.com reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel.

"Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented."

Tags: iran, news, nuclear, lebanon, isreal

Sunday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 8.6.2006:

Secret Iranian uranium shipment stopped.

• The Times Online reported that Iran is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb. A huge shipment of smuggled uranium 238, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

Iranian dissident Mohammadi's funeral.

• SOSIran published a translation of a report on the condition of the body of the Iranian dissident. Graphic language.
• Iran Press News published photos of the funeral of Iranian dissident Akbar Mohammadi.

Regime newspaper: Open a corridor for the drug trade to Europe.

• Iran Press News reported that the regime-run Kayhan newspaper is demanding that a transit for drug shipments from Iran into Europe be opened up.

Russians angry over US sanction on arms deal to Iran.

• Mos News reported that Washington imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s leading arms firms over their links with Iran on Friday, a step Moscow said was a “clearly illegitimate” attempt to impose U.S. laws on foreigners.

Hezbollah's training program in Iran.

• Iran Press News reported on an interview with Mullah Ali-Akbar Mohtashami-pour, known as "The Godfather" of Lebanon's Hezbollah and also known as one of the leaders of the defeated and now-marginalized band of Reformists. He said: "while I was in Lebanon and Syria myself, we were able to organize at least 30 training sessions and each session was consistent of 300 trainees."
• Iran Press News reported that Hezbollah forces are dispatched to Iran in order to receive training by the Islamic regime and are then returned to Lebanon. A 30-member group, who were on a recent training visit to Iran, was instructed on the operations of the “Fajr” Missiles 3 and 5, the Russian-made SAM (Surface-to-Air Missiles) 7 and the Chinese QW1.

US Congress remembers Iran's 100th anniversary of it constitutional revolution.

• Yahoo News reported that the United States hailed Iran's constitutional revolution on its 100th anniversary as a defining but short-lived advance toward democracy, and voiced support for Iranians it said who still hoped for an open society.

Congressman Lantos meets with Iranian ambassador.

• TradeArabia News Service reported that Rep Tom Lantos, an influential lawmaker has met Iran's UN ambassador Javad Zarif at the envoy's New York home twice in 2006.

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

• Iran Press News reported that August 2nd, over 50 workers and activists from the greater Tehran bus drivers Union gathered in front of the labor department in east Tehran and asked that their belated demands be investigated as promised.
• Iran Press News reported that the publisher of the economic and cultural publication, Asia was sentenced to 6 months in prison charged with “propaganda for activist groups opposed to the Islamic Republic.”
• Michael Ledeen, The Corner commented on our report, where Iran warned that should their nuclear dossier be voted for referral by the United Nations Security all political prisoners will be summarily executed, saying A regime that kills its own citizens will not hesitate to kill its external enemies.
• Iran Press News reported that since the Islamic regime was taken off-guard by recent demonstrations and protests by the brave people of Tabriz, they have been displaying their mercenaries in the streets under the guise of conducting “maneuvers for confronting uprisings and unrest in the cities”, the terrorism-financing Islamic regime aims to strike fear in the hearts of the people.
• A Graphic entitled: A love so beautiful...Putin & his Ahmadinejad.

Tags: iran, news, lebanon, isreal

Moscow Slams U.S. Ban on Russian Arms Sales

Mos News:

Washington imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s leading arms firms over their links with Iran on Friday, a step Moscow said was a “clearly illegitimate” attempt to impose U.S. laws on foreigners, Reuters reports. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the State Department had slapped sanctions on state export agency Rosoboronexport and state-owned warplane maker Sukhoi, meaning they could no longer work with U.S. firms.

“This is a clearly illegitimate attempt to make foreign companies work by internal American rules,” the statement said.

Russia said the sanctions had been imposed under a U.S. law which penalizes companies for working with Iran in the sphere of weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S. later said it had imposed sanctions on seven companies from North Korea, Russia, India and Cuba for their arms deals with Iran.

Iran and Russia signed a $1 billion defense deal in December, Russian media said at the time. Russia agreed to supply TOR-M1 ground-to-air missile systems to the Islamic Republic and also agreed to modernize its air force. READ MORE

Russia is also building an atomic power station at Bushehr on Iran’s Gulf coast.

The statement said the sanctions would stop U.S. companies from working with the two Russian firms, a potential blow to the Russian Regional Jet civil aviation project, which Sukhoi is working on with aerospace giant Boeing.

A Sukhoi official said it had broken no regulations.

“We have competed on the U.S. market for a long time, we carefully study the laws and have never violated anything and do not intend to,” Alexander Klementev, deputy director of Sukhoi told Ekho Moskvy radio.

“Sukhoi has sent absolutely nothing to Iran in the last 6 or 7 years.”

Rosoboronexport is one of the world’s biggest arms sellers, accounting for around 70 percent of Russia’s $6 billion of sales in 2005.

It was not clear from the Russian statement whether the sanctions would also cover the two firms’ subsidiaries. If so, they could soon affect U.S. imports of titanium, an important metal in the aerospace sector.

Rosoboronexport is planning to acquire the world’s biggest titanium maker, Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma, which supplies 35-40 percent of Boeing’s titanium as well as 60-70 percent of that used by its European rival Airbus.

Aircraft part maker Goodrich Corp. is also a customer.

Rosoboronexport owns Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ, which has a troubled joint venture with U.S. auto giant General Motors, which could also be affected.

“The U.S. is punishing its own companies, taking away their possibilities to cooperate with leading Russian companies,” the ministry said.

Washington and Moscow have clashed frequently over trade policy and Iran over the past few years, with U.S. officials angering President Vladimir Putin with criticism of his democratic record and foreign and energy policy.

Washington says Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as cover to develop atomic weapons.

US Lawmaker Pursues Dialogue with Iran

TradeArabia News Service:

Even as US President George W Bush's administration avoids contacts with Iran, a lone Democratic congressman is cultivating his own dialogue with the Islamic state. Rep Tom Lantos, an influential lawmaker who could end up running the International Relations Committee if Democrats retake the US House of Representatives in November, said he has met Iran's UN ambassador Javad Zarif at the envoy's New York home twice in 2006 -- once for dinner and once for lunch.

The meetings were initiated by Lantos of California, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. He also had contacts with Iran's UN mission in 2005. READ MORE

Lantos said he also has visited Syria on "fairly regular basis" over the years, meeting both President Bashir al-Assad and his late father.

Since the fighting between Iranian-backed Hizbollah Islamic militants and Israel broke out three weeks ago, some experts have predicted a resolution of the crisis will ultimately have to involve Iran and Syria, something the Bush administration so far has rejected.

The United States has accused both governments of sponsoring state terrorism. It broke diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980 and while there are formal US ties with Syria, the Bush administration increasingly has tried to isolate Damascus.

Lantos told Reuters in a recent interview that with help from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, he has also been trying to get a visa to visit Tehran but so far "the Iranians seem totally disinterested."

The Bush administration in June offered to join European allies in proposing incentives and offering to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program if Tehran halted its uranium enrichment activities. But Iranian officials so far have rejected that idea.

Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weil said the administration has "neither encouraged nor discouraged" his outreach to Tehran.

If he did go to Tehran, Lantos said, his message would be that Iran has a much greater interest in fostering productive relations with the United States and the rest of world than in having access to nuclear weapons technology.

The United States and its allies suspect Iran is developing a nuclear bomb and accuse it of hiding its research for the past 18 years. Tehran denies the charge.

Power to the People

Michael Ledeen, The Corner:

For those who have not yet learned that Sharansky's basic insight into the importance of freedom is so very right, this in from Iran (from Regimechangeiran.com):

the Islamic Republic has now specifically announced that should their nuclear dossier be voted for referral by the United Nations Security all political prisoners, whether on furlough or in prison, will be summarily executed.

A regime that kills its own citizens will not hesitate to kill its external enemies. A regime that unhesitatingly provides Hizbollah with the missiles to kill Israeli and Iraqi civilians (and lock Lebanese civilians into places where they then invite Israeli attack) will not hesitate to kill its own civilians.

The only durable remedy for this is the civilization of the population, and then entrusting it with the power to govern itself. If only our leaders were more familiar with the democratization programs in Germany and Japan we might have a clearer understanding of today's problems.

Iran's plot to mine uranium in Africa

Jon Swain, David Leppard and Brian Johnson-Thomas, The Times Online:

IRAN is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb, an investigation has revealed.

A United Nations report, dated July 18, said there was “no doubt” that a huge shipment of smuggled uranium 238, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania, was transported from the Lubumbashi mines in the Congo.

Tanzanian customs officials told The Sunday Times it was destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and was stopped on October 22 last year during a routine check. READ MORE

The disclosure will heighten western fears about the extent of Iran’s presumed nuclear weapons programme and the strategic implications of Iran’s continuing support for Hezbollah during the war with Israel.

It has also emerged that terror cells backed by Iran may be prepared to mount attacks against nuclear power plants in Britain. Intelligence circulating in Whitehall suggests that sleeper cells linked to Tehran have been conducting reconnaissance at some nuclear sites in preparation for a possible attack.

The parliamentary intelligence and security committee has reported that Iran represented one of the three biggest security threats to Britain. The UN security council has given Iran until the end of this month to halt its uranium enrichment activities. The UN has threatened sanctions if Tehran fails to do so.

A senior Tanzanian customs official said the illicit uranium shipment was found hidden in a consignment of coltan, a rare mineral used to make chips in mobile telephones. The shipment was destined for smelting in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, delivered via Bandar Abbas, Iran’s biggest port.

“There were several containers due to be shipped and they were all routinely scanned with a Geiger counter,” the official said.

“This one was very radioactive. When we opened the container it was full of drums of coltan. Each drum contains about 50kg of ore. When the first and second rows were removed,the ones after that were found to be drums of uranium.”

In a nuclear reactor, uranium 238 can be used to breed plutonium used in nuclear weapons.

The customs officer, who spoke to The Sunday Times on condition he was not named, added: “The container was put in a secure part of the port and it was later taken away, by the Americans, I think, or at least with their help. We have all been told not to talk to anyone about this.”

The report by the UN investigation team was submitted to the chairman of the UN sanctions committee, Oswaldo de Rivero, at the end of July and will be considered soon by the security council.

It states that Tanzania provided “limited data” on three other shipments of radioactive materials seized in Dar es Salaam over the past 10 years.

The experts said: “In reference to the last shipment from October 2005, the Tanzanian government left no doubt that the uranium was transported from Lubumbashi by road through Zambia to the united republic of Tanzania.”

Lubumbashi is the capital of mineral-rich Katanga province, home of the Shinkolobwe uranium mine that produced material for the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The mine has officially been closed since 1961, before the country’s independence from Belgium, but the UN investigators have told the security council that they found evidence of illegal mining still going on at the site.

In 1999 there were reports that the Congolese authorities had tried to re-open the mine with the help of North Korea. In recent years miners are said to have broken open the lids and extracted ore from the shafts, while police and local authorities turned a blind eye.

In June a parliamentary committee warned that Britain could be attacked by Iranian terrorists if tensions increased.

A source with access to current MI5 assessments said: “There is great concern about Iranian sleeper cells inside this country. The intelligence services are taking this threat very seriously.”

Regime-run Kayhan newspaper demands transit for drug shipment from Iran into Europe

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

Keyhan, the mouthpiece newspaper belonging to Fuehrer Mullah Khamnei, in an article entitled “THEY OWE US”, written by an unknown individual with the pen name "Nasser Bahrami-Rod" suggested that in order to deflect the high cost of combating drugs in Iran a transit route for the shipment of drugs to Europe and America should be opened up. According to Advaar News, the news source from the office of fostering unity, a part of this note claims: "there is no reason why a large part of the human and financial continued cost of our country could not consistently be spent on a battle whose price is being paid by ‘Iran’ and whose profits are being gleaned in the western world. If the noncompliance of westerners and the international organizations under their control continues, there are other ways to deal with the situation; for example a corridor can be opened inside the least populated parts of Iran, that can be entirely controlled by of the convoys carrying the drugs, guaranteeing them safe passage and their cargo can then, ultimately go wherever it needs to go. READ MORE

As such the price of confronting the ‘tradesmen of death’, treatment of addiction as well as economic and social costs in Iran can, for obvious reasons, such as lesser overflow and the skyrocketing price of drugs, be reduced. Not only that but the countenance of the European and American youths will become pathetic [from the force of addiction]. It is important to pay attention to an item that was printed approximately two months ago that specified that over a ten day period, the new drug FENTANYL, killed 48 people in Detroit. Westerners owe us…much more than 500 million dollars.”

* Editor’s note: The Islamist regime has responded by cracking down on students on several occasions in order to defuse the most imminent threats of rebellion. It has also devised a more sinister and long-term plan for the containment of Iranian youth: a systematic and massive induction to drug addiction, which has now reached colossal proportions. Several United Nations and DEA reports have documented this crisis, indicating that drug addiction is the thorniest problem in Iran. To give an idea of the magnitude of this matter, Afghanistan produced around 6,000 tons of opium in 2003—approximately half of which has been acquired by Iran. After the Afghani government announced it would crack down on opium production, the Iranian government decided, after an open debate reported by several regime-run agencies such as IRNA, to start producing opium on Iranian soil to satisfy the internal (and induced) demand.

The use of drugs has traditionally been tolerated within Iranian society, particularly the consumption of hashish and opium by middle-aged and older men, the same way Western societies have been more permissive of alcohol. Today, however, drug use is no longer an “old people's bad habit.” The average addiction age is falling rapidly; a few years ago, the addiction age fell to the age group of 25-29. Today the age group of 10-19 is the most afflicted by drug addiction in Iran.

Sociologically, a strict correlation has been established between lack of jobs and drug consumption in all societies. As far as Iran is concerned, the situation is exacerbated by not only rampant unemployment, but also by a general apathy and lack of confidence in the future. Iranian youth doesn’t see the light at the end of the emotional tunnel in which the country has subsisted since the theocracy was established almost 28 years ago. The official unemployment rate is 14 percent, but Western analysts estimate the real number to now be at approximately 40%. Although youth unemployment easily exceeds 50 percent, this statistic disregards the reality of the other 50 percent, who are usually under-employed. The quality of Iranian education is high, comparable to Western countries. Thus, the despair of highly skilled young graduates forced to accept menial jobs in small shops is reflected more in the drug addiction rates rather than the employment statistics.

Buying heroin and opium is easier than buying bread or milk, for which Iranians have to endure long lines. Official government rhetoric blames the nefarious influence of Western culture and the Internet for the increase in drug consumption. In reality, the government does nothing to fight the problem. On the contrary, in the best case it turns a blind eye to the illicit drug traffic that brings even more money to the pockets of the powerful mullahs in charge. And in the worst case it favors the increase of drug addiction, even revoking the subsidies given to people for detoxification. Thirty pills of Naltroxone, a substance commonly used in Iran during the first days of the rehabilitation program, cost a little more than 20,000 tomans (25 U.S. dollars). Previously, that cost was covered by governmental subsidies; but ever since Parliament canceled the program, detoxification has become too expensive for Iran’s unemployed young people.

Promoting opium as a way to control potentially hostile masses has been done successfully in the past. A classic example is the British policy—adopted during the 19th century—of buying the ashes of opium from Chinese and Indian subjects in order to drive them into addiction and curb their rebellious instincts. Great Britain even went to war against China twice (the so called Opium Wars of 1839 and 1856) to force the Qing Emperor to legalize the import of opium.

All that said, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic regime, Ayatollah Khamnei’s estimated 50-year-long Opium addiction has been an open secret in Iran and among Iranians of all socio-political strata.

Tags: iran, news,

Holding maneuvers for combating unrest and anti-regime demonstrations

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

The tyrannical Islamic regime was taken off-guard by recent demonstrations and protests by the brave people of Tabriz and various other towns in the province of Azerbaijan. By displaying their mercenaries in the streets under the guise of conducting “maneuvers for confronting uprisings and unrest in the cities”, the terrorism-financing Islamic regime aims to strike fear in the hearts of the people of the region with Stalinist terror tactics. READ MORE

The regime-run news agency ILNA reported: "The ‘maneuvers for confronting uprisings and unrest in the cities’‌ took place in the township of Oscou, which is one of the suburbs of Tabriz. During this three-day maneuver, squadron 166 of the al-Zahra battalion in the Oscou area, confronted a simulated group of revolutionaries and containing the unrest, were able to take control of the city.”

Tags: iran, news,

Hezbollah mercenaries trained by the Islamic Republic of Iran returned to Lebanon

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

The highest circulation daily Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that Hezbollah forces are dispatched to Iran in order to receive training by the Islamic regime and are then returned to Lebanon. This publication related that after completing an intensive Commando course in Iran, these forces are sent back to perform their duties, such as night raids on Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. The training of these offensives and their commanders is under the guidance of the Lebanese Imad Moghniyeh and the commander of the al-Quds Brigade (a.k.a. The Jerusalem Brigade which Ahmadinejad hails from), Commandant Ghassem Soleimani and his second-in-command, Mustafa Rabei.

Corriere della Sera also added that a 30-member group, who were on a recent training visit to Iran, was instructed on the operations of the “Fajr” Missiles 3 and 5, the Russian-made SAM (Surface-to-Air Missiles) 7 and the Chinese QW1.

Tags: iran, news,

The so-called Reformist whose main concern is Lebanon and Palestine

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

The regime-run newspaper SHARGH, conducted an interview with Mullah Ali-Akbar Mohtashami-pour, known as "The Godfather" of Lebanon's Hezbollah and also known as one of the leaders of the defeated and now-marginalized band of Reformists. In this interview Mohtashami-pour roars that his main concern is Palestine and Lebanon.

This newspaper wrote: "Mohtashami-pour is the person who in the past years, as Interior minister of the Khatami cabinet and ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Syria worked long and hard to form the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah; he poured his heart and soul into this task.

Mohtashami-pour at present is the secretary general of the international conference of the Palestinian intifada and his main concern is always Palestine and Lebanon. Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, member of the Assembly of Combatant Clerics has communicated that during the Assembly sessions when we report our activities and his turn comes around, everyone turns and asks Mohtashami-pour about news from Lebanon and Palestine. "

Mullah Mohtashami-pour in this interview confesses that the Islamic Republic does in fact train Hezbollah terrorists in Iran and that the Islamic regime does in fact supply this terrorist organization with advanced weapons, ammunition and long-range missiles. Regarding the training of the Hezbollah forces, he says: "A part of the training that Hezbollah soldiers receive is in Iran and while I was in Lebanon and Syria myself, we were able to organize at least 30 training sessions and each session was consistent of 300 trainees. After that of course things did continue.”

Mohtashami-pour goes on to explain the nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s weaponry support to Hezbollah: "We provide them with everything from Katyushas to micro-seismic missiles that can target the farthest points in Israel. Israel is 27000 square kilometers, of which 12 kilometers in width and 200 kilometers in length. The Islamic Republic made, micro-seismic Zalzal 2 missiles have a 250 kilometer range from anywhere in Palestine which is occupied by Israel; there is no Hezbollah missiles that cannot get there." READ MORE

The reporter asks: “Some believe that the relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah should not have been made common knowledge and so transparent so that excuses cannot be made.” Mohtashami-pour responds: “Let’s not stand on ceremony, Hezbollah is the spiritual off-spring of the Imam [Khomeini], our illustrious revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran and has been from the beginning.”

Tags: iran, news,

Six month prison sentence confirmed for publisher of Asia newspaper

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

The publisher of the economic and cultural publication, Asia was sentenced to 6 months in prison by judges of branch 27 of the supreme court of the revolution. According to the regime-run Fars news agency, Dr. Saghi Bagherinia, publisher of Asia and wife of celebrated journalist Iraj Jamshidi editor-in-chief of ASIA and winner of the 2006 International Freedom Prize, was charged with “propaganda for activist groups opposed to the Islamic Republic” and sentenced to six months in prison. Dr. Bagherinia originally contested the sentence and as such the case was referred to the Supreme Court which ultimately confirmed the verdict issued by the Supreme Court judges of branch 27.

On Monday, July 31st the verdict was dispatched for approval of the Supreme Court, the office of the director of the criminal courts as well as the press office of the province of Tehran for the enforcement task unit.

The latest news of the status of Bus drivers union in Tehran

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

From the blog of student activist Paymon Peeron

At 8 AM on August 2nd, over 50 workers and activists from the greater Tehran bus drivers Union gathered in front of the labor department in east Tehran and asked that their belated demands be investigated as promised. It is worth mentioning that the heavy presence of security forces at the entrance of the Labor Department and presidential office is staggering. The disciplinary forces constantly survey surrounding streets leading to the presidential office and are there to control things. Ten members of the NAJA forces (secret police) stayed inside the presidential office preventing all contact between the director of the Labor department and the protesting bus drivers union members. Meanwhile the security forces blocked all journalists and media from the area in order to prevent any reports about the protest from being generated.

Tags: iran, news,

Eyewitness Report regarding condition of body of Akbar Mohammadi

SOSIran: A translation of a report on the condition of the body of the Iranian dissident.

To: United Nations Human Rights Council
Re: Eyewitness Report regarding condition of body of Akbar Mohammadi

Dear Sir or Madam,

Below please find the eyewitness report regarding condition of body of Iranian Student and Political Prisoner Akbar Mohammadi after his death in the prisons of Islamic Republic in Iran. The original handwriting report and signatures of the witnesses in Iran is attached below. READ MORE

We request your office’s immediate response and reaction to this urgent matter.

Regards,

Dr. Iman Foroutan
Executive Director
S.O.S. Iran


A Summary of Observing the Body of Akbar Mohammadi

The police and information forces of the lawless and bullying Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran put the naked body of my son in a station wagon (against all norms) and these thugs threatened that if we held a memorial service for him, they would return the body to Tehran to be buried in an undisclosed location. We were additionally threatened that if we did not agree with these conditions, they wouldn’t release his imprisoned bother, Mr. Manouchehr Mohammadi, to attend the ceremony. Mr. Saeed Ashrafpour, the uncle of Akbar, was present while the body was being washed and buried.

Mr. Ashrafpour reported his observations as follows:
1. His eyes and mouth were wide open
2. His forehead was swollen, an indication that he was beaten
3. His teeth were protruding from his mouth.
4. His skull was broken
5. His front torso, from the neck to the stomach, was cut and stapled together
6. The same scenario was also repeated on his back
7. His shoulders, arms and soles were bruised badly, indicating that he was tortured
8. When he was being washed, his head and ears were bleeding and we had to stop it with cotton
9. His fingers were mangled
10. His wrists and ankles were bruised
11. There were purplish circles around his eyes
12. His weight had dwindled from about 95 Kg (approximately 209lbs) to 45 Kg (equivalent to 99 lbs)

Myself (the father), my wife and some of our relatives were present during the funeral and we can assure you that Akbar did not look like himself. It was as if Akbar had been disguised (to cover up the fact that he had been tortured). Akbar’s body was in such bad condition that the Coroner, after getting rid of the governmental thugs and showing the body to his other uncle, Mr. Ali Reza Ashrafpour, told them in confidence they should sue without hesitation or fear.

Finally, we request that all organizations protecting human rights assist us in our demand to disentomb the body and to perform an autopsy to ascertain the cause death.

Below, are the undersigned, who have seen the body in person and approve of this report.

Copied to:

1. United Nations Office
2. Human Rights Organization
3. International Amnesty
4. Human Rights Watch
5. Physicians without Borders.
6. News Agencies, both inside and outside Iran

Signed: Saeed Ashrafpour, uncle
Signed: Alireza Ashrafpour, uncle
Signed: Abdolreza Ahsrafpour, uncle
Signed: Hamid Ashrafpour, uncle
Signed: Ahmadreza Ashrafpour, uncle
Signed: Mohammadreza Ashrafpour, uncle
Signed: Behrooz Ashrafpour, cousin
Signed: Abbas Amiri
Signed: Abdollah Amini
Signed: Iman Rezaei, cousin
Signed: Ali Esmaili, Akbar’s friend
Signed: Seyed Fazlollah Mir-Esmaili, relative
And two other illegible signatures.


POWER OF ATTORNEY AND AGREEMENT
Bar Association
No. 029955 Series y

NAME AND DOMICILE OF CLIENT: 1. Mr. Mohammad Mohammadi, son of Gat Agha, holder of Birth Certificate No. 6, issued in Amol; 2. Goljahan Ashrafpour, daughter of Geda Ali, holder of Birth Certificate No. 282, issued in Amol; residents of private residence at 37B, Golestan 39, Shahrak Morvarid, Emam Reza Ave., Amol.

ATTORNEY: Mr. Khalil Bahramian, first class Lawyer, of 78 Malayeripour St., Mofatteh Shomali Ave., Tehran; Telephone 88314697.

NAME & DOMICILE OF OTHER PARTY: Any natural person and legal entity.

SUBJECT OF POWER: Filing legal and penal claims against other parties in relation to the death of Akbar Mohammadi and any other subject that the Attorney deems advisable to pursue legally against any authority and official.

SCOPE OF POWER OF ATTORNEY: Representation in the first instance, appeal and cassation appeal stages and in respect of retrial, claiming forgery, refuting or doubting the authenticity of the other party’s document and withdrawing documents; determining the forger and appointing certifier; in regard to expert opinion and in claiming damages and withdrawing claims, subpoenaing third parties and defending claims against third parties, bringing in third parties and defending them; making counterclaims and defending them; applying for writ of execution and pursuing the related actions.

FEE: Gratis

Fingerprints and signatures of the clients.

Article 31 of Civil Procedure of Public and Revolution Courts:…
Article 35 of Civil Procedure of Public and Revolution Courts:…
Article 36 of Civil Procedure of Public and Revolution Courts:…

The orginals can be viewed here: 1 2 3 4.

Tags: iran, news,

The funeral of Iranian dissident Akbar Mohammadi

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

Akbar Mohammadi, who was lost his life under torture by the Islamic regime on Sunday, July 30th, 2007.

Akbar Mohammadi’s brave parents.

Akbar’s brother, Manouchehr who is also a political prisoner and student leader.

Manouchehr attended his brother’s funeral In his brother’s suit.

The sign, held up by Manouchehr reads: STARS WILL NEVER BE TURNED OFF.

US Hails Iran's 100th Anniversary of Constitutional Revolution

Yahoo News:

The United States hailed Iran's constitutional revolution on its 100th anniversary as a defining but short-lived advance toward democracy, and voiced support for Iranians it said who still hoped for an open society.

The August 5, 1906 decree, which called for the creation of an elected parliament, the Majlis, "serves as a defining political moment for advancing the democratic ideas it represented," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement released Friday.

"Iranian nationalists set forth a powerful and revolutionary concept: a written constitution founded on the rule of fair and just laws, providing for a free press and respect for individual rights," McCormack said.

"This short-lived but noble constitutional movement was a significant victory for Iranian democracy and for the cause of freedom in the Middle East." READ MORE

Since then, McCormack said, Iranians have continued the struggle against unchecked power, corruption and wide disparities in wealth.

"The United States supports the aspirations of the Iranian people for an open society that encourages debate, allows for freedom of the press, champions human dignity and ensures justice, the rule of law and government accountability," he said.

The State Department message aimed at Iranians came against a backdrop of mounting tensions over the Iranian government's nuclear program and its support of the Shiite militia Hezbollah, based in southern Lebanon and currently engaged in fighting with Israel that has killed more than 900 people, mostly civilians, since July 12.

Earlier Friday, the United States issued a new rebuke to Iran and Syria, accusing them of directing Hezbollah to attack Israel.

"Iran created Hezbollah in 1982. Iran has funded Hezbollah and Iran has provided the long-range rockets that are raining down on the northern part of Israel right now," Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, said in a CNN interview.

"Iran is acting in a way that is fundamentally contrary to the hopes of all of us for stablility and peace in the Middle East."

On Monday the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling on Iran to freeze sensitive nuclear work by the end of the month or face possible sanctions.

Tehran contends that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes but the US and other countries suspect it is a cover to develop nuclear weapons.

A love so beautiful...Putin & his Ahmadinejad

Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 8.5.2006:

Iran admits to sending missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

• Yahoo News reported that according to Jane's Defence Weekly, Iran will supply Hezbollah with surface-to-air missile systems in the coming months, boosting the guerrillas' defences against Israeli aircraft.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran admitted for the first time that it did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hezbullah.

Lebanon's Siniora: Iran is "going over the limit."

• Yahoo News reported that Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora in remarks published has accused Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki of "going over the limit" by criticising his plan to end the war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Why the Jihadists fight.

• Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, The Weekly Standard explained: Why The Jihadist's Fight, in a review of Professor Mary Habeck's book Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror. A must read.

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

• Adnkronos International reported that Iranian authorities banned the human rights group founded four years ago by a group of lawyers including Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.
• Reza Pahlavi demanded the release of all Iranian political prisoners in Iran after the death in prison of Akbar Mohamadi, the Iranian dissident, this week.
• Alan Peters, AntiMullah published a retrospective on his reign on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980). He compared the Monarch to what followed.

Tags: iran, news, lebanon, isreal

Iran: We supplied Zelzal-2 to Hizbullah

The Jerusalem Post:

Iran admitted for the first time on Friday that it did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hizbullah.

Secretary-general of the "Intifada conference" Mohtashami Pur told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles so that they could be used to defend Lebanon, Channel 1 reported.

The extent of Iran's intimate involvement in Hizbullah attacks is starting to emerge.

According to the defense establishment, the reason Hizbullah has not fired long-range Iranian-made Fajr missiles at Israel is due to Teheran's opposition. Israel now understands that without direct orders from the ayatollahs, Hizbullah is not allowed to use Iranian missiles in attacks against Israel. READ MORE

The IDF also believes that it seriously damaged the long-range rocket array in the first night of air strikes almost three weeks ago and impaired Hizbullah's ability to fire the rockets.

The longer-range Zelzal missiles, manufactured by Iran and capable of reaching Tel Aviv, have also not been fired at Israel, and the IDF believes this is because it destroyed almost two-thirds of these in the Hizbullah arsenal.

The Monarch compared to what followed

Alan Peters, AntiMullah:

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980), A retrospective on his reign on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. READ MORE

"They revere you in fortune - and trample you in defeat" - Moliere

Some 25-years ago this summer, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Iran was dying in Cairo. Egypt's President Sadat had offered him his last refuge and helped him escape from a perilous exile in Panama.

Historically, Egypt has been famous for providing shelter - even to those they do not approve - like the family of Yasser Arafart - at the time that Arafat was public enemy #1 in Egypt for inciting the overthrow of Sadat's regime, his wife and children were guarded by Sadat's government bodyguards.

In the case of the Shah, Sadat liked him and the Shah's marriage to former Egyptian King Farouk's daughter made him "family", too.

In Panama, the fate of the ailing monarch had hung in the balance for several weeks as shadowy contacts between Panama's strongman, General Torrijos, and emissaries from the Islamic revolution increasingly pointed to a swap deal - the extradition of the Shah against the release the 52 American Embassy hostages in Tehran.

While the Shah's hand-over to Khomeini was seriously contemplated by President Carter, his administration had been drawn into an eerie gambit in Panama of which the hostage end-game was unknown .

The Shah's succumbing to cancer on July 27th, 1980 must have brought a sigh of relief in Washington as indeed in many other capitals burdened by the past courtship for refuge of the Iranian monarch, many of whom had previusly benefitted from his largesses.

Two decades and many sorry events later, some of the intricacies of the Shah's personality and rule still beg scholarly probe.

The majority of Iran's current population has been born after the Shah's demise. His image in their mind, as indeed in the minds of many casual observers abroad, has been shaped through unrelenting distortions of historical facts by Carter and an obliging liberal Media, intent on justifying Carter's decision to remove the Shah.

Carter's Illegal Demands on Shah (click link to story)


The younger Iranians deserve an unbiased account of these 37 years in its baffling turns and twists and contradictions. Including that when he left Iran for the last time, the Shah also left behind some $3 Billion of the Pahlavi Foundation funds over which he had total control and relied on some $90 million of his own money, accumulated over many decades, through investments in Europe, one of which was a jewelry business in Switzerland.

To be sure, a distilled account of these years would not completely vindicate the Shah. His handling of the constitution was self-defeating in ways that escaped his political savvy. Yet, at worst, was still aimed to benefit the country not himself. He had all the prestige he needed and required no constitutional short cuts to stroke his ego.

His authoritarian rule, much of it because he could not find "managers" to help run the country honestly and efficiently, carried the seeds of instability and a backward thrust, the prevention of which had served as an alibi to silence dissent. Yet, the surfeit of slander and libel before and after his downfall was largely undeserving.

Few leaders in history have been adulated and demonized in such a frivolous manner. A good illustration of hypes comes from two prominent Americans. On the New Year's Eve of 1978 -- a few short days before the triggering event of the Islamic revolution -- President Carter stunned the US western allies by calling the Shah his most trusted ally and dialogue partner.

Carter's effusive flattery - describing Iran as island of stability - was in opposing symmetry to another hyperbole by Senator Edward Kennedy, who some two years later, at the height of the American Embassy hostage crisis, castigated the Shah for having run "one of the most violent regimes in history of mankind".

Kennedy continues, even today, in his baseless attacks on anything and everything, including his own government and citizens.

Both remarks were clearly calculated to achieve short-term objectives. Carter came to Teheran, desperate to check the soaring price of the crude oil.

Kennedy's remark was timed to optimize the chances of his emissary to Tehran, tasked to obtain from Ayatollah Khomeini a token release of the American hostages.

Kennedy, then seeking to snatch the Democratic presidential nomination from the incumbent Carter, had chosen the former US Senator James Abourezk (of Arab extraction) for this unpublicized mission to Tehran.

Where should the line be drawn? In a mixed bag of achievements and flaws the Shah's balance sheet resembles other modernizing states. Many would grade it superior. What tarnished his image most was his alleged record on human rights and political freedoms, much of which proved in the aftermath to be highly exaggerated.

Detractors state "a silence of a cemetery" to characterize the political arena in Iran during most of the Shah's rule. The ubiquitous security agency SAVAK, created in 1957 with the help of the US through General Teymour Bakhtiar, later a sworn enemy of the Shah, was the instrument of the repression of mostly Communist attacks on the monarchy triggered by the Soviets.

By the seventies, the suppression had spawned violence as groups, sprung from the very edges of the ideological spectrum, resorted to urban guerrilla tactics and acts of terrorism. A vicious circle set in. General Bakhtiar, domiciled in Iraq, was instrumental in sending waves of terrorists into Iran. Terrorists willing to shoot to kill.

For the first time traffic police, who usually had empty holsters or unloaded guns at their waist were issued side arms and bullets. The terrorists robbed banks to fund their operations and for the first time in Iranian history, the robbers shot innocent clerks to make a point.

Then SAVAK blended ruthlessness with incompetence.

It had been effective in dismantling the clandestine structure of Iran's Communist party (Tudeh) but failed to guage the creeping popular discontent, fanned by Marxist groups like the Mojahedin and Fedayeen, still less the coming of the fundamentalist Islamic bane that surprised the Soviets and snatched away their Marxist revolution to place it in clerical hands.

When the crunch finally came in 1978, this colossus fell on its clay feet unable to save its master. A dozen Soviet urban guerilla psychologists, operating from inside the Soviet Embassy in Tehran and calling the shots for anti-Shah operations overwhelmed Iranian intelligence and police autorities, who had no training in how to handle or oppose these attaacks.

For instance, they had their Marxist minions knock on people's doors begging for Mercurochrome (a red antiseptic liquid common in Iran) and cotton wool. Ostensibly needed to treat wounded innocents shot by the Shah's forces in such huge numbers that pharmacies no longer had enough of stocks to provide them to these volunteers.

The red Mercurochrome was in fact used to stain the streets and clandestine flyers would then claim the Shah's men had shot innocents nd removed their bodies.

As proof they used another gambit. They collected old shoes - men's, women's, children's of both sexes and threw one shoe of each pair by the hundreds on top of the stains. The flyers would then invite people to witness the amount of deaths by those single shoes that had fallen off the bodies as the Shah's forces allegedly hurriedly removed the victims and left the shoes behind.

The extent of repression was never close to claims recklessly advanced in some quarters, including by such reputable institutions as Amnesty International, which finally concluded in late 1978 that there were less than 2,400 political prisoners in the Shah's jails.

Only this number despite the wide spread Soviet efforts to install their minions and find passage to warm waters providing thousands of candidates. Despite the Bakhtiar terrorists sent in their hundreds, despite the Marxist and Fedayeen in their thousands openly attacking the regime. And the Hezbollah-to-be, pro-Khomeini adherents who disregrded laws and inviting arrest on a daily basis.

No mass graves trailed the Shah when he finally quit the country in January, 1979. No "death caravans" haunted his memory. Tehran produced no equivalent of Buenos Aires's "Plaza de Mayo" where "grandmas" gather every Sunday to reclaim news of their missing children. To be sure the military courts were quick to mete out death sentences. But the practice of royal pardon was abundantly resorted to. The sentences were systematically commuted or annulled.

Some viewed this practice as a gimmick to earn political capital but be it as it may, few now dispute the fact that the Shah was averse to cruelty or execution. He even stayed Khomeini's execution in 1964 at the behest of General Pakrvan, head of SAVAK. In hindsight the gravest, catastrophic mistake possible, which not only later cost Pakravan his life but also Iran's progress into a modern nation instead of a deep well of suffering and pain it is today.

Who was Khomeini (click link to story)


The overall number of executions by the military tribunals, including those occasioned by drug related offenses, after drug smuggling and distribution became a capital offense, were estimated at around 350 cases in a 25-year period. The USA has more than this and Iran currently has close to 200 a year, including teen-agers of both genders, which contravenes all laws and even Iran's own.

Figured among them were a few prisoners of conscience including some twenty-five ring-leaders of the military wing of the Communist party of Iran. Their crime, leading to execution, was to have been mesmerized by Stalinist Russia. The rest of the six hundred communist officers arrested in nineteen fifties - as indeed the bulk of other political prisoners - were rehabilitated, many were co-opted into the Shah's administration.

One of his favorite gambits was to invite dissident leaders into senior government positions and then ask them to do the job better than the person they replaced.

Then chortle when they eventually admitted they were unable to because the system and co-workers were too cumbersome and their staff often sabotaged work or were incompetent and they now understood why their predecessors failed to succeed.

Having experienced the challenges first hand, they usually ended up becoming strong supporters of the Monarch in his efforts to change and modernize the nation.

All in all some 3500 persons were reportedly killed in street unrests or by order of military courts during the Shah's reign, between 1953 to 1979 though little substantiaion exists for such a number.

In one famous incident of Jaleh Square, where claims of 5,000 deaths were made, secret martial law figures later showed only eight had died from bouncing bullets fired into the air to control the crowd and another 30 had been wounded the same way. The square was also not big enough to hold 5,000 people making such a claim even less possible. Over a thousand "unmatching" shoes were found in the square the morning after!

The Geneva based International Committee of Red Cross which visited all Iranian prisons in 1977 in an anti-Shah mission inspired by Carter and his allies, put the number of political prisoners at 3200 while some seventy prisoners were declared unaccounted for.

American liberal democrats, as was the intention, could pretend to be horrified by these figures, moderate though they are in relative terms and could use them to justify the removal of the Shah.

This having been said, there is another facet of human rights in the Pahlavi era which has largely been disregarded in the rush to condemn.

In an average middle class neighborhood in Tehran of the nineteen fifties, for example, a small alley had taken its name after a Jewish doctor, who had been the first to construct a house in that vicinity.

The alley housed an Assyrian Christian family, several Baha'i families, a Zoroastrian family and of course many Moslem households. No hint of bigotry disturbed the serenity of this cultural mosaic. Tolerance or lack of it was a personal matter not a government imposition and for the most part if you lived your life to the fullest but avoided anti-government activity, nobody bothered you.

It would be hypocritical to claim that religious minorities were by law on the same footing as Moslems but intolerance was being discouraged and the system moved progressively towards full equality of rights among citizens.

There were differences: minority members could not rise above the rank of Brigadier-General in the military. On the other hand, each ethnic minority had representation in the Majliss (Parliament) and Senate proportionate to their numbers in the overfall population.

A previously unknown historical anecdote cited by a US scholar in a recent book best illustrates the point. It concerns the protection of the Iranian Jews living in the occupied Europe during World War II.

According to the author, the Iranian Government of the time, managed to procure them safe conduct from the authorities of the Third Reich on the false pretence that these citizens, having lived in Iran for over two millennium, had been assimilated in the Persian (Aryan) race.

The status of women is another case in point. Under the Pahlavis Iranian women were brought to the society's mainstream. The mushrooming institutions of higher learning opened their doors to women. Teachers, doctors, lawyers and administrators were trained and fielded in different walks of life, to the very highest levels such as Minister of Education, Member of Parliament and so on.

The right to vote, to seek divorce and be protected from an abusive husband was - to the dismay of the clerics - written into the law - weakening their supersititious and religious hold on the general populace. And creating resentment among them toward teh Monarchy.

Today, the Iranian women remain one of the vanguards of resistance to scourges of the fundamentalist Mullah rule.

The Bazaar merchants also resented their monopolistic control of imports and exports and general business being extracted from their little bazaar booths, which represented billions of dollars never put back into circulation for the improvement of the economy.

The Shah moved much of this into modern, multinational organizations in uptown Tehran, so the miffed merchants funded the clerics and encouraged them to foment trouble and use religion to attack the monarchy.

Much of the bravura exhibited by the Shah's administration in the seventies, was in the sphere of economy. The exuberance of the double-digit growth was indeed intoxicating. In 1974 - in the wake of a quantum jump in the oil price -- the Shah dismissed the counsel of prudence by experts and decreed an even faster growth. In his complex psyche, many imperatives drove him to go full blast.

One factor was to firm up the throne for Crown Prince Reza but he was equally concerned with his legacy and place in history - should he not disprove those detractors who claimed he did not measure up to the towering figure of his father. Reza Shah the Great, to use his full title, was a stern disciplinarian with a strong will to unify the country and willing to use force to bring Iran's tribal chieftains under Central Government control. A hard act to follow for his diplomat son.

But the economic bullishness did not pay off in the face of the sabotage by the bazaar. The country's weak infrastructure buckled under the weight of imports and the rise in the price of oil resulted in lower consumer demand in world markets.

As the economy wobbled and Carter's human rights agenda aimed like a javelin at the Shah, forced him to make liberalizing gestures, and the tide began to change.

Iranians respect power and strength. The moment he showed a "co-operative" attitude, they turned on him. Egged on by both the funds from the bazaar and the hostile clerics, whose influence had been diminished to almost nothing among a much more modern populace with open ties available to Western life styles and mind sets.

All these were unexpected perks for the disgruntled clerics. The magnetizing effect of the boom had already drawn rural masses to major cities glutting the congregations in mosques. Now the clerics reaped the harvest of fanned discontent, brandishing radical Shiite doctrine both as a challenge and a remedy.

The Shah's "politics of liberalization" had also created its own sliding spiral. To reverse these trends, the Shah should have - but failed - to rally secular political forces to his side.

With the hindsight, it is also fair to say that the rigidity of some of the secular National Front leaders, who could have showed support and not eventually been destroyed themselves by the clerics, was an error of historical scale on their part.

Marxist and libertarian influences also made them into a philosphical, snobbish elite, which could not see the pitfalls of their mindsets relative to increasingly literate but basically uneducated and inexperienced Iranian populace.

To what extent the Shah's judgment had been impaired by the secret diagnosis of lymphatic cancer in 1974 has not been established. Such a link is hard to quantify, all the more so that the Shah had apparently not been told of the exact nature of his illness, until the later years.

Be it as it may, his most serious errors occurred during the ensuing period. It was at this time that the Shah decided on one party rule to prevent the bickering that had ensued in the two party system of Iran Novin and Mardom and to allow very capable men in the minority Mardom party to accept important positions to carry the nation forward. Instead he decreed that the Rastakhiz party would have two "wings" to cover the differing views of the elected parliamenterians.

He replaced the Islamic calendar with an ostentatious imperial calendar in a historical acknowledgement - not of his reign - but that of some 5,000 years of Monarchy in Iran. Anti-Monarchy groups, using any excuse, immediately attacked this as personal grandure.

The Shah had also begun his somewhat fanciful flights on the "Great Civilization." The new royal mindset had the Iranians believe that within a generation or so Iran would rank among the world's industrial elite. Had he been given more time, his investments in key industries in the West, like Krupp steel and internal develoment of essential items like cement plants, nuclear power, etc., could well have made his vision come true. With all the various pieces inside his almost photographic memory he was looking beyond the horizon.

Had a race against the clock already began for the Shah? A wild-west climate of profiteering marked these balmy years. Abusive business practices, including by the Shah's close family and friends, became a hallmark of the laissez-faire policies practiced at overkill scale. Partly because policing or regulating everything in a rapid growth arena with too few people to help him, became too much to handle.

Remember, a country resembles a major corporation and needs competent managers, directors, vice-presidents, senior vice-presidents and staff to run profitably and efficiently. Iran's growth far outstripped the availability of persons who could accept responsiblity with any degree of competence - or sadly - with honesty and not line their own pockets.

Running a Country (click link to story)



The Shah himself could hardly be given a clean bill of health as he brooked corruption in his entourage, yet he was far from the rapacious persona, with a fabulous wealth, which the revolutionary puffery sought to depict. In fact he was a pragmatist. When complaints reached hin that his Minister of Interior had misappropriated some $40 million and should be sacked and thrown in jail, the Shah refused.

He explained that the man had been Minister of Interior for some ten years or so, knew his job well and if he were fired, would spend a few years in prison and then be free to go to Europe and enjoy his plunder.

Instead, the Shah stated, he will be at his desk every morning at six a.m., know that I know everything - and if from nothing else but guilt will do his job for the country better than before.

Which would be preferable to releasing him to go play in Europe with his stolen money, which could probably no longer be found to retrieve it.

During the Embassy hostage crisis, the revolutionary authorities kept no stone unturned to find documentary evidence of financial wrong doings by the Shah. This search was aimed, inter-alia, to substantiate claims in the extradition brief submitted to Panama.

In March 1980, foreign correspondents scrambled for scoops in the jammed conference hall of the Tehran's Central Bank, where President Bani Sadr was to make the Islamic Republic's legal case against the Shah. Scathing revelations were expected. Yet nothing worth the print could be wired back to editors.

The revolutionary authorities had not been able to pin the Shah to any financial irregularity. This was not, however, the case in respect of some of the Shah's close family members.

Interesting to note, however, is that within six months of taking power, the Mullahs had rapaciously transfered funds to private overseas accounts they created for themselves, which exceeded by about ten times the total amount of what the 1,000 elite families of Iran had placed overseas during the last 25-years of the Shah's reign.

Most of the money transfered out of Iran just prior to the revolution was done by trades people. Plumbers, carpenters, construction contractors, builders, electricians etc., who got their money out and quickly left while the Shah was still there.

When the crunch finally came in 1978, the Shah was unprepared and not up to the challenge. He was quick to shed the awe-inspiring mask of the mighty king and meekly looked for advice.

The Anglo & American Ambassadors were solicited most, yet their counsel was tentative and vague, reflecting indecision and discord with their own chancelleries. Others consulted, were an array of retired politicians, social scientists, military leaders and some prominent clerics.

Their advice was too contrasting to allow the Shah to overcome his indecision. In managing the crisis the Shah committed blunders, practicing appeasement from a position of weakness. By the last quarter of 1978, in the face of an astounding quiescence by the Shah, the largely apolitical mass of the urban population, 60% under the age of 25-years and still wet behind the ears politially, swung to insurrectionists' inflammation of them, rendering the trend irreversible.

But to his credit the Shah skirted a bloodbath. Evidence abounds that on this score he had remained steadfast throughout the crisis period. He repeatedly rejected the get-tough advice proffered not only by some of his generals but coming also from some unlikely quarters in the West.

By the year-end the Shah was ready to unclench his hold on power.

Images of his tearful farewell at Mehrabad airport on January 14, 1979 remain haunting memories of a dream turned into a nightmare.

In a grisly act of disappointment, the Shah left behind in detention his loyal and highly refined Prime Minister of 13-years, Amir Abbas Hoveyda. The ex-Premier was summarily executed by the revolution's hanging judge, Mullah Khalkhali, shortly thereafter.

With the Shah's departure, Iran sank into the darkness of the Middle Ages. A reign of terror, of which he had presciently warned the nation, set in. The first public act of Khomeini, when he took over the reins of power in February 1979, was to abolish women's right to sit in as a judge in a court of law.

He initially dissolved the Ministry of Justice, stating that anyone against him was against Allah and should be killed where they stood - with no need for a trial or other justice system.

That presaged the calamities and blood-letting that were to follow.

Perhaps no ruler in history like the Shah has benefited from a postmortem redemption, due not to any re-appraisal of his balance sheet but the misdeeds and brutal excesses of those who succeeded him in power. Far above and beyond anything of which he could have been accused even by his most biased opponents.

A case study would support a theory that the value accorded to any given regime should be measured in light of its inevitable successor and the ability of the latter to improve conditions and ills of which they accused the predecessors.

As they ask in American politics, are you better off now? Iranians would certainly say "no".