Terror Watch

Terrorist Frontman Prof. Raymond Tanter, 202-742-6517 Makes Lunatic Untrue Charges

2005-10-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

"Iranian Intelligence Agents Sow Seeds of Terrorism in America Says Iran Policy Committee

10/24/2005 8:18:00 AM

To: International and Assignment desks

Contact: Prof. Raymond Tanter, 202-742-6517 or rtanter@iranpolicy.org

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, intelligence agents of the Iranian regime are holding a news conference in Washington, DC, according to the Iran Policy Committee (IPC).

IPC said this panel is a disinformation ploy mounted by the new president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is mobilizing Iranian intelligence services in a world-wide series of probes against the United States.

Professor Raymond Tanter, co-Chair of the IPC stated that, "Ahmadinejad is following Lenin's principle: `You probe with a bayonet. If you encounter mush, proceed. If you strike steel, withdraw.'" Tanter added that, "Steel rather than mush should meet Iranian intelligence agents sent to this country to probe for opportunities and exploit our vulnerabilities."

Since the accession to power of Ahmadinejad as president, Iran is more aggressive in its nuclear weapons program and negotiations with the European Union. He resumed activities at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan and appointed Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders in charge of overseeing the country's nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad also stepped up Iran's activities in Iraq, sending arms, explosives, and funding to support pro-Iran groups. It is noteworthy that Iranian intelligence operations in Iraq preceded insurgent attacks killing American and British forces.

Clare Lopez, former CIA official and Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee, stated that, "Just as Ahmadinejad's intelligence activities came before insurgent attacks in Iraq, so Iranian intelligence actions in the United States may signal terrorist attacks on the American homeland."

Bruce McColm, former Executive Director of Freedom House and co-Chair of the Iran Policy Committee stated that, "As part of a global campaign, Ahmadinejad accelerated attacks against Iranian dissidents abroad. Traditionally, intelligence operations by Iran's

Ministry of Intelligence and Security preceded assassination attempts by its agents."

Because Americans of Iranian heritage are the dissidents of today and are bound to become leaders of Iran tomorrow, McColm stated that, "The Iranian regime's agents are casing the dissidents for possible assassination." McColm added that, "If Tehran succeeds in establishing a beachhead for assassination in America, Iranian Americans would be first; and any of us could be next."

Who are the agents who would seize the beachhead in the American homeland?

-- Karim Haqi: Iran Policy Committee exposed veteran Iranian intelligence agent, Karim Haqi, in its June 30, 2005 White Paper, "U.S. Policy Options for Iran: Sham Elections, Disinformation Campaign, Human Rights Abuses, and Regime Change." The White Paper demonstrates that in Spring 2005, Haqi ran an intelligence operation that succeeded in duping Human Rights Watch, the New York City-based American nongovernmental organization, into fronting as a mouthpiece for Iranian intelligence.

-- Mahrukh (Parvin) Haji: An agent of Iran's intelligence service according to IPC, Haji maintains active links with a network of agents in Canada and Europe. The Pars-Iran association, which is the organizer of the October 24, 2005 press conference in Washington, is a front for Iranian intelligence in Canada, IPC said.

-- Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami: An agent of Iran's intelligence service in Ottawa according to IPC, Rostami was officially a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps along the Caspian Sea since 1979.

What is to be done by the U.S. Government?

-- The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services should block entry into the United States of additional Iranian agents.

-- The Department of State should revoke visas and expel three Iranian intelligence agents-Karim Haqi, Mahrukh (Parvin) Haji, and Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami, who are in Washington for a press conference on Oct. 24.

-- The FBI should assign additional agents to monitor activities of Iran's intelligence officials on American soil, with a view toward eliminating such presence.

Just as Tehran increases its own intelligence operations within the United States, Iran might also task its surrogates to engage in additional intelligence activities prior to terrorist operations within the American homeland. Because Iran is a state sponsor of such terrorist groups as Hizballah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, U.S. intelligence services should allocate additional resources to monitoring these organizations.

To prevent Iran's intelligence services from sowing the seeds of terrorism within the American homeland, U.S officials need to act against those who seek to probe our vulnerabilities and exploit our freedoms.

http://www.usnewswire.com/"

Most-Favored Terrorists - Newsweek World News - MSNBC.com

2005-10-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

Most-Favored Terrorists - Newsweek World News - MSNBC.com
Most-Favored Terrorists
What’s behind the French arrests of Iranian freedom fighters?

Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 8:49 a.m. ET July 19, 2003
June 27 - It’s the same season now in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise that it was when Vincent Van Gogh spent his last days here. Crows fly above cornfields and the narrow streets are made for strolling in the sultry early-summer heat. “Really, it’s seriously pretty; it’s open countryside, characteristic and picturesque,” the painter wrote to his brother Theo in 1890. And it hasn’t changed so very much since then, except for the coils of razor-wire, the riot police, the Iranian flags and the scores of hunger strikers on Rue des Gords.

UNTIL THE EARLY morning of June 17, when French SWAT teams went over the walls, the riverside compound on this quiet street served as a political headquarters for the most famous (and infamous) group trying to overthrow the government of Iran: the Mojahedin e-Khalq (People’s Mojahedin), which is listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization. For years the outfit was a pawn of Saddam Hussein. But now the Muj, who are some of the Iranian ayatollahs’ oldest enemies, may be America’s new friends and thus, perhaps, France’s new enemies.

As I walked down the street past the hungering protesters, recumbent beneath signs pleading for the release of their leaders, a weird rush of memories came over me. Probably you’ve seen members of the Mojahedin yourself, now and then, collecting anti-ayatollah petitions on city sidewalks, as insistent and as in-your-face as cult members. Usually they show off grotesque photographs of torture victims mutilated by the regime, but sometimes they hand out flyers with a picture of Maryam Rajavi, the green-veiled, green-eyed wife of their founder, Massoud Rajavi. Her smiling visage is pinned up all over the Rue des Gords. She’s the kinder, gentler, more matronly face of the movement. She’s also the most important member now jailed in France.

Who are these people? You might have asked yourself as you edged by their petition tables. If there’s no simple answer, it’s because they seem to keep reinventing themselves.

I first saw the Muj in action more than a quarter-century ago on the streets of Washington, D.C., where their ranks were made up of Iranian scholarship students raging against the Shah. (Clouds of tear gas filled the air around the White House, and President Carter and the Iranian monarch had to wipe the fumes from their eyes.) A little more than a year later, when the Shah was toppled back in Tehran, the Muj were one of the most powerful forces on those riot-torn streets, collaborating with Ayatollah Khomeini’s leadership of the revolution even as they maneuvered to usurp it.

Historian Shaul Bakhash describes the ideology they preached in those days as “drawing on Islam, social Darwinism, Marxism and critiques of capitalism.” An Iranian royalist acquaintance of mine, who did some jail time with members of the organization, describes them in two words: “Pol Pot.” “They would have killed hundreds of thousands if they took over,” he says. “Even more than the ayatollahs.” But these days they talk a lot about pluralism and democracy, elections and constitutions, women’s rights and secularism.

The Rajavis fled to exile in France in 1981 after a powerful bomb evidently planted by their minions wiped out several of their theocratic enemies. The blast killed the secretary general of the Islamic Republic Party, four cabinet ministers, six ministerial undersecretaries and 27 members of parliament—but failed to bring down the clerical regime. Nor did a succession of other bombings later in the year. Retribution on their followers was horrific. And the uprising they’d hoped for never materialized.

In 1986, no longer welcome by the French, the Rajavis and their troops moved to Iraq under the patronage of Saddam Hussein. He’d been at war with Iran for six years at that point, killing hundreds of thousands of Iranian troops, some of whom were would-be martyrs, many of whom were simple conscripts. Today, the Muj say they were just trying to make peace, and encouraged Saddam to do so. They say the Iranian people understood and see them as heroes. The Iranians I’ve met in Tehran, especially former conscripts who found themselves up against the Muj on the battlefield, see them as traitors.

What’s clear is that to the the mullahs, the Muj were a threat; so much so that in 1987 Iran started sending hit teams to Europe to kill as many major figures in the organization as they could find. They gunned down Muj leaders in Germany, in Switzerland and in Italy. Among the victims was Massoud Rajavi’s younger brother Kazem, killed near Geneva in 1990. France eventually offered asylum again and qualified protection within its borders for political activities, and the Muj settled once more into a quiet life by the slow-moving waters of the Oise. They were so innocuous as far as their neighbors were concerned that the Auvers town council is now lobbying for Maryam Rajavi’s release.

What’s hard to understand, given this history, is why the French suddenly decided now to move against the people they’d been sheltering all this time.

One key could be the U.S. connection. When the American military conquered Iraq, it gave the little Mojahedin army of 5,000-or-so fighters special treatment. Never mind the group’s official terrorist label and its long ties to Saddam, the 4th Infantry Division’s commander, Gen. Ray Odierno, spent two long days negotiating a truce with the organization. When the talks finally ended and he spoke to the press, Odierno was more than charitable. “It is not a surrender. It is an agreement to disarm and consolidate,” he said, adding that “on the surface they appear to have some of the same goals the U.S. has in forming democracy and fighting oppression.”

U.S. officials won’t say if they intend to use the Muj as a means to attack the Iranian regime, especially at a time when that government faces mounting protests (for which the Muj try to claim responsibility). But the French are floating suggestions that the group could be Washington’s most-favored terrorists. An internal document from France’s security police, leaked to the daily Le Figaro, claimed that “in case of an Anglo-American attack” on Iran itself, the Muj were organizing operations against Tehran’s consulates and embassies in Europe as well as “the physical elimination of former members of the movement collaborating with the Iranian intelligence services.” At recent meetings, some in the group supposedly talked about resorting to “suicide operations (self-immolation),” according to the report. In the event, after the arrests at Auvers several Muj partisans set themselves ablaze in Paris, Rome, London and Bern to protest.

Over coffee and sweets inside the headquarters in Auvers, spokesmen for the Mojehedin e-Khalq scoff at the notion their group would carry out terrorist attacks in Europe. They never have, they say, and never would. Some suggest that the arrests and threatened extraditions back to Iran are just France’s way of currying favor—and perhaps winning lucrative contracts—with the Tehran regime. “We condemn this shameful haggling with the mullahs,” proclaim the posters on Rue des Gords.

It’s a muddle, this case. Could the French government be so cynical that it would stage these arrests just to win contracts for oil deals and airplane sales? Or does it really believe the Americans might invade Iran, and thus set off a wave of terror in Europe? As I mulled all this over on the drive back to Paris, I kept thinking about the name the French interior ministry gave the raid on the Mojahedin headquarters: “Operation Théo.” It’s a reference to Van Gogh’s art-dealer brother, who is buried beside him on a hilltop overlooking Auvers. But what perverse sense of culture or history inspired such a rubric for such an action?

When I got home I pulled a copy of Vincent’s letters off the shelf and looked at the last lines—the very last lines of the very last unfinished note to Theo. If there was no clear answer, there was an odd reflection of the question some of the French may be asking themselves right now: “You’re not in the business of selling men as far as I know, and you can take a side, I find, really acting with humanity, but what do you want?”

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc."

Iran Daily - Front Page - 10/03/05 - 600 Ex-MKO Members Back Home

2005-10-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Iran Daily - Front Page - 10/03/05: "600 Ex-MKO Members Back Home

KASHAN, Isfahan,
Oct. 2--Director of Isfahan’s office for Freedom Society said on Sunday 600 former members of the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) who defected in the past two years are presently living with their families.
Seyyed Mohsen Hashemi also told IRNA that 28 defected people are from Isfahan province.
He thanked the government for accepting the people by saying that the defected MKO members were treated kindly despite the fact they should have faced long jail terms.
“A total of 1,600 Iranian families have visited Iraq to see their relatives in the past two years,“ he added.
Hashemi, also an MKO defector, noted that these families visited Iraq’s Shiite holy sites and their relatives in MKO’s Ashraf Military Camp.
Asked about the Freedom Society, Hashemi said a group of MKO members who defected to Iran in early 2003 gathered at the Foreign Ministry and expressed their willingness to establish the society to help MKO defectors return home.
Hashemi further urged the Islamic Republic to help MKO defectors."

Regime change in Iran: MKO had to pay students to Protest Ahmadinejad in New York

2005-09-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Regime change in Iran: "The trip to New York

I was par of a 60 people group flying from Los Angeles to NYC together on a red eye flight. Prior to the departure while getting a bite to eat with couple of friends, we ran into a group of college aged individuals who informed us that they were also attending the demonstrations in New York City. To my amazement out of 22 people in the MEK group,only 3 were Iranians. Further chatting with them revealed that they were paid $400.00 per person in addition to Hotel accommodations in Manhattan for three days, topped off by food allowance and site seeing tours in NYC. The Funny thing was that most of these kids did not know which organization has sponsored them although some had attended a previous demonstration in Washington DC.
The next day while demonstrating I noticed a tremendous number of non-Iranians demonstrating among the MEK group. Two Danish gentlemen approached me asking for a cloth Iranian Sun and the Lion flags since MEK had provided their group with a paper one. They too had been flown from Denmark all expenses paid!
Next I ran into Mr. Kenneth R. Timmerman notifying him of the situation. Mr. Timmerman carried his own investigation, took some picture and wrote this article: Outlawed Iranian opposition group rents demonstrators in New York; pro-monarchist groups call for Ahmadinejad arrest
http://marzeporgohar.org/index.php?action=news&n_id=25082&l=1"

Covert ops to overthrow Iran's gov -

2005-09-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Covert ops to overthrow Iran�s gov -: "Covert ops to overthrow Iran’s gov
9/26/2005 6:00:00 PM GMT

"U.S. offers grants to help oppose clerics"
By: Trish Schuh
Like the color-coded terror alert system, the Technicolor Velvet Invasions blink warning. Despite receiving an ugly bruise in Uzbekistan, the CIA and its NGO regime change industry hope to stage another cardboard coup in Iran. But it could be a Black & Blue Revolution.

Citing a 'mission accomplished' in Iraq, President Bush told 25,000 soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas; "The establishment of a free Iraq is a watershed event in the global democratic revolution. That success is sending a message from Beirut to Tehran."

Tasked by the Bush administration with sending that message from America to Tehran, and "winning hearts and minds" is 'swift boat veteran' author Jerome Corsi. On May 16, Corsi's NGO The Iran Freedom Foundation, inaugurated a 12 day "Iran Freedom Walk" from Philadelphia's Liberty Bell to Washington, D.C.

Dipping two fingers in red paint, Corsi waved a peace sign in solidarity "with the blood of oppressed Iranians" and called on "the spirit of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King." He declared; "I love the Iranian people. America does not hate the Persian people. We love the Persian people. We want peace and we love the Persian people." Corsi's voice then hushed to a whisper; "We stand here today and we pray in the name of the Gods. I embrace Jesus Christ as my savior- and we also pray in the name of Allah, Zoroaster, and the B'hai.""

Iran Daily - World Politics - 08/11/05 - Saudi Ambassador Blasts UK ForIgnoring Terrorist Warnings

2005-09-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

Iran Daily - World Politics - 08/11/05 "Saudi Ambassador Blasts UK

Prince Turki Al-Faisal

LONDON, Aug. 10--Saudi Arabia’s outgoing ambassador to Britain blasted the British government for ignoring constant Saudi warnings on Muslim extremists, AFP quoted a British newspaper as saying Wednesday.
Prince Turki Al-Faisal, a former chief of Saudi intelligence, told The Times he had been “going round in circles“ with British authorities over the threat posed by Saudi dissidents in Britain.
The prince, 60, has been ambassador to London since January 2003 but is soon to transfer to Washington.
He said his warnings had been passed around government departments.
The situation got so bad that crown prince Abdullah, now king, warned British ministers relations between the two nations would be damaged if no action was taken, the ambassador said.
“When you call somebody he says it is the other guy,“ the prince told The Times.
“So we have been in this runaround for the last two and a half years,“ he said.
The prince’s chief grievances were over two Saudi dissidents, Saad Faqih and Mohammad Al-Masari.
Faqih is on the United Nations terror list accused by the US of involvement in the 1998 bombing of their Nairobi embassy. Al-Masari runs a “jihadi“ website, posting videos of suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq.
“We have been urging your government to send them back since 1996, if not earlier. During my two and a half years here it was one of the most persistent and consistent topics,“ Prince Turki said.
He said when Abdullah raised the pair with Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2003, the British premier said there was nothing he could do. No action was taken after Blair then promised to change the law on Abdullah’s suggestion.
Eventually, Faqih’s assets were seized once he was placed on the UN terror list in 2004.
“He had 20 pounds (29 euros, 36 dollars), or something,“ Prince Turki said.
“We listed all the obligations now that his name was on the terrorist list. The response we got was ’we are studying your proposals’.
“Basically, ’don’t call us, we will call you’. It was very disappointing.“
Abdullah rammed the message home that relations would be damaged on August 3 when Blair met him at the funeral of the late king Fahd, Prince Turki said, adding he doubted much would be done before his departure in September."

Pentagon Bars Military Officers and Analysts From Testifying - New York Times

2005-09-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

Pentagon Bars Military Officers and Analysts From Testifying - New York Times: "Pentagon Bars Military Officers and Analysts From Testifying

By PHILIP SHENON
Published: September 21, 2005
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - The Pentagon said Tuesday that it had blocked several military officers and intelligence analysts from testifying at an open Congressional hearing about a highly classified intelligence program that, the officers have said, identified a ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a potential terrorist a year before the attacks.

The officers and intelligence analysts had been scheduled to testify on Wednesday about the program, known as Able Danger, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement that open testimony "would not be appropriate."

"We have expressed our security concerns and believe it is simply not possible to discuss Able Danger in any great detail in an open public forum," Mr. Whitman said.

He offered no other explanation of the Pentagon's reasoning.

Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the committee, said he was surprised by the Pentagon's decision because "so much of this has already been in the public domain, and I think that the American people need to know what happened here."

Mr. Specter said in a telephone interview that he intended to go ahead with the hearing on Wednesday and hoped that it "may produce a change of heart by the Department of Defense in answering some very basic questions."

Two military officers - an active-duty captain in the Navy and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve - have recently said publicly that they were involved with Able Danger and that the program's analysts identified Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian-born ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, by name as a potential terrorist by early 2000.

They said they tried to share the information with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the summer of 2000, more than a year before the attacks, but were blocked by Defense Department lawyers. F.B.I. officials, who answer to the jurisdiction of Mr. Specter's committee, have confirmed that the Defense Department abruptly canceled meetings in 2000 between the bureau's Washington field office and representatives of the Able Danger team.

The Pentagon had said that it interviewed three other people who were involved with Able Danger and who said that they, too, recalled the identification of Mr. Atta as a terrorist suspect. Mr. Specter said his staff had talked to all five of the potential witnesses and found that "credibility has been established" for all of them."

Assassination Plot Against the Turkmenbashi

2005-09-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

DIPLOMATIC CABLES: "August 6, 2005 -- WASHINGTON AND ASHQABAT -- According to the Ferghana News Agency, a British mercenary group, Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., of London, which is active in Iraq and Africa, is the subject of a document, purportedly a proposal from Northbridge to an entity called the Turkmenistan Liberation Organization (TLO), to capture or execute Turkmenistan's dictatorial President "Turkmenbashi" Saparmurat Niyazov. Coming so closely on the heels of the ouster of the U.S. from its K2 base in neighboring Uzbekistan, the timing of the leaking of the document is intriguing. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is busy looking for replacements for K2 and officially neutral Turkmenistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is a tempting alternative. The only problem is that Niyazov refuses to allow US basing rights in his draconian state, merely overflight privileges.

What is very interesting in the Northbridge proposal is the reference to its Michigan-based headquarters and a reference to a Defense Logistics Agency contract (CAGE) code:

"Company Registered Offices and Contacts
US Defense Logistics Agency CAGE Code Number: 1XKW0
Northbridge Services Group Ltd – USA Corporate Headquarters,
51194 Romeo Plank Rd # 214, Macomb, MI 48042."

Northbridge has been at the center of controversy before. In the aftermath of an aborted coup against Equatorial Guinea's dictator Teodoto Obiang in 2004 that involved British and South African mercenaries tied to Mark Thatcher, the son of Margaret Thatcher, Northbridge came up as one of the entities involved. Reuters reported to the British and South African mercenary coup plotters' use of Equatorial Guinea as a jumping off point to capture former Liberian President Charles Taylor from exile in Calabar, Nigeria and deliver him to the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Africa. The Bush administration had posted a $2 million reward for the capture of Taylor. Northbridge’s president, Bob Kovacic claimed that his representative in the United States, Pasquale Dipofi, “did know a couple of the guys on the plane [the coup plotters's plane captured in Harare, Zimbabwe] and one or two in the target country [Nigeria], but we had nothing to do with the mission.” Interestingly, Kovacic revealed the Liberian connection to the attempted Equatorial Guinea coup from Kuwait, where he was seeking security contracts in Iraq. This points to the problem with private actors playing on the international foreign policy stage. If a group of mercenary companies connected to security work in U.S.-occupied Iraq were trying to capture a deposed leader in Nigeria, without that country’s approval, or they were trying to launch a coup d’état in Equatorial Guinea, the ramifications of such freelancers acting independently or with a “wink and a nod” from government interlocutors are chilling.

Ferghana story at: http://enews.ferghana.ru/detail.php?id=136036036036.03,306,12097687

The Northbridge proposal cited in the report:

PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE THE
TURKMENISTAN LIBERATION ORGANISATION
WITH CONSTABULARY FORCE
FOR THE ARREST AND (OR) EXECUTION OF
SAPARMURAT NIYASOV

February 2005

PREPARED BY
NORTHBRIDGE SERVICES GROUP, LTD
RIVERBANK HOUSE
1 PUTNEY BRIDGE APPROACH
LONDON, SW6 3JD
OFFICE +44 (0) 20 737 10066
DIRECTOR UK MOBILE ANDREW WILLIAMS +44 (0) 7732312066
DIRECTOR US MOBILE PASQUALE DIPOFI 1 (586) 883 3572

PREPARED FOR
TURKMENISTAN LIBERATION ORGANISATION

Proposal to provide the Turkmenistan Liberation Organisation with a Constabulary force for the arrest and (or) execution of Saparmurat Niyasov
Client: Turkmenistan Liberation Organisation (TLO)
Provider: Northbridge Services Group Ltd. (NSG)

Introduction:

Notice is hereby given that Northbridge Services Group Ltd. (NSG) puts forward a proposal to provide a cost effective solution to enforce the TLO potential to execute arrest and capital punishment.

Background:

On January 5, 2005, the TLO issued an indictment and warrant for the arrest and capital punishment of President of Turkmenistan for his crimes against humanity. The document was approved before February 2005. Such a step was taken on the grounds of human rights violation by S.Niyasov and his refusal to implement agreements on human rights as a state leader and a full member of the international community. The agreements ( the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as the new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture of 1984) have not been ratified yet. Niyasov declines to break off all statements and activities on forced resettlement of people (particularly national minorities and political opponents), to terminate the practice based on the «national purity» concept, which contravenes all international norms. The present dictatorship and personal cult of Niyasov, as well as his blatant disregard for the international law and his fellow countrymen along with the absence of constabulary force in Turkmenistan, which could guarantee the proper execution of the warrant issued, forms a deep gap in the legal system of the state. The current situation has resulted in profound concern within the TLO and other organization.

Northbridge Services Group has designed a viable and cost effective option to act as constabulary body of the Turkmenistan Liberation Organisation. Through this proposal we are aiming to enforce the arrest and (or) execution of S.Niyasov. We are determined to carry on an efficient campaign under the direction and in accordance with the guidelines of the Turkmenistan Liberation Organisation. Consistency of acts shall prevent other organizations from uncoordinated activities, which are unlikely to accord with the international norms and score a success.

Northbridge Services Group

Northbridge Services Group`s corporate headquarters are located in the United States. Besides affiliate agencies in the UK, Italy, and South Africa, NSG has a partner company - EHC Group - based in France. NSG’s CAGE Code number according to US Defense Logistics Agency is 1XKW0. Owing to that NSG suits perfectly to meet the requirements of our clients throughout Europe and Africa. NSG’s expertise in international relations is quite equal to offer a wide range of responsive and adaptable services.

At NSG we pride ourselves on the caliber of our personnel, hand-picked from governmental, military and private organizations, including CIA, MI6, British Forces PARAS, US Navy and Royal Marine commandos.

Proposal Summary

Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., proposes to act as the constabulary body of the Turkmenistan Liberation Organisation. In accordance with the valid warrant of the arrest and (or) execution of President S.Niyasov, Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., suggests a multiphase operation aiming at the arrest and surrender of S.Niyasov to the International Criminal Court or his execution on the spot.

Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., is aware that the current situation is unsteady. The present proposal is based upon the knowledge of the current events.

Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., and the Client should both realize that the situation might change and the calculations have been performed proceeding from the developments at hand at hand.

We, however, think that the steps following Phase 1 present the best possible operation plan.

Extended services are also available.

Phase 1 - Consultation

Should time permit, Phase 1 shall include a meeting of an advisory team with TLO delegation.

Our initial advisory team shall travel to a third country (Afghanistan, Sweden, etc.) to discuss the following:

1. Viability of the overall operation planned

2. In-depth consultation with key level decision-makers

3. Time line for the operation

4. Development of rules for the operation in compliance with the Geneva Convention articles

5. Prior intelligence data organisation

6. Restriction and limitation

7. Definition of the mission success

8. Jurisdiction, authority and sanctions

9. Post-Niyasov government and stability should also be viewed.

Costing Phase 1

We have attempted to estimate the costing of the operation, and arrange consultation with key decision-makers. A detailed plan of the operation will complete calculation of expenses will be submitted at the end of our preliminary conference. All data pertaining to the operation are to be kept strictly confidential.

The advisory team of 4-5 high ranking consultation shall go to third country. Travel arrangements shall be made immediately upon receipt of the retaining fee.

We would like to ask the Client to cover costs for a 5-7 day consultation, including

Air fare: $15.000 - $20.000 (depending on the third country selected)

Lodging and food: $ 9,000 USD

Personnel cost: $12,000 USD

(consultation, planning, travel time and preparation)

Miscellaneous costs: $ 2,000 USD

Total costing Phase 1 $ 50,000 USD approx.

Phase 2 – Intelligence Data Organisation

NSG plans the intelligence team landing in required regions to carry on situation assessment and

obtain information data in real time. It may help us detect S.Niyasov’s location (whether he is at his residence place, in the office or at trip) to arrest (and/or execute) him. NSG’s secret agents will also be able to determine the best way to detain him without causing serious consequences to the local people. We recommend using five (5) agents in the phase

Costing Phase 2

Estimated costing and budget requirement for Phase 2 - $400,000 USD
Remaining balances will be applied to Phases 3 and 4.

Phase 3 – Arrest and (or) Execution

The phase includes necessary outfit and equipment acquisition, required certificates getting, possible last minute changes planning.

Costing Phase 3

We estimate preparatory work to proceed to Phase 4 amounts to $1 million. The funds shall be used to reimburse monthly expenses, initial outfit, maritime and air logistics.

Phase 4 - Arrest and (or) Execution

We wish that the TLO would appoint a special prosecutor and (or) executioner to work with us in the proceedings of arrest (execution). This prosecutor and (or) executioner shall observe proper

Implementation of the proceedings. As an extra service NSG can deliver an executioner at the disposal of the Client.

In the event S.Niyasov is detained prior to Phase 4 operation, NSG can then offer a 15-20 men convoy team to take the arrestee to a designated point.

The TLO is to authorize Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., to utilize a specially chartered ship as a vanguard operation base in the Caspian Sea.

Taking into account preliminary costing and the current situation we may assume that the local budget will not exceed $4 Million. This total sum shall be enough to carry out the operation on the territory of the country within 90 days.

The total amount is calculated to pay expenses of 60 men constabulary force (arresting officers, executioner, and security agents inclusive). NSG shall also utilize local people in the operation should the need arise. The people attracted shall have similar authorities to make an arrest. On receipt of extra intelligence data we may be able to speed up the operation und utilize fewer participants. Any savings shall be split between the Client and NSG.

The overall operation is expected to cost $1,000,000 per 30 day period.

Maximum budget for the operation - $4,000,000

Airborne Support

The airborne support price is dependent on the client’s ability to provide the air support. This shall be determined in Phase 1 planning. NSG shall request that the TLO provides a helicopter to deliver the indicted to the point designated by the TLO.

Maritime support price

Price for the vessel chartered: is fixed by a contractor

Price for a Zodiac boat depends on the vessel type and terms of purchase

Mark IV $11,000 – 17,000 USD
Mark V $14,000 – 21,600 USD

NSG may try to purchase secondhand boats and charter a vessel for this operation independently.

- The Client is under obligation to pay freight charges and charter a ship large enough to transport Zodiac boats o the coast and serve as a vanguard operating base.

The Client also agrees to cover all and any repatriation and medical costs should they be required.

Company Background

Company Registered Offices and Contacts
US Defense Logistics Agency CAGE Code Number: 1XKW0
Northbridge Services Group Ltd – USA Corporate Headquarters
51194 Romeo Plank Rd # 214
Macomb, MI 48042
United States of America
Tel: (001) 586 493 7989
Tel: (001) 703 997 8942
Fax: (001) 703 997 8943
Web: http://www.northbridgeservices.com/

Northbridge Services Group Ltd – UK
Riverside House
1 Putney Bridge Approach
Fulham
London
United kingdom
SW6 3JD

Tel: +44 (0) 73710066
Web: http://www.northbridgeservices.com/

Propriety Notice

This proposal contains confidential information of Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., which is furnished for the sole purpose to enable the receipt to evaluate the proposal submitted hereby.

On receipt of this document, the recipient agrees to maintain confidentiality and not to disclose the information to a third party beyond the group peculiarly responsible for its contents evaluation.

There is no confidentiality obligation on any information which has become known to the recipient prior to the receipt of the information from Northbridge Services Group, Ltd., or has becom publicly known through no fault of the recipient, or has been received without obligation of confidentiality from a third party."

Tanter Links To Michael Ledeen, AIPAC, Reza Pahlavi and Likud

2005-08-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

"In early 2002, Leeden, along with Morris Amitay, a former AIPAC executive director as well as a CSP
adviser, founded the Coalition for Democracy in Iran (CDI) to build congressional and administration
support for Iran regime change. AIPAC and CDI helped ensure passage of recent House and Senate
resolutions that condemn Iran, call for tighter sanctions and express support for Iranian dissidents.
The CDI includes members of key neoconservative policy institutes and think tanks, including
Raymond Tanter of the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs (WINEA)—an off-shoot of
AIPAC—and Frank Gaffney, president of CSP. In the ’90s, Feith served as the board chairman of CSP,
whose slogan is “peace through strength,” and where Woolsey currently serves as co-chairman of the
advisory committee. Other neoconservative organizations represented in the coalition by more than one
member include AEI and Freedom House.
Rob Sobhani, an Iranian-American, who like Ledeen and other neoconservatives is a friend of the
Shah’s son Reza Pahlavi, is also a CDI member. CDI expresses the common neoconservative position
that constructive engagement with the Iranian government—even with the democratic reformists—is
merely appeasement. Instead, the United States should proceed immediately to a regime change strategy
working closely with the “Iranian people.” Representatives of the Iranian people that could be the front
men for a regime change strategy, according to the neoconservatives, include, the Shah’s son, Reza
Pahlavi (who has also cultivated close ties with the Likud Party in Israel), the Iraq-based guerrilla group
Mujahadin-E Khalq (MEK), and expatriate arms dealer Ghorbanifar."

Asbat al-Ansar failed in attempt to assassinate former US Ambassador to Lebanon David Satterfield

2005-08-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

Chapter 6 -- Terrorist Groups: "Asbat al-Ansar

Description
Asbat al-Ansar, the League of the Followers or Partisans’ League, is a Lebanon-based Sunni extremist group, composed primarily of Palestinians with links to Usama Bin Ladin’s al-Qa’ida organization and other Sunni extremist groups. The group follows an extremist interpretation of Islam that justifies violence against civilian targets to achieve political ends. Some of the group’s goals include overthrowing the Lebanese Government and thwarting perceived anti-Islamic and pro-Western influences in the country.

Activities
Asbat al-Ansar has carried out multiple terrorist attacks in Lebanon since it first emerged in the early 1990s. The group assassinated Lebanese religious leaders and bombed nightclubs, theaters, and liquor stores in the mid1990s. The group raised its operational profile in 2000 with two attacks against Lebanese and international targets. It was involved in clashes in northern Lebanon in December 1999 and carried out a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the Russian Embassy in Beirut in January 2000. Asbat al-Ansar’s leader, Abu Muhjin, remains at large despite being sentenced to death in absentia for the 1994 murder of a Muslim cleric.

Suspected Asbat al-Ansar elements were responsible for an attempt in April 2003 to use a car bomb against a McDonald’s in a Beirut suburb. By October, Lebanese security forces arrested Ibn al-Shahid, who is believed to be associated with Asbat al-Ansar, and charged him with masterminding the bombing of three fast food restaurants in 2002 and the attempted attack on a McDonald’s in 2003. Asbat forces were involved in other violence in Lebanon in 2003, including clashes with members of Yassir Arafat’s Fatah movement in the ‘Ayn al-Hilwah refugee camp and a rocket attack in June on the Future TV building in Beirut.

In 2004, no successful terrorist attacks were attributed to Asbat al-Ansar. However, in September, operatives with links to the group were believed to be involved in a planned terrorist operation targeting the Italian Embassy, the Ukrainian Consulate General, and Lebanese Government offices. The plot, which reportedly also involved other Lebanese Sunni extremists, was thwarted by Italian, Lebanese, and Syrian security agencies. In 2004, Asbat al-Ansar remained vocal in its condemnation of the United States’ presence in Iraq, and in April the group urged Iraqi insurgents to kill US and other hostages to avenge the death of HAMAS leaders Abdul Aziz Rantisi and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. In October, Mahir al-Sa’di, a member of Asbat al-Ansar, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for plotting to assassinate former US Ambassador to Lebanon David Satterfield in 2000. Until his death in March 2003, al-Sa’di worked in cooperation with Abu Muhammad al-Masri, the head of al-Qa’ida at the ‘Ayn al-Hilwah refugee camp, where fighting has occurred between Asbat al-Ansar and Fatah elements.

Strength
The group commands about 300 fighters in Lebanon.

Location/Area of Operation
The group’s primary base of operations is the ‘Ayn al-Hilwah Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon.

External Aid
Probably receives money through international Sunni extremist networks and possibly Usama Bin Ladin’s al-Qa’ida network. "

Judge who tried Akbar Ganji is shot and killed in Iran - International Herald Tribune

2005-08-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

Judge who tried newsman is shot and killed in Iran - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune: "Judge who tried newsman is shot and killed in Iran
The New York Times, The Associated Press

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2005

TEHRAN A gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed on Tuesday the Iranian judge who had tried the case of a prominent journalist now on a hunger strike, a judiciary spokesman said.

Masoud Moqadasi, a judge who oversaw a case against the imprisoned journalist, Akbar Ganji, was slain in his car after leaving his office in central Tehran, said a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Jamal Karimirad.

Moqadasi headed the Tehran judiciary complex and specialized in cases of social vice, Karimirad said.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between the killing and the Ganji case.

A pair of witnesses told police officers that, as the judge attempted to drive away from his office, the gunman sped up to Moqadasi's car on a motorcycle and shot him twice in the forehead, said Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talaei.

The assailant escaped. Talaei said that the motive for the killing was unclear and the police would look at Moqadasi's past cases for clues.

The judge could be seen slumped behind the wheel of the vehicle, his face and the car's interior bloodied. Detectives examined the car, corpse and surrounding street for clues.

Police officers blocked the street and cordoned off the shooting scene, Ahmad Qasir Street, also known by its previous name, Bucharest Street. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Karimirad said Moqadasi had handled the first case against Ganji, who was jailed in 2000 for reporting that intelligence officials murdered five Iranian dissidents in 1998.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry later blamed the murders on "rogue agents" in the secret service.

After overseeing Ganji's first trial in the Third Branch of the Revolutionary Court, Moqadasi sentenced the journalist to 10 years in prison and five years' exile in southern Iran for violating Iran's national security by releasing classified information.

That sentence was reduced to six months in jail in a second judgment in a different court. But when a top judiciary official objected, Iran's supreme court changed the sentence to six years. Ganji has already served more than five years in prison.

Ganji, who is on a hunger strike and drinks only tea and water, is being treated in Tehran's Milad Hospital under police guard. His wife, Masoumeh Shafiei, said last week that her husband had lost a lot of weight and was in delicate health.

In a 20-page manifesto written from jail, Ganji states in strikingly blunt terms that basic civil rights are nonexistent in Iran because they would obstruct the absolute power of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader.

Ganji urges Iranians to reject a system that grants to just one man sweeping powers over the military, judiciary, key appointed bodies and the state-controlled media.

"The path that the reformers have picked for reform will not lead to democracy," says the manifesto, which electrified student activists because it suggested a strategy for moving the reform movement ahead.

TEHRAN A gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed on Tuesday the Iranian judge who had tried the case of a prominent journalist now on a hunger strike, a judiciary spokesman said.

Masoud Moqadasi, a judge who oversaw a case against the imprisoned journalist, Akbar Ganji, was slain in his car after leaving his office in central Tehran, said a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Jamal Karimirad.

Moqadasi headed the Tehran judiciary complex and specialized in cases of social vice, Karimirad said.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between the killing and the Ganji case.

A pair of witnesses told police officers that, as the judge attempted to drive away from his office, the gunman sped up to Moqadasi's car on a motorcycle and shot him twice in the forehead, said Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talaei.

The assailant escaped. Talaei said that the motive for the killing was unclear and the police would look at Moqadasi's past cases for clues.

The judge could be seen slumped behind the wheel of the vehicle, his face and the car's interior bloodied. Detectives examined the car, corpse and surrounding street for clues.

Police officers blocked the street and cordoned off the shooting scene, Ahmad Qasir Street, also known by its previous name, Bucharest Street. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Karimirad said Moqadasi had handled the first case against Ganji, who was jailed in 2000 for reporting that intelligence officials murdered five Iranian dissidents in 1998.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry later blamed the murders on "rogue agents" in the secret service.

After overseeing Ganji's first trial in the Third Branch of the Revolutionary Court, Moqadasi sentenced the journalist to 10 years in prison and five years' exile in southern Iran for violating Iran's national security by releasing classified information.

That sentence was reduced to six months in jail in a second judgment in a different court. But when a top judiciary official objected, Iran's supreme court changed the sentence to six years. Ganji has already served more than five years in prison.

Ganji, who is on a hunger strike and drinks only tea and water, is being treated in Tehran's Milad Hospital under police guard. His wife, Masoumeh Shafiei, said last week that her husband had lost a lot of weight and was in delicate health.

In a 20-page manifesto written from jail, Ganji states in strikingly blunt terms that basic civil rights are nonexistent in Iran because they would obstruct the absolute power of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader.

Ganji urges Iranians to reject a system that grants to just one man sweeping powers over the military, judiciary, key appointed bodies and the state-controlled media.

"The path that the reformers have picked for reform will not lead to democracy," says the manifesto, which electrified student activists because it suggested a strategy for moving the reform movement ahead.

TEHRAN A gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed on Tuesday the Iranian judge who had tried the case of a prominent journalist now on a hunger strike, a judiciary spokesman said.

Masoud Moqadasi, a judge who oversaw a case against the imprisoned journalist, Akbar Ganji, was slain in his car after leaving his office in central Tehran, said a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Jamal Karimirad.

Moqadasi headed the Tehran judiciary complex and specialized in cases of social vice, Karimirad said.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between the killing and the Ganji case.

A pair of witnesses told police officers that, as the judge attempted to drive away from his office, the gunman sped up to Moqadasi's car on a motorcycle and shot him twice in the forehead, said Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talaei.

The assailant escaped. Talaei said that the motive for the killing was unclear and the police would look at Moqadasi's past cases for clues.

The judge could be seen slumped behind the wheel of the vehicle, his face and the car's interior bloodied. Detectives examined the car, corpse and surrounding street for clues.

Police officers blocked the street and cordoned off the shooting scene, Ahmad Qasir Street, also known by its previous name, Bucharest Street. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Karimirad said Moqadasi had handled the first case against Ganji, who was jailed in 2000 for reporting that intelligence officials murdered five Iranian dissidents in 1998.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry later blamed the murders on "rogue agents" in the secret service.

After overseeing Ganji's first trial in the Third Branch of the Revolutionary Court, Moqadasi sentenced the journalist to 10 years in prison and five years' exile in southern Iran for violating Iran's national security by releasing classified information.

That sentence was reduced to six months in jail in a second judgment in a different court. But when a top judiciary official objected, Iran's supreme court changed the sentence to six years. Ganji has already served more than five years in prison.

Ganji, who is on a hunger strike and drinks only tea and water, is being treated in Tehran's Milad Hospital under police guard. His wife, Masoumeh Shafiei, said last week that her husband had lost a lot of weight and was in delicate health.

In a 20-page manifesto written from jail, Ganji states in strikingly blunt terms that basic civil rights are nonexistent in Iran because they would obstruct the absolute power of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader.

Ganji urges Iranians to reject a system that grants to just one man sweeping powers over the military, judiciary, key appointed bodies and the state-controlled media.

"The path that the reformers have picked for reform will not lead to democracy," says the manifesto, which electrified student activists because it suggested a strategy for moving the reform movement ahead.

TEHRAN A gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed on Tuesday the Iranian judge who had tried the case of a prominent journalist now on a hunger strike, a judiciary spokesman said.

Masoud Moqadasi, a judge who oversaw a case against the imprisoned journalist, Akbar Ganji, was slain in his car after leaving his office in central Tehran, said a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Jamal Karimirad.

Moqadasi headed the Tehran judiciary complex and specialized in cases of social vice, Karimirad said.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between the killing and the Ganji case.

A pair of witnesses told police officers that, as the judge attempted to drive away from his office, the gunman sped up to Moqadasi's car on a motorcycle and shot him twice in the forehead, said Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talaei.

The assailant escaped. Talaei said that the motive for the killing was unclear and the police would look at Moqadasi's past cases for clues.

The judge could be seen slumped behind the wheel of the vehicle, his face and the car's interior bloodied. Detectives examined the car, corpse and surrounding street for clues.

Police officers blocked the street and cordoned off the shooting scene, Ahmad Qasir Street, also known by its previous name, Bucharest Street. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Karimirad said Moqadasi had handled the first case against Ganji, who was jailed in 2000 for reporting that intelligence officials murdered five Iranian dissidents in 1998.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry later blamed the murders on "rogue agents" in the secret service.

After overseeing Ganji's first trial in the Third Branch of the Revolutionary Court, Moqadasi sentenced the journalist to 10 years in prison and five years' exile in southern Iran for violating Iran's national security by releasing classified information.

That sentence was reduced to six months in jail in a second judgment in a different court. But when a top judiciary official objected, Iran's supreme court changed the sentence to six years. Ganji has already served more than five years in prison.

Ganji, who is on a hunger strike and drinks only tea and water, is being treated in Tehran's Milad Hospital under police guard. His wife, Masoumeh Shafiei, said last week that her husband had lost a lot of weight and was in delicate health.

In a 20-page manifesto written from jail, Ganji states in strikingly blunt terms that basic civil rights are nonexistent in Iran because they would obstruct the absolute power of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader.

Ganji urges Iranians to reject a system that grants to just one man sweeping powers over the military, judiciary, key appointed bodies and the state-controlled media.

"The path that the reformers have picked for reform will not lead to democracy," says the manifesto, which electrified student activists because it suggested a strategy for moving the reform movement ahead."

The Observer | International | Santorum Supports Radical Criminals in Iran

2005-07-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

The Observer | International | Iran militant is now hero of US right: "He is also on a hunger strike that has lasted more than a month and, according to some reports, left him near death. Ganji's case has been taken up enthusiastically by leading conservatives in America and followed almost daily in such right-wing media outlets as the New York Sun and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. Senator Rick Santorum, the leading 2008 presidential hopeful from the evangelical wing of the Republican Party, and several other senators have joined in demanding that Ganji should be released.

Some critics believe that Ganji's popularity has little to do with the merits of his case and much to do with pressuring Iran. Santorum has this year introduced legislation in the Senate that pushes for regime change in Iran. 'The bill also notes the futility of working with the Iranian government,' he said. The move is similar to those used to promote a policy of 'regime change' in Iraq. It would allow the US government to support foreign and domestic groups that are opposed to the Iranian government."

Inside the Ring - Negroponte's home

2005-07-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

Inside the Ring�-�Nation/Politics�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: "Negroponte's home
Bolling Air Force Base, home to the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, will be getting a new tenant. John D. Negroponte, the nation's first director of national intelligence, will move his headquarters to Bolling once the two top floors in the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center are readied.
The move to Bolling in Southeast Washington on the Anacostia River is viewed as semi-permanent. The DNI likely will stay there three to five years while a permanent facility is built, we are told.
Mr. Negroponte now works at the New Executive Office Building near the White House."

Al-Qaeda conspiracies foiled in Iran - Irna

2005-07-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

Al-Qaeda conspiracies foiled in Iran - Irna: "Al-Qaeda conspiracies foiled in Iran Tehran, July 16, IRNA
Iran-Al Qaeda-Younessi
Minister of Information Ali Younesi said on Saturday that Iran has foiled five al-Qaeda conspiracies so far.

He said that since collapse of Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda made five attempts against Iran which have all been thwarted.

Elaborating on the five stages of Taliban offensive against Iran, he said that different nationalities with passports have entered Iran shortly after collapse of Taliban as the first plot.

"We identified and expelled them to the countries of origin," he said.

The second al-Qaeda plot was that the intelligence apparatus learnt that some elements of al-Qaeda had embarked on underground life in Tehran and northern Iran. They were identified and arrested.

"They had planned to launch terrorist operations from Iran," he said.

"Some of them are in prison and are awaiting court hearing," he said.

The third wave of al-Qaeda offensive against Iran was aimed at infiltrating into Iran from Iraq under cover of Ansar-e Islam and Jond al-Islam.

They were mainly from Iraq and used to carry out cross-border movements.

The fourth wave, was presence of al-Qaeda in eastern part of Iran in the networks of banditry and drug trafficking, he said.

"They had planned to launch terrorist operations and sabotage in Iranian large cities especially in Tehran. Majority of them have been identified and arrested, including 'Abdul Malik' who illegally used to live in Sistan and Baluchestan province and occasionally carried out banditry in eastern Iran."
Younesi said that the fifth wave of al-Qaeda offensive against Iran began last week in which a group of al-Qaeda elements formed teams for terrorist attacks to support al-Qaeda.

"They had unidentified students of theological center, from the Sunnis and Mowlavi sects who were cooperating with Iran and attempted to assassinate them in terrorist operations. They were identified and arrested," Younesi said.

Expulsion of 2,000 to 3,000 al-Qaeda members
Younesi said that about 2,000 to 3,000 al-Qaeda members were identified, arrested and expelled from Iran.

"Currently some 200 al-Qaeda members are in Iranian prisons," Younesi said.

"Since al-Qaeda does not enjoy centralized command, many of the networks are doing by themselves without any link with the central command. That's why some of them are being recruited by foreign intelligence agencies including US Central Intelligence Agency and Israeli intelligence service," Younesi said.

News sent: 17:57 Saturday July 16, 2005"

Xinhua - Iran foils al-Qaida conspiracies, 3000 members detained or expelled

2005-07-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Xinhua - English: "
Iran foils al-Qaida conspiracies, 3000 members detained or expelled

www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-17 08:13:44

TEHRAN, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran has foiled five al-Qaida conspiracies against it and detained or expelled nearly 3,000 al-Qaida members, Intelligence Minister Ali Younesi said on Saturday.

"Currently some 200 al-Qaida members are in Iranian prisons," Younesi told the official IRNA news agency.

"Since the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Qaida made five waves of attempts against Iran which have all been thwarted," Younesi said.

Meanwhile, Younesi accused the United States and Israel of recruiting former al-Qaida members.

The statement is believed to be the most detailed and comprehensive official revelation on Tehran's al-Qaida crackdown so far.

The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of sponsoring terrorists, labeling it as a member of the "Axis of Evil."

Tehran has vehemently rejected the charge, saying Washington is to blame for the growth of many terrorist groups including al-Qaida.

Iran says that it strongly opposes any form of terrorism from which the Iranians also suffer greatly."

Peter Flory Says There is NO EVIDENCE of Iranian Nuclear Proliferation to Terrorists

2005-07-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Iranian Proliferation: Implications for Terrorists, Their State Sponsors, and U.S. Counter-Proliferation Policy: " Mr. PITTS. Mr. Flory, would you speak to the broader regional and global implications of the Iranian program?

Mr. FLORY. Sir, I touched on this earlier. The immediate regional implication is that Iran, which by dint of its size and population and support for terrorism, already casts a shadow in the region, will cast an even longer shadow and an even darker shadow. That will affect—and that is, when you combine the nuclear program with the aggressive development of ballistic missiles, including the Shahab-3, which Under Secretary Bolton mentioned earlier, which basically can hit any of Iran's neighbors and countries further away that Iran has an animus against, such as Israel, the effects of this are several fold.

One of them is it threatens U.S. allies and friends in the region, and it threatens U.S. forces. It gives Iran the ability to coerce countries and to deter countries from doing anything about it. Whether that means to deter the United States from moving into the region, or with a greater reach maybe in some cases, of deterring other countries from allowing the United States either to use forces in their region or to move forces into their region. So, again, it allows Iran to expand its regional influence considerably.

Page 82 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The impact is not limited to the region, however, because Iran, again, as Under Secretary Bolton noted and as the Director Tenet testified in his threat hearing earlier this year, Iran is continuing research and development on longer-range programs and continues work on a space launch vehicle which, and as I once saw it described by a CIA—an unclassified CIA paper described a space launch vehicle as an ICBM in disguise. So—and Iran said, I think last year, it specifically made a statement that it intended to continue research. And, of course, if you have something that is an ICBM in a disguise, then you are talking about the ability to reach out and threaten the United States itself as well as countries, say, in Western Europe that are not within the ambit of the Shahab-3 but that Iran may have a desire to threaten.

And that is not even touching on another aspect of the threat. In the opening statements, Members talked about Iran's support for terrorism, which is probably the single most consistent and implacable element of Iran's foreign policy over the last 30 years. As we saw on September 11th, the ultimate precision-guided weapon is a human being with a pair of eyes who can put a weapon anywhere within feet or inches of where it needs to be. And, of course, with nuclear weapons, you don't need that great a level of accuracy in the first place.

Let me be clear. I have not seen evidence that Iran is providing nuclear materials or thinking of providing nuclear materials or any other kind of WMD to terrorists. But the fact of the matter is, in a post-9/11 era, where nothing is unthinkable when you look at what Iran is doing with terrorism now, I mean, Iran is supporting Ansar al-Islam and its activities inside Iraq. You have Iranian clerics exhorting Iraqis to blow themselves up like the Palestinians for the purpose of killing coalition forces. You have the ongoing support for terrorist groups that are fighting Israel.

Page 83 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Here, you have a regime—and this goes back to an earlier question I think by Mr. Rohrabacher on the nature of the regime. The nature of the regime is one of the core elements here. Here we have a regime that has used terrorism consistently as an element of its policy that, prior to September 11th, I believe had killed more Americans—it was linked to the death of more Americans through terrorism than any other regime, which is now working very hard and has just basically ignored another stop sign in its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. You add that to ballistic missiles, you add that to potential terrorist threat, you have here precisely what the President discussed in his national security strategy: The nexus of terrorists and State-sponsors of terrorists and State-producers of weapons of mass destruction.

So the impact of this program is—it is immediate. It is severe in the region. And it is potentially even greater."

People's Daily Online -- Iran launches national fiber optic network

2005-07-12T05:15:00.000-07:00

People's Daily Online -- Iran launches national fiber optic network: "Iran launches national fiber optic network

Iran on Monday started the construction of the National Fiber Optic Network, which will make Iran the "hub of regional communication" according to President Mohammad Khatami, the official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

"Undoubtedly Iran should be the hub of regional communication which has to be serviced by fiber optics," Khatami was quoted as saying at the inaugurating ceremony.

Khatami termed the national fiber optic network as the pivotal point of a "digitized silk Road."

"On one hand the network links Central Asia, China and Afghanistan, and Indian subcontinent as well as Iran's southern nations via Turkey to the West and on the other, Iran will be linked to the world through the seabed-laid network," Khatami said.

The network, costing at about 740 million US dollars, covers 900 cities with a wide band, almost four times of the country's current communication infrastructures, IRNA said.

Source: Xinhua"

Ramesh Sepehrrad of the Reston Va. Area Key Terrorist Group Leader

2005-07-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Notes on Ramesh Sepehrrad: "Barry O'Connell's Opinion
Notes on Ramesh Sepehrrad
The Hill.com - Intelligence officials say Sepehrrad is a major MEK organizer in Washington

Ramesh Sepehrrad of Vienna Virginia has been named as a Mossad mole inside of MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq) by Iran Didban. The article names Sepehrrad as the main conduit of information on Iran from Mossad to Alireza Jafarzadeh. From Mossad to Sepehrrad to Jafarzadeh to FoxNews or to the Zionist Cabal in the Pentagon. So when we hear the Iranian resistance speaking out about the myth of Iranian Nukes we may be listening to Mossad. JBOC

"Ramesh Sepehrad, who is based in the Washington DC area, was recruited by MOSSAD through her Jewish-American boy friend in early 1997.* An active lobbyist and fundraiser for the Mojahedin, Sepehrad apparently agreed to work for MOSSAD once she was assured the agency had a collaborative relationship with the Mojahedin. In other words Sepehrad’s spying activities would not necessarily harm the organisation.

Sepehrad has proved to be a key link in the MOSSAD-Mojahedin nexus in recent years. It is through her that Israeli agencies feed intelligence disinformation to Ali Reza Jaffarzadeh, which is in turn broadcast to the world via the FOX media network. Sepehrad also feeds disinformation to Hedayat Mostowfi and Ali Safavi, two long-standing MKO members who are key figures in the organisation’s propaganda activities. A frequent traveller to Israel, Sepehrad is now considered a veteran MOSSAD agent. Indeed she is known to have undertaken MOSSAD-inspired espionage operations that are wholly unconnected to the Mojahedin and Iran. Some of these revolve around spying on Arab feminist and pro-Palestinian forums in the United States. " SOUTHWEST ASIA Iranian News: IranDidban.com - Ramesh Sepehrrad of Vienna Virginia named as a Mossad mole in Terrorist Group

Ramesh Sepehrrad was a contributor to former Congressman James Traficant. AmericanMafia.com - Feature Articles 121

US Congressman Ney names Ramesh Sepehrrad as a terrorist organizer:
"Other sponsors of the event that have been identified in media reports as MEK front groups include the Iranian Society of South Florida, the Iranian-American Society of Texas, and the National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran. Ramesh Sepehrrad spearheads the latter group. Intelligence officials say Sepehrrad is a major MEK organizer in Washington." Our Jerusalem.com - Opinion

The Role of Women in Iran’s New Popular Revolution by RAMESH SEPEHRRAD President, National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran

Born 1960

Homeland Security Reprt 117, JANUARY 26, 2004
In just the past year, the FBI has broken up many MEK groups within the United States, including around Washington and Los Angeles. There are a total of 23 sponsors for the fundraising event. However, 17 of these so-called sponsors are tied directly to the MEK and do not have legal status to operate as a business or charity, according to Internal Revenue Service and state agency records.

The State Department says the MEK has a long history of making up organizations under false pretenses to appear to be legal. "[The MEK] has formed associated groups with benign names, such as the 'Association of Iranian Scholars and Professionals' and the 'Association of Iranian Women'," according to a 1994 State Department memo.

One of the sponsors of the fundraiser is the Association of Iranian Women USA. This organization has also been called the Association of Iranian Women, which is led by Behjat Dehghan. Intelligence officials have labeled Dehghan as a major MEK supporter in the U.S.

Other probable MEK-supporting group sponsors for the fundraiser include the Iranian Society of South Florida and the Iranian-American Society of Texas. Ramesh Sepehrrad leads the National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran and is also a known MEK activist. Homeland Security Reprt 117, JANUARY 26, 2004"

Iranian Zionist Amir Taheri on the Ahmadnejadi Smear Campaign

2005-07-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English): "The New Face of Iran: The Great Misunderstanding

08/07/2005

Amir Taheri
was born in Iran and educated in Tehran, London and Paris. Between 1980 and 1984 he was Middle East editor for the London Sunday Times. Taheri has been a contributor to the International Herald Tribune since 1980. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Taheri has published nine books some of which have been translated into 20 languages, and In 1988 Publishers'' Weekly in New York chose his study of Islamist terrorism, "Holy Terror", as one of The Best Books of The Year. He has been a columnist Asharq Alawsat since 1987

Judging by all the stories told about Mahmoud Ahamdinejad's alleged involvement in unsavoury activities, the new president-elect of the Islamic Republic must have lived several lives so far. A clipping of the articles published about Ahamdinejad in the past 10 days would persuade a reader that he was, almost single-handedly, behind all the misdeeds of the Islamic Republic in the past quarter of a century.
Seldom has a politician been subjected to such a barrage of negative publicity by the world media in so short a time.

All started when a London-based website known to be close to Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the mullah who lost the election to Ahmadinejad, dug out an Associated Press photo dating back to November 1979. In the photo we see a bearded youth holding the arm of a blindfolded American diplomat, among the hostages at the US Embassy in Tehran, while two other grim-looking teen-agers look on. The website that circulated the photo claimed that the bearded youth was Ahamdinejad. This was followed up with claims by some American ex-hostages that they recognised Ahamdinejad in the photo and remembered him as their chief tormentor.

Anyone with any knowledge of Iran's current power struggle, however, would know that the whole episode was concocted by Ahmadinejad's rivals to blacken his image even before he has started work as President of the Islamic Republic.

It soon became clear that the youth in the photo was not Ahamdinejad but another militant named Jaafar Zaker who later died in the Iran-Iraq war. The other two adolescents in the photo have also been identified. At the same time more than a dozen former kidnappers who were involved in the holding of the American hostages have stated that Ahamdinejad was not among them.

The almost unanimous attempt at presenting Ahamdinejad as the devil incarnate, recalls the equally unanimous attempt by the global media eight years ago to portray Muhammad Khatami as an angel in human shape.

They were wrong then and may well be wrong now.

The Islamic Republic is the fruit of a revolution that, like all other revolutions, consists of countless acts that, in ordinary circumstances, would only be regarded as crimes. A revolution is not a garden party, but, more often, a killing field. No one involved in a revolution could remain pure. And Ahamdinejad is no exception.

Let us take a closer look at those accusing Ahamdinejad of crimes that he may not have been involved in. Mahdi Karrubi, the mullah who lost in the first round of the presidential election, was one of the most militant of Khomeinists until a decade ago. In 1993 he represented Tehran in the pan-Islamist conference organised by Hassan al-Turabi in Khartoum the Sudanese capital. There he was named a member of the nine-man presidium of the global Islamist movement. Other members included Osama bin Laden and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

No doubt, Karrubi subsequently transformed himself into a "moderate", showing that people can change in time and by aging.

As for Rafsanjani, the other mullah who lost to Ahamdinejad, his record is not the brightest. Rightly or wrongly, he is, in fact, subject to an international arrest warrant by the Criminal Court in Berlin for his alleged participation in the murder of four Iranian dissidents there in 1992. All you need to do is to read Akbar Ganji's book about Rafsanjani to know that the defeated presidential candidate was not choirboy.

Even Muhammad Khatami, the outgoing President, has not been unaffected by his association with the revolution. In 1979 he was member of a squad of militants, led by Muhammad Montazeri, alias "Ayatollah Ringo", who hijacked an Iran Air passenger jet to Libya. A glance at Khatami's articles as a newspaper editor and his speeches as a member of the Islamic Majlis in the 1980s reveals a streak of violence that would be disturbing to any normal human being. But he, too, has been able to transform himself, at least in discourse, into a student of Western philosophy and a commentator on Japanese paintings.

Let us also recall the record of Mostafa Moin, the defeated Khatamist candidate in last month's election, ands a bitter critic of Ahamdinejad. In 1981-83 he was head of the Committee for Islamic Cultural Revolution in Shiraz, purging hundreds of university professors, jailing scores of them, and forcing many more into exile. Over the years, however, Moin, too, has transformed himself into a "moderate", and now speaks about democracy and human rights.

Most members of the current ruling elite in Iran have similar backgrounds. Most are living in houses and villas illegally seized from their owners who were executed, or jailed or forced into exile. Technically, many of the elite could be prosecuted under Iran's own laws on a variety of charges ranging from kidnapping to the illegal seizure of property and, of course, murder. This is because they are children of a revolution, which means they were born in violence and terror. To single out Ahamdinejad for vilification is unjust and could be misleading.

What is certain is that Ahamdinejad was the clear choice of those who voted in Iran's peculiar elections last month. It is also clear that his record, though it certainly includes murky aspects, is not as dark as that of the mullahs he defeated in the first and second rounds of the election.

To describe Ahmadinejad as a conservative and the two mullahs he defeated as "moderate" or "reformist" is ridiculous to say the least.

Ahmadinejad is not a conservative because he does not want to conserve anything. On the contrary, he wants to change things radically. He has promised to stop the plunder of the nation's wealth by a few mullahs and their acolytes. He is committed to a radical programme of wealth distribution from the mullahs to the poor. He also offers a radical anti-capitalist economic policy based on central planning, government control, and protection for domestic industries. Nor is he a conservative on social issues. Recalling the original message of Khomeini that Iran had "too much freedom", at least in social terms, under the Shah, not too little, he insists that 26 years after the revolution this is still the case.

The ruling elite in Tehran are worried about Ahmadinejad because he threatens to take away their privileges and, worse, bring them to book. During the campaign he asked how could a mullah who did not have two bent farthings to rub against each other before the revolution was now the proud owner of a multi-billion dollar empire? That is not conservative talk.

Ahamdinejad is also no conservative in foreign policy either. With the frankness of a radical he says he will do all he can to prevent the United States from reshaping the Middle East the way President George W Bush wants. He insists that Khomeinist Iran can offer an alternative to the Bush plan for democratisation in the Middle East.

Will the exercise of power, and the realities of life, transform Ahamdinejad into another "moderate" within the next four years? Only time will tell. For now Ahamdinejad must be taken seriously when he says he wants to mobilise Iran's immense resources for "a second revolution" both at home and abroad."

BELLACIAO - Stratfor Consulting Intelligence Agency: �Israel Warned United Kingdom About Possible Attacks� - Collective Bellaciao

2005-07-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

BELLACIAO - Stratfor Consulting Intelligence Agency: �Israel Warned United Kingdom About Possible Attacks� - Collective Bellaciao: "Thursday 7th July 2005 (21h17) :
Stratfor Consulting Intelligence Agency: ’Israel Warned United Kingdom About Possible Attacks’
3 comment(s).
Israel Warned United Kingdom About Possible Attacks Summary
There has been massive confusion over a denial made by the Israelis that the Scotland Yard had warned the Israeli Embassy in London of possible terrorist attacks “minutes before” the first bomb went off July 7. Israel warned London of the attacks a “couple of days ago,” but British authorities failed to respond accordingly to deter the attacks, according to an unconfirmed rumor circulating in intelligence circles. While Israel is keeping quiet for the time-being, British Prime Minister Tony Blair soon will be facing the heat for his failure to take action.

Analysis

The Associated Press reported July 7 that an anonymous source in the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Scotland Yard had warned the Israeli Embassy in London of possible terrorist attacks in the U.K. capital. The information reportedly was passed to the embassy minutes before the first bomb struck at 0851 London time. The Israeli Embassy promptly ordered Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remain in his hotel on the morning of July 7. Netanyahu was scheduled to participate in an Israeli Investment Forum Conference at the Grand Eastern Hotel, located next to the Liverpool Street Tube station -- the first target in the series of bombings that hit London on July 7.

Several hours later, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom officially denied reports that Scotland Yard passed any information to Israel regarding the bombings, and British police denied they had any advanced warning of the attacks. The British authorities similarly denied that any information exchange had occurred.

Contrary to original claims that Israel was warned “minutes before” the first attack, unconfirmed rumors in intelligence circles indicate that the Israeli government actually warned London of the attacks “a couple of days” previous. Israel has apparently given other warnings about possible attacks that turned out to be aborted operations. The British government did not want to disrupt the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, or call off visits by foreign dignitaries to London, hoping this would be another false alarm.

The British government sat on this information for days and failed to respond. Though the Israeli government is playing along publicly, it may not stay quiet for long. This is sure to apply pressure on Blair very soon for his failure to deter this major terrorist attack.

For more breaking intelligence on this and other stories, please visit premium.stratfor.com.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mparent7777/793560.html"

Sharon Criticizes Netanyahu for "Undermining" Him

2005-07-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

"Sharon Criticizes Netanyahu for "Undermining" Him
Inside Israel
In his closing remarks at the Caesaria Economic Conference Thursday night, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon leveled criticism at Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, although he did not name him, per se.

Mr. Sharon attacked those who he said are undermining him and who are objecting to his policy efforts out of "personal political motivations." Prime Minister Sharon also responded to criticism voiced by Minister Netanyahu that monies allocated towards implementing the Disengagement Plan could have been used for social welfare programs. Sharon noted that the funds for the Disengagement were a one-time allocation and not part of the annual budget figures, hence they should have no impact on the social welfare allocations.

The prime minister told the gathering that he is determined to carry out the Disengagement Plan in seven weeks' time, regardless of any opposition. Prime Minister Sharon explained that the implementation of the plan to evacuate Jews from Gush Katif and northern Samaria will allow the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

A bill sponsored by National Religious Party MK Zevulun Orlev seeking to postpone the implementation of the Disengagement Plan by a year will be voted upon in Knesset on Wednesday of next week. MK Orlev is hoping Finance Minister Netanyahu will support the bill, realizing such a bold move by a senior minister may lead to a breakdown of the cabinet, or at the very least, send shockwaves through the Prime Minister's Office. At present, it appears most unlikely that the bill will muster a majority vote, but it will permit cabinet ministers who continue to express their opposition for the plan to vote their conscience and improve their standing among anti-Disengagement voters."

Failure In The War On Terrorism Hossein Abedini Escapes - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

2005-06-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

Rafsanjani and his hitmen�-�Editorials/Op-Ed�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: "Rafsanjani and his hitmen
By Hossein Abedini
June 16, 2005

It was 15 years ago, but still seems like yesterday. In mid-afternoon on March 14, 1990, I was sitting next to the driver taking me to the Istanbul airport, when we hit a traffic jam caused by an accident.
Suddenly, a car carrying four men blocked our path. Another car pinned us in from behind. Seconds later, two men, one from the front car and one from the car behind, raced out with automatic guns. As they approached, I opened the car door and rushed at them carrying only a small briefcase. One of the men fired nine bullets; the other man's gun jammed. I was shot in the chest and stomach and gravely wounded. The assailants fled.
Luckily, we were close to Istanbul's International Hospital, where I was rushed. I was in a deep coma for 40 days, and unconscious for three months. With 80 percent of my liver gone, I barely survived and was written off by my doctors more than once. One bullet hit very close to my heart. I went through 14 operations and was given 154 pints of blood.
I am a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the coalition of Iranian opposition movements. The assailants were acting on behest of the clerical regime, the main state sponsor of terrorism. Ironically, as later became evident, the hit men weren't after me. Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI, was the real target, as Iranian state radio confirmed.
Even so, this didn't end the attempts to kill me; there were two efforts to finish me off in the hospital. Once, assassins disguised as Turkish police approached the hospital; luckily, the Turkish police came to the hospital at the same time and foiled the plot. Another time, two men pretending to be friends came to my room. They were the mullahs' men. Once again, I was fortunate; several real friends came to visit me at the same time, and the murderers fled.
I am one of very few who has survived mullahs' assassination attempts. My episode is relevant now because all this took place when Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was the clerical regime's president. With new Iranian presidential elections approaching, he is touted as the front-runner, and some in the West are hoping to be able to strike a grand bargain with him.
It is important to know that there was a clear pattern of assassination and murders during his previous term.
Professor Kazem Rajavi, Iran's most renowned human-rights activist, was gunned down in broad daylight by the mullahs' hitmen while driving near his house in Geneva in 1990. The Swiss implicated 13 Iranian officials with passports stamped "Special Mission." Documents released by Mr. Rajavi's family showed that in 1997 a Swiss magistrate "clearly" had enough evidence to justify an international arrest warrant against Iran's then-Intelligence Minister, Ali Fallahian.
The Rajavi murder was not an isolated incident during Mr. Rafsanjani's presidency. Several Iranian Kurdish leaders were murdered in Vienna in 1989 and in Berlin in 1992. The list goes on.
A Berlin court ruled in 1997 that a secret committee comprising supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Mr. Rafsanjani, then-Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Velayati, and Mr. Fallahian, had ordered the 1992 assassinations.
The mullahs' terror targets were not only Iranians. The FBI established undeniable evidence that Tehran had masterminded the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, resulting in the deaths of 19 American servicemen. Nor is Mr. Rafsanjani's mischief-making limited to terrorism; he is an ardent proponent of Iran's drive to acquire nuclear weapons.
For two decades, Europe's appeasement policy has failed. The notion of fishing up a moderate from within the regime has been offered in different wrappings for different occasions, all to no avail.

The West's greater blunder was trying to placate the mullahs by labeling as terrorists the People's Mujahedeen, the principal Iranian opposition, 120,000 of whose members and sympathizers have been executed so far. The Mujahedeen also has played a paramount role in exposing the mullahs' nuclear program and terrorist network.
This terror-listing decision — denounced by renowned jurists as baseless and devoid of any legal basis — has only emboldened the regime's most extreme factions in suppression, nurturing terrorism, and the quest to acquire nuclear weapons.
All signs indicate that the Iranian people are completely disenchanted by the clerical system and desire fundamental changes for democracy. It would be naive and shortsighted to pin any hope on a spent force like Mr. Rafsanjani. The West must ally itself with the Iranian people's cry for freedom. A first step would be to remove the Mujahedeen from the terror list it never should have been on. The West should declare in no unequivocal terms that it does not recognize this sham as an election.

Hossein Abedini is a member of the the National Council of Resistance of Iran, one of many organizations working to overthrow the regime in that country."

Embassy Row - The Washington Times: Embassy Row - May 12, 2005 Capt. Vivian Gembara Supports Terrorists

2005-06-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

Embassy Row - The Washington Times: Embassy Row - May 12, 2005: "Capt. Vivian Gembara, the Army lawyer who negotiated the Mojahedin disarmament agreement, said the United States should make 'maximum use of the assets and potentials of this ally.'
'As a soldier and a lawyer,' she said, 'I believe it's time to change their classification as a terrorist organization.' "

US Army Captain Vivian Gembara in JAG forces Openly Supports Terrorists - Aid and Comfort To Terrorists By US Army Officer

2005-06-12T13:24:00.000-07:00

Iran Focus-News - Iran: World Press - U.S. missed opportunity with Iranian rebels: "U.S. missed opportunity with Iranian rebels Mon. 11 Apr 2005

Capt. Vivian Gembara, Esq.
"Humint" --- this military shorthand for "human intelligence" has entered the vernacular. It is on the tongues of every politician, agency head and military leader. It is the one thing that those on the left and the right agree has impaired the U.S.'s ability to combat terrorism. Caught off guard by the September 11th attacks, we have seen the errors of our ways --- too much focus on technology and too little focus on spies and other human sources. While Washington has seized on the issue with the zeal of the newly converted, rhapsodizing about the need to cultivate humint, there still seems to be no understanding of the urgency of the issue or the very essence of it. We are missing significant opportunities now in the war on terror and no amount of goodwill can undo the damage caused when you ignore one of the principles of human intelligence gathering- 'listen to your men and women in the field.'

Imagine for a minute being dropped from a helicopter into a place where you didn't know anyone, couldn't speak the language and had only a vague idea about the terrain. Add hostile natives armed to the teeth and you begin to understand the circumstances U.S Special Forces operate in daily. The military's finest, they also possess that most elusive and valuable of qualities --- near-perfect instincts. That U.S. officials chose to ignore one of their early suggestions in Iraq is evidence of their own shortsightedness as well as the nation's still uneasy relationship with the notion of humint.

In April 2003, the U.S. government rejected an offer that they may already regret. The tender came from non-Iraqi soldiers based in Iraq - all members of the NLA, a militant wing of the NCRI (National Council of the Resistance of Iran), a group intent on overthrowing Iran's current Islamic fundamentalist regime and replacing it with a democratic government. As exiles in Iraq, they aim to overthrow Iran's current Islamic fundamentalist regime and replace it with a democratic government. The NLA found a generous patron in Saddam Hussein. The former dictator helped fund their military and gave them key property throughout Iraq. In return, they protected the border against Iranian infiltration.

U.S. Special Forces were also first to encounter the NLA and to understand their value as potential human intelligence sources. From the start, it was clear this was no "mom and pop" army. Special Forces found the NLA waiting for them in neatly consolidated units. Hundreds of NLA tanks were positioned in the "surrender" posture described in U.S. leaflets. They offered to work alongside the U.S. to stabilize the country in exchange for support in their opposition to Iran's mullahs.

Classified as a terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997, the NLA bears the burden of an outdated and inaccurate label. Talk of working with this "terrorist organization" triggered alarm bells in diplomatic circles and resulted in U.S. officials summarily rejecting any talk of negotiation. Led by General Ray Odierno, 4th Infantry Division Commander, we were tasked with delivering the bad news. The NLA we encountered outside of Baqubah were just as the Special Forces described - fluent in English, Arabic and Farsi; familiar with the terrain and eager to work with us. Meetings that we anticipated would run several hours wound up lasting two days. Our prepared non-negotiable terms proved far more difficult to deliver when faced with the magnitude of our own lost opportunity.

The following day, 4th ID soldiers began disarming and delivering NLA soldiers to Camp Ashraf for interrogation. They remain there today. Until they can shed their terrorist label, the NLA will remain under the watchful eye of U.S. soldiers at Camp Ashraf.

U.S. officials' current reluctance to re-evaluate the NLA's status is in keeping with the missed opportunity of April 2003. At the time, the error of disbanding the Iraqi Army and security forces was clear as lawlessness led to rampant looting and destruction of Iraqi government facilities. Fully equipped with tanks, weaponry and battalions of trained soldiers, the NLA's offer answered a need that was vastly underestimated. Our immediate refusal was naïve. It would have been a far more useful to our troops, and our intelligence efforts, to work with the NLA. Under our direction, they could have secured buildings and provided us with another set of eyes and ears within the communities. Surely their feedback and willingness to help in this capacity far outweighs any information we could have hoped to reap from Camp Ashraf interrogations. Adding insult to injury however is the inconsistent and uneven handling of other militias in Iraq. Despite known ties to the Iranian regime, U.S. officials permitted the Badr Corps, a militant Shiite wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, to remain both intact and active.

While shortsighted policy decisions caused us to miss the opportunity then, the stakes are even higher now. The NLA is a potentially indispensable intelligence source on Iran. Our current challenges with Iraq have been attributed to a lack of credible intelligence. By comparison, Iran's known nuclear capabilities make intelligence much more crucial in the event of war. The recent admission by U.S. officials that they had employed UAV planes over Iran for several years only underscores the real threat that Iran poses. It was unwise not to take advantage of a valuable human resource as our soldiers battled daily in Iraq. It is merely reckless to continue to detain and alienate the NLA as we face a more mysterious and formidable threat in Iran. Though September 11th left us wearier of over reliance on technology and military might, the U.S. handing of the NLA, and other potential human intelligence resources, hardly suggests we are that much wiser.

Captain Vivian Gembara in JAG forces as an attorney for the U.S. military for 4 years, and was deployed in Iraq for 12 months beginning in April 2003. During that time, she participated in negotiations for the eventual capitulation of the NLA. She was a member of the 4th Infantry Division team that negotiated and drafted the capitulation agreement between the United States and the People’s Mujahedeen (MEK), an armed pro-Iranian opposition force. Cap. Gembara was awarded 7 medals, 2 bars and other honors. Prior to her military service, she received a J.D. (Juris Doctor) degree from William and Mary School of Law."

Rare Bomb Explosions Kill Nine in Iran - Yahoo! News

2005-06-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

Rare Bomb Explosions Kill Nine in Iran - Yahoo! News: "Rare Bomb Explosions Kill Nine in Iran By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - Four bombs exploded in the capital of an oil-rich province on the Iranian border with Iraq on Sunday, killing at least eight people and wounding at least 36, state-run television reported. Hours later, another bomb in central Tehran killed one person — a spree coming just days before the nation's presidential vote.

The bombings were the deadliest in Iran in more than a decade.

At least four women were among those killed in the explosions in Ahvaz, capital of the southwestern Khuzestan province. At least two of the explosions were caused by car bombs, witnesses said.

Gholamreza Shariati, deputy provincial governor for security affairs, said the bombers were seeking to undermine public participation in Friday's presidential elections.

Television footage showed shattered windows, collapsed walls and blood stains on the ground. The force of the explosions also damaged cars in the streets. Shariati said 36 people, including eight police officers, were injured.

After the first three blasts, disposal experts tried to defuse a fourth bomb but failed, and it exploded, injuring one officer.

Amir Hossein Motahar, director of security at the Interior Ministry, said one bomb went off in front of the Ahvaz governor's office and another next to the city's housing department.

The third bomb blew up in front of the residence of the head of the provincial radio and television station, he said. The fourth bomb was placed near the same residence.

Shariati said intelligence and security officials were investigating the bombings, which targeted "Iran's territorial integrity as it was on the verge of presidential elections."

Later Sunday, one person was killed and four were injured in an explosion near Tehran's central Imam Hussein square, state-run television reported. State-run radio said the blast was caused by a bomb.

Ahvaz was the site of two days of violent demonstrations in April after reports circulated of an alleged plan to decrease the proportion of Arabs in the area. Officials at the time confirmed one death but opposition groups said more than 20 demonstrators had been killed. Some 250 were arrested.

The protests were sparked after copies of a letter allegedly signed by Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi circulated in the area. The letter ordered the relocation of non-Arabs to the Ahvaz to make them the majority population. Abtahi denied writing the letter.

Arabs make up about 3 percent of Iran's population of 69 million, Persians account for 51 percent and other minorities comprise the remainder.

Bomb explosions have been a rare occurrence in Iran since the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war."

Dangerous Iranian Anarchist Akbar Ganji Captured

2005-06-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

IC Publications: "Dissident Iranian journalist, on prison leave, re-arrested: wife
Iran's most prominent dissident journalist, Akbar Ganji, has apparently been arrested again even though he was out of jail for medical treatment, his wife told AFP Wednesday.

"While my husband was out last night with some friends, 10 officials from the Tehran prosecution office came for him with an arrest warrant," Massoumeh Shafiie said.

She said the warrant had been signed by Tehran's notorious hardline prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi. After the arrest team left, she said Ganji did not return home.

"I've had no news from him. He has probably been arrested," she said.

In 2001, Ganji was sentenced to six years over articles he wrote linking senior officials, including top cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, to the serial murders of several intellectuals and writers.

Rafsanjani is seeking a comeback as president in the June 17 election, and is currently placed as frontrunner in the race.

Ganji was released from jail on May 29 for medical treatment. He was given leave for seven days initially, which could be extended if he produced a medical certificate.

"We had sent a certificate from the doctor on Tuesday, but this has not been taken into account," Shafiie said.

Since being released, Ganji has continued to speak out against the clerical regime and has called for a boycott of the polls.

Last month he also published an attack against supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and claimed "physical and mental torture" was being used in Evin prison to extract confessions from prisoners.

The judiciary later said it was investigating the text.

According to Ganji's family and lawyers, including Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, the writer is suffering from chronic asthma -- a common ailment in Tehran -- and should be granted an immediate and unconditional release.

New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement condemning prosecutor Mortazavi's re-arrest warrant and called for it to be rescinded immediately.

"Mortazavi has shown once again that he is calling the shots in the judiciary and is willing to go to any lengths to silence his critics," said Joe Stork, the watchdog's deputy Middle East director.

"Powerful people were implicated by Akbar Ganji's investigations," Stork said. "They are willing ... to put him behind bars again even though he has committed no crime whatsoever.""

VEVAK Scare Stories From Ultra Violent Terrorist Group MeK

2005-06-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Iran Focus-News - Other - VEVAK steps up anti-dissident activities in Europe: "VEVAK steps up anti-dissident activities in Europe Wed. 8 Jun 2005

Iran Terror Website
London, Jun. 08 - The Ministry of Intelligence and Security (VEVAK), Iran’s dreaded secret police, has stepped up intimidation of Iranian dissidents abroad amid signs of renewed preparations for assassination of exiles based in Europe.

At least one suspicious murder in Paris and dozens of cases of intimidation through telephone calls and letters are being attributed to VEVAK agents. Several VEVAK “hitmen” have been sighted in the past few days in European capitals. They include Karim Assadzadeh, a VEVAK assassin now staying in Paris. Another VEVAK assassin, who according to an intelligence source has murdered dozens of dissidents in Iran, entered Sweden recently and has applied for political asylum. VEVAK officers want to use political asylum as a cover for his activities.

Other sources knowledgeable about VEVAK’s latest campaign say the man at the helm of the surge of activities in Europe is Deputy Minister of Intelligence and Security Mohammad Reza Iravani.

“Iravani has started a campaign to silence the opposition activists. Intelligence exists showing that [Intelligence Minister Ali] Younesi gave him the orders to carry out this task”, one source said on condition of anonymity because of the dangers involved in exposing the Iranian intelligence apparatus.

Iran Terror had previously revealed the role of Iravani, known inside Iran’s officialdom by his pseudonym Amir-Hossein Taghavi, in numerous assassinations and murders of dissidents inside Iran and abroad and also shed light on a new disinformation campaign that he has been coordinating, targeting in particular the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin (PMOI / MeK).

He scored a propaganda coup on May 18, when Human Rights Watch put out a 28-page report on alleged human rights violations by the MeK. Of the 12 “witnesses” Human Rights Watch cited in the report, every single one was familiar to Iravani. All were VEVAK agents operating in the Netherlands and Germany.

One source said that following the release of the HRW report, VEVAK agents stepped up exponentially harassment of MeK supporters in various European countries by making repeated telephone calls, adding, “While playing tapes of the Quran, they demand that these Iranians return to Iran and halt their anti-regime activities; or else they “would be taken to Iran in sacks”.

Among other criminal activities, VEVAK agents are notorious for kidnapping Iranian dissidents and attempting to return them to Tehran.

One such example was the 1992 kidnapping and torture of Ali-Akbar Ghorbani, a member of the Mojahedin, in 1992 in Turkey. Authorities discovered his mutilated body a few months later and subsequent investigations revealed that the Iranian embassy played the central role in carrying out the operation.

“VEVAK agents exert pressure on families of opposition activists and use them to send addresses of VEVAK-run websites to their children abroad. These sites include Irandidban, Iran-Interlink, Nejat, Mahdis, Sepideh, Iran-Ayandeh, Negah-e No and Habilian to name a few” the source added.

Iran Terror wrote previously that in mid-2002, VEVAK agents who travelled from Iran to European countries set-up numerous Persian-language websites and journals working as a front for the intelligence agency, highlighting gory accounts of supposed “solitary confinement and physical abuse in MeK camps in Iraq”.

Another source said that VEVAK agents in Iran are sent to the homes of relatives of MeK supporters, forcing them to call their families abroad and state that if they refuse to return, intelligence agents would arrest the family members in Iran or murder the activists themselves.

“In some cases, VEVAK agents have told the activists over the phone, ‘We have the capacity to kill you abroad. It would cost us only $1,000. We will stab you to death”, the source said.

Sources point to the suspicious circumstances around the death of an Iranian university professor in Paris. Kasra Vafadari was repeatedly stabbed in his apartment, raising serious concerns about the motives of killer. Vafadari was reportedly vehemently opposed to the ruling theocracy in Iran.

“Now more than ever, Iranian dissidents are feeling insecure even in the streets of Paris, Berlin, London, and throughout other European cities. VEVAK is taking advantage of European deals with the clerical regime to set the stage for further murders and assassinations”, another source stated.

VEVAK agents also intimidate Iranian exiles by threatening their families in Iran.

“In one call from Iran to an opposition activist, a VEVAK agent warned, ‘If you continue your activities, your brother would be run over by the car here in Tehran’. This is the kind of threats and abuse opposition supporters have to face”, the source added.

Dozens of such calls have recently occurred and a number of activists said that they reported the threats to police in various European capitals.

After several phone calls to an MeK sympathizer in Sweden, a VEVAK official, using the alias of Amiri, warned him in an email, “If you make a trip to a neighbouring country such as Turkey, Dubai or to the Far East, Malaysia, Indonesia or to Europe or Cyprus, or wherever your are comfortable, I would be waiting for you”."

5000 Al-Qaeda Operatives Expelled In Last 3 Years: Iran - World - smh.com.au

2005-06-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

Al-Qaeda operatives expelled: Iran - World - smh.com.au: "Al-Qaeda operatives expelled: Iran
June 8, 2005

Kuwait City: Iran claims it has arrested nearly 5000 al-Qaeda representatives in the past three years and handed them back to their countries.

The head of Iran's powerful National Security Council, Hasan Rowhani, denied recent allegations that leading terrorism suspects from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network had been given refuge.

"I don't think any country could claim superiority over us [in combating al-Qaeda]," he told reporters while visiting Kuwait.

He said Iran had given the names of the detainees to the United Nations. A number of al-Qaeda operatives remained in Iranian jails for crimes they committed against national security in Iran and would eventually be tried in the country, he said.

US and foreign intelligence agencies have said mounting evidence gathered over several years has convinced them leading terrorist suspects have been living in Iran.

The evidence includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which bin Laden confirmed he ordered the September 11 attacks, according to US and foreign officials.

Mr Rowhani said Iran had been praised for its efforts by international bodies.

Iran first said in mid-2003 it had detained and deported hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects. However, US officials said Iran refused to identify the al-Qaeda operatives still in its custody.

Early this month Iran denied that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader of the Iraqi insurgency, was in Iran.

Associated Press"

Iran Focus-News Licks The boots of their Terrorist Masters - THE MKO

2005-06-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

Iran Focus-News: Just reading the headlines on Iran focus shows who is their master. Iran Focus-News Looks Like a Terrorist Front

"Iran political prisoners plan hunger strike against undemocratic elections
Iran university students call for boycott of elections
Students disrupt speech of Iran presidential candidate
Iran survey: 92 percent of voters to stay away from presidential polls
Iran's regime praying for presidential votes
State Department monitoring Iran elections
Iran's Ex-Leader Seeks Return in the Trappings of a Reformer
US unimpressed by enlargement of Iranian candidate list
Iran's Nobel laureate Ebadi says she won't be voting
Iran students protest presidential elections, set tyres alight
Washington 'deeply troubled' by Iran presidential process
EU laments disqualification of Iranian reformists, warns over nuke talks"

Ladan Pardeshenas Terrorist Activist

2005-06-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Women's Activism for Freedom in Iran, Making the Harm Visible, Global Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls, Speaking Out and Providing Services: "Making the Harm Visible
Global Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls
Speaking Out and Providing Services

Women's Activism for Freedom in Iran, Ladan Pardeshenas
Hughes & Roche
Before the Islamic revolution in Iran, although I was still a schoolgirl, I was very interested in politics. I read voraciously-books on sociology, social evolution, and by the progressive author Samad Behrangi. My cousin, who was a college student, was a political prisoner under the Shah. He had been arrested for his ties with the Mojahedin. In 1978, as the revolution began to sweep the country, he was released from prison. It was through him that I became acquainted with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, which is a democratic, Muslim, progressive, independent political organization. For more than thirty years, the Mojahedin has been fighting for democracy and human rights in Iran, first against the dictatorship of the Shah and then the fundamentalist ayatollahs.

I was attracted to women’s activism the first time I saw Mojahedin leader Ashraf Rajavi. She was speaking at a meeting about women’s liberation. I met with her. She had a lot of permanent injuries from her torture in the Shah’s prisons, and was deaf in one ear. She spoke in a very calm, dignified manner. This experience was very exciting to me. A woman who had resisted so adamantly; this was a whole new concept for me. Two years later, when I saw her bloodied body at Evin Prison, I swore that I would follow in her footsteps to my last breath. Ever since that day, I have been in love with women’s activism. To me, whatever step a woman takes against dictatorship has tremendous value.

In his first speech, after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, Mojahedin leader Massoud Rajavi identified freedom, democracy and equality as the crucial issues and warned that religious fundamentalism was the primary obstacle to democracy. The Mojahedin always stood for freedom and equality, whether the issue was women or religious minorities. When the fundamentalist regime began talking about enforcing an "Islamic" dress code, it was the Muslim Mojahedin who came out into the streets to protect the women protesters from attacks by the regime’s mobs. On the day of that speech, I realized I did not want to lead a comfortable life, while the underprivileged women of my country were crushed under the dictatorship of the mullahs. During those days, most of the Mojahedin’s supporters and activists were young and educated, which also drew me to them. Women became more and more active in the movement, and now women have an unprecedented role in the leadership. This is especially remarkable for the Middle East and Iran.

I was arrested in August 1980 for being a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization. I was 22 at the time, and had completed my college education and begun teaching at Majlessi High School in Tehran. I was taken to Evin Prison, where I was held for four years, until September 1984, in cellblocks 246-upper and 1-upper. I also spent 6 months at Gezel Hesar Prison, where I was in punishment cellblock 8 and cellblock 3. I was also held for a time in a cellblock known as "the apartment" in Evin Prison. At that time the building had six floors, with two large cells on each floor. The overcrowding in these cells was extreme. One hundred women crammed into cells designed for twenty. Most of the prisoners were subjected to psychological torture. For example, for long periods they were forced to face the wall and stand on one leg. Such tortures put us under physical and mental pressure. I was transferred from cellblock to cellblock because my jailers were very worried about the prisoners organizing themselves. As soon as two or three prisoners would become close friends, they would separate them, sending them not just to other cells, but to different cellblocks.

I endured many different tortures while in prison. The first day I was tortured, I still remember the day, August 25, 1980-it was a Monday. I was tied to a very short bench and blindfolded with a filthy rag. Then I was flogged on my back and on the soles of my feet with a cable. Threats of rape were also used as a form of torture, not just against me, but all the women prisoners. The interrogator who threatened to rape me was the chief interrogator for section seven of Evin Prison, named Rahmani. After he had flogged me with a cable for a week and gotten nowhere, he began threatening me with rape. He kept it up for 3 months. Another form of torture I endured was known as "the scale"-my arms were twisted-one up over the shoulder and the other from underneath then bound behind my back. Then I was suspended from the ceiling and left like that for 12 hours. I still bear scars from the torture. I lost the hearing in my right ear under torture. I have also lost much of the sight in my left eye. I suffer a great deal of pain in my arms and legs. Because of the blows to my head, I suffer long periods of headaches and dizziness.

They also threatened to rape my younger sister, Nassrin Pardehshenas, who was only 18. Ultimately, they did rape her before she was executed. That was their last try at breaking her, but she was very brave. Nassrin made prayer stones from the mud of Evin Prison, on which she wrote the verses of Kosar (The Fountainhead) from the Quran. Just before her execution, she wrote a letter to her mother: "In an hour they will execute me, these miserable worshippers of the night. But as Massoud Rajavi says, we are like the fountainhead; the more of us they execute, the more we multiply." She never gave in, and walked proudly to the stake for her execution.

Ayatollah Khomeini issued a special "religious decree" that required that all virgin women prisoners be raped before execution to prevent them from going to heaven. They also threatened Ashraf Jalali, Farah Shirmahale, and Mashid Sheikh with rape. The routine was to rape all of the women, especially the unmarried girls, before they were executed. Ashraf was young, not more than 17-years-old. I got to know her in prison and in the torture chamber. She had attractive dark eyes, and would stare at one point. When asked what she was thinking about, she said she was thinking about freedom for the women of her country. She used to say that the more they flogged us with cables, the more she believed in the path she had chosen. She was only with us a short time; they executed her very quickly.

One prisoner named Farah had a poetic nature. She used her fingernails to carve out a picture on the wall of the cellblock of a group of people who had pulled down Khomeini and set free a group of prisoners. She was summoned the day prior to her execution by Rahmani, the chief interrogator, who told her, "Tomorrow you will be executed, but since our religion tells us that we should not kill a virgin girl, we are going to marry you to one of our Revolutionary Guards." They told her this to try to break her spirit. Farah shouted and slapped him. The next day, Farah was executed. As she was taken away, she said, "I am certain that our blood will set Iran free. I see women who have been freed, singing a song of freedom.

Psychological torture was also used. The worst was being forced to watch another prisoner being tortured. They forced us to be in the same room, to hear the sound the cable made as it bit into the flesh of one of our fellow prisoners. Sometimes the women who had children were tortured in front of their children. This was the ultimate test of their spirit. The worst torture I ever endured was being forced to watch as my sister was flogged with the cable.

Sometimes I was kept in the torture chamber from ten to 18 hours, and forced to watch as the other Mojahedin supporters were being tortured. Those were some of the worst moments I endured. I was forced to watch the torture of Monireh Rajavi, Nassrin Pardehshenass, "Mother" Zakeri, Leila Ardekani, Mashid Sheikh, Homa Radmanesh, Farah Shirmahale, and Ashraf Jalali. All of them were martyred in prison.

"Mother" Zakeri was a woman about 70 years old, who was jailed and tortured for supporting the Mojahedin. They threw two of her granddaughters, aged 12 and 17, and two of her sons into prison at the same time. She refused to break. Everyday, they came and took her for torture. Her strength was such that it gave even us, her cellmates, courage. Despite her age, she had a special sort of high-spiritedness. The prison guards did not dare to come close to her, because on more than one occasion she had slapped them hard on the face and boxed their ears. On the day they took her away to be executed, her shouts of "Long live Rajavi" set the whole cellblock trembling. She told the guards with a special smile, "I am happy that I have achieved my goal. You must understand that however many of us women you execute, more of us will arise, roaring like lionesses."

I shared a cell for one year with Monireh Rajavi. She was tortured with a long cable, which shredded her flesh and the soles of her feet. She was tortured with "the scale" for 12 hours. Every two hours, they dropped her on the floor and then started again. For days on end, she was in the torture chamber for 21 hours of the day, either being tortured herself or forced to watch other women being tortured. They always called Monireh and me for interrogation together. We had the same interrogator. One day, I asked her why they always summoned us together. She replied, "Either they will take us together for execution, in which case we will leave here together, or we will be set free by our heroic people. But if either of us ever does reach our people, we must tell them how these criminals did everything imaginable to the Mojahedin prisoners, and how these women stood up to their tormentors." My most lasting and beautiful memory of Monireh is of her face, which had an innocent expression and smile, always. I saw a special dignity in her face. Her eyes spoke to you, like they were telling her story.

Khomeini issued a religious decree declaring that the Mojahedin women were infidels and hypocrites. Rape and sexual abuse, the worst forms of torture, were practiced in the worst way on these women. The jailers had absolutely free rein, and this religious decree justified their actions. They hated the women of the Mojahedin, because they are very active-they resist, and in particular, they defend the leader of the Resistance movement. One day, Chief Interrogator Rahmani told me, "It is all the fault of you Mojahed women that we are annihilating your generation. No matter how many of you we execute, you spring up again like mushrooms. I am amazed that none of you talks. We torture you to make you talk. From Monireh Rajavi to the likes of you, you are all alike and none of you talks. I can’t understand how Massoud Rajavi managed in just one year to teach all these women to fear nothing. Women are made for raising children and keeping house. Shame on you, who now have to be tortured by men and ultimately killed by them."

The women organized among themselves to support one another. We had group activities, focusing on politics and organizational issues. The Khomeini regime prevented family members from bringing any books or articles that might be related to the Mojahedin into the prison. So our political activity was for everyone to gather in a circle, and for anyone who had read a book or article to relate as much as she could remember of it, especially those dealing with ideological questions or political challenges. This was part of the daily program. Whenever anyone was brought back from the torture chamber, we all gathered around her. Anyone who had anything that could ease the pain offered it to her. The prison guards did not give us any medications, so we tried with things like massage to soothe the suffering. The only way out was execution or escape. The only thing that gave us our spirit was the resistance as a group against the torture and execution. Sometimes, we gathered together secretly to come up with plans of escape. As a result of these plans, we managed to get two people out.

The guards got really upset by the women’s activism. The prison guards blindfolded us everyday to take us for interrogation. One day, as I was being led to the torture chamber, the guard said to me: "Why would a woman be drawn to the resistance? A woman should get married, and keep house. You are throwing your life away here. You even have an education. You should get married and make the best life for yourself. What have ‘the people’ got to do with you? What does this sort of thing have to do with women? A woman is a wife and mother." One of the guards told another woman prisoner, "We torture you so much to make you give this up and go back to taking care of your houses and children. It amazes me, all these women in one place and time; we will annihilate you all."

Some of my most cherished images of the prison were those of the Mojahedin women’s resistance in the face of mass executions. I remember one day in particular, when 50 were summoned for execution. All the other prisoners of the cellblock lined up in two lines, and embraced the condemned and began singing an anthem. The condemned went to put on the best clothes that they had from their days in the Mojahedin militia, which they felt was their official uniform. They used to talk about how they would say good-bye to this world in these clothes, and enter the next in them. The outfit consisted of a navy blue headscarf and tunic, and an army green overcoat. They donned the coat as they said their farewells. Their faces were shining; they laughed and cried at once. They said, "We smile because we have achieved our objective; we are joining our beloved. But we cry because we are leaving you." The room filled with tears, laughter and singing. The atmosphere was such that the prison guards did not dare to enter the cellblock. Instead, they kept repeating the condemned prisoners’ names over the loudspeakers. Pulses were racing. It was an unforgettable moment. They left the cellblock chanting, "Long live Rajavi!" As I write these words, I feel I am reliving it. I can see the shining face of Leila Ardekani. I shall never forget her face. I feel as though she were still in my embrace.

Author

Ladan Pardeshenas was born in Shiraz, capital of Fars Province (southwestern Iran) in 1960. She finished her grammar school and high school education in Shiraz. She continued her education at Tabriz University, where she earned a degree in biology.

Her political activities began during her college days. In 1982, Ladan was wounded and then arrested during a demonstration. At the hospital, the doctors, who were Mojahedin supporters, helped her to escape. In summer 1983, she was arrested again and sent to prison. For four years, she regularly underwent torture, as a result of which she required brain surgery. She was taken to the hospital for treatment. During her post-op recovery in the hospital, the Mojahedin were able to rescue her.

Once free, Ladan joined the Mojahedin forces on the western border. In 1994, she was assigned to the Mojahedin’s office in Italy. Since her escape, the Tehran regime has stopped at nothing to terrorize Ladan and members of her family, in and out of Iran. During the Gulf War in 1991, she sent her two sons, aged two and four, to Holland for safekeeping. One of the regime’s agents kidnapped her eldest son while he was living in The Netherlands. A few days later, they threw her four-year-old son to his death from the fourth floor of a building."

Adventures of Mr.Behi: IRIB interview with Mohammad B. Ghalibaf

2005-06-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Adventures of Mr.Behi: IRIB interview with Mohammad B. Ghalibaf: "IRIB interview with Mohammad B. Ghalibaf
I agree with what is done in former government while I also disagree so let me tell you what you already know! This is what I could gather from Ghalibaf's interview with IRIB tonight. He emphasized a lot on economy escaping from the debates that could lead to social and political questions that might debate his former role in the top management as police chief. Mr. Ghalibaf was on TV trying to be cheerful but his tone of voice was conspicuously like an army officer likewise the number of times he used "Should" and "Must" among his words. Read More below...

He did his best criticizing economical decisions made by the former cabinets referring to the wrong path he believed Iran has followed within the last sixteen years. The funny part was the time he came across the unfair aid that government gives to Petrol consumers to keep the price low. He was criticizing the fact that this price is questionably low and the aid is actually being given to those who own private cars and are considerably rich in income. (Time out! We have not forgotten yet that a few months ago, the conservative parliament opposed the increase in price of petrol and key economic marshal of the parliament, Ahmad Tavakoli is a key supporter of Ghalibaf. )
For privatization, I did not get what he finally meant as he once mentioned he is up to make privatization of non profitable public companies while his idea about controlling the economy was like fossil theories of communism!
It was clear from the beginning that he is not fully aware of what he says and it became solid when he made his point on WTO membership and he said that he agrees with membership but no he disagrees! Because he thinks foreign import will make low quality domestic products to go out of business and unemployment will be the result (he forgot that this can make domestic industries active to reach international quality).
You know what, if you ride in a taxi in Tehran and ask the taxi driver these questions, you get more or less the same answers if not wiser! Then what is the difference between regular mob and a Ph.D. holder like Ghalibaf (Who gave him the degree anyway?)
Changes in Society: Answering what he thinks as a major social challenge today he replied "Lack of awareness of social changes among managers of the country" He implied that he is aware and I wished if the interviewer would have asked how much such awareness of his could decrease actions against the youth by police forces when he was their boss."

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | 'Tank girl' army accused of torture

2005-06-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | 'Tank girl' army accused of torture: "'Tank girl' army accused of torture

Guardian and Human Rights Watch find evidence of abuse by Iranian revolutionaries under US protection

David Leigh in Nijmegen, Netherlands
Tuesday May 31, 2005
The Guardian

A bizarre revolutionary army supported by British politicians who want more "regime change" in the Middle East, has been accused of torture and brainwashing.
Evidence obtained by the Guardian backs a report by Human Rights Watch. This makes detailed accusations of abuse, including deaths under interrogation, against the "People's Mujahideen" of Iran (MKO).

The Mujahideen are a 4000-strong anti-Iranian dissident army, currently under US protection in a camp in Iraq. They have a vociferous public relations campaign in Britain and the backing of some Washington neo-conservatives.

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The group, known as the "tank girls" because of the preponderance of women in its ranks, has also won the support of the Daily Telegraph, which wants it to help overthrow the mullahs in Tehran. It says in a leader: "We should back the main resistance group, the People's Mujahideen ... Give them the tools and they will finish the job".
There is a growing right-wing campaign in parts of Washington and London for regime change, citing Iran's nuclear ambitions. But leftwing UK figures have also joined the campaign to legitimise the Mujahideen, whom they see as freedom fighters.

An advertisement by supporters in the Guardian last month quoted Labour peer Lord (Robin) Corbett, as well as Liberal Lord (David) Alton and Tory backbencher David Amess in support, along with human rights lawyers Imran Khan and Geoffrey Bindman.

However, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, calls them a "a nasty terrorist organisation" and British officials are barred from contact. The Mujahideen are officially proscribed but their British backers want the terrorist designation lifted.

Refugees from the Mujahideen we traced in the Netherlands include Ardeshir Pahrizkari, who walks on crutches. His back and feet were broken, he told us, when he was punched, kicked and had chairs thrown at him at a mass meeting to denounce him organised by his commander.

His crime, he says, was to object to "self-criticism" sessions and the beating up of internal dissidents. "They use Stalinist methods to get rid of even a spark of opposition".

At the time, the "tank girls" were being financed by Saddam Hussein in camps in Iraq. The army was allocated illicit cash from the UN oil-for-food programme, according to Iraqi ministry documents.

Mr Pahrizkari says he was handed over to Saddam's secret service, who took him to Abu Ghraib prison. There were continual beatings there, he said. "When the Red Cross came round, we were told: 'Any contact with them and we will break every bone in your hands and feet.'"

His fellow refugee, Akbat Akbari, says he was tortured extensively, and is still having psychological counselling, after three years in Abu Ghraib.

"The moment you arrived, you were beaten on the soles of the feet. Prisoners were used to hoist your feet in the air with ropes."

Later, he says, his toenails were pulled out. Pepper and salt were forced into his anus.

He says he was falsely accused by the Mujahideen army of being an Iranian spy. Eventually both men were handed over to their enemies in Iran.

They claim they escaped, and deny they are working for the Iranian regime. "My father, brother and sister were imprisoned for six months after I escaped," says Mr Akbari. "The regime took their house."

Mr Pahrizkari says: "I want to warn people not to fall into this trap. If the Mujahideen are the next potential regime in Iran, then that regime will be a dictatorship".

The two men's testimony is supported by last week's New York-based Human Rights Watch report. It says telephone interviews with 12 other former Mujahideen soldiers "paint a grim picture of how the organisation treated its members". Witnesses alleged two cases of deaths under interrogation.

A former English soldier in the MKO, Anne Singleton, now living in Leeds, talked to the Guardian last week. She said the MKO was a brainwashing cult, which ordered its members alternately to divorce and re-marry. As a "Tank girl", she says she wielded a Kalashnikov in the Iraqi deserts with a battalion of women equipped with tanks and revolutionary slogans. They are run by Maryam and Massoud Rajavi, who are married.

She believed she was joining a feminist marxist battle group dedicated to the overthrow of Iran's misogynist clerics. But she says she was deceived and is horrified UK politicians are backing dangerous fanatics.

Young supporters burned themselves to death in 2003, one in London, in coordinated protests after the arrest of some leaders, and the Mujahideen army is accused of numerous bombings inside Iran.

The group raised up to £5m a year in Britain through a charity called Iran Aid, until the Charity Commission closed it down in 2001, saying it was unclear where the money was going.

Lord Corbett's response to the Human Rights Watch report is: "All the people they interviewed are agents of Iranian intelligence. A bill is going through the US Senate allowing financial aid to opposition groups in Iran. People are desperate to stop the Mujahideen getting any of the money".

He attacks the methodology of the report and accused Ms Singleton of also "having links with the Iranian ministry of intelligence".

Ms Singleton denies this, saying: "To claim that every western government and humanitarian organisation which criticises the Rajavi cult is somehow connected to the Iranian secret services shows Lord Corbett's own refusal to take responsibility for supporting this terrorist cult.""

Iran Focus-News - Sen Rick Santorum R-Pa Linked To Terorist Group

2005-06-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Iran Focus-News - Resistance News - Iran intelligence gaining foothold in US?: "Iran intelligence gaining foothold in US? Wed. 1 Jun 2005

Iran Terror Website
By Nasser Taba
London, Jun. 1 – Controversy over a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch is taking a new turn with speculation that Iranian intelligence might have exerted influence on the group through surreptitious agents.

Human Rights Watch issued a 28-page report on May 18 alleging that the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK) opposition group mistreated its “dissident members” in Iraq.

Iran Terror has learnt of two secret emails distributed by a senior figure in Human Rights Watch, which Iranian exiles opposed to the clerical regime in Iran are using as evidence of sinister political motives, and possible interference activity by Iranian intelligence.

The two email messages were distributed by Gary Sick, chairman of the Middle East Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch, to a list of recipients called “Gulf 2000 list”, discussing the HRW report on the MeK on the day it was released.

The first message distributed by Sick said in part, “The Human Rights Watch report on MKO (MEK) abuse comes just in time for the consideration of H.R. 282/S. 333--The Iran Freedom Support act, sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania).”

“Aside from renewing the ineffective economic sanctions against Iran, Section 302 of the bill provides for support for groups opposing the current Iranian regime,” the message added. “Since Representative Ros-Lehtinen is one of the strongest supporters in Congress of the MKO/MEK, one assumes that this proposed appropriation is designed to go to them, at least in part. The Human Rights Watch report on the MKO/MEK would seem to disqualify them from funding under the provisions of the bill.”

Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the Middle East and Central Asia sub-committee in the House of Representatives, has been supportive of Iranian exiles’ efforts to bring about fundamental change in Iran. In an interview after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, Ros-Lehtinen said of the MeK, “In no meeting or briefing I have ever attended has anyone called this group an anti-U.S., terrorist organization.” She said there was “wide support” in Congress for the MeK and that it will be “one of the leading groups in establishing secular government in Iran.”

Significantly, Sick distributed a separate email message from Masoud Khodabandeh, urging further action against the MeK.

Khodabandeh, based in Britain, left the MeK in the mid-1990s. In a written statement to a British judicial board in 2002, Khodabandeh’s brother, Ebrahim, testified that Masoud Khodabandeh had been recruited by Iran’s notorious secret service, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

In early 2003, Ebrahim Khodabandeh was abducted while on a visit to Syria by suspected MOIS agents acting on information provided by his brother, Masoud. Khodabandeh had been living in Britain for thirty years as a political refugee before being abducted to Iran together with another Iranian dissident.

The case provoked an outrage in Britain. A year later, Tehran allowed Win Griffiths, a member of Britain’s House of Commons, to visit Khodabandeh in prison. On his return, Griffiths said he was shocked in his first visit to Evin Prison to see Anne Singleton, the British wife of Masoud Khodabandeh, wonder freely in the high-security prison and socialize with prison officials and wardens.

“Please do what you can to prevent them from bringing Anne Singleton here,” Ebrahim Khodabandeh told Griffiths unobtrusively. To Griffiths, the reason seemed clear. Singleton was working for the Iranian regime and was being used to break Khodabandeh.

Masoud Khodabandeh noted in his email, “While experts on the MEK have welcomed the HRW report, it represents just the tip of the iceberg as far as the organization’s human rights abuses are concerned”.

The MeK have used testimonies by MOIS defectors and former associates to show that Masoud Khodabandeh has been working for Iranian intelligence since 1998. These accounts indicate that he first traveled to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur that year to meet senior MOIS officials. He later set up a website, Iran-Interlink, at the request of his MOIS handlers. MeK officials say Khodabandeh was a key organizer of a small demonstration outside the offices of Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, north of Paris, which was engineered by MOIS as a means of stepping up pressure on the opposition.

In his email message, distributed by Gary Sick, Khodabandeh noted, “There is enough, as yet unverified, information to suggest that the MEK in Camp Ashraf is currently in severe crisis and on the point of collapse, and that the camp is only held together by an atmosphere of fear and repression at the hands of the MEK’s leaders. The most recent reports suggest that if the flag of the US army is replaced by the flag of the Red Cross more than 80 percent of the people in the camp will go to the North camp”.

Iran experts said the emails raised serious questions about the nature of the relationship between Sick and Iranian intelligence agent, Masoud Khodabandeh.

Given his position as chairman of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Advisory Board, Sick’s emails are likely to add to the controversy surrounding the HRW report.

“The big question now is ‘What did Gary Sick know about the report, and when did he know it?” said Masoud Zabeti, president of the Committee of Anglo-Iranian Lawyers in London.

Zabeti, a lawyer himself, is considering moves to challenge the report through legal avenues. “We might even ask courts in America, on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act, to order all correspondence between Mr. Sick and HRW to be made public,” he said in an interview.

Sick, who has been an outspoken proponent of rapprochement with the Iranian regime, told Time magazine in May, "Rafsanjani will have secret talks going with the Americans within three months after he takes office”. He did not say if this was merely a prophesy or based on secret contacts with senior Iranian officials.

“If Sick has allowed an MOIS operator to develop close ties with him, this is going to attract a lot of a attention,” said Mahmud Delju, who monitors Iranian affairs from his home in Paris. “MOIS has been aggressive in targeting Western academics and ex-officials in its disinformation operations. But this is a new level of operation.”

Whatever the significance of the emails, many observers agree that Iranian intelligence scored a big success when the Human Rights Watch report came out.

“You have psychological warfare experts in MOIS who have been trained by KGB specialists and have been doing this for years,” Delju said. “But to see a report by an American human rights group based on accounts by MOIS agents must have won praises for MOIS in many high places in Tehran.”

The MeK state that MOIS (a.k.a. VEVAK) no longer simply uses military and terrorist attacks alone, but also a sophisticated demonization and disinformation campaign, to suppress dissidents abroad.

The latest revelations come as a United States Army colonel who commanded the Military Police Brigade at MeK’s Camp Ashraf in 2004 joined a chorus of criticism directed at Human Rights Watch by academics, human rights activists, parliamentarians, and Iranian exiles over the report.

Col. David Phillips wrote in a letter to Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth that from January to December 2004 he was given “numerous reports of torture, concealed weapons and people being held against their will by the leadership of the Mujahedin e-Khalq.”

“I directed my subordinate units to investigate each allegation. In many cases I personally led inspection teams on unannounced visits to the MeK/PMOI facilities where the alleged abuses were reported to occur. At no time over the 12 month period did we ever discover any credible evidence supporting the allegations raised in your recent report,” he wrote."

Behzad Nabavi Supports Regime Change in Iran || kuro5hin.org

2005-05-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

You say you want a revolution || kuro5hin.org: "Calls from inside Iran have been strengthening for months. In an article in the 25 April issue, Le Monde, a French newspaper, said that the Iranian leadership are apprehensive of the "fierce pro-Americanism" of the Iranian people, adding, "They are especially worried of the vox populi, that asks for a change of the regime with the help of the American Marines." It is reporting that many Iranians openly proclaim their support for American intervention. A filmmaker, requesting to remain anonymous, bluntly stated, "The Afghans and the Iraqis have been freed from dictatorships, why not us?" Behzad Nabavi, the Majles Deputy-speaker and reformist, explains, "If one admits that the Iraqis are delighted with Saddam Hussein's end, one must also think about the possibility that maybe, the Iranians would celebrate at the end of the Islamic Republic as well." In an open letter to President Khatami asking for the release of fellow writers from prison, Ebrahim Nabavi wrote that he would prefer American occupation to the current government that consistently ignores the rights of the citizens.

On those calling for American intervention, Behzad Nabavi said, "It is obvious that it is the result of our mistake. The fact that people prefer a foreign invasion to living in the Islamic Republic is only the sign of our failure. We have not been able to fulfill the people's democratic aspirations and it is normal that they are disappointed.""

BBC NEWS | Mostafa Moin amd Other Anti-Government Candidates Disqualified

2005-05-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran 'bars pro-reform candidates':

Reminiscent of America's Loyalty Oaths Iran has disqualified candidates who cannot support the principles of the Islamic republic. Obviously people who cannot support the Government cannot run for President. JBOC

"Iran 'bars pro-reform candidates'

More than 1,000 candidates were vetted by the Council
Iran's election watchdog has disqualified all but six of more than 1,000 candidates for the presidential election, state television reports.
Among those eliminated are Mostafa Moin, who was the choice of the country's largest reformist party.

Elections for the presidency will be held on 17 June.

Parliamentary polls were also mired in controversy last year after the same Council of Guardians watchdog barred about 2,500 reformist candidates.

Short list

The Council vets all contestants for their moral values and support for the Islamic system of government.

Former president and poll favourite Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, four conservatives and a reformist make up the approved field of candidates.

The four hardliners are the former police chief, a former commander of revolutionary guards, the mayor of Tehran and the former head of state radio and television.

Iran's former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi remains on the list, but correspondents say he had not been the reformists' main contender.

The conservative-dominated Council of Guardians has blocked women from running for the office.

The election is to replace outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, who is barred by law from seeking a third term."

TIME - Joe Klein: Iran's Pragmatic Face (Interesting Appraisal of Rafsanjani)

2005-05-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

TIME - Joe Klein: Iran's Pragmatic Face: "Iran's Pragmatic Face
Did Iran benefit most from Bush's Middle East Policy?

Sunday, May. 22, 2005
Iraq apologized to Iran last week. It acknowledged Saddam Hussein's role in provoking the devastating eight-year war between the two countries in the 1980s. This is an extraordinary gesture, and perhaps a provocative one. No doubt Iraq's Sunnis were not thrilled by either the apology or the blatant Shi'ite bonding that accompanied the diplomatic visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi to Baghdad. Nor was the Bush Administration comforted by Kharrazi's meeting with Iraq's de facto leader, the Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani in Najaf. Sistani has never met with a U.S. official.

Is it possible that Iran is the country that has benefited most from President Bush's Middle East policy? It's an argument I've heard in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey over the past year—and also in Israel, where fear of Iranian intentions has become something of a mania. The argument goes like this: the U.S. has eliminated Iran's two neighboring enemies, Saddam Hussein and the Taliban. Although the U.S. Army is camped out on Iran's eastern and western borders, it is an exhausted, overstretched army. After a period of hawkish puffery in Washington, most military experts—even those in the Bush Administration—believe that a full-bore invasion of Iran would be extremely difficult, and very unwise absent the most flagrant provocation. If the mullahs decide that the development of a nuclear bomb is their highest priority, there may not be much we can do to stop them.

But Iran is a confusing place, even to many Iranians, who tend to laugh about the perversity of their political system. The government is shadowy and redundant, with all sorts of factions, secular and religious, competing for power. A lunatic paralysis prevails, which makes it unlikely that Iran will be able to exploit its newfound prominence in the region. Any pretense of democracy seemed to evaporate in 2004, when most of the reform majority in the parliament was blocked from running for re-election by the ruling mullahs ...

And yet, a year later, Iran is in the midst of a raucous presidential election, scheduled for June 17, in which major issues—like rapprochement with the U.S.—are being debated freely in the press.

"We've never had an election like this," a political scientist named Hadi Semati told me. "It is quite possible no one will win a majority and we will have a runoff for the first time."

The favorite is former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, but he is only running in the mid-20s in the polls. (Yes, there are polls, of a sort, in Iran.) The reformist candidate Mustafa Moin is not very strong or appealing. And the conservatives are divided. The "revolutionary" generation—that is, those who came to power with the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979—have formally backed Ali Larijani, but he is limping along with less than 5% support. The younger "war" generation—those who fought against Iraq—is supporting former police chief Mohammed Ghalibaf, who may emerge as Rafsanjani's main rival. There are seven other candidates, including an Iranian-American professor from Rutgers.

Rafsanjani has long been Iran's most clever politician. He has impeccable revolutionary credentials, strong ties to the bazaari community—he comes from a wealthy pistachio-growing family—and a history of byzantine dealings with reformers and hard-liners, which is why neither side trusts him very much. But Rafsanjani's ambidexterity gives him an excellent chance to build the coalition necessary to succeed in a second round.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Rafsanjani's candidacy is his platform: he wants to "solve the American problem"—that is, find a way to re-establish diplomatic relations with the U.S. and rejoin the world community. Not even departing reform President Mohammed Khatami has been so publicly candid about the need to deal with the Great Satan, but this has been an intermittent 30-year campaign for Rafsanjani. In the mid-'80s, he was the Iranian "moderate" who received the infamous key-shaped cake and a Bible signed by Ronald Reagan, which signaled the beginning of negotiations in the Iran-contra arms- for-hostages deal. As President in the 1990s, he tried to break the ice by offering Conoco a $1 billion deal to develop the Iranian oil fields—an offer unceremoniously rejected by the Clinton Administration. "Rafsanjani will have secret talks going with the Americans within three months after he takes office," says Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University.

But what is there to talk about? I was at Tehran University when Rafsanjani rhapsodized about the need for an "Islamic bomb" in December 2001. If he thinks U.S.-Iranian commerce and the nuclear program can proceed on separate tracks, he's bound to be disappointed. Still, Rafsanjani is a dealmaker, first and last. It seems to run in the family. I interviewed his brother Mohammed in 2001, and after a long discussion of Iranian politics, I asked if he had any questions about the U.S. He immediately raised the question of the Caspian Sea oil reserves. "I understand Dick Cheney likes our pipeline route," he said. Hmm ... but before we talk, give up your nukes."

Lobbyist in Espionage Inquiry Says That He Broke No Laws - New York Times

2005-05-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Lobbyist in Espionage Inquiry Says That He Broke No Laws - New York Times: "Lobbyist in Espionage Inquiry Says That He Broke No Laws

By JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: May 22, 2005
WASHINGTON, May 21 - A former senior officer in a pro-Israel lobbying group who was fired because of his involvement in an espionage case says that he did nothing wrong and that he does not understand why he is the subject of a criminal investigation.

"I did not violate any U.S. laws," said the former officer, Steve Rosen, who is at the center of the swirling counterintelligence investigation. Mr. Rosen was a well-connected senior policy analyst and lobbyist for the group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, until he was fired last month.

Leaders of other major Jewish organizations - some who are close to Aipac, as the organization is known, and others who are not - say they believe that Mr. Rosen and a colleague, Keith Weissman, were fired to insulate the group from criticism ahead of its annual convention, which opens on Sunday. Aipac denies that.

Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were fired because of their association with Lawrence A. Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst who was arrested on May 4 on charges of illegally disclosing military secrets.

No charges have been filed against the two, and the organization has not been implicated in the investigation, law enforcement officials said. Many senior government officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, are scheduled to attend the convention, as is Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel. None of the major officials have canceled their plans to attend.

Aipac has long been an important organization to the government; officials strive to keep close relationships with it.

Even with the two former Aipac officials under federal investigation, support for Aipac among other Jewish groups remains strong.

Still, there is little question that the organization's lobbying arm has been damaged by the loss of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman, and the broader espionage accusations may discourage some government officials from dealing with Aipac. Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman often spoke with colleagues in the Israeli Embassy, and as part of their work traded information with the Israelis.

"Some middle-level people in government will be hesitant" to talk to Aipac now, said Malcolm I. Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group whose members include Aipac. He and others suggested that some government officials might fear that they, too, could be swept up in an espionage case.

Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for Aipac, said that the organization "continues to have meetings and exchanges at all levels of government."

Morris J. Amitay, a former executive director of Aipac, voiced another concern shared by almost everyone interviewed: "the risk," he said, "that the Department of Justice comes up with something that could be incriminating to Aipac."

Over several years one or both of the Aipac lobbyists held four meetings with Mr. Franklin, who was under surveillance by Justice Department investigators. When Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman began meeting him, they too were under surveillance. During a final meeting between Mr. Franklin and Mr. Weissman in July 2004, Mr. Franklin was serving as a government informant, and the meeting was taped.

The people sympathetic to Mr. Rosen's case said they regarded the meeting as a sting because Mr. Franklin described information about threats to Israeli operatives who were working in northern and southern Iraq. Iranian agents, Mr. Franklin said, planned to kill them.

Mr. Weissman told Mr. Rosen about this, the people said, and the two set out to confirm what Mr. Franklin had said by talking to American and Israeli officials.

Soon after, an F.B.I. agent questioned the two and asked if they had spread classified information. They said no and maintained in discussions with the agent and with Aipac officers that Mr. Weissman never heard Mr. Franklin say the material he was describing was classified.

Later, lawyers learned that the tape of Mr. Franklin's last conversation with Mr. Weissman showed that he did note that the information was classified. After learning that, Aipac fired Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman, said several friends of Aipac who were briefed on the investigation."

Iran Policy Committee: Pentagon mouthpiece, Israeli ally, MEK supporter

2005-05-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Iran Policy Committee: Pentagon mouthpiece, Israeli ally, MEK supporter: "Iran Policy Committee: Pentagon mouthpiece, Israeli ally, MEK supporter

By John Stanton
Online Journal Contributing Writer
May 21, 2005—The Iran Policy Committee (IPC) has a website up and running at iranpolicycommittee.org.*

The IPC made the news in February when it released a report titled "US Options for Iran." In that report, the IPC recommended that a terrorist group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) be removed from the US government's hit list. The authors of the IPC report equate the terrorist MEK with the African National Congress that fought long and hard against the despicable all-white South African regime and its US supporters so many years ago. Of course, the implication here is that the MEK will somehow produce a Nelson Mandela, or at least is on the same playing field as Mandela's group was.

Those two wacky thoughts should be enough to dismiss the 11 IPC principals, their mission and their clumsy report as nonsense. But inside the Washington Beltway, it's never wise to dismiss ignorance until performing background checks on the individuals and their affiliations. The record shows that the IPC operates in very close proximity to the US intelligence community, has the support of 150 members in the US Congress, and is linked to individuals/groups who successfully lied and led the US into another Vietnam-like war, and whose primary purpose is the creation of a US empire that controls the world's resources and protects a greater Israel. Crazy is selling these days and the loonies are in charge.

The IPC is supported by the neocon all-stars that we've come to know and love such as Douglas Feith, Frank Gaffney, Michael Leeden, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, et al. But these frontbenchers are running out of political muscle as their war in Iraq continues to drain the resources of the American people on political, economic and military fronts. What's worse, perhaps, is their "with us or against us" mentality has caused new political and economic alliances to form (example: South America-China-Iran) and has accelerated both conventional and nuclear arms races. Having failed on so many fronts, they recognize that to get the US into Iran, some new faces are needed and that's where the IPC backbenchers are critical to the forthcoming anti-Iranian/Persian propaganda operations.

The IPC is linked through its purpose and people to the Coalition for a Democratic Iran and the MEK, the Washington PAC, JINSA, AIPAC, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Department of Defense (DoD), the Center for Security Policy, and all the major US intelligence agencies. IPC members are primarily defense and security contractors/consultants and would benefit financially from a war with Iran.

FOX This!

Anyone who can tolerate FOX News—the electronic equivalent of Reverend Moon's Washington Times—on a regular basis will recognize these IPC members: Lt.Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF (Ret.) formerly of the Business Executives for National Security and member of the Center for Security Policy; Major Gen. Paul Vallely, USA (Ret.); Capt. Chuck Nash, USN (Ret.); and Lt.Col. Bill Cowan, USMC (Ret.). These four folks are frequently seen and heard discussing military matters on FOX. Other IPC heavy hitters include Raymond Tanter, a former staffer at the National Security Council and current member of the Committee for the Present Danger and the Washington Center for Near East Policy; Clare Lopez a former CIA analyst; and Jim Atkins, former US President Richard Nixon's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who is known in some circles as "the westerner who knows the most about the Middle East . . ."

The military heavyweight of the IPC is McInerney. One of the highlights of McInerney's military career, besides being a top-notch pilot in Vietnam, was assisting Alaska in the clean up of the oil spill caused by the Exxon Valdez when it ran aground in March of 1989. From April to September of that year, McInerney admirably headed the Joint Task Force Alaska Oil Spill while commander of the Alaskan Air Command (then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney argued for a minimalist DoD/federal government role). These days, though, McInerney is busy promoting the neocon cause and dabbling in a host of money-making and influence peddling activities.

You can find him—and fellow IPC cohorts Vallely, Cowan and Lopez—at conferences like Intelcon 2005** as speakers and members of the Intelcon's Program Advisory Group (Michael Leeden, Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes are among them). Former directors of the NSA, CIA and DIA are featured panelists, along with more, yes more, FOX News commentators no doubt opining in conference as on the network with all the volume of an announcer at a Monster Truck bash. Yehoshuah Mizrachi of Operation Shiloh apparently spoke at Intelcon about handling terror like an Israeli (he equates the Battle of Shiloh from the US Civil War with 9–11). Finally, the conference program shows that the standard mix of defense contractors and US government bureaucrats round out Intelcon's conferees, along with a few token liberals thrown in for what appears to be some sort of balance.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

So what are all these IPC characters doing at Intelcon? Well it's a good place to drum up business and get nod-and-wink-intel about what's really going on "over there and with that contract award." At the Intelcon blast held this past February, McInerney chaired a panel on Securing Intelligence Networks. As a director of NetStar Systems, that subject matter is an important part of his job. According to NetStar's website, it is "a fast-growing Virginia corporation with headquarters in Vienna, Virginia. It was founded in 1998 and most of our employees are cleared at the Top Secret or higher levels. NetStar is growing rapidly in the Intel and DoD sectors and has provided numerous solutions and staff to many of the Intelligence agencies in the DC metro area." Clients include the NSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, DHS and the Office of Naval Intelligence. NetStar is a member of the National Military Intelligence Association (NMIA). Most of NetStar's clients were at Intelcon 2005 including General Jim Williams, USA (Ret.), former director of DIA, and NMIA's current director.

With the IPC plugged into US global and domestic intelligence operations, and connected with neocon/Israeli lobbying activities here in the USA, it's important to listen to them—no matter how maniacally they articulate their position. So when McInerney was quoted by the Washington Times' Rowan Scarborough in February about the likelihood of an attack on Iran, one has to wonder how and where he is getting his information as he states it with an air of complete certainty

What are we to make of his almost 30-year old assessment of Iranian anti-aircraft defenses? Is it likely that Iran has done nothing about its defenses since the 1970s or does personnel experience mean something else given his contacts in the neocon pipeline and US/foreign intelligence communities?

"He [Bush] doesn't have any choice [but to attack Iran because] he understands [the Iranians] are the king of terror right now. They are striving for nuclear weapons that can get into the hands of terrorists and then it's too late. B-2 stealth bombers, armed with the huge penetrating bombs commonly called bunker busters, would be able to pierce Iran's aging air defenses and hit 20 or more sites. They have not updated that very, very old air defense system. McInerney said that as a colonel in 1977 he went to Iran and conducted a war exercise against various Iranian targets during the rule of the United States' ally, the Shah of Iran. They were not very good then, and they have clearly just gotten worse . . . I can tell you from my personal experience we would have no problem there."

McInerney's buddy, Vallely, is of the same mind. According to FOX News, Vallely believes that "while the United States has the ability to launch a major ground invasion, it wouldn't have to . . . we can take a country down with just our air assets . . . we don't have put boots on the ground all the time if we're after specific targets."

Did they forget about how difficult Iran could make it for US troops on the ground in Iraq? What about the impact on the US and world economy?

It is vacuum packed thinking like this that prompted the following Amazon Books review of McInerney and Vallely's book Endgame: Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror. Robert Steele of the noted Open Source Solutions had this to say: "I finally figured it out. This is a puff piece of, by, and for FOX Cable News viewers. There are no footnotes in this book. It is a rambling opinion piece. Let us not confuse rank with brains, or opinions with thought. This is a double-spaced book that could probably be distilled to 30 pages of core reading, all summed up as 'we're always right, no matter the cost.' This book also adopts the Richard Perle neoconservative game plan of using terrorism as a pretext to invade Syria and Iran. The authors—who demonstrate how far one could get in the Cold War military without reading or thinking, call this a military assessment. It is not . . . It avoids discussing Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Central Asia, Muslim Africa, and Muslim Pacifica. This is not analysis, this is flim-flam . . . This book is a blueprint for a nuclear winter in which America self-immolates."

We Know Terrorism?

IPC notable Cowan runs a company called wvc3. Among other things, Cowan's group states "Talking about terrorists is one thing. Having conducted successful operations against them in their midst is another. We know terrorism. It's not something we've learned since 9/11. We can speak with absolute authority about how they organize, think, act, and operate. Programs and operations designed to neutralize them will only be as successful as the thinking behind them. We provide the bedrock around which sound counterterrorism initiatives and efforts are based."

Uh, if that's so, where were they on 911? What about the MEK?

Anyway, Cowan's group links to companies like Aegis whose claim is that "Our management staff consists of prior U.S. military, police and government personnel. Their many years of dedicated service provides Aegis MEP with a network of international contacts that enable us to act anywhere in the world. Our linguists are rigorously tested to ensure their proficiency in English and their specialty language(s). Our consultants and operational personnel have extensive international experience and are accustomed to acting professionally in politically sensitive environments . . . The projects we complete for our clients are generally sensitive in nature."

In sum, they are either guarding people and things, killing/destroying people and things, or watching and listening to someone on something. Which makes one wonder why resort to all the self-inflating crypto military/intelligence speak?

MEK: Terrorists Working for America

On April 6, a number of IPC principals met with elected officials in the US government. The IPC has the complete account on its website from US Newswire. Here are some of the highlights:

"The IPC convened on Capitol Hill at the invitation of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives. At issue were US policy options for Iran. In attendance were over 80 members of the Congress and their aides, foreign diplomats, experts from other think tanks . . . Co-chairs of the caucus, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO.) and Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), chaired the briefing. Tancredo raised the issue of the terrorist designation of Iran's main opposition group, the Mujahedeen e-Khalq organization and IPC panelists concurred on the need to remove it from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organizations List. Tancredo stated that the MEK was designated not because it was involved in terrorist activities, but because the Clinton administration sought to curry favor with the Iranian regime."

In fact, the MEK did a lot of Saddam Hussein's dirty work inside Iraq, according to GlobalSecurity.org. The MEK assisted Saddam Hussein's suppression of the 1991 Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish uprisings and in the 1970s MEK members killed a number of US soldiers and contractors. Its membership has been steadily falling. "The MEK was allied with the Iraqi regime and received most of its support from it. MEK members supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

The MEK assisted the Hussein regime in suppressing opposition within Iraq, and performed internal security for the Iraqi regime. MEK was founded in the 1960s by a group of college-educated Iranian leftists opposed to the country's pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Although the group took part in the 1979 Islamic revolution that replaced the Shah with a Shiite Islamist regime, MEK's ideology, a blend of Marxism and Islamism, put it at odds with the post-revolutionary government. MEK activities have dropped off in recent years as its membership has dwindled."

But the future is bright. The MEK has the IPC and its supporters working on its behalf.

* All biographies for the IPC members and the referenced report can be found on the IPC website.

** There are far too many websites to reference in the body of the article. You can find the links to IPC member companies on their website. Intelcon is at fbcinc.com/intelcon/organizers.asp. Operation Shiloh is opshiloh.com. NetStar is netstarsys.com. NMIA is at nmia.org. Go to the NMIA Awards/Citations and you'll get an idea of some of the intelligence ops being run in the USA and elsewhere.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in security and political matters. He is the author of "America 2004: A Power But Not Super." Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com."

Israel has become the new state sponsor of MEK terrorism.

2005-05-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

[traitorsusa] American Totalitarian (Democratic AIPAC Republican Neoconservative) Party Agenda by Paul Sheldon Foote:

"Outside of Iran, the MEK has had to rely upon hosts to support its terrorism. For details of the extensive French and Iraqi governments support of the MEK in the past, read Anne Singleton's Saddam's Private Army. While the MEK has been able to raise some money in America from Iranian-American Communists and from fake charities (such as earthquake relief for victims in Iran), the MEK requires much more support. Israel has become the new state sponsor of MEK terrorism. For example, "Who pays for Rajavi's satellite programs?" lists these MEK service providers in Israel:

R. R. Sat (Global Network)
4 Hagoren St., Industrial Park, Omer 84965, Israel
Tel: +972-8-6257500
Fax: +972-8-6257501

REEM Teleport
Reem Junction, D.N. Shikmim 79813, Israel
Tel: +972-8-8610000
Fax: +972-8-8610002

Tel-Aviv Teleport
5 Haaskala Blvd. Tel-Aviv, 67890, Israel
Tel: +972-3-5623994
Fax: +972-3-5613061"

Tyler Marshall and Sonni Efron Extensively Quote Known Terrorist in LA Times Article and never Mention His Affiliations

2005-05-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

Iran Said to Smuggle Material for Warheads:

Alireza Jafarzadeh is linked to the Ultra-Violent terrorist Group the MKO by the US Government. Tyler Marshall and Sonni Efron who are Times Staff Writers use this dubious source and never mention his links to those violent killers. This leaves two possibilities, Tyler Marshall and Sonni Efron are Morons or they are willing to further a Terrorist Agenda. Maybe Tyler Marshall and Sonni Efron should come clean on why they are helping a Mossad backed terrorist group. JBOC

" Iran Said to Smuggle Material for Warheads
Iran Said to Smuggle Material for Warheads
A regime opponent in exile says Tehran is buying a ceramic with weapons applications. Timing of allegations before talks questioned.

By Tyler Marshall and Sonni Efron, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — Iran is smuggling a highly sensitive material that could be used to encase a nuclear warhead atop a missile, a prominent Iranian exile claimed Friday.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, who helped spotlight previously unknown uranium enrichment sites in Iran nearly three years ago, said a source within the government provided evidence to him that Tehran's Defense Ministry "has in the past and continues to smuggle" the material into the country.

The substance is a composite graphite material known as CMC, or ceramic matrix composite. Several nuclear materials experts emphasized Friday that although CMC is ideal for use on missiles with nuclear warheads, it also has roles unrelated to missiles. Some also questioned the timing of the allegations, with crucial talks between Iran and European diplomats about its nuclear program planned for next week in Paris.

Jafarzadeh, who operates a Washington consulting firm, said in a telephone interview that the material was an essential part of an Iranian government drive to develop a nuclear weapon. He also said Iran had managed to produce small quantities of CMC domestically and allocated $450 million last year to a program that could eventually make large amounts.

There was no immediate response from the regime in Tehran, which insists that it is running a nuclear program for civilian energy purposes.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

The graphite material's characteristics — it's heat-resistant, lightweight and very strong — make it ideal for protecting a missile's payload during the re-entry phase of its flight, according to Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. It also can be used for unrelated purposes, he said.

International trading of CMC for use in nuclear weapons is banned under a voluntary agreement involving more than 30 nations that is known as the Missile Technology Control Regime. Ceramic heat shields are listed in the agreement as an item of the "greatest sensitivity."

Opponents of Iran's government have made repeated allegations aimed mainly at exposing what they say is Tehran's determination to build a nuclear weapon.

Although their initial claims were verified by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency and led to an international effort to halt Iran's nuclear program, some recent charges made by regime opponents have proved false.

The timing of the current claims led some arms control specialists and regional experts to view them with caution.

"This timing is certainly no accident," said Cliff Kupchan, a Middle East expert at the Eurasia Group in Washington. "It seems to me to be a rather transparent attempt either to detonate or complicate next week's talks, on which the future of diplomacy could ride.

"It's incumbent on the Iranians to refute these charges or demonstrate that the goal of these programs is not to develop a nuclear warhead," he said.

Sig Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a telephone interview Friday that even if the claims that Iran had imported CMC were true, it would not necessarily mean the material was intended for use in delivering a nuclear weapon. Ceramic matrix composites are often used in conventional weapons and armor, said Hecker, a leading metallurgist who has helped evaluate North Korea's nuclear capability.

Although much of the recent international attention on Iran has focused on its nuclear program, the regime has worked to develop missiles that are, at least in theory, capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

The Shahab-3 medium-range missile, derived from a North Korean design, has a range of just less than 1,000 miles.

In comments in November that raised eyebrows, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the U.S. had information that the Iranians "were working actively" on missile systems.

"You don't have a weapon until you can put it in something that can deliver a weapon," Powell said at the time. "We are talking about information that says they not only have missiles but information that suggests they are working hard about how to put the two together."

Milhollin said Friday that the characteristics of Iran's Shahab-3 missile make it better suited for delivering a nuclear payload than chemical, biological or conventional weapons.

"CMC would better enable Iran to deliver a nuclear warhead over long distances," he said.

He emphasized that CMC was not itself a nuclear material and Iran was not obligated to report its possession to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

It "would likely have to be smuggled into Iran because no reputable manufacturer would fulfill such an order" from Tehran, he said.

Richard H. Speier, a missile technology expert who helped negotiate the Missile Technology Control Regime, called allegations of Iran smuggling CMC "plausible."

"They've been smuggling in all sorts of stuff for these programs," Speier said. "Virtually none of these proliferator countries can go it alone."

Speier added that the importing of CMC to Iran could pose a serious proliferation threat.

Jafarzadeh said Tehran had purchased an undetermined amount of CMC from countries that have mastered the technology to manufacture the material. The shipping was often organized through Iranian front companies located in third countries, he said.

One of the companies he identified, Iranian-owned Gulf Resources Development Corp., located in the Jebel Ali free-trade zone of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is on a U.S. watch list for possible illegal trading.

Jafarzadah said front companies were used mainly to purchase the CMC, much of which came from China. He said, however, that Chinese authorities had banned shipment in some cases when it was discovered that Iran was to be the final destination.

"There were shipments stopped in the past two months," Jafarzadeh said.

According to the Wisconsin Project's Risk Report, a database of suspect activities and sensitive equipment used for export control, CMC is also produced in France, Germany, India, Israel, Russia, Britain and the United States."

iranian.com: The MKO Abuses Dissident Members

2005-05-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

iranian.com: News: "News
May 19, 2005

Iran: Exiled Armed Group Abuses Dissident Members
Opposition Group Seeks Recognition and Support in Western Capitals

Paris, May 19, 2005 (Human Rights Watch) -- An armed Iranian opposition group in exile, the Mojahedin Khalq Organization, has subjected dissident members to torture and prolonged solitary confinement, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 28-page report [English] [Persian], “No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps,” details how dissident members of the shadowy Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) were tortured, beaten and held in solitary confinement for years at military camps in Iraq after they criticized the group’s policies and undemocratic practices, or indicated that they planned to leave the organization. The report is based on the direct testimonies of a dozen former MKO members, including five who were turned over to Iraqi security forces and held in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam Hussein’s government.

“Members who try to leave the MKO pay a very heavy price,” said Joe Stork, Washington director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “These testimonies paint a grim picture of what happened to members who criticized the group’s leaders.”

One former high-ranking MKO member, Mohammad Hussein Sobhani, was held in solitary confinement for eight-and-a-half years, from September 1992 to January 2001. The MKO then turned him over to Iraqi authorities. He was held in Abu Ghraib prison until 2002, when he was forcibly repatriated to Iran. The witnesses also reported two cases of deaths under interrogation by MKO operatives"

Jerusalem Post | AIPAC Supports Pro-Terrorist Bill

2005-05-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "May. 14, 2005 23:57 | Updated May. 15, 2005 9:19
AIPAC campaigns for Iran sanctions
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON
As Iran appears to move closer to resuming nuclear activities, support has been quietly building in Congress for new US sanctions, including penalties that could affect multinational companies and recipients of US foreign aid.

The legislation would put the United States on a more confrontational course than the one pursued by President George W. Bush's administration. Bush has supported European efforts to offer Iran incentives in exchange for abandoning its nuclear program.

More than 200 members of the House of Representatives – almost half the body – are co-sponsoring a bill that would tighten and codify existing sanctions, bar subsidiaries of US companies from doing business in Iran and cut foreign aid to countries that have businesses investing in Iran.

Additional lawmakers – Republicans and Democrats – are adding their names to the bill every week.

The legislation is expected to get a boost when one of the most influential lobbying groups, the American Israel Political Action Committee, holds its annual meeting in Washington this month. AIPAC has made the bill a high priority.

"It will certainly, along with other things, be part of the agenda when thousands of members of AIPAC go to Capitol Hill" to lobby Congress, said Josh Block, a spokesman for the group.

A pro-business group, the National Foreign Trade Council, is lobbying against the bill, but its president, Bill Reinsch, said "the deck is kind of stacked against us."

"People don't like to have it look like they're voting against something that will stick it to an unpopular country," he said. "So, yeah, we're worried about it."

The bill faces big hurdles before becoming law. Support may not be as strong in the Senate, which is considering a more limited version of the bill. Key lawmakers in both chambers could block the legislation. The White House has not taken a position, but generally opposes congressional efforts to steer foreign policy.

"We will have the perennial and traditional battle with the executive branch as to who can have a say on foreign policy initiatives," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the House bill's main sponsor and a member of Bush's Republican Party.

But momentum would likely build if Iran carries out its threat to resume some nuclear activities and its talks break down with Britain, France and Germany, which are negotiating on behalf of the European Union.

Washington says Iran's nuclear activities are intended to build a bomb, though Iran says it seeks only to generate electricity. It suspended uranium-enrichment activities in November while it negotiates with the Europeans. If the talks fail, the White House would likely look for EU support to take Iran to the UN Security Council, where it could face international sanctions.

Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations said unilateral sanctions imposed by Congress could hurt US-EU cooperation if they penalize European companies doing business in Iran.

He said it would be difficult for Bush to say he supports EU diplomacy, "but we are going to sanction the following British, French and German firms." Ros-Lehtinen said relations with Europe are not her main concern.

"I believe that having a stronger, safer world and regional stability is far better than whether we can have crumpets and tea with European leaders," she said.

The EU objected to a 1996 law that called for penalties against foreign firms that invested more than $20 million a year in Iran's energy sector. Seeking European cooperation on Iran, neither Bush nor his predecessor, Bill Clinton, penalized companies.

The House bill and a similar one in the Senate proposed by Sen. Rick Santorum, would make it more difficult for presidents to use endless investigations and national security waivers to avoid penalizing companies. They would also authorize funding for pro-democracy groups in Iran.

Before being endorsed last month by the International Relations Middle East subcommittee chaired by Ros-Lehtinen, the provisions affecting foreign aid and subsidiaries of US businesses were added. Also added were requirements that pensions and mutual funds inform investors about any investments they hold in companies doing business with Iran. The bill recommends that the funds divest from these holdings.

It also calls for the United States to seek UN sanctions if Iran fails to provide unrestricted access to international nuclear inspectors.

The House bill now goes before the full International Relations Committee and the Senate bill to its counterpart, the Foreign Relations Committee. The chairmen of both panels, Rep. Henry Hyde and Sen. Dick Lugar, both Republicans, tend to be skeptical about sanctions and are likely to give strong weight to the administration's viewpoint.

Ros-Lehtinen said Hyde has informed her that diplomatic efforts should be given more time and she doesn't expect his committee to consider the bill soon. But she added: "As the situation with Iran becomes more critical, I think we may see some movement in that direction.""

Terrorits to March in Philadelphia May 16 Under the Guise of Iran Freedom Foundation

2005-05-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

"The Iran Freedom Foundation cordially invites you to join us for the launch of

The Iran Freedom Walk

Philadelphia, PA

May 16, 2005

10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Independence Mall (“Block Two”)

(Lawn area adjacent to the Visitor Center located at the intersection of 6th St. and Market St.)

The Iran Freedom Foundation is made up of American and Iranian scholars, professionals, philanthropists and human rights advocates who have joined together to support the rights of the Iranian people. For more information about our organization and the Iran Freedom Walk, visit www.iranfree.org."

Terrorist and Professor Raymond Tanter Definitively Said Iraq had WMDs

2005-04-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

VOA News Report: "INTRO : David Borgida talks with Professor Raymond Tanter, Visiting Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Tanter was also a scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington in 2001. He researched U.S. policy options regarding Iran at both research organizations.

"MR. BORGIDA: But in a way, the devil is in the details, as they say. And we need to know exactly what Baghdad is saying, right?

PROF. TANTER: Well, the devil is really not in these details of getting bogged down. The devil is in the fact that Iraq is in noncompliance and, I think, in material breach already because of the omissions concerning the nuclear weapons program that Iraq must have because of the fact that General al-Saadi is the one who stood up and said that "we have made considerable progress in respect to a nuclear weapon device."

MR. BORGIDA: Let's talk a little bit about those inspectors now. As we reported, new inspectors are coming into the country. There had been some criticism in some quarters that the initial group of inspectors were relatively inexperienced, perhaps, as some have suggested, unable to do a wonderful job at this. What is your view on that?

PROF. TANTER: I don't think the experience of the inspectors is at issue. Iraq is a country of 24 million-plus individuals. It is the size of the State of California. Even if you had experienced inspectors, how are you going to cover 900 sites in a place like the State of California, where Iraq's Saddam Hussein has had four years to hide all of the material in bunkers and in his 10 or so palaces?

MR. BORGIDA: So far Iraq says that you're not going to find anything. The inspectors haven't found anything. Do you think that in the weeks and perhaps months to come something will be found, or is Iraq at this point, as you're arguing, so careful at moving whatever it has around that inspectors won't find them?

PROF. TANTER: I don't think the inspection is the key. The key here is the fact that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that he has not accounted for. The documents that he destroyed, or he had his people to destroy, that said he destroyed equipment are the key here. It's almost like "The dog ate my homework," in the sense that the documents were destroyed and therefore you can't verify that the equipment was destroyed. And that is, I think, the grounds for assessing material breach on the part of Iraq."

The Athens NEWS: Woolsey's Remarks Don't Analytically Cut It

2005-04-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Athens NEWS: Twice weekly alternative: "Former CIA operatives debate Sept. 11 and Iraq
2005-04-25
By Quinn Bowman
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter

Three veterans of the CIA spoke their minds on the reasons for recent failures at the agency during a Friday morning panel discussion entitled "9/11 and Iraq: What Went Wrong."

The forum was the first of three panels held Friday for the 2005 Baker Peace Conference in Ohio University's Baker Center.

The panel included Graham Fuller, former CIA national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia; Reuel Marc Gerecht, former CIA Middle East specialist from 1985-1994; and 22-year CIA vet Michael Scheuer, who served as chief of the CIA Counterterrorist Center's Osama bin Laden Unit from 1996-1999.

Each panelist addressed the audience in a separate speech, but also answered questions afterward. The panel was introduced and moderated by OU associate professor of history John Brobst.

Fuller, the first to speak, criticized the CIA for being unable to understand the culture of the Middle East and the Muslim world. "The Muslim world perhaps understands us better than we understand ourselves," he said.

Contrary to what is generally presented in the mainstream media, he added, "Islamists" do not all fall into line ideologically with al Qaeda. Fuller clarified the situation. "Indeed, there are fascists and totalitarian Islamists, but any Muslim who believes the Quran and the actions of the prophet Muhammad has something to do with Muslim life and governance" is an Islamist, he said.

This diverse group includes bin Laden, but the moderates who control Turkey also fall under this umbrella, he said. The Islamist movement is vital and evolving and its members don't always agree, Fuller said.

On the domestic side, Fuller charged that the Bush administration is dismissive of opinions from the Middle East "at the highest levels.

"9/11 was not a bolt from the blue," he declared. "There were long decades of preceding facts."

Fuller also took a shot at some of former CIA Director James Woolsey's remarks during the keynote address the previous night. The notion that terrorists want to destroy America because of its freedoms "doesn't analytically cut it," Fuller said.

Specific policies, including U.S. support for Middle-East dictators, trigger resentment. "(U.S.) policies are socializing a new generation of rage," he said. "We need to work with Muslims to help them fix problems because ultimately they have to clean up the mess."

GERECHT WAS LESS critical of current U.S. policies toward the Middle East, but focused more of his scope of analysis on intelligence gathering.

In terms of understanding the Arab world, Gerecht argued that America is best qualified. American intelligence experts are pound for pound better informed about the problems of the Middle East than any expert in Europe, he said.

Gerecht maintained that controversial Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, for example, is better qualified to analyze the Middle East than any expert in Great Britain, Germany, or France.

However, restructuring American intelligence agencies and getting political support at home for spy activities is something that needs improving, Gerecht acknowledged. A key problem for U.S. spies is that the structure for gathering information overseas was not calibrated to deal with Islamists, he said.

Gerecht stressed the need for NOC (non-official cover spies) agents as opposed to spies who work as fake diplomats in American embassies. NOC agents are better suited for collecting information from sources such as Islamic clerics, he said.

Even with the best information from overseas, he added, it is hard to change the policy decisions of U.S. politicians who have a set course of action in mind. A member of Congress who opposes preempting terrorist attacks will oppose such preemption no matter what the intelligence says, he said.

Rounding out the panel, Scheuer argued that recent investigatory commissions charged with improving U.S. intelligence in light of the Sept. 11 attacks and the lack of WMD in Iraq did not do their jobs. Moreover, it was the U.S. intelligence community itself that did not do its job, he said.

Scheuer told the audience that it was the human failure and moral cowardice of the intelligence community that led to 9/11 and WMD mistakes, not the structure of the institutions themselves. "It's like a judge who sends the automobile to jail after finding the driver guilty of vehicular homicide," he said.

Scheuer cited the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding WMD, otherwise known as the Robb-Silberman report, as a flawed endeavor that did not hold anyone accountable for their mistakes. "The report was 'not here to point fingers.' It couldn't find anyone responsible for anything," Scheuer said. "No names named, no fault found. They not only missed the boat, they missed the dock."

Scheuer concluded by issuing a damning evaluation of the investigatory commissions regarding intelligence failures. "No senior leader was sanctioned because they were more concerned about protecting the political aristocracy that appointed them," he said.

Joy Parr, a junior exchange student from the University of Wales Swansea, was particularly interested and in agreement with Gerecht's evaluation of European intelligence capabilities. Europeans have a different set of terrorists to deal with, she said. "Europeans have to deal with their own internal terror problems like the IRA and the Basques in Spain," she said."

Muslims Serious About Fighting Terror

2005-04-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

Iran Daily: "Int–l Islamic Unity Conference Opens

Muslims Serious About Fighting Terror

TEHRAN, April 24--Iran hosted on Sunday the 18th International Islamic Unity Conference wherein representatives of 34 countries unanimously underlined the need for solidarity among Muslim states, Iran Daily–s Farzaneh Shokri reported.
In this three-day undertaking, Muslim intellectuals, university professors and a number of ministers discussed the problems facing the Muslim world.
Forging solidarity within the Muslim world and developing closer affinity among Muslim intellectuals are the focal points of this event. Among others, representatives of Denmark, the US, the UK, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Australia, Kuwait, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain participated in the conference.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the conference, State Expediency Council (SEC) Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said the Muslim world is currently at a sensitive juncture and deserves special attention.
"After 9/11, it was clear that arrogant world powers were hostile towards the Muslim world and this became clearer when President George Bush used the word crusade ... Although later Bush admitted that he made a mistake by using the term, the fact that the issue of war on terror, which all countries agree on, came to the fore reveals that arrogant world powers remain hostile toward the Muslim world."
The SEC chief added that nobody can be more serious in confronting terrorism than Muslims.
Rafsanjani noted that after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the late Imam Khomeini did not agree to carrying out terrorist operations although the former monarchical regime had committed the worst of crimes.
"Muslim states must come to terms with where they stand in this world and withstand the anti-Islamic campaign under the guise of the drive for globalization, at the forefront of which is the US," he said."

Jihad Unspun - A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism"

2005-04-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

Jihad Unspun - A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism": "KAPLAN: Hearts, Minds, And Dollars
Apr 23, 2005
By David E. Kaplan

As war games go, this one was unique: the first-ever exercise on "strategic communications," its sponsors said. It was July 2003, and the government's leading players in winning the "war of ideas" against terrorism had gathered at National Defense University, in Washington, D.C. There were crisis managers from the White House, diplomats from the State Department, Pentagon specialists in psyops--psychological operations. Washington's quick victory over Saddam Hussein's Army that spring had done little to quell surging anti-Americanism overseas. Across the Muslim world--including U.S. allies like Indonesia and Jordan--polls showed Osama bin Laden a more trusted figure than George W. Bush.

The war game used an all-too-real scenario: As violent anti-American protests rocked a host of Muslim countries, pro-democracy students were being murdered in Iran while terrorists in Iraq were being hailed as patriots. The job for the government's top information warriors was daunting: improve the image of America in the Muslim world and help foster a stable democracy in Iraq. Halfway through the exercise, however, the war game was abruptly stopped. "Things were so dysfunctional," recalls one participant, "we saw little point in playing through the scenario."

The problems, others said, were a mirror of what a dozen studies say has gone wrong in what may be the most critical front in the war on terrorism today--the battle for hearts and minds: no one in charge, no national strategy, and a glaring lack of resources. From the CIA to the State Department, America's once formidable means of influencing its enemies and telling its story abroad had crumbled, along with the fall of communism. "In the battle of ideas," said Marc Ginsberg, a former ambassador to Morocco, "we unilaterally disarmed."

"Radioactive." No more. Today, Washington is fighting back. After repeated missteps since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has embarked on a campaign of political warfare unmatched since the height of the Cold War. From military psychological-operations teams and CIA covert operatives to openly funded media and think tanks, Washington is plowing tens of millions of dollars into a campaign to influence not only Muslim societies but Islam itself. The previously undisclosed effort was identified in the course of a four-month U.S. News investigation, based on more than 100 interviews and a review of a dozen internal reports and memorandums. Although U.S. officials say they are wary of being drawn into a theological battle, many have concluded that America can no longer sit on the sidelines as radicals and moderates fight over the future of a politicized religion with over a billion followers. The result has been an extraordinary--and growing--effort to influence what officials describe as an Islamic reformation.

Among the magazine's findings:

The White House has approved a classified new strategy, dubbed Muslim World Outreach, that for the first time states that the United States has a national security interest in influencing what happens within Islam. Because America is, as one official put it, "radioactive" in the Islamic world, the plan calls for working through third parties--moderate Muslim nations, foundations, and reform groups--to promote shared values of democracy, women's rights, and tolerance.

In at least two dozen countries, Washington has quietly funded Islamic radio and TV shows, coursework in Muslim schools, Muslim think tanks, political workshops, or other programs that promote moderate Islam. Federal aid is going to restore mosques, save ancient Korans, even build Islamic schools. This broad engagement with Islam has raised questions about whether the funding is legal, given the constitutional line between church and state.

The CIA is revitalizing programs of covert action that once helped win the Cold War, targeting Islamic media, religious leaders, and political parties. The agency is receiving "an exponential increase in money, people, and assets" to help it influence Muslim societies, says a senior intelligence official. Among the tactics: working with militants at odds with al Qaeda and waging secret campaigns to discredit the worst anti-American zealots.

Despite the surge of activity, Washington's efforts to win hearts and minds remain chaotic. Staffers on the White House National Security Council have drafted over a hundred papers proposing action against Islamist propaganda and political activity, sources say, yet almost none have been acted upon. To help remedy the situation, the White House is creating a new position, a deputy national security adviser for strategic communication and global outreach.

The push for hearts and minds comes amid hopeful signs, with a string of successful elections in the Middle East and anti-Syria protests in Lebanon. The events have boosted the Bush administration's hopes for the region, but some experts on terrorism and the Muslim world say the problems are so deep-seated they may be growing worse, not better. A December report by the CIA-based National Intelligence Council predicts that masses of unemployed, alienated youth in the Arab world "will swell the ranks of those vulnerable to terrorist recruitment."

Even as the insurgency in Iraq shows signs of losing steam, anti-Americanism now reaches across every strata of the Muslim world. Rumors that U.S. soldiers harvest organs from dying Iraqis or that Washington caused the tsunami to kill Muslims appear in major Arab media. Slick jihadist music videos and recruiting CD s sell briskly on the streets of Arab capitals. Many of the region's leaders believe America is at war with the Arab world, or with Islam itself, according to a March report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "U.S.-Arab relations," the report concludes, "are at their lowest point in generations."

The tools with which to fight back are varied. To the CIA, they are covert operations involving political influence and propaganda. At the Pentagon, they are called psyops or strategic-influence efforts. At the State Department, it's called public diplomacy. All seek to use information to influence, inform, and motivate America's friends and enemies abroad. Many of these tools have fallen into disuse. Many are controversial, particularly in light of recent revelations that administration officials have peddled fake video news reports and paid columnists to boost policies here at home. But to those toiling on the front lines against terrorism, the war of ideas--and the tools to fight it--are essential. How those tools have come back into use, and what Washington is doing with them, is a story that begins a half century ago, in the heyday of Soviet communism.

At the peak of the Cold War, the U.S. government fielded a worldwide network of propagandists, publicists, and payoff artists. The United States Information Agency (USIA) ran hundreds of information specialists abroad and produced enough films to rival Hollywood's top studios, all to sell the world on the goodness of America--and the evils of communism. There were USIA-run cultural centers and libraries in foreign capitals, Fulbright Scholarships and other exchange programs from the State Department, plus the broadcasts of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. The CIA's covert payoffs, for better or worse, bought the allegiance of entire political parties in Italy and Japan. Other funds went secretly to sympathetic journalists, scholars, and labor leaders.

Exposes of CIA funding and abuses took their toll starting in the late 1960s, curtailing many of the secret programs. With the implosion of communism, Congress set about searching for a "peace dividend" and pared back what programs of influence remained. Convinced that USIA was a Cold War relic, conservatives in 1999 forced the Clinton administration to collapse the agency into the State Department. Hundreds of staffers were let go or retired, cutting the nation's public diplomacy corps by as much as 40 percent. American libraries abroad were shuttered, and exchange programs and foreign broadcasting dropped by a third. By the time al Qaeda's pilots flew their hijacked planes into Lower Manhattan, the U.S. government had ceded management of America's image abroad to Hollywood producers and rap musicians.

"Spring chickens?" After the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials began to ponder how to get their message out. The Taliban, for all their backwardness, were scoring propaganda successes, and much of the Muslim world refused to believe that Arabs were even behind the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. To fight back, officials set up Coalition Information Centers in Washington, London, and Islamabad, Pakistan. But the centers focused largely on breaking news, putting out fires in a 24-hour news cycle the likes of which the Cold War had never seen. Responding to the world's media, including the often-inflammatory new Arab satellite network called al Jazeera, left little time to formulate a strategy that got at the roots of Islamic terrorism.

Pulling out those roots was a task more fitting for the CIA, the White House concluded. Just weeks after 9/11, in a secret national security directive, President Bush gave the CIA carte blanche to wage a worldwide war against al Qaeda. Among the activities authorized: propaganda and political warfare. But when it came to campaigns of influence, the agency's clandestine service was "dead as a doornail," says former Middle East operative Reuel Marc Gerecht. Once staffed by hundreds, the CIA's strategic influence section was down to some 20 people by late 2001, sources tell U.S. News . "We had precious few assets left," says another agency veteran. "And none of them were spring chickens." When a group of outsiders visited the unit, one recalls, they were literally met by a woman with a walker.

At the Pentagon, top officials wondered why more wasn't being done. The military's psyop units ran airborne TV and radio stations, showered millions of leaflets on countries, and distributed everything from comic books to giant kites in order to sway minds. But they had little know-how in combating a global movement of radical Islam. In response, military leaders ordered up their own operation--a new Office of Strategic Influence, charged with waging an information war against Islamic terrorism and the ideology behind al Qaeda. But stung by misleading reports that it would spread disinformation, OSI closed its doors just four months after it opened.

The war of ideas fared little better at the State Department. To run public diplomacy, Secretary of State Colin Powell brought in Charlotte Beers, the only person to have served as chairman of two of the top 10 worldwide advertising agencies. But her workplace, as she later put it, was "a clumsy camel" of an agency--skilled, even brilliant, at dealing with other governments but shy and slow-footed at taking its case to the masses. Worse, the surviving USIA staffers, she found, were a demoralized lot, spread across a bureaucracy that cared little about their work. Nor was there much money. The entire annual budget for public diplomacy was equal to what the Pentagon spent in a day. Despite White House utterances about winning the war of ideas, it was a tough sell, even for one of the world's top ad people. "We were asking them to deal with intangible values like emotion, religion, and trust," she told U.S. News . "It wasn't easy." Beers poured what funds she had into a pilot project to open doors overseas--TV clips showcasing the lives of Muslim Americans. While criticized in the press, the spots actually played well with Muslims abroad, studies showed. But after 18 months, Beers had seen enough. She quit in March 2003, just as U.S. troops headed into Iraq.

To millions of Muslims, Washington's toppling of Saddam seemed to confirm the imperialist caricature painted by its worst enemies: an America that invades and occupies an oil-rich Arab nation, thumbs its nose at the world, supports Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, calls for democracy but relies on strongmen from Egypt to Pakistan. "The U.S. could have the prophet Muhammad doing public relations, and it wouldn't help," argued Osama Siblani, publisher of the weekly Arab American News in Dearborn, Mich. "I don't believe that people hate movie stars and Burger King. They hate what the U.S. is doing to their lives."

Regardless of where one stood on the Iraq war, it was clear Washington needed to do a far better job at getting out its message. Complaints were piling up at the White House: In fighting for hearts and minds, America had no strategy and few resources for the job. It fell to the National Security Council, charged with coordinating the government's sprawling national security apparatus, to sort things out. Under then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, officials in mid-2002 formed two interagency committees, whose members were to include the government's top specialists in waging the war of ideas. The first, on "strategic communication," focused on public diplomacy; the other, on "information strategy," was created by classified memorandum and handled covert activity. Neither group fared well.

Those working on covert plans tried to jump-start an information offensive that would discredit al Qaeda and its allies. One staffer, Arnold Abraham, ran a panel designed to attack Islamist propaganda. In a paper last year at the National War College, Abraham wrote that his group "developed 50 different position papers with proposed courses of action, but despite very positive feedback on content, only a mere handful of the actions were operationalized." The number of proposals later topped 100, sources say, and almost none were taken seriously by their bosses. Among the ideas: using music, comics, poetry, and the Internet to get across America's views to the Arab world.

The fate of the NSC's strategic communication group was worse. Charged with crafting a national strategy on public diplomacy, the group met several times and then fell apart from lack of leadership. Its last meeting was over 18 months ago. Back at the State Department, meanwhile, Ambassador Margaret Tutwiler had, at the urging of the White House, taken on the job of public diplomacy chief. But Tutwiler lasted only six months, and in June last year the job was vacant again. By the end of Bush's first term, the position had lacked an appointed leader for half his administration.

"No virgins." Why the lack of priority? Fighting bloody wars in Afghanistan and Iraq took the lion's share of attention, to be sure. Yet in public, top administration officials seemed emphatic. "This is a battle of ideas and a battle for minds," declared the Pentagon's No. 2 man, Paul Wolfowitz, in 2002. "To win the war on terror, we must win a war of ideas," agreed Condoleezza Rice a year later. But those working below them saw a decided lack of interest. "The principals have not indicated this is a priority," bemoaned one key staffer, speaking of cabinet-level officials. "They just didn't get it."

There were other reasons. Attempts at forging a national strategy repeatedly failed. Policymakers couldn't even agree on the target--worldwide terrorism or Islamic extremism, or on its root causes--poverty, Saudi funding, misunderstood U.S. policies, or something else. Interagency meetings on the topic were "agonizing," one participant recalled. "We couldn't clarify what path to take, so it was dropped." Another key factor was religion. Going after the roots of Islamic fundamentalism would drag Washington into a battle involving mosques, mullahs, and Scripture, argued some, and that went against 200 years of U.S. church-state relations. The inevitable turf wars also came into play. The war of ideas cut across otherwise-neat lines of responsibility in bureaucratic Washington. At the Pentagon and the NSC, public-affairs staffers warily eyed psyop officers who argued that public diplomacy, press relations, and psychological operations should be united under a single information strategy. White House veterans of tough political campaigns brought a short-term, manage-the-news outlook to what others thought would take a generation to fix. As a result, by mid-2004--nearly three years after 9/11--the government still had no one in charge of winning the war of ideas and no strategy for winning it. That summer, Government Accountability Office investigators told Congress they found public diplomacy staffers without guidance and a department short of linguists and information officers. "Everybody who knows how to do this has been screaming," complained one insider. "There are no virgins in this."

A few bright spots emerged. A growing chorus of criticism from Congress and the press helped gain big funding boosts for public diplomacy and foreign aid programs. The administration kicked off major new initiatives in foreign broadcasting--Radio Sawa, a pop music-news station in 2002, and Alhurra, a satellite-TV news network in 2004, both aimed at Arab audiences. The CIA's strategic influence unit and the Pentagon's psyop group also won major funding increases.

But the breakthrough finally came last summer, sources say, when the NSC began reworking the White House's National Strategy for Combating Terrorism. In 2003, officials had released an earlier, public version of the document, but there is a larger, classified edition that includes annexes dealing with key objectives, among them terrorism finance and winning the war of ideas. Staffers rewrote the ideas section with bold, new language and fashioned it into a strategy called Muslim World Outreach. Aimed at strengthening the hand of moderates, the plan acknowledges that America has done poorly in reaching out to them. But it goes one big step further, stating that the United States and its allies have a national security interest not only in what happens in the Islamic world but within Islam itself, according to three sources who have seen the document. It further states that because America is limited to what it can do in a religious struggle, the nation must rely on partners who share values like democracy, women's rights, and tolerance. Among those partners: allied Muslim states, private foundations, and nonprofit groups.

Approved by President Bush, the Muslim World Outreach strategy is now being implemented across the government. But it has stirred controversy. "The Cold War was easy," says a knowledgeable official. "It was a struggle against a godless political ideology. But this has theological elements. It goes to the core of American belief that we don't mess with freedom of religion. Do we have any authority to influence this debate?" The answer, for now, appears to be yes. "You do it quietly," says Zeyno Baran, a terrorism analyst at the Nixon Center who advised on the strategy. "You provide money and help create the political space for moderate Muslims to organize, publish, broadcast, and translate their work." Baran, an expert on Islam in central Asia, says the dilemma for Americans is that the ideological challenge of our day comes in the form of a religion--militant Islam, replete with its political manifestos, edicts, and armies. "Religion is just not an issue American policymakers are comfortable discussing," she says. "But we're talking about a fascist ideology."

In crafting their strategy, U.S. officials are taking pages from the Cold War playbook of divide and conquer. One of the era's great successes was how Washington helped break off moderate socialists from hard-core Communists overseas. "That's how we're thinking. . . . It's something we talk about all the time," says Peter Rodman, a longtime aide to Henry Kissinger and now the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. "In those days, it was covert. Now, it's more open." Officials credit publicly funded programs like the National Endowment for Democracy, which have poured millions into Ukraine and other democratizing nations.

The role of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly come up in discussions of the new strategy, sources say. Fueled by its vast oil wealth, the Saudis are estimated to have spent up to $75 billion since 1975 to expand their fundamentalist sect, Wahhabism, worldwide. The kingdom has funded hundreds of mosques, schools, and Islamic centers abroad, spreading a once obscure sect of Islam widely blamed for preaching distrust of nonbelievers, anti-Semitism, and near-medieval attitudes toward women. Saudi-funded charities have been implicated in backing jihadist movements in some 20 countries. Saudi officials say they've cracked down on extremists, but U.S. strategists would like to see opportunities for less fundamentalist brands of Islam. Reform may be more likely to come from outside the Arab world. "Look to the periphery," predicts a knowledgeable official. "That's where change will come." One solution being pushed: offering backdoor U.S. support to reformers tied to Sufism, a tolerant branch of Islam.

Another strategy being pursued is to make peace with radical Muslim figures who eschew violence. At the top of the list: the Muslim Brotherhood, the pre-eminent Islamist society, founded in 1928 and now with tens of thousands of followers worldwide. Many brotherhood members, particularly in Egypt and Jordan, are at serious odds with al Qaeda. "I can guarantee that if you go to some of the unlikely points of contact in the Islamic world, you will find greater reception than you thought," says Milt Bearden, whose 30-year CIA career included long service in Muslim societies. "The Muslim Brotherhood is probably more a part of the solution than it is a part of the problem." Indeed, sources say U.S. intelligence officers have been meeting not only with the Muslim Brotherhood but also with members of the Deobandi sect in Pakistan, whose fundamentalism schooled the Taliban and inspired an army of al Qaeda followers. Cooperative clerics have helped tamp down fatwas calling for anti-American jihad and persuaded jailed militants to renounce violence. These sensitive ties have led to at least one breakthrough--the July arrest in Pakistan of al Qaeda's Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, whose computer held surveillance files of the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank, and other financial targets. Khan's capture led to a dozen arrests in London. "Engagement," says one official, "is absolutely key."

"Blowback" The emergence of the Muslim World Outreach strategy comes as America's frontline troops in the war of ideas may finally be hitting their stride. Despite its slow start, the CIA has received dramatic increases in money, people, and assets. It still lacks an integrated approach to attacking the roots of Islamic terrorism, insiders say, but individual CIA stations overseas are making some gutsy and innovative moves. Among them: pouring money into neutralizing militant, anti-U.S. preachers and recruiters. "If you found out that Mullah Omar is on one street corner doing this, you set up Mullah Bradley on the other street corner to counter it," explains one recently retired official. In more-serious cases, he says, recruiters would be captured and "interrogated."

Intelligence operatives have set up bogus jihad websites and targeted the Arab news media, but they are being exceedingly cautious. Unlike the good old days of the Cold War, spreading propaganda in the Internet age can easily result in "blowback," with stories ending up in the U.S. media. "They're a bit sheepish," says a CIA veteran. Indeed, some of the acts seem decidedly minor league. "The biggest that I heard about was a large banner at a major soccer game," adds the former spook. "They considered it a rousing success." Getting talented officers and linguists into the field also continues to be a problem, made worse by the drain of the Iraq war. "In Iraq," jokes a former top spy, "we have 300 there, 400 ready to go, and 400 just back" --virtually the entire overseas staff of the clandestine service.

At CIA headquarters outside Washington, the agency's analysts have also been busy. The CIA's Office of Transnational Issues has created a Global Information and Influence Team, charged with pulling together assessments of key U.S. targets. A public diplomacy conference hosted by the group in February focused on strategies to influence six nations, according to an agenda for the meeting. On the list: China, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Also under CIA auspices is a Cyber-Influence Conference Series, which brings in cutting-edge experts from industry to explore how to combat terrorist use of the Internet.

The CIA is not alone in the new push for hearts and minds. Regular budget increases since 9/11 have lifted spending on public diplomacy by more than 40 percent since 9/11, to nearly $1.3 billion, and more is on the way. The government's new Arabic broadcasting services--Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV--are showing some success, despite a barrage of complaints from critics. Radio Sawa, which features pop music interspersed with frequent newscasts, is now one of the most popular stations in the Middle East. Estimates differ, but an ACNielsen survey last year found that Alhurra, after just six months on the air, was reaching between 20 percent and 33 percent of viewers with satellite dishes in a half-dozen key Arab nations. There are new initiatives to bring Alhurra to Arab speakers in Europe, expand Persian broadcasts into Iran, and increase programming in other key languages.
Many of the shock troops for America's new war of ideas are coming not from the CIA, nor from the State Department, but from the low-profile U.S. Agency for International Development. In the three years since 9/11, spending by the government's top purveyor of foreign aid has nearly tripled to over $21 billion, and more than half of that is now destined for the Muslim world. Along with more traditional aid for agriculture and education are the kind of programs that have spurred change in the former Soviet Union--training for political organizers and funding for independent media. Increasingly, those grants are going to Islamic groups.

"Muppet diplomacy." Records drawn from the State Department, USAID, and elsewhere reveal a striking array of Islamic projects bankrolled by American taxpayers since 9/11, stretching to at least 24 countries. In nine of them, U.S. funds are backing restoration of Muslim holy sites, including historic mosques in Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan. In Kirgizstan, embassy funding helped restore a major Sufi shrine. In Uzbekistan, money has gone to preserve antique Islamic manuscripts, including 20 Korans, some dating to the 11th century. In Bangladesh, USAID is training mosque leaders on development issues. In Madagascar, the embassy even sponsored an intermosque sports tournament. Also being funded: Islamic media of all sorts, from book translations to radio and TV in at least a half-dozen nations. Often the aid doesn't need an explicit Islamic theme, as in what boosters are calling Muppet Diplomacy. An Arabic version of Sesame Street has become one of the most popular shows on Egyptian TV, and along with lessons on literacy and hygiene, the program stresses values of religious tolerance. Among the show's key backers: USAID, which is helping bring out a pan-Arab satellite edition this year.

In no country is the effort more pronounced than Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, with 240 million people. A bastion of moderate Islam, the nation has nevertheless given birth to several radical Islamic groups that include al Qaeda offshoot Jemaah Islamiyah, responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202. Working behind the scenes, USAID now helps fund over 30 Muslim organizations in the country. Among the programs: media production, workshops for Islamic preachers, and curriculum reform for schools from rural academies to Islamic universities. One talk show on Islam and tolerance is relayed to radio stations in 40 cities and sends a weekly column to over a hundred newspapers. Also on the grants list: Islamic think tanks that are fostering a body of scholarly research showing liberal Islam's compatibility with democracy and human rights.

The grants, technically, aren't secret, but they are, as one official put it, "done in a subtle manner." Open ties to U.S. funds could spell the end of programs in volatile regions and even endanger those who work in them. Indeed, security is such a factor for USAID workers that the agency now relies largely on local hires. In Pakistan, where the agency once fielded hundreds of employees, it now has only two dozen.

Even when USAID does want to take credit, anti-American sentiment can make it tough. During a mission to Cairo by a State Department panel on public diplomacy, visitors were repeatedly told how grateful Egyptians were to the Japanese for building their opera house. Yet they seemed wholly unaware that Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid--nearly $2 billion a year--and that Americans have funded Cairo's systems for clean water, sewage, and electricity. U.S. funds also saved from water damage that nation's oldest mosque, built in A.D. 642, yet Egyptian officials were reluctant to put USAID's red, white, and blue sign outside the building. Frustrated, top agency officials decided to create their own public diplomacy corps and will soon have information specialists attached to all USAID missions.

For those worried about future generations of jihadists, what to do about madrasahs--traditional Islamic schools--is a major concern. The 9/11 commission, in its final report last year, branded the worst of them "incubators for violent extremism." A World Bank study puts the number of madrasah students in Pakistan alone at nearly 500,000. To attack the problem, U.S. officials are employing a variety of tactics. Perhaps the most surprising program is in Uganda, which hosts a large Muslim minority. Last year, the embassy announced it was funding construction of three Islamic elementary schools. "We're in the madrasah business," quipped one terrorism analyst. In the nearby Horn of Africa, the U.S. military is running a model program aimed at winning hearts and minds by, among other things, directly competing with the madrasahs. Military officers gather intelligence on where militants plan to start religious schools, Marine Maj. Gen. Samuel Helland told U.S. News ; they then target those areas by building up new public schools and the local infrastructure.

Sisyphus. Elsewhere, U.S. officials are working quietly through third parties to train madrasah teachers to add math, science, civics, and health to their curriculum. The most ambitious program is in Pakistan, where sensitivities run so high that allegations of U.S. funding are enough to prompt parents to pull their children from schools, USAID staffers say. The agency is working through private foundations and the Pakistan Ministry of Education on what officials call a "model madrasah" program that may eventually include over a thousand schools. Drawing the line on engagement, though, can be tough. In January, the U.S. Embassy there ordered an abrupt end to a $1 million contract to supply Internet access to scores of madrasahs and other schools in Pakistan's most restive provinces. The reason: an arrest of a militant mistakenly thought to be tied to one of the schools.

U.S. taxpayer dollars going to Islamic radio, Islamic TV, Islamic schools, mosques, and monuments--no wonder some officials find the strategy controversial. USAID staffers argue that as long as they offer assistance to all groups and their grants are meant for secular activities, they are allowed to fund religious organizations. "We structure our programming to be in compliance with 'establishment clause' case law," says Jeffrey Grieco, a USAID spokesman, referring to the First Amendment's church-state divide. But some legal experts question whether America's growing involvement with Islam is legal, given that American courts have found that tax dollars may not be used to support religion. "For us to be doing this is probably unconstitutional," says Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law professor at American University. In 1991, Schwartz and the American Civil Liberties Union won a case against USAID to stop it from funding 20 Catholic and Jewish schools overseas. "But that seems a long time ago," Schwartz adds. "I don't know if anyone would support that kind of suit today."

Times have certainly changed. The nation's highest officials now seem convinced that America's greatest ideological foe is a highly politicized form of radical Islam and that Washington and its allies cannot afford to stand by. More proof that the administration is finally engaged in waging a war of ideas came last month, when the president tapped his longtime communications adviser, Karen Hughes, to be the State Department's new head of public diplomacy. Although lacking foreign expertise, Hughes brings proven communications skills and, equally important, a direct line to the top. The White House is also slated to announce a new position at the National Security Council, a deputy national security adviser for strategic communication and global outreach, whose job will be to goad the bureaucracy into further action.

The increased focus, already, it seems, is bearing fruit. A poll of Indonesians conducted last month after the tsunami relief efforts led by the U.S. military found that America's unfavorability rating had plunged from a horrid 83 percent to 54 percent; support for bin Laden, by contrast fell by more than half. It would be folly, however, to think that the road ahead will be easy. Veterans of information warfare say the amounts being spent today are still inadequate, while a new Government Accountability Office study highlights an array of problems with U.S. public diplomacy strategy. Hughes's predecessor at State, acting Assistant Secretary Patricia Harrison, told U.S. News that she felt at times like Sisyphus, the Greek king banished to forever push a boulder up a steep hill, only to have it roll down again. The lesson Washington needs to learn, Harrison says, goes back to the Cold War--that the world matters and America needs to stay engaged. "You never declare victory," she warns. "You do not declare that it's the end of history and go home. The job is to continue pushing the boulder up and up, to keep investing, keep connecting."

With Aamir Latif, Kevin Whitelaw and Julian E. Barnes"

Aipac Spies Rosen and Weissman are being FIRED FOR CAUSE

2005-04-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

Israeli Spies Rosen and Weissman are being FIRED FOR CAUSE: "Israeli Spies Rosen and Weissman are being FIRED FOR CAUSE
Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman have been the targets an FBI probe as part of what has become known as the AIPAC/Franklin Spy Scandal. Up until now AIPAC has stood behind the pair and proclaimed their innocence as well as that of AIPAC as an organization. Now the BBC has released that Rosen and Weissman are not only leaving AIPAC but are being FIRED FOR CAUSE. In one of the most amazing acts since the Israeli Embassy refused Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard sanctuary AIPAC is as much as admitting that Rosen and Weissman are Israeli Spies. So rather than the one way tickets to Tel Aviv that one would expect AIPAC is turning her back on men who only were doing their jobs. Still in all I have to suggest that whether AIPAC has two spies or twenty it pales in comparison to AEI or the crew Paul Wolfowitz had at DoD.

Haaretz - AIPAC Burning Two to Save Itself - How Deep Does The Spy Scandal Really Run
BBC NEWS | AIPAC 'fires staff' Because of Their Conduct
The Epoch Times | Pro-Israel AIPAC Fires 2 Involved in Spy Probe
Forward Newspaper Online: AIPAC Dumping Suspected Spies Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman"

Syracuse University: Karen Hideko Sasahara Counterterrorism Lecture

2005-04-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

Syracuse University: Karen Hideko Sasahara Counterterrorism Lecture "News | University College: "June 24-Karen Hideko Sasahara, regional affairs officer in the U.S. State Department's Office of Counterterrorism, who will draw on her past few years' coverage of the Pam Am 103 bombing, Libyan affairs and World Court issues to give an overview perspective and update on developments.""

Neil Livingstone Intelligence World "mover and shaker" or "groupie."

2005-04-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hill & Knowlton - Robert Gray and the CIA - by Johan Carlisle: "Despite large gaps in the official inquiry, it has been established that Robert Owen, Oliver North's messenger and bagman, worked for Gray and Co. after leaving then-Senator Dan Quayle's staff in 1983. Owen worked primarily with Neil Livingstone, a mysterious figure who claims to be a mover and shaker in the intelligence world but who is described as a "groupie."

Livingstone worked with Ed Wilson, Air Panama, and as a front man for business activities sponsored by the CIA and Israeli intelligence. Owen and Livingstone traveled frequently to Central America to meet with the Contras in 1984. An interesting footnote to Iran-Contra is that in 1986, Saudi Arabian arms broker Adnan Khashoggi hired Hill and Knowlton and Gray and Co. to milk maximum publicity out of his major donation to a $20.5 million sports center, named after him, at American University."

Neil Livingstone Linked to Sun Myung Moon

2005-04-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

: "363 Neil Livingstone, "Fighting Fire With Fire," I>, March 1986, p. 96. is published by the
, which is under the control of the Rev. Sun
Myung Moon. Its editor is Morton Kaplan, who has been one of
Moon's top collaborators in the U.S., especially as chairman of
the International Conference for Unity of the Sciences. Kaplan
has praised Moon as a great religious leader. According to the
"Special Report on the American Security Council," May 25,
1962, by Group Research, Kaplan is also a long-time associate of
the Foreign Policy Research Institute, discussed earlier in this
paper. In 1988, he is still listed on the masthead of FPRI's ."

Pro-Terrorist "Experts" outlines U.S. options on Iran in Capitol Hill session

2005-04-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

Iran Focus-News - Special Wire - Policy-group outlines U.S. options on Iran in Capitol Hill session: "Policy-group outlines U.S. options on Iran in Capitol Hill session Thu. 7 Apr 2005

Iran Focus

Washington, Apr. 07 – A leading Iran-policy group in Washington discussed U.S. policy options towards the clerical state, in a conference on Capitol Hill yesterday, at the invitation of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus of the U.S. House of Representative.

Iran Policy Committee, comprised of former officials from the White House, State Department, Pentagon, intelligence agencies, the Congress, and experts from think tanks and universities, called on the Bush Administration “to provide a central role for the Iranian opposition to facilitate regime change”.

Prof. Raymond Tanter, a Middle East security expert and former staff member of the U.S. National Security Council under President Ronald Reagan, advocated "forceful diplomacy" to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.

Prof. Tanter, whilst outlining IPC’s approach, said that there was a race being run between two clocks. “While Iran’s nuclear clock is ticking very fast, the clock for a regime change is much too slow. And if Iran were to acquire the bomb before the people are able to change the regime, it might obtain a new lease on life”, he added. Thus he argued that it was imperative to deal effectively with the issue of the People’s Mojahedin (PMOI) and remove their name from the list of terrorist organisations.

The PMOI is a member organisation of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the main umbrella coalition opposing the Iran’s religious leaders. The State Department designated the PMOI as a terrorist organisation in 1997 in what many analysts believe was part of the Clinton administration's policy of appeasement towards Tehran.

The conference on Capitol Hill drew more than 80 members of the Congress and their aides, foreign diplomats, experts from other think tanks, and members of the press, according to the organising committee.

Lt. General Edward Rowny (ret.), former Ambassador to Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, Dr. Neil Livingstone, terrorism expert and CEO, Global Options, Inc., Paul Leventhal, founder and President Emeritus, Nuclear Control Institute, Captain Chuck Nash (ret.), President, Emerging Technologies International, Lt. Col. Bill Cowan, USMC (ret.), CEO, wvc3, Inc., and Clare Lopez, strategic policy and intelligence analyst, were among the other IPC panellists who joined the conference.

The advocacy group believed that engagement, pursued by the Europeans and consecutive U.S. administrations, had produced little tangible results over the past quarter century.

They explained that the solution to the Iran conundrum was to support the Iranian people and their organised resistance movement.

IPC called on the Bush administration to remove the name of the PMOI from the list of terrorist organisations, so as to send a clear message to Tehran that Washington was serious about its support for the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.

Congressman Bob Filner, (D-CA), Co-chair of the Caucus, chaired the briefing session and said that it was an attempt by the Caucus to provide a setting whereby members of the Congress could learn about Iran and consider options to deal with threats Tehran posed to the region and the world.

Congressman Tom Tancredo, (R-CO), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress and Co-chair of the Caucus, said, “The MEK [PMOI] was designated not because it was involved in terrorist activities, but because the Clinton administration sought to curry favour with the Iranian regime”.

The idea of engaging a terrorist-sponsoring regime such as Iran only emboldens it to continue its “rogue-like behavior”, Dr. Livingstone argued.

Mr. Leventhal, addressing Tehran’s nuclear threat and the breaches of its obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency, rejected the regime’s justification for embarking on a nuclear path. He emphasised that the regime had hidden its nuclear weapons program from the eyes of the international community and that it was the NCRI which revealed it to the world.

Captain Nash speaking about the pros and cons of military action against Iran, argued that while all options must remain on the table, a limited or large-scale military campaign was not only impractical, but also likely to be ineffective in ending the Iranian nuclear and terrorist threats, and therefore the least desirable of options.

Lt. Col. Cowan suggested that there was an urgent need to address the Iran issue, adding that a wait-and-see attitude could have “dire consequences, given the nature and the urgency of the threat posed by Tehran”.

Ms. Lopez condemned the human rights violations by the Iranian regime and cited several recent anti-government rallies and demonstrations as proof of growing opposition to the regime inside the country.

Background

Earlier this year the IPC released a policy paper outlining their recommended approach to the Tehran regime.

The IPC report said, "Iran is emerging as the primary threat against the United States and its allies: Iran's drive to acquire nuclear weapons, continuing support for and involvement with terrorist networks, publicly-stated opposition to the Arab-Israel peace process, disruptive role in Iraq, expansionist radical ideology, and its denial of basic human rights to its own population are challenges confronting U.S. policymakers".

IPC recommended backing the PMOI, whom they said was "indisputably the largest and most organised Iranian opposition group".

The IPC noted that a review of U.S. policy concerning the MEK [PMOI] and the overall Iranian opposition was in order. It wrote, “The designation of the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department has served, since 1997, as an assurance to the Iranian regime that the United States has removed the regime change option from the table. Removing the terrorist designation from the MEK could serve as the most tangible signal to the Iranian regime, as well as to the Iranian people, that a new option is now on the table. Removal might also have the effect of supporting President Bush's assertion that America stands with the people of Iran in their struggle to liberate themselves.”

The policy group added, “In the same way that the United States was receptive to South African anti-apartheid leaders and the Soviet Union's anti-communist activists, Washington should invite prominent opposition figures both in Iran and in exile to the United States. They might meet with U.S. officials, Members of Congress, academics, think tanks, and the media. The European Parliament offered such an example in December 2004, when it invited Maryam Rajavi, the president of the NCRI to its headquarters in Strasburg, where she offered an alternative view to that of the Iranian regime. Tehran's angry reaction to this invitation served to highlight the effectiveness of such measures”.

The IPC also argued, “As an additional step, the United States might encourage the new Iraqi government to extend formal recognition to the MEK, based in (Camp) Ashraf, as a legitimate political organization. Such recognition would send yet another signal from neighbouring Iraq that the noose is tightening around Iran's unelected rulers”.

The PMOI's military wing, as part of the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA), is based in Camp Ashraf, some 60 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The policy paper suggested, “In light of the MEK's status as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the continued protection that the U.S. military provides the group in Iraq, Washington has an opportunity to decide whether to return to the MEK its weapons, which would relieve responsibility from the American military for the protection of its camps and personnel. Such a move also would send an unambiguous signal to the Iranian regime that it faces an enabled and determined opposition on its borders”."

Neil Livingstone CEO of GlobalOptions

2005-04-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

International Mentoring Network Organization :: IMNO.ORG: "CEO of GlobalOptions
Neil Livingstone

Neil C. Livingstone has spent more than two decades advising clients regarding a wide array of difficult and complex problems ranging from the prevention of industrial espionage to conducting internal investigations, suppressing the theft of intellectual property, advising corporations on political and economic risks, protecting corporate leaders and celebrities, and recovering hostages and kidnap victims.

He has been described by NBC's Tom Brokow as "one of this nation's preeminent authorities on terrorism." He is a familiar face on the nation's newscasts as a commentator on terrorism, intelligence, and other national security issues. A veteran of more than 1000 television appearances, he has appeared on such programs as "Nightline," "Meet the Press," "Today," "The Charlie Rose Show," "Crossfire," "Newsmaker Sunday," "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer," "Dateline," and the evening news on all of the major networks. He served as an on-air commentator to NBC News during the Atlanta Olympics and in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City and Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Dr. Livingstone has authored nine books on terrorism, security, and foreign policy, including Inside the PLO, The Cult of Counterterrorism, The War Against Terrorism, Rescue My Child, Protect Yourself in an Uncertain World, America the Vulnerable: The Threat of Chemical/Biological Warfare, Fighting Back: Winning the War Against Terrorism, and The Complete Security Guide for Executives. In addition, he has published more than 180 articles in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times.

Leading corporations and institutions routinely seek his views on a variety of topics, and he has delivered nearly 500 major addresses, both in the U.S. and abroad. He has advised top government officials and testified before Congress.

He serves on a number of fiduciary and advisory boards in the aviation, entertainment, and banking sectors. He was a founding member and incorporator of the Solidarity Endowment, established in the West to promote the goals of Polish Solidarity. He also was the founder and chairman of the Institute on Terrorism and Subnational Conflict.

An Honors graduate of the College of William and Mary, he also has an M.A. from the University of Montana, and an M.A., M.A.L.D., and Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

He is a member of the Cosmos Club, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, the Writers Guild of America, the Georgetown Club, and the Harvard Club of Boston. He received an Honorable Discharge from the USAR."

Dr. Neil Livingston and the James Bond Fantasy World (Livingston's Brain Seems Shaken Not Stired)

2005-04-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

The World Today - 'Lone wolves' also a terror threat: "'Lone wolves' also a terror threat PRINT FRIENDLY EMAIL STORY
The World Today - Monday, 24 February , 2003 00:00:00
Reporter: Nick Grimm
JOHN HIGHFIELD: There's a growing apprehension today that a US-led war in Iraq will actually increase the threat of terrorism. Renowned right-wing American commentators like Pat Buchanan are talking up the threat of imperialism being the root causes of terrorism.

And even the FBI has issued a warning that much danger exists from lone terrorists; those without links to Al Qaeda and other big organisations. The Confidential Intelligence Bulletin released by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation last week has been leaked to the New York Times over the weekend.

It warns law enforcement officials to be on guard for what it terms 'Lone Wolves'. And as Nick Grimm reports, it cites home-grown, not foreign terrorists, as the example.

NICK GRIMM: As their name suggests, lone wolves are out for themselves. Beyond that characteristic, they may have very little in common.

NEIL LIVINGSTONE: We've been worried about ‘lone wolves’ well before 9/11.

NICK GRIMM: In fact, in the struggle to classify ‘lone wolves’, security experts like Neil Livingstone are obliged to reach for cinematic references.

NEIL LIVINGSTONE: What we began to see in the mid-1990s were a variety of lone wolf terrorists that seemed to operate almost like in the James Bond movies where you had this organisation, SHMERSH, that played off the East against the West.

[audio excerpt, Bond film]

BOND: Do you expect me to talk?

SHMERSH AGENT: No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die.

NICK GRIMM: The author of nine books on terrorism, Neil Livingstone is the Chairman of the International Risk Management firm, Global Options. He says that while some ‘lone wolves’ are just plain mad, others take a far more calculated approach to terror.

[audio excerpt, Bond film]

SPECTRE AGENT: I'm a member of SPECTRE.

BOND: SPECTRE?

SPECTRE AGENT: SPECTRE. Special Execuctive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion.

NEIL LIVINGSTONE: We have a grey area, where a lot of people who are living on the fringes of major societies offer their talents and their capabilities to various terrorist organisations as mercenaries, and then add to that in addition, the kinds of people that might be reactive, or that they would become emotionally wrought over some type of particular action in the world that decide to take some type of violent action on their own.

NICK GRIMM: The FBI has warned in a classified intelligence bulletin that the United States will face an increased threat of attack from the so-called ‘lone wolves’ should it invade Iraq. That threat will be posed from individuals who may not in fact be associated with groups like Al Qaeda, but sympathise with their goals.

And the threat posed from angry individuals cannot be under-estimated. In the past, angry individuals have killed hundreds. Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, who did have accomplices, is now regarded as a classic ‘lone wolf’.

Dr. Neil Livingston again.

NEIL LIVINGSTONE: Timothy McVeigh, we believe at this point, was a ‘lone wolf’, and yes, he would be an illustration of someone who was very wrought up. [In his] anger against the Federal Government, [he] decided to take matters into his own hands, went out and acquired the bomb-making materials ands so on that were necessary to carry out an attack, picked a target, and then enlisted in that process two other individuals to assist him.

NICK GRIMM: Typically, what's the profile of a ‘lone wolf’?

NEIL LIVINGSTONE: Well, a ‘lone wolf’ is someone in the past that we've seen that might be equivalent to Ramsey Yusef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre.

He appeared to be someone who's in the business for thrills or as a mercenary, but not someone who shared the deep religious convictions that the other conspirators did. So, it's someone who takes some other kind of either pleasure, remuneration or thrill factor from the work they're doing.

NICK GRIMM: Could it just be that's somebody who's just mentally disturbed?

NEIL LIVINGSTONE: Certainly it could be someone who's mentally disturbed, and some terrorists tend to be psychopaths or even sociopaths, but generally those kinds of people don't escape notice for very long.

They're usually not very effective terrorists, so we don't worry as much about the mentally disturbed person as we do someone who is careful and calculating and cunning, and who is able to blend into a society until they want to carry out some type of attack.

JOHN HIGHFIELD: Dr Neil Livingstone was formerly with the Washington-based Institute on Terrorism and Sub-national Conflict, a specialist there. These days he heads the firm, the International Risk Management Firm, of Global Options. Nick Grimm with that report."

Dr. Neil Livingstone -- tied to AEI

2005-04-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

Dr. Neil Livingstone -- Speaker Biography, AEI Speakers Bureau: "Dr. Neil Livingstone

Dr. Neil Livingstone is Co-Chairman and CEO of a crisis management firm in Washington, DC. During the past two decades he has served as a "corporate equalizer" on a variety of investigative assignments including kidnappings, homicides, industrial espionage, celebrity stalking, missing CEOs and threats against top executives. Dr. Livingstone taught for ten years at Georgetown University and has served on advisory panels to the Secretary of State, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Pentagon. He was an assistant to Senators Stuart Symington and James Pearson. In addition, he has written nine books and more than 200 articles and monographs, while finding the time to appear on more than 600 television programs and give more than 400 major speeches on national security topics, both here and abroad."

Neil Livingstone and Ray Tanter Expand Terrorist Network

2005-04-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

Iran News: "USA Today Friday Apr 15 2005Iran's 'terrorists' helped disclose nuke programFri Apr 15, 2005 05:24

Iran's 'terrorists' helped disclose nuke program

USA Today Friday Apr 15 2005
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
Tall and handsome, Arash Sametipour could be living a very different life in Northern Virginia if he hadn't joined the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

Sametipour, 29, of Burke, Va., says he became involved in the Iranian opposition group in the late 1990s when he developed a crush on one of its members. In love and convinced that the group was working for the good of Iran, he agreed to go to an MEK base in Iraq for military training. In 2000, he says, he was selected to go to Iran to assassinate a former police chief.

The murder attempt failed and Sametipour tried to commit suicide by swallowing cyanide. But the poison had lost its potency so he detonated a grenade, blowing off his right hand. Iranian authorities jailed him for four years. One of six former MEK members produced by the Iranian government to talk to a reporter here, he acknowledges that his criticism of the MEK serves the Islamic government but says his main motivation is to stop others from joining the group.

"I had a green card, and in a few years I could have had my U.S. citizenship," he says. "I ruined my life, but I don't want others to do so." Sametipour's American brother, Asef, backed up the description of how he joined the MEK.

Iran's government produced Sametipour to underscore its intense frustration with a group that has long been a major source of friction between the Bush administration and the ruling clerics here. The MEK is the largest known organization working to overthrow Iran's theocratic regime, and Iranian officials have demanded the United States rein it in.

The U.S. posture has been ambiguous. The MEK's violent habits - it has a history of bombings and assassinations, including the murder of six Americans - earned it a spot on the State Department list of terrorist groups in 1997. But the group gained publicity three years ago by exposing a secret Iranian nuclear program, alerting the public to the extent of Iran's apparent efforts to build a bomb. President Bush alluded to this in a March 16 news conference, when he said that the nuclear program had been revealed by a "dissident" group.

Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 members of the group are in a military camp in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, 60 miles north of Baghdad. The regime of Saddam Hussein gave them refuge before the war. Since Saddam's ouster, U.S. forces have prevented MEK members from attacking Iran but do not know what to do with them.

Iranian officials, including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, want Camp Ashraf dismantled, the inhabitants sent to Iran and MEK leaders, some of whom are in Europe, tried there or in Iran. Nearly 300 MEK members have already returned to Iran from Iraq.

"I would expect that you forward a question to President Bush," Rafsanjani said in an interview earlier this year. "Why terrorists who have committed crimes in Iran are not returned here? Worse yet, they are permitted to enter your Congress, the U.N., and have lobbying and political activities."

Supporters in the U.S.

The MEK wants its people in Iraq to regain their freedom of movement. "The Iranian regime is more afraid of the Mujahedin than before because the Iranian regime is in a very shaky situation," says Mohammed Mohadessin, a senior official with the MEK's political wing, the National Council of Resistance, based outside Paris.

Beyond Iraq, the group has an unknown number of adherents in Europe and the United States, and supporters on Capitol Hill and in Washington foreign policy circles. Several hundred sympathizers attended a convention in Washington on Thursday.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," said terrorism expert Neil Livingstone at a news conference in Washington in February where he and several retired U.S. diplomats and military men unveiled a new organization, the Iran Policy Committee, whose goal is to overthrow the Iranian government by supporting Iranian opposition groups.

Another committee member, Ray Tanter, a Middle East expert on the National Security Council under President Reagan, said the United States should use the MEK to try to destabilize Iran's government before it acquires nuclear weapons.

It seems highly unlikely that the group has the capability to bring down the Iranian government. The main indication that it still poses any threat is the amount of attention Iranian officials give to it.

Army Maj. Kreg Schnell, an intelligence officer in the Iraqi province that includes Camp Ashraf, said the CIA last year detained and questioned a man who appeared to be working for the Iranians and trying to apprehend MEK members. He was looking to see if it was possible "to snatch some of them (MEK) back as an example" to others, Schnell said. Last August, Schnell said, an Iraqi army patrol was approached by two Iraqis who said they were bounty hunting for members, offering $400 a head.

Founded in 1965, the MEK blended nationalism, Marxism and Islam in a potent mix that attracted thousands of students from traditional Shiite Muslim families. Aided by training from the Palestine Liberation Organization, the group began attacks on officials of the U.S.-backed shah. The group also killed six Americans in Iran during the 1970s - three military officers and three contractors involved in selling weapons to the shah.

The MEK took part in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the shah and supported the seizure of U.S. Embassy hostages. But it broke with revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1980 when he barred the MEK's leader, Massoud Rajavi, from participating in presidential elections.

Rajavi escaped, first to Paris and later to Iraq. The group once had strong support in Iran, but lost much of it by siding with Iraq during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, which killed or injured 750,000 Iranians. Of more than 50 people interviewed about the MEK during a recent visit to Iran, only one had anything positive to say about it.

Aspects of a cult

Former members and friends of members of the group describe the organization, which insists its members be celibate, as a cult. "They take your individuality and beliefs and tell you that all the love you have must go to the leadership," Sametipour says. "That's how they make terrorists."

Ronak Dashti, 20, who was also introduced to a reporter by the Iranian government, said she was abducted in Turkey by MEK members who took her to Iraq. There, she says, she had to sign documents saying she had no right to contact her family and should not think about marriage. She and three other defectors described communal living, hours of menial work and nightly self-criticism sessions.

Mohadessin denies that anyone is forced to join or remain in the MEK. He points to the group's success in revealing Iranian nuclear installations as evidence that it still has a large network of supporters within the country.

"The message you (the United States) give is that you prefer the current (Iranian) regime" when you keep the MEK on the terrorism list, Mohadessin says."

Yahoo! News - Terrorist Killers: Iran Seeks to Obtain Nuclear Warheads

2005-03-31T20:27:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News - Exiles: Iran Seeks to Obtain Nuclear Warheads: "Exiles: Iran Seeks to Obtain Nuclear Warheads

Thu Mar 31, 8:10 AM ET World - Reuters
By Kerstin Gehmlich
PARIS (Reuters) - Iran allocated $2.5 billion to obtain three nuclear warheads last year, an exiled opposition group said Thursday, without saying whether Iran had secured any of the warheads.

The group, which has given accurate information in the past on some of Iran's nuclear facilities, also said Iran was speeding up work on a reactor south of Tehran which could produce enough plutonium for an atomic bomb by 2007.

Iran says its nuclear program will be used only to generate electricity. But Washington and European countries fear Iran could use its nuclear plants to produce bombs.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an exile group that wants to oust Iran's clerical rulers, said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had told the defense minister to take steps to obtain nuclear warheads.

"In mid-2004, Khamenei allocated $2.5 billion to obtain three nuclear warheads," Mohammad Mohaddessin of the NCRI told a news conference in Paris.

Mohaddessin said he received the news Thursday morning and had no further information on the project. He did not say whether or how the money had been spent.

The NCRI said last year that Iran obtained a nuclear bomb design from a Pakistani scientist who has acknowledged selling nuclear secrets abroad. The group has also said Iran was working on large-range missiles capable of hitting European cities.

The NCRI is a coalition of exiled opposition groups, which is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization.

SPEEDING UP WORK ON REACTOR

Mohaddessin said the Iranian regime was speeding up work on a reactor in Arak, 150 miles south of Tehran, which could produce enough plutonium for one atomic bomb per year.

"The regime told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the reactor would be operational in 2014, but in reality, they want to start it in 2006 or 2007," he said.

A U.S. think-tank said earlier this month that new satellite images showed that a heavy water plant at Arak, intended to supply the research reactor, was nearly complete.

Heavy-water reactors can be used to produce significant amounts of bomb-grade plutonium, which can then be extracted from the spent fuel through reprocessing.

The NCRI revealed the Arak heavy-water production plant, along with the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, in August 2002, describing it as part of a secret nuclear weapons program. Iran later declared both sites to the IAEA.

According to Mohaddessin, Iran's parliament said in a confidential report in February 2004 that the government had not informed it sufficiently about the two sites.

"The legislative branch does not clearly know where the budget for these two projects is coming from," Mohaddessin quoted the report by a parliamentary committee as saying.

"It neither knows how the project was started and how it was put into place," the report said, according to the NCRI."

Herald.com | 03/17/2005 | Terrorist Tanter on Public Speaking Tour

2005-03-24T11:26:00.000-08:00

Herald.com | 03/17/2005 | Expert on Iran: Subvert regime: "Expert on Iran: Subvert regime

BY NOAH BIERMAN

nbierman@herald.com

A Middle East security expert who served in the Reagan administration said Wednesday that the United States needs to work with an Iranian opposition group that's now on the national list of terror organizations.

Raymond Tanter, who cofounded the newly formed Iran Policy Committee think tank, advocated what he called ''forceful diplomacy'' to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.

Tanter spoke to about 25 people at the downtown Hyatt Regency in Miami as a guest of the Iranian Society of South Florida. The society is trying to raise its profile and to promote change in Iran, which is emerging as a Bush administration foreign policy priority.

The United States has not officially called for regime change in Iran. Nonetheless, Tanter said regular diplomacy will not prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. Using a military strike against its nuclear facilities -- situated near population centers -- would kill too many civilians, he said.

''Work with the group that the regime dislikes the most,'' he said.

That's the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, known by the abbreviation MEK. The State Department in 1997, under President Bill Clinton, put the MEK on its terror list. Tanter said the move was an attempt to win favor with moderates in Iran.

The United States continues to hold thousands of the group's members in Iraq, under coalition supervision. MEK has been lobbying for legitimacy in Washington.

The State Department, according to The Associated Press, reported that Saddam Hussein funded MEK groups, that the MEK supported the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and that it was responsible for the deaths of Americans in the 1970s.

Tanter said he has looked into reports about the MEK and has not found credible evidence that it is engaged in terrorism. He said leaving MEK on the terror list prevents the CIA from getting direct information from the group.

Still, the intelligence community uses back channels to gather ''superb'' tips from MEK, which have been verified through Israel and other sources, he said.

Bahman Badiee, president of the Iranian Society of South Florida, said most local Iranian Americans have family in Iran and would favor getting rid of the oppressive government but would not support a military attack.

The 2000 U.S. Census estimated that 3,152 residents of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have Iranian ancestry. A 2003 estimate put that number lower, at 1,711."

IRVAJ English -MKO > David Frum > Eli Lake > Chalabi = Mossad

2005-03-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

IRVAJ English -: "Thursday, May 06, 2004

The Rage Againast Chalabi Continues

May 06, 2004
National Review Online
David Frum's Diary

MAY. 6, 2004: MORE ON CHALABI

Eli Lake of the New York Sun had a very interesting story on the Chalabi accusations in the May 5 edition of that important paper. Some excerpts:

“Those inside the government pushing the line that Mr. Chalabi has divulged secrets to the Iranians come from the same bureaucracies, the State Department and CIA, that have also advocated for the inclusion of Iraqi parties with more open links to Tehran in the Iraqi Governing Council, such as the Dawa Party.”

“A former senior counterterrorism adviser to this White House, General Wayne Downing, said charges that Mr. Chalabi shared secrets with Iran were ‘preposterous.’ ‘All the different political parties have contacts with the Iranians and I don’t think Chalabi would share any information with the Iranians which would cost American lives or would be inimical to the U.S. mission in Iraq.’” [Wayne Downing succeeded Richard Clarke as White House counter-terrorism chief. Those NRO readers unfamiliar with his career might wish to click here.]

Meanwhile, a reader who served in Iraq tells this story.

“In Kut, shortly after the cessation of combat operations probably April 10-May 1, a local leader (I don't think he was a sheik or an imam, just a popular farmer) declared himself governor and took over the Governorate's mansion with his followers. It looked like a flop house when we took it back. In any event, he said he did it to prevent ‘Donald Rumsfield's hand-picked President, Ahmed Chalabi,’ from taking over Iraq. They had daily protests in the front yard (in front of the cameras). Iraqis from rural areas outside of Kut were paid a couple of hundred dinar to get on a bus and help chant ‘La La Chaliba’ (‘No No Chalabi’ in Arabic) in front of the Governorate building.

“I routinely apprehended Iranians in and around Kut. I know for a fact that Iranians were supporting this effort to smear Chalabi and undermine the US effort, by claiming that Chalabi was touring Iraq claiming to be the President. Chalabi is not popular in Iraq because he left and because of the smear campaign in Iraq. I would be very surprised, however, if he was in bed with the Iranians.”

A final thought. It has been apparent for years that the candidates for power in Iraq amounted to this list:

a) Saddam Hussein;
b) The United States;
c) A Shiite theocracy followed quickly by a Kurdish secession;
d) The Iraqi military;
or e) The Iraqi National Congress.

Those who rage at Chalabi seem to believe that he somehow lured the United States into a war that it would otherwise not have had to fight. But that's just silly. Chalabi became important in the mid-1990s precisely because so many people in both American parties had come to accept that Saddam's rule represented an intolerable threat to the peace and security of the Middle East and the world - and were looking for an alternative that was not theocratic, not dictatorial, and would not require direct support from the United States. By building a government-in-exile of Arabs and Kurds, liberals and conservatives, secularists and moderate Muslims, Chalabi offered reason to hope that such an alternative could come into being.

Maybe that hope was mistaken. But as one listens to Chalabi's detracators rage, one rather gets the impression that they are offended that the hope was ever entertained at all. And certainly as I listen to the list of Chalabi's supposed offenses - corruption, authoritarianism, double-dealing with the Iranians - I find myself wondering what those detractors imagine they are going to get from the ex-Baathist Sunni generals now jockeying to replace him. Will they be uncorrupt, unauthoritarian, and sternly anti-Iranian? Or will those issues cease to matter once a regime acceptable to the State Department and Saudi Arabia has taken control? I fear that the second outcome is much the more likely.

PS

And here in the Washington Post is James Dobbins, the US former special envoy to Afghanistan, describing how closely the Brits have worked with Iran - and urging the US to work even more closely. This is blind and perverse policy of course. But if US diplomats think this way, you can understand why wouuld-be US friends in the region have interpreted US actions to mean: Better cozy up to the mullahs.

Oh and one more thing: The story in Salon which rested on the startling quote by Doug Feith's former law partner that Chalabi was a "treacherous, spineless turncoat" who had betrayed his promises to open Iraq to Israeli business? That lawyer, Marc Zell, denies he ever said those words. Zell goes on to point out that since he has never met Chalabi in his life, it's not very plausible that Chalabi would have made him any promises on any subject at all.

Here's Zell's letter to the editor of Salon in full:

"The Salon article by John Dizhart [sic] entitled 'How Ahmed Chalabi Conned the Neocons' contains several quotations attributed to me. None of the quotations ascribed to me was made by me and I categorically disavow each of them. I have never met with Mr. Ahmed Chalabi nor have I ever held any discussions with him. I have no personal knowledge of his past or present dealings, other than what I myself read in the international and national press. Moreover, I have never met with a Mr. Dizhart although I did speak by cellphone on a few occasions with a reporter for the Financial Times by that name about doing business in Iraq. Contrary to what is said in the article, at no time did the person representing himself as Mr. Dizhart ever disclose that he was doing an interview for Salon.Com or for any other newspaper than the Financial Times, for which, he told me, he was tasked to write business stories only.

"Indeed, at no time did I ever consent to be interviewed by Mr. Dizhart for the article in question or any other article. As I recall, the views attributed to me in the article were those of Mr. Dizhart personally and not mine."

MAY. 5, 2004: STATE DEPARTMENT LOGIC

Let’s see if I have this straight: Ahmed Chalabi has been condemned as an Iranian agent and is therefore to be shunned by all agencies of the US government. But Iran itself is to be courted by the United States, and its terrorism and nuclear development is to be ignored. Sound logical to you?

Yesterday, we read in Newsweek and Salon a government-sourced full-blast attack on Chalabi’s connections with the Iranians. But ask yourself this: When was the last time you saw government sources revealing anything untoward about the Iranians themselves?

You may remember that the International Atomic Energy Commission caught the Iranians in a series of lies about their nuclear program last spring and summer. The Iranians themselves finallyy admitted that they had deceived the world for 18 years. It was no longer seriously possible to doubt that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons – or that it had already acquired much of the capability to build them.

In the first shock after the discovery, many expressed fear that the Bush administration would be tempted to act unilaterally to shut down the Iranian nuclear program. Britain, France, and Germany pressed the United States to work through the International Atomic Energy Commission instead – and the US agreed. In November 2003, the IAEA condemned Iran’s past violations of IAEA rules and voted a new set of inspection procedures. The IAEA threatened that if Iran continued to violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the case would be referred to the Security Council – which could (theoretically) vote for harsh sanctions against Iran, including (again theoretically) military action.

On Nov. 26, 2003, Colin Powell said that he was “very happy” with the IAEA’s actions.

But of course, Iran has paid scant attention to the IAEA. The Iranian nuclear program races ahead. And the IAEA has done nothing. No UN referral; no sanctions.

And those intrepid foes of Iranian imperialism at the State Department? What have they done? In March 2004, Colin Powell agreed with the European allies to drop US demands for Security Council action against Iran. US policy is now one of “engagement” with Iran – even as Iran hosts al Qaeda on its territory and supports terrorism inside Iraq.

US inaction has allowed Iran to assert itself as a contender for paramountcy inside Iraq. The US has accepted Europe’s “do-nothing” policy on Iranian nukes. No wonder Ahmed Chalabi joined that phone call to Teheran. Maybe he thought he was doing what America wanted. Unfortunately for him, he misread the policy. America’s clients in Iraq are not allowed to truckle to the tyrannical mullahs of Teheran. Only Americans themselves may do that.

MAY. 4, 2004: THE CHALABI SMEAR

Really, if the CIA and State Department fought this country’s enemies with even one-half the ferocity with which they have waged war on Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress, the United States would be a vastly safer place. Yesterday, the agencies launched their latest offensive against this leader they so detest: They leaked Mark Hosenball of Newsweek a story claiming that Chalabi has betrayed US interests to the Iranians.

“U.S. intelligence agencies have recently raised concerns that Chalabi has become too close to Iran's theocratic rulers. NEWSWEEK has learned that top Bush administration officials have been briefed on intelligence indicating that Chalabi and some of his top aides have supplied Iran with ‘sensitive’ information on the American occupation in Iraq. U.S. officials say that electronic intercepts of discussions between Iranian leaders indicate that Chalabi and his entourage told Iranian contacts about American political plans in Iraq. There are also indications that Chalabi has provided details of U.S. security operations. According to one U.S. government source, some of the information Chalabi turned over to Iran could ‘get people killed.’ (A Chalabi aide calls the allegations ‘absolutely false.’)”

You have to give credit where credit is due: This is an audacious accusation. Audacious because it demands that the State Department’s and CIA’s cheering sections in the media perform a cult-like reversal of belief in everything they were saying about Iraq, Iran, and Chalabi himself up until now.

But those of us with memories that extend back beyond the past 24 hours will have some questions for Newsweek and its sources:

ITEM: Up until now we were supposed to believe that the INC produced no useful intelligence – that it dealt only in fantasies and lies. Now suddenly the INC is accused of being in possession of accurate and valuable sensitive information. How did Chalabi go from know-nothing to valuable intelligence asset overnight?

ITEM: A government source says that the security information Chalabi may or may not have provided could “get people killed.” Get them killed by whom? Up until now, the CIA and State Department have resolutely refused to acknowledge that Iran might be supporting the insurgency in Iraq. Now they are willing to admit reality – but only in order to use it against what they perceive as the real threat: Chalabi.

ITEM: Chalabi has been caught talking on the phone to the Iranians. But wait – hasn’t the State Department been arguing for months that the US should talk to the Iranians about Iraq? In testimony to Congress in October 2003, State number 2 Richard Armitage explicitly disavowed regime change in Iran and called for discussions with Iran on “appropriate” issues. In January 2004, Secretary of State Powell openly called for “dialogue” – and the Bush administration offered to send Elizabeth Dole and a member of the president’s own family to deliver earthquake aid to Iran. (The British sent Prince Charles.) Since then, the hinting and suggesting have grown ever more explicit. What, pray, is the difference between the policy Chalabi is pursuing and that which his State Department critics want the US to pursue?

ITEM: Chalabi is now accused of playing a “double game” in Iraqi politics, an offense for which he must forfeit all rights to a role in Iraq’s future. This “no double game” rule is a new and impressive standard for judging our allies in the Arab Middle East. Question: Will that same standard apply to those former Republican Guard generals whom the State Department is now so assiduously promoting? Will it apply to the former Baathists that Lakhdar Brahimi wishes to include in the provisional Iraqi government? Will it apply to Lakhdar Brahimi himself? Will it apply to the Saudi royal family? Will it apply to the Iranians? Or is it only Ahmed Chalabi who must swear undeviating loyalty to the US policy-of-the-day in Iraq?

ITEM: Salon magazine last night published a lengthy attack on Chalabi by John Dizard. In it, former Chalabi business partner Marc Zell calls Chalabi a “treacherous, spineless turncoat,” for failing to deliver on Chalabi’s alleged promises to open Iraq to trade with Israel. I don’t know that these promises were ever made – and if made, I wonder whether Chalabi ever suggested that they would rank first on a new Iraqi government’s list of priorities. But never mind that: Chalabi has not exercised executive power in Iraq for even a single day. How exactly was it ever possible that he would carry out any promise about anything to anyone?

Ahmed Chalabi no doubt has many faults. I have never been easy in my mind about the collapse of the bank he ran in Jordan back in 1989. (Although the charges that Chalabi himself stole money from the bank are not very convincing either.) But I do know this: Chalabi is one of the very few genuine liberal democrats to be found at the head of any substantial political organization anywhere in the Arab world. He is not consumed by paranoid fantasies, he understands and admires the American system, and he is willing to work with the United States if the United States will work with him. He risked his life through the 1990s to topple Saddam Hussein, which is more than can be said about any of State's or CIA's preferred candidates for power in Iraq. Compared to anybody other possible leader of Iraq – compared to just about every other political leader in the Arab world – the imperfect Ahmed Chalabi is nonetheless a James bleeping Madison.

And maybe that’s exactly why he is so very unpopular with so many of the local thugs and tyrants who unfortunately command the attention of America’s spies and diplomats."

DEBKAfile - Under Iraq War Shadow Sharon Fights for Strategic Foothold

2005-03-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

If Israel were really behind the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri then it stands to reason that Israel must have strong reasons. Israel desperately needs to continue her water grab. This article gives clues as to what Israel stands to gain or lose in Lebanon. Ask yourself who gained with al-Hariri death and one name belongs at the top of the list. JBOC

DEBKAfile - Under Iraq War Shadow Sharon Fights for Strategic Foothold: "DEBKA-Net-Weekly (No. 76) first revealed on August 2 that Cairo West had been converted into the main logistic and jumping off base for US assault troops going into Iraq, while the Suez Canal (despite the Egyptian ruler’s public denials of Egypt’s involvement) is being used by American warships and aircraft carriers bound for the Persian Gulf and Red Sea as a crucial short cut from the Mediterranean.

Slapped down on the Arab nuclear issue, Sharon came up with a new one: He defined as a casus belli Lebanon’s project to tap the Hatsbani River by pumping water from its main tributary the Wazzani and diverting 15 percent of Israel’s water supply. The Hatsbani is fed additionally by subterranean springs near Ajar, the border village split between Israel and Lebanon. And a further complication: the Hizballah has posted armed guards at the Lebanese project on top of the thousands of missiles the Lebanese Shiite terrorists have positioned along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier – all pointed at northern Israel.

Washington, fearing an untimely conflagration, again asked Sharon to hold his horses, while a panel of American water experts hurried over to review the rights and wrongs of the situation and report to the US administration. Although Israel assigned its own water and intelligence experts, such as retired general Uri Shani, chairman of the Mekorot Water Company, to keeping the issue alive, the Bush administration’s efforts had until last week succeeded in muting the discord surrounding this and other Middle East flashpoints."

Hakim’s Killer Arrested

2005-03-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily: "Hakim’s Killer Arrested

NAJAF, Iraq,
March 15--Iraqi police said Tuesday they have arrested the man responsible for the August 2003 killing of Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Al-Hakim, as he prepared to attack another Shiite leader.
The suspect, a Kurd from the northern city of Mosul known only as Hashim, was arrested 10 days ago as he walked in the central shrine city of Najaf, said the city’s police chief, Major General Ghaleb Al-Jazairi, AFP reported.
Two others who were with Hashim managed to escape, he said.
“He was planning other attacks against the people of Najaf and Grand Ayatollah (Ali) Al-Sistani,“ said Jazairi, referring to the spiritual leader of the country’s majority Shiite community.
He said the plot against the 73-year-old Sistani, who rarely ventures out of his Najaf compound, involved booby-trapped briefcases containing cash from zakat (alms) given by the faithful and brought to his office.
Jazairi revealed that Hashim also planned to carry out suicide attacks near the mausoleum of Imam Ali (AS), the city’s most important shrine.
“Four others, including an Afghan national, took part in the August 29, 2003 car bombing outside the shrine in which, besides Hakim, over 80 died after the senior cleric delivered his weekly sermon,“ said Jazairi.
Hakim was killed months after returning to Iraq in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003 after 23 years in exile in Iran.
He was head of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the leading religious Shiite party in Iraq.
The party is led now by the late ayatollah’s brother, Abdul Aziz, and is a major component of the United Iraqi Alliance which swept January’s legislative elections.
Jazairi himself has drawn controversy after refusing an order from the interior ministry in January to give up his post and return to Baghdad, a move he said would threaten the safety of Najaf.
Jazairi assumed a high profile during the US-Iraqi assault in August against the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr by taking a tough stance on dealing with the armed group."

Convicted Terrorist Roya Sepehrrad Seeks Tax Dollars to Kill Again With Ledeen's Help

2005-03-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

National Iranian American Council - NIAC - Washington DC: "SENATOR BROWNBACK ANNOUNCES IRAN DEMOCRACY ACT WITH IRANIAN EXILES

NIAC’s mission is to promote Iranian-American participation in civic life. Iranians-Americans deserve to make informed decisions on matters that affect them, and NIAC aims to facilitate this by bringing transparency to these debates. Our intent is to report on policy conferences as objectively as possible. NIAC, itself, as an organization, has no position on these debates. Our function is to provide Iranian-Americans with the necessary knowledge and tools to be able to participate in decision-making according to their own views.

Washington DC, May 20, 2003. Kansas Senator Sam Brownback announced at a press conference on May 19 that he will introduce a bill, the Iran Democracy Act, asking for fifty million dollars to promote democracy in Iran and to fund Iranian opposition groups. Speaking on Capitol Hill in front of an audience of journalists, members of the policy community such as Michael Ledeen and Kenneth Timmerman, and Iranian opposition members such as Manda Zand, Roya Sepehrrad and Banafsheh Zand, he declared that “Now is the time to stand firm and support the people of Iran.”

According to Brownback, the Iran Democracy Act aims to “support Iranians seeking to create a democratic, secular government which respects human rights, abandons state-sponsored terrorism and rejects the possession and use of weapons of mass-destruction.” The bill authorizes funding for “pro-democracy broadcasting into Iran, and increases the advice and influence of Iranian-Americans in the U.S. Persian radio service, Radio Farda.

Brownback explained that as we “proceed through the difficult task of establishing an open society in Iraq and fighting terrorist networks around the world, it is crucial that American policymakers understand the role Iran is playing in the region – and why we will never have true stability as long as the Iranian regime is in power.”

The Kansas senator pointed to President Khatami’s praise of Hezbollah during his recent visit to Lebanon as evidence that “the pseudo-reformers have failed.” Brownback also added that Iran harbors Al-Qaida operatives and leaders of the Taliban.

Also speaking at the press conference was Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who stated that a survey by the Tarrance Group from last year showed that “71% of Iranians support a national referendum that allows the people of Iran to decide what system of government is best for the country, rather than an extremist religious minority.”

The two senators had also invited a few Iranian opposition figures to speak at the press conference, which often turned emotional as the Iranian exiles spoke of their experiences with the Iranian government. Bahman Rahbari, an Air Force pilot, spoke in detail of the torture he suffered between 1980 and 1985 in an Iranian prison.

Manda Zand-Ervin stated that “Iranian women want the world to know their suffering,” and that “eighteen Iranian women have been stoned to death by the reformists.” She quoted one Iranian mother having said that “We are not sure whether our kids will return home alive when they leave the house – we live in constant fear. Please ask Brownback and the US Congress to help us.”

Roya Sepehrrad explained that she was arrested in Iran at the age of 14 for having “sold newspapers” and organized political demonstrations for what she described as the “main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin.” Sepehrrad also described the torture she and her friends suffered during her seven years in an Iranian prison. The Iranian Virginia resident thanked Brownback for his bill and for not having allocated the funds for any one specific group. According to the Financial Times, a big chunk of the $50 million will go to “royalist television and radio stations” in Los Angeles.

Brownback originally introduced his $50 million funding for Iranian opposition groups to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a few weeks ago. Due to criticism from several of his colleagues—including Senators Byden, Hagel, Lugar, Rockefeller, and Sarbanes—Brownback decided to pull the bill and reintroduce it as an amendment to the FY ‘04 Foreign Relations Authorization Act. Brownback described the chances of the Act being passed as “relatively good” and said that he hopes that “military action against Iran will not be necessary.” Other co-sponsors of the act are Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.)

Supporters of the Iran Democracy Act include Iranian monarchist groups, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Other well positioned organizations that may receive funding from Brownback’s bill include the Coalition for Democracy in Iran (CDI) – founded by Morris Amitay of JINSA, Rob Sobhani, president of Caspian Energy Consulting, and Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, all strong advocates for regime change in Iran. Members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq are also positioning themselves as potential recipients of U.S. funds.

There is no organized opposition to the Act from the Iranian-American community, but the U.S. State Department has expressed reservations. However, 80.3% of the users of NIAC's Legislative Action Center have sent messages to their lawmakers opposing the Brownback Act. Of the several hundred messages that have been sent during the last few days, only 19.7% were in support of the Iran Democracy Act.

Supporters of the Act argue that the Iranian people need financial support from the U.S. in order to rid themselves of the current regime. The Iranian people have repeatedly voiced their desire for freedom and regime change, they say. Proponents believe the U.S. needs to stand with the people of Iran at this important junction.

Furthermore, proponents argue that past U.S. funding of opposition groups in other countries was crucial to democratic development in those countries. Iran should be no different, they claim. According to this view, it is time the U.S. put human rights and democracy on its agenda when it comes to Iran.

On the other hand, opponents of the Act argue that the Iranian people are highly conscious of their independence and extremely sensitive to foreign intervention. They point to the toppling of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq in Iran in 1953 as an example of how ill-advised U.S. intervention in Iranian affairs can be. Opponents say that democracy must be home-grown in order to enjoy legitimacy and endure. History, they say, has shown that democracy cannot be imposed from the outside. They claim U.S. funding may hurt rather than help the movement for democracy.

Opponents also argue that popular opposition groups do not need outside funding, pointing to the wealth of the Iranian-American community. Opponents claim that marginalized groups with no popular support will be the only recipients of U.S. government funding since these groups are incapable of raising money from the Iranian-American community.

In addition, opponents say that using U.S. taxpayers’ money to fund already wealthy opposition groups is similar to giving foreign aid to a rich country like Monaco. With the current state of the economy, this is simply unacceptable, they argue.

Take action now! Choose the letter below with which you most agree and send it to your Congressman so that they can hear what the Iranian American community thinks about this issue. You may send the letter as it is or, for maximum impact, edit the letter to include your own personal perspective."

Iranian Terrorist Azarakhsh Members Surrender After Seizing Plane

2005-03-11T06:33:00.001-08:00

Iranians Surrender After Plane Protest | Europe | Deutsche Welle |: " Iranians Surrender After Plane Protest

Iranian passengers planned the sit-in to protest EU talks with Iran
Some 60 passengers claiming to be of Iranian origin were detained by Belgian police early Friday after staging a sit-in on a Lufthansa plane at Brussels airport for nearly 16 hours overnight, officials said.

The passengers on the Lufthansa plane, which had arrived from Frankfurt Thursday afternoon, surrendered to police shortly before dawn after being threatened with arrest, federal police spokesman Els Cleemput told journalists.

About five of the 57 or 58 passengers refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and had to be carried off the plane, according to another police spokesman, Vincent Olivier.

The authorities had negotiated late into the night with several dozen of the protesters who refused to leave the aircraft in what appeared to be a protest against the European Union's conciliatory policies towards Iran.

Opposition to EU negotiations

The EU is negotiating with the Islamic state's government, notably offering the prospect of a trade agreement in exchange for guarantees about its nuclear program.

The plane had arrived from Frankfurt on Thursday afternoon. The protesters refused to leave the craft, but shortly after the incident started they allowed other passengers and crew to get off without incident.

At an early stage in the standoff a correspondent for ZDF German television who spoke with one of the passengers by telephone said he had been told that no arms were aboard the plane and that no hostages were being held.

The remaining passengers "all have passports from the European Union," but "they say they are of Iranian origin," Cleemput said earlier.

A young Iranian, who spoke to reporters at Brussels airport on behalf of the passengers, said the action had been under preparation for five months by a London-based Iranian monarchist group, "Azarakhsh."

"We all ask the leaders of the European Union (not to) support the regime in Iran. We don't ask nobody, no country, nor any power in the world to help us to change the regime. We can do it ourselves," said the man who identified himself as Ramin.

The RTL-TVI television station said the group's demands were "political demands" linked notably to the European Union's policies with regard to Iran.

The German magazine Der Spiegel said it had received a letter from the group, which described itself as representing Iranian men and women protesting against a Tehran regime responsible for "torture and terror."

As the night wore on, the plane was moved from its parking gate in preparation for an "administrative" arrest of those on board, police said.

Peaceful resolution

It was at this point that the protesters decided to give themselves up. "We always said to the activists that they would have no problems if they decided to leave the plane," said Cleemput.

In Berlin, a Lufthansa spokesman said the protest "had nothing to do with our company."

"They have chosen without a doubt a strange place to demonstrate," said the spokesman, Thomas Ellerbeck.

He said the plane was carrying 120 passengers when it left Frankfurt. Air traffic was not disrupted by the situation."

Iranian Terrorist Azarakhsh Members Surrender After Seizing Plane

2005-03-11T06:33:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily: 132 Ex-MKO Members Welcomed Home

2005-03-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily: "132 Ex-MKO Members Arrive

QASR-E SHIRIN, Kermanshah,
March 9--A group of 132 penitent members of the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization arrived in Iran via Khosravi border point.
The former MKO members have returned home voluntarily, IRNA reported.
A 100-member group had also returned home via Khosravi border point recently.
Representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry, Iran’s Foreign Ministry and Iran’s Embassy in Iraq accompanied the former MKO members to the country.
Governor of Qasr-e Shirin, Shahriyar Heydari, told IRNA that the former MKO members, who have arrived in Iran, were living in a 500-people camp in Iraq. “After escaping the camp, they asked the ICRC headquarters in Iraq to help them return to Iran,“ he added.
Heydari further declared that 233 MKO members living in that camp are also keen to return to the country."

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Who killed Rafik Hariri?

2005-03-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Who killed Rafik Hariri?: "Who killed Rafik Hariri?

Patrick Seale
Wednesday February 23, 2005
The Guardian
If Syria killed Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister and mastermind of its revival after the civil war, it must be judged an act of political suicide. Syria is already under great international pressure from the US, France and Israel. To kill Hariri at this critical moment would be to destroy Syria's reputation once and for all and hand its enemies a weapon with which to deliver the blow that could finally destabilise the Damascus regime, and even possibly bring it down.
So attributing responsibility for the murder to Syria is implausible. The murder is more likely to be the work of one of its many enemies. This is not to deny that Syria has made grave mistakes in Lebanon. Its military intelligence apparatus has interfered far too much in Lebanese affairs. A big mistake was to insist on changing the Lebanese constitution to extend the mandate of President Emile Lahoud - known for his absolute allegiance to Syria - for a further three years. Syria's military intelligence chief in Lebanon, General Rustum Ghazalah, was reported to have threatened and insulted Hariri to force him to accept the extension. This caused great exasperation among all communities in Lebanon. Hariri resigned as prime minister in protest.

Syria appears to have recognised its mistake. President Bashar al-Assad last week sacked General Hassan Khalil, head of military intelligence, and replaced him with his own brother-in-law, General Asaf Shawkat. A purge of the military intelligence apparatus in Lebanon is expected to follow.

It remains to be seen whether this will calm Syria's opponents in Lebanon, who have declared a "democratic and peaceful intifada for independence" - in other words, a campaign of passive resistance to drive Syria out.

Hariri was not a diehard enemy of Syria. For 10 of the past 12 years he served as Lebanon's prime minister under Syria's aegis. A few days before his murder on February 14 he held a meeting with Syria's deputy foreign minister, Walid Muallim. They were reported to have discussed a forthcoming visit by Hariri to Damascus. Hariri had not officially joined the opposition in Lebanon, but was thought to be attempting to mediate between Syria and the opposition.

If Syria did not kill Hariri, who could have? There is no shortage of potential candidates, including far-right Christians, anxious to rouse opinion against Syria and expel it from Lebanon; Islamist extremists who have not forgiven Syria its repression of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 80s; and, of course, Israel.

Israel's ambition has long been to weaken Syria, sever its strategic alliance with Iran and destroy Hizbullah. Israel has great experience at "targeted assassinations" - not only in the Palestinian territories but across the Middle East. Over the years, it has sent hit teams to kill opponents in Beirut, Tunis, Malta, Amman and Damascus.

Syria, Hizbullah and Iran have stood up against US and Israeli hegemony over the region. Syria continues to demand that Israel return the Golan Heights, seized in 1967. Damascus will not allow Lebanon to conclude a separate peace with Israel unless its own claim is also addressed.

Hizbullah, in turn, is possibly the only Arab force to have inflicted a defeat on Israel. Its guerrillas forced Israel out of south Lebanon after a 22-year occupation. Hizbullah continues to be a big irritant to Israel because it has acquired a deterrent capability. Israel can no longer attack Lebanon with impunity - as it did for decades - without risking a riposte from Hizbullah rockets.

Iran's nuclear programme threatens to break Israel's regional monopoly of weapons of mass destruction, which is the main reason it is under immense pressure to abandon uranium enrichment.

The US and Israel have been trying to rally international support against Iran, Syria and Hizbullah. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has condemned Iran as a prime sponsor of international terror. Syria has been condemned as a "destabilising" force in the region, and is in the dock because of Hariri's assassination.

The US and Israel have also been urging European governments to declare Hizbullah a "terrorist organisation". France has its own quarrel with Syria, and President Jacques Chirac is outraged at the murder of his close friend Hariri, but Paris does not consider Hizbullah a terrorist organisation. For France, and for the vast majority of Arabs, Hizbullah is a national liberation movement as well as a big political actor in Lebanon.

There is far more to this crisis than a struggle between rival clans in Lebanon.

· Patrick Seale is author of Assad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East"

The New York Times > International > Europe > Russian Forces, in Raid, Kill Leader of Chechnya Separatists

2005-03-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

The New York Times > International > Europe > Russian Forces, in Raid, Kill Leader of Chechnya Separatists
"Russian Forces Kill Leader of Chechnya Separatists
By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: March 8, 2005
OSCOW, March 8 - Russian special forces killed the leader of Chechnya's separatists in a raid today that gave the Kremlin a rare victory in a bloody war that has killed tens of thousands and spawned a wave of terrorist attacks across Russia in recent years.

The slain separatist, Aslan Maskhadov, who from hiding led thousands of fighters following Russia's second invasion of the republic in 1999, died in a bunker beneath a house in an outwardly peaceful village, Tolstoy Yurt, only 12 miles from the region's capital, Grozny, according to Russian officials and news accounts.

His death is akin to the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, depriving insurgents of their political and symbolic leader, although it remains uncertain what effect the slaying will have on those still determined to resist Russian forces in Chechnya.

While Mr. Maskhadov, who was 53, nominally commanded Chechnya's fighters, he appeared to have lost influence over Russia's most-wanted man, Shamil Basayev, the rebel commander who has claimed responsibility for the worst terrorist attacks, including the siege of a theater in Moscow in 2002 that killed 129 and a school in Beslan last September that killed at least 339, half of them school children.

President Vladimir V. Putin appeared on television with the director of the Federal Security Service, Nikolai P. Patrushev, who told him that his forces had killed Mr. Maskhadov and arrested four associates. In brief, unemotional remarks, Mr. Putin simply asked Mr. Patrushev to confirm the identification of Mr. Maskhadov's body and to submit of list of those involved in the raid for medals.

"There is still a lot of work to do there," he said, referring to Chechnya. "We have to build up our forces to protect the people of the republic and citizens of all Russia from the bandits."

Mr. Maskhadov's imminent capture or death has been reported before, but officials showed little doubt that it was Mr. Maskhadov who died in the raid. NTV showed graphic images of a corpse that resembled him. The body lay in a pool of blood, bare-chested, his arms outstretched and entangled in his shirt sleeves. There was what appeared a bullet hole beneath his left eye.

One of his most prominent aides, Akhmed Zakayev, said he had also received confirmation of Mr. Maskhadov's death from people inside Chechnya. "It is just one more political assassination," he said in a telephone interview from London, where he has received political asylum.

He cited the deaths of Chechnya's first post-Soviet president, Dzhokhar Dudayev, who was killed by Russian forces during the first war in 1996, and his predecessor, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who died in a car bombing in February 2004 while in exile in the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar. A court there convicted two Russian secret agents and sentenced them to life in prison, though they later released them to the Russian authorities.

"The ordinary people of Chechnya are being killed every day because they disagree with the federal authorities," he said, "as are the people they have elected."

Mr. Zakayev said the separatist movement's leaders - now in exile or in hiding - would under the republic's former constitution elected an interim leader, as they did following Mr. Dudayev's death.

Dmitri V. Trenin, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center who was one of the authors of "Russia's Restless Frontier," a book published last year that examined the conflict's ramifications, said Mr. Maskhadov's death might not change events on the ground significantly, given that his leadership had become increasingly symbolic and that the rebel commander Mr. Basayev remained at large.

Still he called it a "political victory and a moral victory" for the Kremlin. "I think it's significant for Mr. Putin, first of all," Mr. Trenin said. "He can produce evidence that the antiterrorist operation in Chechnya is yielding results. He needed that, especially after Beslan."

The Russians considered Mr. Maskhadov a terrorist, not a rebel leader, and accused him of masterminding many of the attacks that have struck from the Caucasus in southern Russia to the heart of Moscow itself in recent years, killing hundreds of civilians in a theater, at a rock concert, on the subway, aboard trains and passenger airliners.

After the siege of Middle School No. 1 in Beslan, a small city in North Ossetia, the authorities offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Mr. Maskhadov or Mr. Basayev. It was not immediately clear whether the reward would be paid now that Mr. Maskhadov had been found and killed.

Mr. Maskhadov, for his part, had denied involvement in the worst of the attacks in messages he communicated through his envoys in Europe and the United States or through the Internet.

He denounced the siege in Beslan and vowed in statements to prosecute Mr. Basayev. Earlier this year, he was reported to have offered a monthlong cease-fire, which ended on Feb. 23. Attacks in Chechnya did seem to slow, but Russian officials denounced the gesture as a stunt, refusing, as before, to hold any negotiations with him or any other separatist leaders.

Officials provided few details on the raid, which was not surprising since it involved officers of the F.S.B., the successor to the K.G.B., who even afterwards were shown on television still wearing black masks.

Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin, who first announced his death, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Maskhadov had been hiding in a bunker beneath a house in Tolstoy Yurt, while his four associates were outside.

He suggested that the agents intended to arrest Mr. Maskhadov, but that he had resisted. "He was hiding in the bunker," he said. "So the bunker had to be blown up. Apparently he was shell-shocked, but tried to shoot back."

He said no Russian forces had been hurt.

Mr. Maskhadov was born on Sept. 21, 1951, in Kazakhstan, where Stalin had ordered the deportation of most of the Chechen population during World War II, an act of paranoia that carries heavy symbolism among all Chechens to this day. He served most of his life in the Soviet Army, rising to the rank of colonel and serving in Soviet-occupied Hungary and later in Lithuania as the Soviet Union began to fall apart.

After Chechnya, a small, mountainous Muslim republic on Russia's southern border, declared its independence in 1991, he resigned his commission and became commander of the armed forces of an unrecognized country. He remained military leader during the first Chechen war, from 1994 to 1996, when he commanded the daring assault to retake Grozny from Russian troops.

President Boris N. Yeltsin then negotiated an end to the war, leaving Chechnya with de-facto independence. In January 1997, he was elected president, defeating the man whose name is still almost always linked to his, Mr. Basayev. By 1999, with the republic roiled by lawlessness, Mr. Basayev launched an attack on neighboring Dagestan, and Russian forces poured in again, driving the rebellious leaders from Grozny and eventually most of the republic.

It is a measure of how deeply troubled and chaotic the republic is that despite the presence of tens of thousands of Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces, Mr. Maskhadov was able to hide - for how long is not clear - in a village in the center of Chechnya itself."

Int’l Bodies Urged To Help Ex-MKO Members Return

2005-03-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily: "Int’l Bodies Urged To Help Ex-MKO Members Return

ZAHEDAN,
Sistan-Baluchestan,
March 8--Former members of the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization called on international organizations to help repatriate their friends from Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
Mohammad Nour, one of the former MKO members, who has returned home from Iraq called on human rights organizations to help those being kept in the camp return home, IRNA reported.
He added that many of those being kept by the MKO had gone abroad to find jobs or for education, but they fell into the MKO trap.
“Those being kept in the MKO camp are exposed to hard labor without getting any remuneration. They are not allowed to leave the camp and return to Iran under the pretext that they will be put to death as soon as they reach home,“ he said.
Some 19 members of the MKO from Sistan-Baluchestan province arrived in Zahedan on Tuesday and were welcomed by their families.
Meanwhile, some 276 penitent MKO members, who returned home after escaping from the camp in Iraq, have been united so far with their families, the head of Salvation Society, Ali Asghari, said on Monday.
Speaking at a ceremony in Tabriz on the return of eight ex-MKO members, Asghari added that most of them had left Iran in the hope of finding jobs, but they were trapped by MKO agents and later taken to its Ashraf camp in Iraq."

Chechnya’s Maskhadov Killed

2005-03-08T09:59:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily "Chechnya’s Maskhadov Killed

MOSCOW, March 8--Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, one of Russia’s most wanted men, has been killed in Chechnya, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday quoting Russian federal forces in the northern Caucasus.
“I confirm that Maskhadov was killed in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt,“ General Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the headquarters of Russian troops deployed in the region, was quoted by several Russian news agencies as saying.
Shabalkin said there was fighting in the area at the time and said Maskhadov, the president of separatist forces opposed to Russian rule in Chechnya, was hiding in a bunker under a building in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt when he was killed.
Shabalkin added that Maskhadov’s body had been identified but the Russian news agencies said he had provided no further details on the circumstances of the death.
Maskhadov has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Russian forces in the region and has been blamed by Russia for involvement in other attacks on non-military targets, including the Beslan school hostage massacre last September and a mass hostage-taking at a Moscow theater in 2002."

Embassy Row - Terrotrist Organizer Ramesh Sepehrrad Lays Seige to French Embassty

2005-03-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

Embassy Row - The Washington Times: Embassy Row: "Embassy Row

By James Morrison
Protest targets French
The French Embassy is under siege from Iranians protesting the arrest of Iranian opposition members in Paris and from Congress, where anger is growing over reports that France might deport them to Iran.
Sen. Sam Brownback wrote French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, accusing France of "doing the dirty work" for the repressive theocracy in Iran.
The Kansas Republican, who is chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on South Asia, last week called on Mr. Levitte to urge his government to stop the prosecution of more than two dozen members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
In Iran yesterday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government expects France to extradite the opposition members. However, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman last week said European Union law prevents France from extraditing anyone to a country where he may face the death penalty.
Mr. Brownback fears France could extradite them to another country, which then would send them to Iran.
France last week detained about 160 members of the Iranian coalition, which included members of the People's Mujahideen, or Mujahideen Khalq, on suspicion they were planning to use France as a base to plan the military overthrow of the Iranian regime. Twenty-six are still being held, including Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the resistance council.
The State Department lists the People's Mujahideen as a terrorist organization, although the group has many supporters in Congress who consider them freedom fighters.
In addition to Mr. Brownback, Reps. William Lacy Clay, Missouri Democrat; Dennis Moore, Kansas Democrat; Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican; and Edolphus Towns, New York Democrat, have written French President Jacques Chirac to protest the arrests.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas Democrat, expressed her support for Mrs. Rajavi.
"I am very disturbed when a voice who is seeking, among other things, people's freedom and just treatment has been arrested or taken into custody," she said.
A French Embassy spokesman declined to comment yesterday on the letter, but said the demonstrations have not disrupted the embassy.
Mr. Brownback told the ambassador, "It should be made crystal clear that such an action [extradition] will result in the certain death of these individuals as reprisal for political criticism and revealing sensitive information about Iran's nuclear program.
"I urge the nation of France, which has long prided itself on being a protector of human rights and freedom of expression, to live up to its ideal and avoid action that would put it in league with the terrorist state of Iran."
Mr. Brownback reminded Mr. Levitte that the United States "shares [France´s] concerns about the People's Mujahideen group."
"But no group of people deserves the fate you are considering," he added. "By handing these people to the Iranian regime, you may incur some short-term favor in Tehran, but you will most certainly lose respect around the world. ...
"I urge you not to turn your back on your country's own rich tradition of supporting freedom by doing the dirty work of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Outside the French Embassy in Georgetown, demonstrators have been on a hunger strike since last week, demanding the unconditional release of Mrs. Rajavi. The round-the-clock protest has drawn an average of 100 demonstrators a day, organizer Ramesh Sepehrrad said.
"Iranians call upon the democratic governments of the world to stand by the millions of Iranians and their resistance movement against the terrorist regime of Iran and its dirty plots in France," she said.
Ms. Sepehrrad said protests also are being held outside French consulates in Denver, Houston and Los Angeles, and in Canada at the French Embassy in Ottawa and consulates in Toronto and Vancouver.

•Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com."

The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - SEPEHRRAD Publicly Backs Terrorists

2005-03-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

Letters to the Editor - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED: "Iran and Iraq: Sever the tie
The article "Saddam capture seen as aid to ties" (Page 1, Tuesday) clearly reveals Tehran's role in Iraq and its goal to eliminate its most serious opposition force in the region. Our organization has been monitoring the news on the Iranian mojaheddin in Iraq. The Iraqi Governing Council's statement to expel the Mujahideen Khalq sparked a protest by the relatives of Iranian mojaheddin in the United States and leaders of the Iranian-American communities. These protests include nightly candlelight vigils in front of the White House. Although Ambassador L. Paul Bremer said Saturday that the Iranian mojaheddin would not be extradited to Iran, the decision to send them to other countries is still in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Let us review the mojaheddin's activities in Iraq over the past several months. The Iranian mojaheddin were not party to the recent conflict in Iraq, and they announced that before the beginning of the war. Although they signed a cease-fire agreement with the coalition forces in April, they did not fire a single bullet during the conflict. On May 11, Iranian mojaheddin leaders agreed to disarm and cooperated with the U.S. forces. Gen. Ray Odierno, who managed the disarmament agreement, is on the record saying, "[T]hey have been very supportive of the U.S. through this operation."
It is no secret that Tehran's regime is behind the recent decision of the Iraqi Governing Council to expel the mojaheddin. This decision is politically motivated. The status of the Iranian mojaheddin in Iraq, given the Fourth Geneva Convention and the role of the U.S. forces as the "occupying forces," should not subject them to expulsion. This decision is in contrast to the good will of the Iraqi people as many of their leaders called for reversing the IGC's decision in its press conference in London last week. Tehran's regime has the audacity even to threaten Europe if the Iranian mojaheddin are sent there. Iran's general prosecutor said Sunday that the transfer of mojaheddin will have "many political, economic and security consequences."
President Bush should intervene urgently. Iranian mojaheddin should remain in Iraq, as it is their legal right based on international law. Tehran should not be given a free hand in Iraq.

RAMESH SEPEHRRAD
President
National Committee of Women for Democratic Iran
Washington"

Internet Rumor - Iran captures bin Laden

2005-03-03T13:09:00.001-08:00

Terrorism Focus - Volume II, Issue 5
"Forum jitters on the capture of bin Laden

Participants to a jihadist forum have been troubled by another scare story that bin Laden has been arrested. Iranian websites, apparently quoting American officials, said that Osama bin Laden had been arrested in the beginning of February by Iranian forces, while moving along the border between Pakistan and Iran. Speculation that the arrest was kept quiet so that Iran might retain a bargaining chip to stave off possible military action from the United States was dismissed on February 21 by Iranian government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, who denied the story. The failure to date to capture bin Laden has provoked a series of wishful thinking. Almost precisely a year ago the same story emerged, only this time with the Iranians claiming that U.S. and Pakistan agents were the captors, and that news of the arrest had been suppressed pending last year's U.S. elections.

Last November Iran was again in the crosshairs, with some speculative media reports of bin Laden having been in Iran since July 2002. This, too, was put down at the time to U.S. electioneering. The scare this year was given added cogency for the mujahideen by the recent distribution of audio and video messages featuring Ayman al-Zawahiri without bin Laden. In addition, the lack of commentary on the matter by al-Qaeda itself raised anxieties for the participants on the al-Ma'sada forum (www.alm2sda.net). "The news is false, God permitting," wished one contributor, "I hope that the Shaykh will issue a message so that we may be reassured about him". On another forum, al-Qal'ah (qal3ah.net), a participant emphasized the need for such a reassurance: "we are in dire need to hear a new word from Shaykh Osama, particularly as he has previously done so; and the present situation is no less dangerous." On al-Ma'sada one contributor declared his frustration with the silence of al-Qaeda in general, hoping "that the Shaykh would declare to the world his viewpoint on the events in Lebanon following the death of Hariri … and the likelihood of an attack on Syria by the Americans (God curse them) … and the role that the mujahideen should play in the event of the outbreak of a war."

Others on the al-Qal'ah forum were dismissive: "the Shaykh does not make appearances to deny silly rumors like this!" Indeed, any more messages from al-Qaeda "will only diminish their influence on all levels, on the information, political, even economical level … Shaykh Ayman al-Zawahiri's last message appeared only a short time after another one from him, and this may have diminished its influence." Yet there were others who prepared themselves for the worst: "If the lions have been captured, there are [other] lions and cubs at their back to take up their work … May God not permit it, but if he is captured, there are a thousand more bin Ladens!""

Internet Rumor - Iran captures bin Laden

2005-03-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

FOXNews.com - FoxNews Hides Association with Terror Group

2005-03-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

FOXNews.com - Politics - Capitol Hill Mulls 'Regime Change' in Iran:

This article shamefully cites Alireza Jafarzadeh and never mentions that he works for FoxNews. Why does FoxNews hire known Terrorists if they are ashamed of them? JBOC

"Capitol Hill Mulls 'Regime Change' in Iran
Friday, February 04, 2005
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

WASHINGTON — Though the Bush administration denies it has any designs on changing Iran's theocracy, members of Congress are planning ways to assist in a possible "regime change."

Movements are afoot in both the House and Senate to pass legislation that would enable the U.S. government to support foreign and domestic pro-democracy groups opposed to the current Islamic republic of Iran.

Aides for Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said the senator is drafting legislation that would resemble a bill he introduced in the last congressional session, the "Iran Freedom and Support Act." (search) Though the language in the new bill is being worked out, it is expected to echo the prior bill in that it would include financial assistance for opposition groups. The original bill did not make it to the Senate floor.

"By supporting the people of Iran, and through greater outreach to pro-democracy groups, we will hopefully foster a peaceful transition to democracy in Iran," Santorum said in a statement regarding his new proposal. "The bill also notes the futility of working with the Iranian government."

Though no hearings on the issue are currently on any committee schedules, the bill's timing corresponds with comments by President Bush in his inaugural address that the United States is on a mission to assist in democratization abroad. But while the president named Iran — a member of the "axis of evil" and designated state sponsor of terrorism — during his State of the Union address on Wednesday night, he made no suggestions that the United States would take any action against the Islamic regime.

"Iran remains the world's primary state sponsor of terror — pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve. We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium re-processing, and end its support for terror. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you," the president said.

On Thursday, the State Department denied that the administration has any plans to help depose the Muslim clerics who run the country.

"The United States has been very clear. It's officials have been very clear that we do not have a policy of regime change toward Iran. The United States has also been very clear that we support the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom," he said.

While subtle, the references to the "aspirations of the Iranian people" reinforces widespread speculation that the United States, both covertly and publicly, is putting Iran, which is believed to be well into the development of a nuclear weapons program, on notice.

Publicly, in the House last month, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and more than 50 bipartisan co-sponsors, introduced the "Iran Freedom Support Act," which would provide, in part, financial assistance to opposition groups.

"I think we need to make sure that the people of Iran who don't support the radicalism of their mullah masters do not wither away and retreat, " Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., co-sponsor of the bill, told FOXNews.com. "There are people, especially among younger people, who fully understand the hypocrisy and utter corruption of the mullah regime. We need to support them."

But some on Capitol Hill are skeptical of the efforts to reform Iran, and suggest that a similar effort — the "Iraq Liberation Act," passed in 1998 and revived before the current war — resulted in U.S. support of exiles like Ahmad Chalabi (search) and the Iraqi National Congress (search). The exiles have been blamed, in part, for providing hyped-up evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction program. Skeptics say they don't want to find out after a heavy investment of cash and lives that Iran wasn't the threat it was being made out to be nor do they want to be bogged down in anything resembling a "quagmire."

"The devil's in the details," said Norm Kurz, communications director for Sen. Joe Biden (search), D-Del., ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ardent critic of the way the Bush administration handled the war in Iraq.

"Obviously, this is more of the president's 'outline,' in his language, that we need to encourage democracy for people everywhere and encourage liberty — all Americans share that broad vision," said Kurz. "But if we are talking about taking concrete steps to aid dissidents in whatever country, that's going to require a lot of review and also the question of how do we achieve that when we are stretched very thin in Iraq."

Mona Yacoubian, a Middle East expert for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (search), said it is unclear whether the United States has enough credibility in the region to pursue another regime change now, even if it is a non-military one. She said any group seeking to overthrow the dictatorial ayatollahs — who have rendered seemingly moderate President Mohammad Khatami virtually powerless — might not want to have the United States linked to their efforts.

"My gut reaction would be any time an opposition party in that part of world is somehow associated with the United States, its credibility suffers," she said.

Yacoubian said that while a strong underground democracy movement exists, and anti-Americanism is not nearly as high in Iran as it is in places like Saudi Arabia or Egypt, the U.S. invasion of Iraq and reports that the United States may next focus its attention on Iran have not warmed Iranians to the American cause.

But not everybody thinks the Americans would be unwelcome, said Stephen Schwartz, author of "The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror." He said regime change led by the United States in Iraq will no doubt have a domino effect of democracy across the region, beginning with Iran.

"The vocabulary I would use is 'accelerating transition,'" he said. "I believe the success of the Iraq election will be a tremendous encouragement of the reform movement in Iran. The Iranians will say, 'If the Iraqis can have this, why can't we?'"

He said strong reform movements and sympathetic clerics and government officials would be ready for U.S. assistance. "There is a reaction risk if it's not done intelligently or prudently," he added, noting that any regime change would have to be done through Iranian exiles and not military force.

"We cannot have a replay of Iraq for several reasons," he said, noting that military force might very well spark nationalism in Iran, turning the reformers against the United States. "I'm no fan of the hard-line ayatollahs, but they are not hated the way Saddam Hussein was in Iraq."

Another question posed is which opposition group would be eligible for the help. The Mujahhedin e-Khalq (search), which has been fighting in exile against the ayotollahs since 1979, primarily from their base in Iraq, are supported by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (search), also in exile. Lawmakers like Ros-Lehtinen have expressed support for the MEK in the past.

But the MEK remains on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations and is not a favorite of pro-Iranian reformers like Schwartz. "They are a Marxist cult," he charged.

Alireza Jafarzadeh (search), an Iranian-American formally associated with the NCRI, does not agree, and said the MEK should be taken off the terrorist list and given the assistance to overthrow the ayotollahs because they are the only ones with the means to do it.

"Since the Iraq war, the MEK has actually turned over all of its weapons to the U.S. military in Iraq and did not fight the Americans," he said, noting that the MEK has assisted the Americans with intelligence on the border. "I think any serious shift in policy toward Iran, which would include regime change, should review the status of MEK.""

Mujahideen-e Khalq Collapsing - Members are taking the Iranian Amnesty

2005-02-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - Middle East: "Opposition group members back in Iran

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEHRAN, Iran -- About 100 former members of an Iranian opposition group who fled to Iraq returned home Monday, the largest number to do so since Iran offered an amnesty in 2003, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The Mujahedeen Khalq, Iran's biggest armed opposition group, was founded in the late 1960s and moved to Iraq as a base for its activities against the Islamic regime of Iran in early 1980s.

The "repentant ex-members" of the Mujahedeen Khalq fled their camp in Iraq and appealed to the Red Cross for assistance in returning to Iran, Shahriar Haidari, governor of the Iran-Iraq border area of Qasr-e Shirin, told the news agency.

Haidari said 133 others have also applied to return and are expected next week.

Local officials, contacted by The Associated Press, refused to provide more details.

Iran offered the amnesty to members who had not been involved in armed attacks. The returnees will be debriefed and sent back to their families, IRNA said.

Some 4,000-5,000 members of the group have been disarmed since the U.S.-led coalition forces toppled Iraqi former president Saddam Hussein. Last December, 27 former group members returned to Iran.

The Mujahedeen Khalq is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. The group, which sided with Saddam in his 1980-88 war against Iran, is well armed and for years fought Iran's Islamic rulers from Iraq with the backing of Saddam's regime.

It was disarmed by U.S. forces in Iraq soon after major hostilities ended."

Iran Daily - The Next 9/11 Could Happen at Sea

2005-02-25T11:31:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily: "The Next 9/11 Could Happen at Sea

One unsuspected bit of good news related to the Indian Ocean tsunami was revealed this month when the International Maritime Bureau released its annual report on pirate attacks against international shipping. The new figures showed a 27 percent decline in 2004, to 325 incidents from 445 in 2003, and noted that there had not been single attack in the pirate-infested waters off Sumatra since the earthquake.
Last year, according to the maritime bureau, some 400 crew members and passengers were killed, injured, held hostage or remain missing as a result of attacks. Every year the pirates are better organized, ambushing ships with military precision and firepower.
Merchant vessels are the lowest-hanging fruit of global commerce, slow and vulnerable to attack. Hauling 90 percent of world trade, these lumbering beasts file through the world’s choke points--the Suez and Panama Canals, the Bab el Mandeb (the entrance to the Red Sea), the Straits of Gibraltar and the Malacca Strait between Indonesia and Malaysia.
It is the Strait of Malacca, the shortest sea route connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, that has maritime and intelligence authorities most worried. The passage, 600 miles long but just over a mile wide at one point, is the conduit for 50,000 ships a year, carrying a third of the world’s commerce and half of its crude oil.
Despite the global decline in the number of reported attacks, the number of attacks in the Malacca Strait increased last year to 37 from 28 in 2003. And, while many raids are likely carried out by crime syndicates, there is evidence that many have been the work of the Free Aceh Movement of northern Sumatra.
In March 2003, the chemical tanker Dewi Madrim was attacked by heavily armed pirates in speedboats in the Malacca Strait. According to the crew, the pirates, speaking Indonesian, seemed less interested in robbery than in taking turns steering the ship down the congested waterway. They took two officers hostage and a satchel full of technical documents. Singapore’s defense minister, Tony Tan, said that he was concerned that this incident and others like it were practice runs for a terrorist attack.
Just as terrorists learned to be pilots for 9/11, terrorists may now be learning to be pirates. Purposely grounding a crude carrier hauling two million barrels of oil at a place like Batu Berhanti, where the strait is little more than a mile wide, would close the waterway indefinitely. The delay in oil supplies to China, Japan and South Korea could devastate their economies, setting off a global economic crisis.
Such concerns are why Potengal Mukundan, the director of the International Maritime Bureau, said he was encouraged that there have been no attacks since the tsunami. “Many of the pirates may have died,“ Captain Mukundan said.
It is also possible that the large American military presence as part of the tsunami relief efforts in Aceh has given the pirates pause.
Now, one hopes, these countries will take note of what an increased military presence can accomplish, because the pause in piracy will not last forever, nor will the cease-fire the Free Aceh Movement made with the Indonesian government in the aftermath of the tsunami. Unless Indonesia and Malaysia accept American help in fighting them, the pirates will be back. And we’ll be lucky if plundering loot is all they have in mind.
NYTIMES.COM"

Iran denies reports of Laden arrest- The Times of India

2005-02-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

Iran denies reports of Laden arrest- The Times of India: "Iran denies reports of Laden arrest

AFP[ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2005 02:29:45 AM ]
TEHRAN: Iran denied on Monday suggestions on some local Internet sites that it arrested al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, the Western world's most wanted man, on the border with Pakistan.

"This information is wrong and bin Laden has not been arrested by our security forces," government spokes-man Abdollah Rameza-nzadeh said at a weekly press briefing.

Some Iranian Internet sites quoted American officials as saying the al Qaida leader, who has a $25-million US bounty on his head, had been held two weeks ago by Iranian forces. The Saudi-born militant is blamed for the 9/11 terror strikes in the US."

American Son of Former Shah Has Meetings With Hossein Khomeini

2005-02-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Iranian Reformists:
American playboy Reza Pahlavi whose father was once Shah of Iran has been meeting with a shifty mullah with links to American Neocons and the Pro-Israel lobby. The shifty mullah Hossein Khomeini has become known as the Pro-American Friend of Israel. More sinister still Khomeini is publicly linked with the Ultra-Violent MKO and Mossad's own Michael Ledeen

"Pahlavi said he has also had discrete contacts with some members of the Shiite Muslim clergy in Iran who favour a separation of religious and state powers, an even with the grandson of the Ayatollah Khomeini, Hossein Khomeini, who is now a critic of the regime."

Over our dead bodies!

2005-02-16T04:46:00.000-08:00

Over our dead bodies!: "Here's a riddle:

What would a right-wing Reaganian Likud party advocate, a lobbyist for the American Israeli Public Affair Committee, a neocon former vice presidential candidate, a right-wing AEI arms dealer, a JINSA adviser, another neocon think thanker, a half-iranian president of Caspian Energy Consuling, a spokesman and fundraiser for the Mujahedin-e Khalq and a former CIA director have in common?

Well…

It’s called the Coalition For Democracy in Iran!

That's what I call a trustworthy credible institution!

But seriously, I wish these people could look us in the eyes and say they're after real "democracy" in Iran!

Whom are they kidding? "

Rafsanjani condemns Hariri assassination

2005-02-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

Description of Selected News: "Rafsanjani condemns Hariri assassination

TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday condemned the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Rafsanjani said in his message that the report on assassination of Hariri and his death in Beirut blast had depressed him.

While strongly condemning such "sinister terrorist measures", Rafsanjani condoled Lebanese President, government and nation, especially the bereaved family of Hariri on the catastrophe.

Also Majlis speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel condemned the assassination of Hariri.

He said the people or groups behind the irreparable assassination are the enemies of Lebanon's unity.

A massive car bomb killed Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Beirut's waterfront on Monday.

At least eight others, some of them Hariri's bodyguards, also died.

Hariri's motorcade was blown up as it passed along an exclusive section of the city's waterfront Corniche.

The explosion which took place close to the St. George Hotel gouged a deep crater on the road, ripped facades from luxury buildings and left half a dozen cars ablaze on streets carpeted with rubble.

It appeared to be the biggest bomb explosion in the city since the Lebanese civil war ended in 1990. The blast could be heard even outside Beirut's city limits and shattered windows of buildings located hundreds of meters away."

Iran Daily: Germany Bans MKO Rally

2005-02-11T10:29:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily "Germany Bans MKO Rally

BERLIN, Feb. 11--German police banned Thursday's rally by Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) in Berlin, fearing possible violent acts by the Iraq-based terrorist group, a police spokeswoman told IRNA.
"The demonstration was cancelled by police because they had doubts about the peaceful slogans of the rally which was supposed to be about Iran's human rights situation and its nuclear program," she said.
The MKO organizers wanted to begin the gathering at noon in downtown Berlin.
She pointed out that MKO supporters were told via police loudspeakers that the rally has been banned and that they should leave the area.
They were threatened with arrests in the face of refusal.
The organizers, who have lodged a complaint against the police action, said the ban was announced as some 40,000 MKO agents from across Europe were converging on Berlin.
The figure could not be independently verified.
An AFP photographer said around 400 to 500 people had gathered peacefully on a square in western Berlin away from the Brandenburg Gate and were being carefully monitored by police.
The MKO is on the official terrorist list of the German government, apart from the terrorist lists of the United States and the European Union."

OFAC update 8/15/03 - MKO Listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist

2005-02-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

OFAC update 8/15/03: "August 15, 2003--

Foreign Terrorist Organization ("[FTO]") the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE OF IRAN (NCRI) has now also been listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist ("[SDGT]"), including its U.S. representative offices and all other offices worldwide.

The following clarifications to existing entries have also been issued:

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE (NCR) (a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION; a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ; a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE'S HOLY WARRIORS OF IRAN; a.k.a. PEOPLE'S MUJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN; a.k.a. PMOI; a.k.a. SAZEMAN-E MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ-E IRAN; a.k.a. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY OF IRAN), including its U.S. representative offices and all other offices worldwide [FTO][SDGT]

PEOPLE'S MUJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN (a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION; a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE (NCR); a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE'S HOLY WARRIORS OF IRAN; a.k.a. PMOI; a.k.a. SAZEMAN-E MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ-E IRAN; a.k.a. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY OF IRAN), including its U.S. press office and all other offices worldwide [FTO][SDGT]

PMOI (a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION; a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE (NCR); a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE'S HOLY WARRIORS OF IRAN; a.k.a. PEOPLE'S MUJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN; a.k.a. SAZEMAN-E MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ-E IRAN; a.k.a. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY OF IRAN), including its U.S. press office and all other offices worldwide [FTO][SDGT] "

Gulf Daily News: Terrorists March in Berlin, Govt fails to Stop Them

2005-02-10T18:22:00.000-08:00

Gulf Daily News: "Exiles rally for Iran reforms
BERLIN: Around 1,000 Iranian exiles from Europe marched in Berlin yesterday, urging democratic change in Iran on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A German court lifted a ban imposed earlier by Berlin authorities, freeing the exiles to march towards the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin, a police spokeswoman said.

Earlier, a spokeswoman in Berlin's interior ministry had said the demonstration posed a threat to public security and was an action on behalf of the exiled opposition People's Mujahideen Organisation, branded a terrorist group by the United States and European Union.

The rally was transferred to Berlin at short notice after French authorities refused to allow it to take place in Paris.

"We think it is time for the world to take a decisive stance against the regime in Iran," said Ali Safavi of the Mujahideen's political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

He said the group opposed foreign military intervention in Iran but was also against what he called a European policy of "appeasement".

President George W Bush said last month he had not ruled out military options against Iran's nuclear programme, which Washington says is designed to build an atomic bomb. Tehran denies this and says it is solely for generating electricity."

Iran Daily: US May Employ TERRORISTS (MKO) For Espionage Against Iran

2005-02-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

Iran Daily: "US May Employ MKO For Espionage

WASHINGTON,
Feb. 8-The US State Department has singled out the Iranian Mujaheedin Khalq Organization (MKO) as a terrorist group, but some administration hawks think its members could be useful, Newsweek said in its latest edition.
At a camp south of Baghdad, known as Ashraf, 3,850 MKO members have been confined but gently treated by US forces since the 2003 invasion of Iraq (once they were allies of Saddam against their own country in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war).
Now the administration is seeking to cull useful MKO members as operatives for use against Tehran, all while insisting that it does not deal with the MKO as a group, American government sources say.
Some Pentagon civilians and intelligence planners are hoping a corps of informants can be picked from among the MKO prisoners, then split from the movement and given training as spies, US officials were quoted as saying by the magazine.
After that, the thinking goes, they will be sent back to Iran to gather intelligence on the ruling establishment, particularly its alleged plans to develop nuclear weapons. Some hawks also hope they could help to "reawaken" the democratic reform movement in Iran.
"They [want] to make us mercenaries," one MKO official told Newsweek.
The group's own former role in terrorist attacks dates back to its support for the US embassy takeover in 1979."

Notes on Raymond Tanter

2005-02-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Notes on Raymond Tanter: "Notes on Raymond Tanter

Long Time Terrorist Associate
Raymond Tanter has a long history of association with the Ultra-Violent Islamic/Marxist Terrorist Group the Mujahedin-e Khalq. Tanter who is a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan has deeply involved himself in both furthering and financing groups that the US Government and other credible organizations clearly say are fronts for terrorism. Tanter is a spokesman and fundraiser for the Mujahedin-e Khalq also known as the MEK or MKO. Despite the fact that the MEK has been involved in the brutal murder of innocent men, women, and children, as well as terrorist attacks on the US Military Tanter chooses to associate himself with Mujahedin-e Khalq front organizations. If we apply President Bush's definition of Terrorism then we must conclude that Raymond Tanter is a Terrorist.
Charity Event May Have Terrorist Link (washingtonpost.com)"

Mojahedin aliases

2005-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

Mojahedinaliases: "FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL ACT

FIL-69-2003

August 29, 2003

TO: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (also of interest to BSA Compliance Officer)

SUBJECT: Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons

Summary Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has added one entity as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and modified three entries on its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.

On August 15, 2003, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list, including its U.S. representative offices and all other offices worldwide. OFAC also made clarifications to the following existing entries:

National Council of Resistance (a.k.a. Mujahedin-E Khalq Organization; a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. Mujahedin-E Khalq; a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. Organization of the People's Holy Warriors of Iran; a.k.a. People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran; a.k.a. PMOI; a.k.a. Sazeman-E Mujahedin-E Khalq-E Iran; a.k.a. The National Liberation Army of Iran), including its U.S. representative offices and all other offices worldwide;

People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (a.k.a. Mujahedin-E Khalq Organization; a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. Mujahedin-E Khalq; a.k.a. National Council of Resistance; a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. Organization of the People's Holy Warriors of Iran; a.k.a. PMOI; a.k.a. Sazeman-E Mujahedin-E Khalq-E Iran; a.k.a. The National Liberation Army of Iran), including its U.S. press office and all other offices worldwide; and

PMOI (a.k.a. Mujahedin-E Khalq Organization; a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. Mujahedin-E Khalq; a.k.a. National Council of Resistance; a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. Organization of the People's Holy Warriors of Iran; a.k.a. People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran; a.k.a. Sazeman-E Mujahedin-E Khalq-E Iran; a.k.a. The National Liberation Army of Iran), including its U.S. press office and all other offices worldwide.

More Mojahedin aliases previously published by Iran-Interlink:

Germany

1 Democratic Iranian Graduates and Specialists Association - Germany
2 Iranian Solidarity Association in Karlsruhe
3 Iranian Society - Munster
4 Iranian Refugee Society - Germany
5 Democratic Iranian Center - Kerfeld
6 Revival of Iranian Music Association
7 Iranians' Solidarity Association - Hanover
8 Iranian Refugee's Association - Darmstadt
9 Association of Women for Democracy in Iran - Bremmen
10 Association of Martyrs' Mothers - Germany
11 Iranians' Solidarity Association, Residents of Bucham City
12 Supporters of the People's Mojahedin of Iran Association - Koln (Cologne)
13 IMD Iran television program in Hanburg
14 Television program Negah - Hanover
15 Munich Iranian Society
16 Asylum Society in Rashstadt
17 Iranian Democratic Society - Durn
18 Iranian Society - Hamburg
19 Iranian Refugee Society - Frankfurt
20 Augsburg Iranian Society
21 Iranian Society in Leipzig
22 Iranians' Asylum Society in Stuttgart
23 Iranian Refugees Society of Berlin
24 Refugees Society of Freiberg
25 Refugee Athletes' society of Nuremberg
26 Independent Association of Iranians of Essen
27 Athletes Committee, Supporters of the National Council of Resistance - Germany
28 Iranians' Solidarity Association of Guttengen
29 Supporters of the People's Mojahedin of Iran in Giessen - Germany
30 Independent Iranian Refugees' Association - Dortmund
31 Women's Association - Kerfeldt, Dortmund
32 Political Prisoners' Union (in exile) Germany Unit

England

1 Iranian Wholesale Merchants' Union in England
2 Iranian Youth Association - Supporters of the Resistance of Iran
3 Iranian Women's Association - North East of England
4 Simorgh Association - for the Revival of Iranian Art in Britain
5 Iranian Cultural Center in Middlesbrough
6 ASM Iranian Association (Iranian Architects, Electronic and Mechanical engineers)
7 Association of Iranian Merchants
8 Association of Muslim Students - England
9 Iranian Welfare Association in Britain
10 Iranian Women's Association in Britain
11 National Association of Iranian Academics Britain
12 Association of Iranian Specialists - England
13 Iranian Society in Liverpool - England
14 Society of Iranian Professors of Northern England Universities
15 The Iranian Community in Metropolitan Manchester - England
16 A Large Iranian Community in London
17 The Iranian Community in Bristol
18 Iranian Cultural Association in Newcastle
19 Association of Iranian specialists in Glasgow
20 Anglo Iranian Women in the UK - front person Azam Leila Jazayeri nee Mollahzadeh

America

1 Association of Iranians in North California
2 Association of Iranians in Colorado - USA
3 Association of Iranians in Washington DC
4 The Religious Society in America
5 Iran-America Friendship Association in Illinois
6 Iran-America Cultural Association (Missouri)
7 Iran Zamin Cultural Association - Washington DC
8 Virginia State Leading Americans' Cultural Association
9 Association of Iranian and American Specialists and Physicians
10 Iranian Society in Houston
11 San Antonio's Iranian Society
12 Massachusetts' Iranian Society
13 Association of Iranian Women - America
14 The Specialists' Society - Supporters of the NCR in Houston
15 Iran Lovers in Mississippi
16 The Council of Iranian Specialists and Intellectuals in North Carolina
17 Iranian and American Solidarity Committee in Kansas
18 The Human Rights Center in Wisconsin
19 The Editorial Board of Iran Brief Monthly
20 Kooch ya Parvaz magazine editorial board
21 Mehr-e Iran School Management Board - Virginia USA
22 Political Prisoners Union - American Unit

Norway, Denmark, Sweden

1 Iranian Women's Society in Norway
2 Society of Iranian Specialists and Graduates in Norway
3 Society of Iranian Athletes in Norway
4 Iranian Radio-Television Association in Denmark
5 Iran and Denmark Cultural Association
6 Iranian Students' Association in Denmark
7 Association of Iranian Athletes in Denmark
8 Association of Iranian Women in Denmark
9 Association of Iranian Graduates in Denmark
10 Iranian Tortured Political Prisoners Association - Sweden
11 Association of Iranian Women in Sweden
12 Association of Supporters of the People's Mojahedin in Sweden
13 Association of Iranian Specialists in Sweden
14 Athletes' Society in Sweden
15 Iranian Artists' Society - Sweden
16 Association of Supporters of Iranian Refugees in Sweden

Switzerland, Italy and France

1 Society of Iranian Women in Switzerland
2 Association of Iranian Muslim Students in Switzerland
3 Aftab Association in France
4 Association of Supporters of Iranian Refugees (ASRI) in Switzerland
5 Association of democratic Iranian Women, Italy
6 Iranian Graduates' Society in Italy
7 Association in Defence of Iranian Children France
8 Association of Iranian Graduates and Specialists in France
9 Freedom and Culture Association, France
10 Iranian National Musical Instrument Group (SAMA) - France
11 Political Prisoners Union (in exile) France Unit
12 Association of Iranian Women in France
13 Association of Iranian Mothers of the Executed, France
14 Iranian Muslim Students' Association, France

Austria and Netherlands

1 Iranian Muslim Students' Association, the Netherlands
2 Association of Specialists and Artists - Austria
3 Muslim Students' Association, Supporters of the Mojahedin - the Netherlands
4 Society of Iranian Women in the Netherlands
5 Iranian Refugees' Society in the Netherlands
6 Iranian Art and Culture Society in the Netherlands
7 Iranian Specialists' Society - the Netherlands
8 Solidarity with the Netherlands' Iranian Association (SHI)
9 Association of Supporters of Iranian Refugees in the Netherlands (SIM)
10 Association of Supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organisation - Austria

Canada and Australia

1 Association of Iranian Specialists and Graduates - Canada (Ottawa)
2 Persian Club in Toronto
3 Political Prisoners Union (in exile) Canada Unit
4 Association of Supporters of the People's Mojahedin of Iran, Vancouver Canada
5 Association of Supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organisation in Australia
6 Association of Iranian Muslim Students in Australia"

Contractors: Basement Finishing in Alexandria, Virginia (VA)

2005-02-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

Contractors: Basement Finishing in Alexandria, Virginia (VA): "Crawford Associates, LLC., Reston, VA
Phone: 703 860-4319
Availability: Available Now
Distance: 78.8 miles

Home Improvement Contractor specialized in Remodeling/finishing projects: basement, kitchen, bathroom. Our team is experienced, our prices reasonable. Free estimates available! "

Brit Channel 4 TV Backs Chechen Terrorist Warlord

2005-02-04T11:40:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News - Chechen Warlord Interview Rankles Russia: "Chechen Warlord Interview Rankles Russia

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - Russia lashed out at Britain on Friday after an independent TV channel there aired an interview with Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, saying the broadcast amounted to terrorist propaganda and calling for an investigation.

The Foreign Ministry expressed "deep regret" that Channel 4 aired the interview with "the famous terrorist-murderer Shamil Basayev" and condemned it as "direct informational support of terrorists operating in the North Caucasus," the Russian region that includes Chechnya (news - web sites).

Channel 4 defended the interview, saying it had sent Basayev questions and later received instructions to pick up a package containing video discs in an undisclosed Middle Eastern city. It said the video appeared to have been recorded about three weeks ago.

"It is simply not the case that the running of such material can be equated with condoning it," the network said in a statement.

The ministry said Moscow is concerned that the interview was broadcast in the nation that currently chairs the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, "where the struggle against terrorism is one of the key themes," and suggested the broadcast violated U.N. anti-terror resolutions.

"In the current conditions, any attempts to justify providing a tribune to terrorists with the blood of innocent victims, including children, on their hands by citing the freedom of speech look at least cynical," the statement said.

Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the September hostage-taking raid on a school in the southern Russian city of Beslan that ended with more than 330 captives dead, said in the Channel 4 interview that separatist rebels were planning more such operations.

Basayev expressed regret for the hundreds of deaths in the attack, but blamed Russian forces who stormed the school. He said the school siege had originally been planned for Moscow or St. Petersburg — much further from Chechnya — but that militants had run out of money.

The Russian statement said that publicizing threats from Basayev, who it said is on an Interpol wanted list and a U.N. list of terrorists, "is in no way compatible with common human morals and the values of democratic society."

"We expect an adequate reaction from the British court system, without which any citation of the principles of a law-based state would look like empty words," it said.

Russia also criticized Britain for granting asylum to Ahkmed Zakayev, an envoy of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Zakayev's presence in Britain has harmed relations between Moscow and London, prompting Russian accusations of double standards on terrorism.

Also Friday, prosecutors in southern Russia said the attackers who were killed in the Beslan school seizure have been buried at an undisclosed location and, in accordance with Russian law, without notification of their relatives.

Russian authorities have said that there were 32 assailants and that 31 of them were killed."