White House Invites Separatist Hate-Monger!

Mr. Rahim Shahbazi, a known hate-monger and separatist, has apparently been extended a warm welcome from the Bush administration. This is a very disconcerting turn of events. It is alarming that people such as Rahim Shahbazi are being invited at the highest levels of the US administration. I have forwarded two letters (see below at end of e-mail) that were drafted in protest against the decision to invite Shahbazi to the White House.

Shahbazi regularly uses profanity to address fellow Iranians and is a fanatic Azeri seperatist and follower of Grey Wolf-Pan-Turkic racialism - see links:

Website One

Website Two

It would seem that Shabazi is being promoted by Michael Ledeen.



Ledeen's support for the separation of Azerbaijan is becoming more open. See the "open letter" by Ayshin Mousavi (A follower of Azeri seperatists) to Michael Ledeen:

LETTER

You must scroll down a lot to see the letter. Note that the entire site is very anti-Iran. Note the logo of the Azerbaijan chapter of the Grey Wolf movement:



The webiste is also very proud that Turkey is sponsoring an anti-Iran seperatist Azerbaijani TV station named Gunaz (Guney Azerbaijan - South Azerbaijan). Grey Wolf pan-Turkic racism is being actively funded in propagated in Iranian Azerbaijan. Note the picture of a Grey Wolf rally taken during a celebration of a Babak Khorramdin's rebellion against the Arab caliphate - they are flashing the Grey Wolf salute popular among Grey Wolf followers in Turkey:




These participants have been brainwashed by pan-Turkic/Grey Wolf ideology to think that Babak was an anti-Persian seperatist. They also believe that Sattar Khan was fighting in the name of Azerbaijan's separation from Iran.

Note also the map below showing Turkey having absorbed Iranian Azerbaijan and the Republic of Azerbaijan - this was posted by an individual named "Oslonor":



Few seen aware that such ideas are common in Turkey. Inexplicably, this person's writings are regularly posted on the Persian Journal website.

Regards
Kaveh Farrokh


In a message dated 7/23/2006 3:17:59 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, retebar@cox.net writes:

Dear Mr. President

On July 20, 2006, a briefing on the future of democracy was held at the White House.

Among the distinguished panelists a despicable character by the name of Rahim Shahbazi was also in attendance.

This individual is not only an Azari (Iranian Turk) separatist but also a racist hate mongerwho addresses Persians by vulgar profanity.

Errors of this nature certainly damages the American good will and intentions as an individual who denies being an Iranian (and is insulting his compatriots) is invited as a participant on the future of democracy for our homeland.

For background information on Shahbazi please note the following links:

Background One

Background Two

For the future please note that Inviting separatists to a round table discussion about the future of Iran,

will only create division among Iranian opposition. The most important factor for a patriot is his/her Iranian nationality that comes before ethnicity, religion, color or creed. Any discussions of jeopardizing Iranian territorial integrity will divide the Iranian opposition and cause the Iranians inside the country to rally behind the Mullahs.

Your attention and cooperation regarding this sensitive issue among Iranians is much appreciated.

Sincerely Yours,

Ramin Etebar, M.D.



Letter to Mr. Burns and Mr. Abrams by Professor Manouchehr Ganji former Iranian Minister of Education:


The Honorable Nicholas Burns
Under Secretary, Political Affairs

US Dept OF State


The Honorable Elliott Abrams

National Security Advisor

White House

Dear Sirs

I want to congratulate both of you for having invited a group of my compatriots to participate in a gathering of pro-democracy activity at the White House on July 20, 2006. The hope by both of you expressed at the meeting for the people of iran to achieve their goal of democratic Iran is heartwarming.

The only suggestion I wish to make for the success of your future endeavor in this respect is to better study The background and credibility of those you are inviting. For instance Mr. Rahim Shahbazi, one of your participants, by looking at his background on the web, I really wonder whether he should have been invited. How do you think Iranians are going to view such gestures by the White House and the U.S. Government to the people like him.

Do you really understand the meaning of “……”,”…….” and “…….” (Farsi profanities were deleted by RE) the language used by him which appears on the web under his name. Of course you did not. On the web he uses such profanity against the Persians as “Persian Aryan Punks” ,”Persian Jackass” , “Fu..ing Persian Language”.

Mr. Michael Ledeen knows all of this. I brought it to his attention eight months ago. For the future I think both of you have to be more careful about who you are inviting to the White House meetings. Remember, we Iranians have sensitivities too.

Please accept the assurances of my highest considerations.

Sincerely Yours,

Manouchehr Ganji

Iran Awaits Liberation - The American Thinker

-This article expresses what I have been pleading for a long time. The Arab-parast susk-marar-khor mullahs of Iran have been sacrificing our beloved Iran for the Arabs for 27 years. They have driven our country into the ground for their own pockets and our neighbours without any regard for the starving people in our home country. The young people of Iran can't afford to attend university let alone milk and bread! People have to work 2 or 3 jobs in order to survive. Many of our countrymen and women have been tempted with social ills such as prostitution and drug abuse because of a lack of opportunity to better themselves. In fact, with respect to prostitution many of the kaseef mullahs have encouraged such behaviour from our population by allowing people to obtain a "seegheh" (a form of marital union in Islam) in order to make the selling of a woman's body "legal." Disgusting.

The Mullahs of Iran have done enough damage. They have made our country bankrupt by seeking to better the Arabs and themselves instead of the great Iranian people. They have mismanaged every aspect of Iranian society. The under-compensation of Iranian workers has brought poverty and misery to the Iranian people while the over subsidization of commodities has brought waste. The spending of millions, if not billions, on an unneeded nuclear program and bombs for Hezbollah have diverted much needed funding for social programs for Iranians. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

The Iranian people must stand up and take matters into their own hands. The Iranian people need to tell this regime and those that will come after it that the welfare of the Iranian people comes first. It is the duty of every government to work of its people. It is the duty of every government to listen and obey its people. As the saying goes, "the government must fear its citizens; the citizens must not fear their government." The mullahs of Iran will finally get this message when the people of Iran rise up and rip the bones of Khomeini out of the ground.

But it is not only time for the Iranian people to rise up and reclaim their right to self-determination. It is also the time for the world to stand with the Iranian people. Let it be known that it is not a matter of if, but when the real revolution comes to Iran. We, the Iranian people, will remember those who stood with us in our time of need and those who decided to stand with our occupiers. Those countries that support the mullahs of Iran are forewarned.
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The red warning flags have been flying high far too long. Since the emergence of the Islamic Republic inside Iran there has been nothing but turbulence throughout the world and since its inception it has had time to propagate and mastermind some of the most evil deeds. The world’s casual approach of doing business as usual with the Islamic Republic for 27 years has come at a grave cost.

And so it begins. Tehran’s arrogance towards the international community and Ahmadinejad’s call to wipe Israel off the map have been the neon writing on the wall. If there is one thing the turbaned tyrants of Tehran have been successful at it has surely been in tactfully playing the diversion game.

Toying with international leaders over its “clandestine” atomic weapons program, denying the Holocaust, orchestrating frantic protests over cartoons and now as it rejects Security Council’s demands and the EU deadline, Tehran’s clerics seem to be trying to evade the threat of consequential sanctions by declaring war on Israel via its ambassador Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah.

Violence is how they came to rule and it is through violence they continue to preserve their dictatorship where the policy of this regime has always been devout to instigating terror both domestically and internationally dominating world politics by supporting, funding and harbouring terrorists. They have provided the pistol and the terrorists have simply pulled the trigger.

Even perhaps more significantly the battlefield in Lebanon will also divert attention from the Mullahs’ heinous domestic issues, from both the international community and also from the Iranian people themselves, a population of almost 70 million who have been suffering their own injustice since the terrorists took power in 1979 with the help of their imported Palestinian fighters who rode around on motorbikes in the streets of Tehran wearing red armbands and harassing women into wearing veils. Since then there has been a growing opposition movement, consisting of students who make up to 70% of the population, the labour force, women’s freedom movement and religious /ethnic minorities. If one does the math, this would incorporate the greater part of the population – and the Achilles heel of the Mullahcracy.

As the people’s hunger for freedom and democracy has given them an appetite for boldness and disobedience against their hijackers, the demonstrations have been escalating weekly, filling cities from Azerbaijan to Baluchestan, shouting slogans such as “We don’t want nuclear energy” and “Forget Palestine-think of us”. Although the regime is cracking down on all anti-government demonstrations, imprisoning, torturing and murdering innocent Iranians it is noteworthy to point out that a few thousand Mullahs, Revolutionary Guards and Basiji have increasingly found controlling the remaining millions of discontented people a growingly strenuous burden.

The clerical regime knows that unless it destroys its political opponents, then they will destroy the regime.

Hence the Holocaust-denying provocateur Ahmadinejad would welcome a war with Israel as he would strategically exploit it to arouse nationalistic and patriotic emotions of the forsaken Iranians with a view to rally them around the Mullahs thus repressing the opposition movement, at the same time taking the heat off its nuclear programme.

Israel may be facing one of its greatest challenges yet. She is surrounded. Encircled by the fearsome foursome, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and the Islamic regime and a weakened Lebanese government, whose democracy would benefit from the exit of Hezbollah, there is no doubt that it will be a formidable challenge.

Meanwhile the Iranian people continue their own challenging battles with the Islamic Republic.

Hope springs eternal. This recent conflict has overshadowed discussions at the G8 Summit and although members have expressed a “common and unified” position, President Bush has acknowledged that the “root causes of this conflict must be removed”.

There is a window of opportunity to thwart Tehran’s trickery and weaken the Mullahs’ stronghold from within thus removing the root causes of the current conflicts.

Regardless of how much the mainstream media has failed to report the true Iranian domestic issues, one must appreciate the Iranian people’s fight for freedom and democracy, thus proportionately making the support for democracy advocates all the more effective in their endeavours as well as eliminating the root cause of terrorism.

In such vulnerable times one must ponder on what this could signify for the future of stability in that region and international security.

Everyone’s eyes are on the Middle East. Hour by hour news agencies and journalists are reporting to the world. The Iranian people can be easily mobilized if they knew that this time they have the full backing of the free world. Whilst Ahmadinejad has been preparing for his Holy war the Iranian people have been preparing for the demise of this Islamic theocracy.

There are methods and resources. The international community is not completely powerless to support this in some other effective and tactical way. An amalgamation of the external pressure working with the internal force of the people would weaken and undermine the clerical government enormously, whilst alleviating Israel’s burden. Despite the Islamic Republic’s efforts to try to stop the spread of information, there still remain other methods of communicating to the people and arousing an atmosphere of opportunity. The leaflets dropped from planes in Beirut proved to be an effective way to connect. The Iranian people have been waiting for those leaflets for freedom, for 27 years. Time is short

Original Article

The Islamic Republic is attempting to draw Iran into a war - MPG

-There is no doubt that the Islamic Republic has, since its founding, intended to wipe out our proud and distinct Iranian culture. From the time that the kasseef mullahs came to power they have tried desperately to make our country arabic. They banned our sports like varzesh-eh baastaanee and tried to make all of our zoroastrian holidays illegal. In fact, the kaseef mullahs even tried to change the meaning of No-rooz, claiming that the day coincided with an event surround Mohammad. Rediculous. The Mullahs of Iran will not succeed in their treason. Indeed, their treachery has caused the exact opposite effect. The Iranian people are more in touch with their historic past then ever before. We remember the great achievements of our forefathers in establishing Iran as the first world super-power. Our achievements in science and literature are rivaled by none. We have merely entered a dark period in our history. All cultures inevitably do. But I am confident that we will emerge from the darkness and once again claim our rightful place in history.

Payandeh IRAN!
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The Marze Por Gohar Party is appalled by the Islamic Republic's overt gestures in dragging Iran into a military confrontation in the greater Persian Gulf region for a cause that has nothing to do with Iran's best interest and in fact serves to harm it.

When Iran's territorial integrity, culture and history are being compromised by foreign entities the Islamic Republic stays silent and in fact even abets. However, as soon as an Arab entity is prodded to act in a civilized manner, the clerics proclaim that an attack on them translates to an attack on Iran. Iran and Arab states have virtually nothing in common as Iran's history will easily attest to. Therefore, any correlation of interests that the Islamic Republic is attempting to draw between Iran and their Arab brethrens is purely fictional.

The Islamic Republic gained valuable insight during the Iran-Iraq war with regard to how military conflict can be used to one's advantage. During the war the Iranian opposition had to put aside its hatred for the theocracy and instead focused on fighting against the bigger enemy, Saddam Hussein. While Iranians were defending Iran, the Islamic Republic conveniently began its campaign of cleansing Iran of political dissidents. It's therefore very odd to fathom why some are clamoring for military action against Iran, knowing that it will only benefit the very same people the military action is supposed to inflict harm on.

Military action against Iran will force every genuine Iranian opposition organization to vigorously voice support for the defense of the motherland, very similar to the current situation except, we will have two foreign enemies to fight against: the Islamic Republic and whatever other state(s) that is attacking Iran. Iran's territorial integrity is paramount to all other factors and concerns and thus any element(s) seeking to infringe upon Iran's territorial integrity either directly or by proxy will be deemed as an enemy of Iran.

The international community has had ample time to formulate a solution towards the removal of the Islamic Republic. Instead, the world embraced the notion of "Islamic Democracy" and "reforms." Even now we still hear terms such as "un-elected clerics" as if the Islamic Republic's "elections" are genuinely free. Unfortunately Iran is now being made to pay for powerful states' miscalculated policies, such as the engagement policy towards the theocracy that was being constantly preached by the EU, and may face military intervention.

MPG maintains that a people's revolution to establish a secular republic is still the only viable path towards properly disposing of the Islamic Republic that bears the smallest price for all parties involved. The window of opportunity however is closing fast.

Down with the Islamic Republic

Long Live Iran

Compiled by the Foreign Policy Council of the Marze Por Gohar Party

Original Article

Iran: Arbitrary arrest/prisoner of conscience/ fear of torture and ill-treatment: Mohammad Majzadeh Ghaemmaghami (m)

ATTENTION: A new political prisoner has been taken hostage in Iran by the Islamic Government. We need the help of everybody to make this arbitrary detention public. Please read the description below and sign the petition.

Marg bar Jumhurieh Eslami va Aakhoondhaayeh Kasseef!
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Mohammad Majzadeh Ghaemmaghami is in EVIN prison political ward 209 after being arrested Monday for participating in a labor demonstration and pro-democracy demonstration. He is a physics major at the University of Tehran. Thus far he has been arrested 3 other times for his political activities. His mother has pledged 10 million tomans ($10,000) for his release.

We hope that he will be in jail for long, or until an agreement has been reached. However, we need the help of the general public.

You can read (in Farsi) about his situation at
http://www.komitegozareshgar.blogfa.com/ OR http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/850427/html/polit.htm

The more public we can make his case the more Mohammad will have a chance. Please sign this petion and send it out to as many people as you can. There are over 30,000 political prisoners in Iran right now- wrongfully arrested for speaking out against the brutal and repressive regime.

Please Sign the PETITION

Original Article

MPG Presentation to Members of Congress

-Slowly but surely we are working to free our beloved Iran from the arab-parast mullahs who seek to destroy it. Below are the transcripts of the speeches that were made by members of Marze Por Gohar and its supporters to Congress. I wanted to thank the speakers and especially Mr. Farahanipour for working tirelessly for such a noble cause. Enjoy.
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Roozbeh Farahanipour:
I’m happy to be given the opportunity to talk about Iran, the United States and the Islamic Republic. I prefer to speak in mother tongue Persian, however seeing that I’m a guest here, out of respect I will make my brief comments in English.

This year marks the 7th anniversary of the uprising of 1999, which I along with other members of the Marze Por Gohar Party and other nationalistic organizations such as Hezbe Mellate Iran, led. Unlike others who claim to have organized and or headed the protests even though they were either out of the country or in cushy jail cells, my fellow comrades and I were on the streets leading protests.

However I don’t join you today to commemorate this anniversary, rather I’ve come to inequitably reiterate that regime change, just as was the case during the uprising, is still the only realistic policy of securing stability in the greater Persian Gulf region.

It should be obvious that neither the balkanization of Iran nor normalization of ties between the United States and the Islamic Republic will not provide the world the long-term stability it seeks in the region.

Iran can only be stable when its citizens have sole sovereignty, and thus we must overthrow the theocratic Islamic Republic and establish a secular republic by means of a people’s revolution. We are genuinely relieved that other Iranian organizations have finally accepted that a revolution is the only path forward, and perhaps this can serve as point of unity for opposition groups.

A revolution is the least costly and viable option that is left for Iranians and the world in general. Certainly the eminent revolution will have a price, after all freedom is not free, however the alternatives to a revolution such a military confrontation, will bear a much higher price for Iran and the international community.

To achieve our goal we must organize the Iranian youth that according to some estimates accounts for as much as 70% of the population, journalists, workers, unions, brothers, sisters, aunts, grandpas and every other Iranian.

Marze Por Gohar from the day of its inception has been secular, and it should be noted that Iran is the only country in the greater Persian Gulf region whose population base is becoming more and more secular, not more religious. The international community must support this trend of greater secularization in Iran, instead of constantly espousing the virtues of religious democracy. The United States in particular must take concrete steps to provide support for Iranians who are quite arguably the most pro-US population in the region.

Our window of opportunity to organize a revolution is very small, and I hope the international community will lend a helping hand to us in riding Iran of the Islamic Republic and the establishment of secular democracy.


Lisa Daftari:
I was reading Nobel Prize nominee Kenneth Timmerman’s book on the imminent dangers of Iran’s Nuclear Proliferation program when I first came across Roozbeh Farahanipour name. At the end of his book, Timmerman cited an episode in very recent history that may have been more significant than many of us gave notice. He spoke of the student uprisings in Tehran in July of 1999. More interesting for me, a student journalist, always hungry for local news stories that no one has scraped up yet…Timmerman wrote that Roozbeh Farahanipour, the organizer of the protests and head of the political organization responsible for the uprising was now living in Los Angeles. I had to get the story.

As I conducted my pre-interviews with Farahanipour I realized how much we have in common…we live in the same zip code, work out at the same gym, both have journalism backgrounds…but there is one major difference…he is a revolutionary. While I am busy chasing down the next local news story, only down the street… he is attempting to bring down a regime thousands of miles away that does not believe in human rights, stones their women and persecutes their religious and cultural minorities.

Unfortunately the LA Times had beat me to the story. But there was still more to uncover. The training I had in my journalism classes taught me that the best stories talk about what is to come, rather than report what has already happened. So instead of writing a newspaper piece like I had originally intended, I pitched the deeper story I could tell in documentary format for my master’s thesis. The film runs 24 minutes. It describes Farahanipour’s story and his political party’s ongoing fight to present themselves as a viable option for regime change. It takes a close look at how this youth movement took shape. From their organization of the student uprisings in 1999, credited as the most significant uprising in the last 27 years, to the torture, imprisonment and their final escape fro Iran to the U.S. only a few years ago. The film focuses in on their goals, accomplishments and the obstacles that stand in the way of an opposition group striving to bring secularism to the region.

It has been both a fortunate and rewarding experience to work on a subject so integral to our current global agenda. I thank you all for giving me the opportunity to share my first film with you.


Faryar Nikbakht:
Religious intolerance and extremism are at the root of today’s intolerance of political and philosophical ideas inside Iran as well as the ideological explanation for the aggressive tendencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran internationally.

At this time we are witnessing various efforts on the part of the Islamic Republic who forces the minority representatives inside Iran to speak out on their behalf about the ideal and perfect situation of minorities under the current regime. We are also reading on occasion, misleading reports by misinformed or sympathetic journalists who re-iterate the same theme, trying to portray the regime in Iran as a tolerant and democratic one, closing their eyes on an ongoing and gradual religious cleansing process in order to promote their temporary political agenda.

The fact that the majority of non-Muslims have left Iran speaks for itself; but the issue of the remaining minorities inside Iran rather than being misinterpreted and misrepresented as evidence of the benevolence of the regime, must be seen as an example of human survival efforts by the last remainders of mostly ancient cultures and communities who hope to outlast the current adversities and indignities, as they witness more and more members of their communities emigrate to free countries, their heritage being destroyed and their children growing up with hidden identities and dual personalities into a dark future. This is also a testimony to the enduring historical bonds between the minorities and Muslim Iranians who in spite of the situation have kept their humanity and affection alive. The minorities, also called “Infidels under Contract” or the Dhimmi Kuffar , who share all the good and bad of the Iranian society with their Muslim countrymen, suffer under specific additional laws and practices, ethnic as well as religious humiliation and discrimination.

Policy of Planned Extinction of Non Muslims

The Islamic Republic of Iran has knowingly and systematically attempted to decimate the non-Muslim communities in Iran, by forcing them to emigrate, convert or submit to their interpretation of Islam, even advocating the same fate for the whole world population declared in IRI Constitutional articles and official statements and letters of IRI high officials.

By introducing discriminatory laws and adopting threatening and humiliating practices, the Islamic Republic has reduced the minority citizens of Iran into demoralized, inferior second class citizens.

By means of expropriations of much of their personal and community assets and by systematically preventing them from engaging freely and with equal opportunity, in all sectors of economic and social activity, the Islamic Republic has sapped the legitimate economic potentials of Iranian non-Muslims, reducing their chances to survive as communities, cultures and religions.

By means of systematic hysterical anti Jewish and anti Bahaii propaganda, the Islamic Republic has created the potential of mass extermination of these minorities at the hands of fanatic extremists at a moment’s notice. This is a fact that on many occasions has been communicated as a threat to these minorities by intelligence officials and fanatic militias.

By means of periodical arrests, executions and assassinations, the Islamic Republic has tried to confine the Jews, Christians and Bahaiis under absolute submission, in an atmosphere of fear, totally dependent upon the mercy of the most merciless elements within the Islamic Regime.

By legitimizing discriminatory laws and practices, the IRI regime has sanctioned the ongoing destruction of many Sunni and Sufi Muslim centers or places of worship, and by preventing all minorities from free practice of faith and advocating their beliefs, they try to realize an irreversible and rapid numeric decline of non Muslims and the migration of non-Shiites out of major cities.

Is Iran Losing Touch? - Die Welt

- The Islamic Regime has been playing the "super-power" game ever since the Islamic Revolution. It reminds me of a statement a mullah made at a funeral during the Islamic Revolution. An acquitance of mine had attended the gathering and he happened to overhear a mullah tell another fellow that the Islamic Regime would "make the world theirs." The bold statement was shocking at that time and maybe almost amusing. How could the mullahs of Iran believe that they had the ability to take on such a large endeavour? Was it even possible to think such a thing? Iran, who was the first world power, hasn't been in that position for a VERY long time. It seemed like a very odd statement; however, if it seemed like one mullah's dream at the time, the actions of the Islamic Republic in the region has shown that it was anything but a dream.

The Islamic Regime has been trying to influence events in the middle east for twenty-seven years. The Regime not only openly supports Hezbollah and Hamas, but ever since the regimes of Afghanistan and Iraq were overthrown the Islamic Regime has been dealt a very powerful hand. Both the former Taliban regime of Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein of Iraq were mortal enemies of the Islamic Regime. Iran waged a bloody eight year war with Hussein's regime and almost entered into armed conflict with the Taliban after two diplomats were murdered in Kabul. The Islamic Regime had very little say, if any, in these two countries while these regimes were in power. However, the events of 9/11 changed all of this. The United States' toppling of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein has allowed the Islamic Regime of Iran to extend its influence even further in the region. In both Afghanistan and Iraq the rebuilding of the respective governments has seen people who are freindly to the Islmamic Regime gain a hold of top positions. Furthermore, the Islamic Regime's proxys, such as the shiite Mehdi Army in Iraq, have gained extensive ground in both southern Iraq and Afghanistan.

What the West is doing in the middle east is allowing the Islamic Regime to hold onto power even longer. If the west is serious about peace in the middle east then it must help the Iranian people seek freedom. The Iranian people want the Islamic Regime gone. They want peace and they want prosperity. The Western countries must stand with the Iranian people and help them achieve what they have been striving to achieve for over 100 years.
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A suicide bomber was nabbed in Jerusalem today, a few hundred yards from Ben Yehuda street. It's the last piece in the puzzle. Gaza, Hizballah and now the West Bank.

Meanwhile the world waits and watches as Israel takes on all comers. It's a bizarre scenario.

New supplies for Hizballah are thought to be coming in from Syria through smuggling routes in the northeast border region. Debka notes also that this is where Iranian military advisors are also coming into Lebanon. That's why the Israeli airforce is focusing there as well as on the launch sites and stockpiles of Hizballah's missiles.

These have been striking Israel in regular volleys. More than 1,200 rockets have been fired at Israel since the start of the offensive last week. While down south over 20 Qassams were fired during the night at Sderot, Nahal Oz, and Ashkelon.

Today Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki came to Damascus for talks with President Basher Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Moallem. Iran has managed to persuade Syria to raise the level of its rhetoric: any attack would be met by "a firm and direct response whose timing and methods are unlimited."

A little tame besides Iran's threat of "unimaginable damage" to Israel if Syria were to be attacked. But then Assad may be perfectly happy to see Lebanon levelled and Hizballah do his fighting for him. Much to Iran's frustration it seems.

'President al-Assad receives a massage from Iranian counterpart', reports the Syrian news agency in a delightful Freudian slip.

Actually Mottaki has been hinting at ceasefires and prisoner exchanges. Is it possible the current campaign isn't going to plan? It can't be in the mullahs' interest to see their precious bombs used up and destroyed on the ground, not to mention the imposition of a new no man's land along Israel's northern border.

Perhaps Israel's reluctance to attack Syria is spoiling their plot, and they're beginning to lose control of events - if they had any in the first place.

They've been encouraging Hizballah all along, but they have no way to stop the war short of telling Hassan Nasrallah to surrender - which is the last thing on his mind.

If Hizballah evaporates, Iran will only have Syria, and they're the very slipperiest of allies. Ask anyone in the Middle East.

Original Article

Protests mark anniversary of student unrest in Iran - Iran Focus

A large number of students from several universities in the Iranian capital staged anti-government protests on Sunday which marked the seventh anniversary of a nationwide student uprising that rattled the ruling theocracy, according to dissidents.

The largest of the protests took place in the vicinity of the University of Tehran, where there was heavy police presence.

Agents of the paramilitary State Security Forces (SSF) sealed off streets next to the campus. There were several hit-and-run clashes between students and security forces which were assisted by a hard-line Islamist mob.

On 9 July, 1999, Iran was taken by storm as thousands of students from across the country poured out into the streets and took part in violent anti-government demonstrations. The unrest began following a crackdown on student dormitories in Tehran when at least one student was killed after being thrown out of the window.

In the same month, current Mayor of Tehran Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and 23 other Revolutionary Guards commanders wrote a letter to former President Mohammad Khatami, urging him to “use every available means” to put down a nationwide protest movement led by pro-democracy students or “they would take matters into their own hands”.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7857

The Ganji phenomenon - Iranian

Ganji must now use the international tribune to clearly outline his position about Khomeini and Political Islam

Akbar Ganji is one of the most famous deserters of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He started his political activities when he was a teenager in the Islamist milieus, with whom he worked during and after the revolution of 1979 for the repressive organs of the regime -- the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance.

As a functionary of the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, he was a colleague of brutal Manoocheher Mottaki, the Ahmadinejad’s foreign minister. The consulate was in this time a centre of Islamist terrorism against Iranian dissidents in Turkey.

The flagrant and notorious degree of the brutality and political failures of the IRI has contributed to grow incertitude among some self-identified as reformers. The reformers or so-called the movement of second Khordad view their mission to be the revival of Khomeini’s path. Ganji started his opposition career by approaching to these people. Later, he distanced himself from them when he realised the clique could not reform the IRI.

After being disappointed with any reform within the IRI, Ganji started his new struggles. Asan investigative journalist, he proved that the death of a few dissident was plotted by some IRI’s senior officials. Ganji had to bear a high price for his discovery -- his fabricated imprisonment was in fact the personal retaliation of these IRI’s officials, especially of the Supreme Leader, Khamenei.

His revelations about political murders were positive. They had an impact on the political consciousness of the society to better know the real face of the IRI, especially denounced by one of its ex-devotees. The ruling class of the IRI could not compel Ganji express remorse on television. He resisted any psychological pressure. Ganji was released after 6 years, though under the IRI, many thousands leftistsand Mojaheds have been immediately executed for possessing or reading an “illegal” book.

Ganji alleged that during his imprisonment, he had time to write a two parts pamphlet entitled “Manifesto for Republicanism” and smuggled them from his prison cell. It would be however difficult to imagine that as a prisoner of the brutal IRI, he could have convenient time and materials to write such intellectual writings. It seems to be more likely that his alleged Manifesto had been a reminder of his or their ideas when Ganji was working for the regime (eventually in the Ministry of Culture and Guidance). These previous ideas might have been modified, actualised and renamed as “Manifesto”.

Ganji’s pompous Manifesto, which is a big number for him, is a collection of other thinkers. It dose not separate Ganji from his Islamist past. He had better off express his own ideas about Khomeini, Political Islam and the legitimacy of any form of Islamic regime instead of borrowing ideas from other thinkers.

While Ganji boasts about the philosophy and values of human rights, his extensive quotations from Khomeini, his belief in his legitimacy and his long silence on the abominable crimes committed under and with direct order of Khomeini all remain as the little secrets of Ganji-phenomenon. These questions raise many looming questions about Ganji’s past and his political aims.

It is true that no political figure in Iran today dares challenge the regime as openly as Ganji does. Nevertheless, the secular and democratic activists have been long executed or forced to leave the country. Ganji knows that he would have been already dead, if he had been considered by the IRI a “profane” leftist or a “hypocrite” Mojahed.

For the average Iranians, who emotionally accept any protest against the hateful regime, Ganji is a hero of people. For Ganji’s brothers, who are still looking for reforms within the regime, he is too radical. They brotherly advise him that reality is too rough and unnecessary to be looked at. For people, who have the dream of having a secular and democratic Iran, expect Ganji initially break up with his Islamism and his Islamist fellows then truly give all information he knows about the all crimes of the IRI in any time. Other wise, he can keep passing his “Golden Pen” on Hajarian or on other IRI’s officials.

Ganji is an intellectual of the generation of the post-Islamists. Like any Islamist, he was long trying to ignore the discrepancy between the experience of the IRI and the realities of the societies. He finally came to the conclusion that the IRI is not reformable and called it a “Sultanate”, but Ganji’s concept from democracy and secularism remains controversial.

On his current trip, Ganji pushed recently a new courageous move; he finally condemned the prison-purge of sommer1987, but as a former functionary of the IRI, he gives no information about the culprits, collaborators, reasons and many more thousands crimes which have been systematically committed before this massacre.

Ganji must now use the international tribune to clearly outline his position about Khomeini and Political Islam. It is time that he tells the whole truth about immoral crimes of the IRI in anytime before he refers to the Immananuel Kant’s moral or boasts about the values of human rights. It will be a grateful step from his part, if he namely presents the idea, culprits and circumstances of the political crimes under the direction of Khomeini.

Ganji’s split personality characterises his phenomenon; his true face was more obvious before than today. For example:

he rejects today any violence against the IRI, but both as a revolutionary guard and a functionary of the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance, he was using and theorising violence against people;
he is not today against a secular democracy, but he thinks of Khomeini as a saviour of Iran and as a guide of his thoughts;
Ganji speaks of social justice, but he is an unconditional supporter of liberalisms.
Ganji is not a product of secular and democratic movement, such a movement does not exist in Iran. Ganji-phenomenon is an inside product of any totalitarian regime

This is due to the nature of totalitarian system that can always create insider dissidents.

But for Ganji, as an offshoot of a revolution, the non-violence has another advantage. He cannot support a revolution or rebellion which is oriented to overthrow his ex-ideal state and consequently his own previous involvements. Therefore, he should look for a “velvet” or moderate political transformation in which his own past would not suddenly endanger his future. His fears from his controversial past make our ex-revolutionary guard so alien with the value of revolution that he prefers to forget that dissidents can displace or overthrow the established regime by broadly variable forms of struggle, including a revolution or even popular armed struggles.

Of course, dissidents with a revolutionary calibre are severely punished in Iran. Another hand, nobody wants bloodshed as uniquely revolutionary means. There are many models of struggles in anytime and anywhere. A categorical reject of revolution, as one of these logic models, is a reactionary dogma. The rejection is what any totalitarian regime wants too. A revolutionary opposition may more effectively challenge such a regime and the lack of it can leave the regime alone to massacre people, as it was the case under Stalin or Pol Pot. A totalitarian regime does not kill to only defend its existence; it kills also to impose its ideology and its way of life. In the case of the IRI, the totalitarian Islamic regime kills to impose its offensive Islamist ideology.

But when Ganji says “I am against revolution and view myself as a reformist”, he implicitly means that he is against his people’s revolution to topple the IRI. Ganji knows that there are different ways to win freedom, but he stresses on his pacifist ways by holding on non-violent struggles. He should tell us in which side he will ultimately stand, if the angry people march though Tehran’s streets, revolting against the IRI.

Ganji-phenomenon likes to argue that it is enough to change the present Iranian theocracy that rules. He knows that a radical change of the whole IRI carries risks for people like him. He knows that a revolutionary new regime in Iran is not against one or few Mullahs, but will sweep away all forms of Islamism.

Today, in the Iranian opposition groups abroad, the current Ganji’s tour implicitly evokes the question of his possible role in an Iranian democratic movement. As I expressed myself in my previous articles, an Iranian democratic movement of course needs the organised structures and a solid leadership to topple the IRI and open the way for a democratically elected government. All freedom-loving Iranians are welcome to support such a movement. However, such a movement is supposed to be led by a purely secular leadership. Not only must the leaders be secular in act and idea, but also in background. Therefore, a bearded deserter of the IRI like Ganji cannot dream of becoming a position in the leadership.

Furthermore, in a leadership of post-Islamic regime, there is no place for people like Hamid Karzai or a bearded Shiite PM (as in Iraq). Iranians will bring all relics of the IRI before an international courtfor their crimes or collaborations. Even if Ganji is not charged by such a court, forgiven because of his fight against some IRI’s officials, his collaboration with some other IRI’s officials will never be forgotten.

This article is not against the person of Ganji. All Iranians respect his heroic fights against some IRI’s officials. However, I cannot imagine that a bearded ex-pasdar, who still quotes from Khomeini, is enough democrat and secular to become a leading position in a secular democratic movement. It is like saying that a secular person leads an Islamic movement!

Ganji-phenomenon belongs to those dissidents whose aim is to change the government, but not the ruling class of the regime entirely. At the best, they like to impose some “harmless” changes on the established regime like a change or modification of the constitution, reducing the power or dissolving the supreme Leader“Sultan” and reforming the state institutions.

At the best, Ganji can tell all the truth about all the crimes of the IRI in anytime under any condition, but Ganji-phenomenon is a product of the IRI and does not belong to the future leadership in Iran. Comment

Original Article

SMCCDI Note: Ex-student hailed as Iran's 'hope' - Telegraph

SMCCDI Note:

The above referenced individual can't be qualified as Iranians' hope nor as a legitimate representative of Iranian students. Many beleive of him as just an opportunist adventurer who's using the name of Iranian students in order to obtain power, even at the price of destroying Iran.

The latter has been the subject of sharp critisisms, made by many Iranians, for his controversial stands and some of his past actions. Questions are posed, regularly, by callers who are participating in most of the LA based Iranian radio and TV networks, on how the individual was able to exit Iran, by flying directly from Tehran's Airport to Dubai while claiming to have been on a 'murder' list?

Others question his successive "leave of prison" while genuine opponents do not benefit of such favor.

It's to note that while most Iranians hate the Islamic regime and are well known for their pro-US and Israel sentiments, they reject any call for military action or the efforts of some American groups to create an ethnical problem in Iran.

Such misguided and short term oriented efforts will only fuel the propaganda machine of the Islamic republic in its effort to undermine the US popularity and President Bush's respectability among Iranians.
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Title: Ex-student hailed as Iran's 'hope'
Source: Telegraph

An Iranian student leader who was imprisoned and tortured before fleeing to the United States in May is to meet Vice-President Dick Cheney and deliver his message about the need for "regime change" in Teheran.

Amir Abbas Fakhravar, 30, has become the poster child of some of the leading neo-conservatives in Washington and, less than two months after leaving Iran, the former medical student who spent five years in jail and still bears the scars on his youthful face, is being championed as the person who can unite his country's fractious opposition.

He is adamantly opposed to nuclear negotiations with Teheran, which were offered by President George W. Bush in a policy U-turn last month after Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, prevailed over Mr Cheney.

"The world has to do something - whatever it takes - so that [President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does not become another Hitler," Mr Fakhravar told The Sunday Telegraph in his office at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies in Washington.

When asked whether military action would be desirable, he replied: "Whatever the world does against the Iranian regime, the Iranian people will be supportive."

Mr Fakhravar's most prominent sponsor is Richard Perle, a former Reagan administration official who later served as chairman of the Pentagon's defence policy board.

Mr Perle was among figures who once hailed Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, as the natural successor to Saddam Hussein. However, Mr Chalabi later fell out with the Bush administration amid allegations of links to Iranian intelligence.

Mr Perle met Mr Fakhravar in Dubai in May after the latter had left Iran, fearing that he was about to be murdered. The Iranian, leader of the Confederation of Independent Iranian Students, was guest of honour at a recent American Enterprise Institute (AEI) lunch attended by key Pentagon and State Department officials.

The AEI, a conservative think-tank, has helped to develop many of the foreign policy positions adopted by the administration and was a major voice calling for Saddam to be toppled.

Michael Ledeen, an AEI scholar and Iran expert who co-hosted the lunch with Mr Perle, said of Mr Fakhravar: "He's a unifying figure. He's strong physically and psychologically. I think he's extraordinarily smart. He's one of the few Iranian opposition figures I've met who can think through the way Westerners look at Iran and help them understand."

Others who are said to have been impressed by his credentials are Professor Bernard Lewis, the Middle East historian, and James Woolsey, a former CIA director.

Prof Lewis, whose arguments helped to underpin the neo-conservative philosophy of spreading democracy, supporting Israel and projecting American power in the Middle East, is understood to have encouraged Mr Cheney to meet Mr Fakhravar. The former student walks with a slight limp, the result, he said, of being viciously kicked in the left knee by the judge who sentenced him to eight years in 2002 for criticising Iran's supreme leader in his novella This Place is Not a Ditch.

Mr Fakhravar has ambitious plans to bring the larger Tahkim Vahdat student organisation, which favours reform rather than regime change, under his group's wing and also to find common cause with the broader opposition movement.

But some Iran hardliners in Washington have distanced themselves from Mr Fakhravar. "This is no Ahmed Chalabi," said one. "I know that my well-intentioned friends are desperate to find a single figure to rally around but it's not the same as Iraq. It won't work."

Mr Fakhrahar said ordinary Iranians had become increasingly pro-American and even pro-Israeli because of Mr Ahmadinejad's bloodthirsty rhetoric about both countries. "They are growing to like Israel now. It's natural to feel the opposite of what he says."

Original Article

'Iran's Jews don't recognize Israel' - Jerusalem Post

- While reading this article I couldn't help but wonder how well the Islamic Republic is able to spread complete and utter falsity with a straight face. The people of Iran have a long and proud history with the Jewish people. For 2,500 years we have been friends and partners and it is one of the largest misfortunes that the last twenty-seven years have severly damaged a relationship that has lasted for millenia. When an Iranian of Jewish faith is quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency that Israel is not recognized his/her respective population it is a LIE. It is a lie not only because everything that comes out of the mouth of the Islamic Republic is a lie, but also because every respectful individual in this world recognizes the right of his fellow man to exist. The Jewish population in Iran are not allowed to express their political will just like the rest of the population. Every Iranian whether Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian is oppressed. The are oppressed by a very small population of murderous crooks.

Iran will be freed and then we will hear the truth from those in the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Zoroastrian populations about the freedom they had under the Islamic Republic. Until then, all the information that comes out of the Islamic Republic should be taken with two or three grains of salt.

Long Live Iran
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Iran's Jews do not recognize the legitimacy of the state of Israel, a senior Iranian Jewish leader reportedly declared on Sunday.

According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, the Iranian state's official news organ, Haroun Yashai, head of the Committee of Teherani Jews, made the statement to the Russian daily Gazetta.

The report quoted Yashai as saying that "We [Jews] are citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Yashai ruled out allegations that religious minorities were deprived of their rights in Iran.

"Foreign journalists usually think that our comments on the good condition of religious minorities in Iran are false" and "expressed on the call and under pressure of Iranian officials." According to the report, Yashai said this belief was "wrong," and added that Jews were free to react to some government policies and even to write to government officials on the issues.

In addition, Yashai said, Jews were free to perform their religious duties and say their prayers in the "Jewish language."

Yashai added that 23 of Iran's 40 synagogues were active, and said that Jews had been observing their customs and had been living in Iran for 2,500 years, since Cyrus the Great ruled the country, and that today's Jewish population - quoted at 25,000 in the IRNA report - lived mostly in Teheran, Shiraz, and Isfahan.

Original Article