 By: Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury Just for criticizing the undemocratic activities of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian reformist journalist Bahman Ahmadi Amoui was sentenced to over seven years imprisonment and 34 lashes by Tehran Revolutionary Court on January 4, 2010. Amoui was an editor for the prominent economic newspaper Sarmayeh, which was closed by the government in November, and had been in prison since 20 June 2009.The same day, 36 parliamentarians supportive of Ahmadinejad drafted a bill that would require the execution of government critics detained as "Mohareb" [enemies of God] within five days of their arrest. The bill also calls for the period of time allotted for appeals in cases of public order disturbances or "Moharebeh" [war against God] to be brought down from 25 days to five days. It is no strange that Iranian Mullah’s are putting Ahmadinejad into the position of ‘God’ by passing this notorious bill. I don’t know how the Arab ‘brethrens’ of Iran as well other Muslim nations will now react when Iranian Mullahs are already putting their President into the position of ‘God’ and onwards critics of Ahmadinejad will be treated as ‘enemies of God’. Meanwhile, Iran's Intelligence ministry has prepared a list of 60 foreign organizations and news outlets that would be banned from the country for alleged involvement in rioting or incitement. The list included Voice of America, BBC, Human Rights Watch, National Endowment for Democracy, National Republican Institute, Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Search For Common Ground Organization, New American Foundation, British Center for Democratic Studies, East European Democratic Center, YALE, Ford Foundation, Foundation for Democracy in Iran, MEMRI, U.S. National Defense University, The Smith Richardson Foundation, Wilton Park, and Brookings Institute. Any Iranian in contact with a news outlet on the list could be arrested. Iranian missions abroad are already warned not to have minimal contacts with any of the organizations and media outlets, which are already in the list. A prominent Tehran-based professor of law, Mahmud Akhundi, told Radio Farda that the Intelligence Ministry’s list and warning have no legal basis. "It is in clear contradiction with human rights principles and with international principles of law. It doesn’t even have any Sharia-based justification,” Akhundi said. Nobody has the right “to define an action that has not been defined previously as a crime, as being criminal,” he added. Activists and opposition supporters say Iranian authorities have been intensifying efforts to limit the free flow of information in and out of Iran in the wake of mass protests against June's disputed presidential election. In late November, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran was facing a "soft war" with its enemies abroad, who were fomenting the street protests that hit the country following the disputed June 12 vote. "Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has always been trying to prevent contacts between Iranians inside the country and international organizations,” says Faraj Sarkuhi, a prominent Iranian exiled writer and journalist. “In the past they accused the publication 'Adineh,' of which I was the chief editor, of espionage over contacts with International PEN [writers' organization] and said it is illegal.” According to media reports, Iran has become the country with the largest number of imprisoned journalists following the sentencing of two journalists to prison terms of at least six years each, bringing the total number of journalists currently detained in the Islamic republic to 42. The 2009 winner of the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award, Ahmad Zeydabadi was also sentenced to five years banishment in Gonabad, a remote northeastern town over 600 miles [1000 kilometers] from Teheran, to be served following his prison term. He was also banned for life from political activity and is currently held in solitary confinement in the infamous Evin prison, under pressure from Iranian authorities to issue a public confession. Paris-based organization Reporters Sans Frontiers [Reporters Without Borders] says Iran has earned the dubious distinction of being the number-one assailant of press freedoms in the world, after several sentences were handed down. RSF termed Iran as the ‘biggest prison in the world for journalists’. In a statement, Reporters Sans Frontiers said, “We are very disturbed by the calls repeatedly made by the most senior officials for Iran to impose the ‘supreme punishment’ on detainees, including journalists. The danger is imminent. The regime hardliners are capable of having the crackdown’s witnesses executed. There is an urgent need for international bodies to take action before a tragedy takes place, before political prisoners begin being executed. An intelligence ministry representative said at a news conference on 4 January: “Several agents from foreign countries have been arrested with cameras and video cameras.” The ministry also released a list of 60 NGOs and news media regarded as having incited and participated in rioting. “The intelligence ministry and Revolutionary Guards began rounding up government opponents and journalists again after further opposition demonstrations on 27 December. Around 20 people have been arrested in the latest wave, including a dozen or so journalists and cyber-dissidents. The relatives of the detained journalists are still lining up outside Evin prison in an attempt to get news of those believed to be held there.” Vienna based International Press Institute [IPI]’s press freedom manager Anthony Mills said, it is unacceptable that the Iranian authorities are responding to criticism in the media by arresting journalists and handing down prison sentences. The crackdown on the media must end immediately and the journalists imprisoned simply for doing their job must be freed. IPI has repeatedly condemned the intensified crackdown by the Iranian authorities on journalists. New York based Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ] in a statement said; “Iranian authorities have arrested at least three more journalists in their ongoing campaign to suppress critical reporting and commentary, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrests and calls on the government to release all imprisoned journalists, who number more than 30. “Behrang Tonkaboni, editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine Farhang va Ahang, and Kayyvan Farzin, a reporter for the publication, were arrested at their office on Monday, according to local news reports. Police searched Tonkaboni’s home, confiscating his computer and documents belonging to his mother, the prominent author Lili Farhadpour, news reports said. Authorities also seized Farzin’s computer hard drive. “Parisa Kakaee, a journalist for the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, was arrested Sunday after being summoned by the Ministry of Information, the reformist news Web site Kalame reported. Kakaee writes regularly about political and human rights issues on her two blogs. Since the disputed presidential elections in June, Iranian authorities have launched a relentless assault on opposition and independent media. CPJ has documented numerous cases in which authorities have shut down newspapers, blocked Web sites, arrested and sentenced journalists to lengthy prison sentences. Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator said, Iranian authorities have apparently decided to arrest as many independent and opposition journalists as they possibly can. We call on the Iranian authorities to reverse this regrettable course and release all detained journalists.
 An Iranian university professor killed last week by a blast from a remote-controlled bomb strapped to a parked motorcycle may have been the victim of an Arab hitman, according to opposition groups. The murder of Masoud Ali Mohammadi, 50, a supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader, has been blamed by the Tehran regime on “mercenaries” financed by Israel and Washington because of his role as a nuclear physicist. However, opposition groups who monitor Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese movement, in Tehran, claim that a member of the group, known by his pseudonym “Abu Nasser”, was photographed at the scene of the explosion in Tehran’s affluent Gheytarih suburb. A German-based opposition group released a photograph of a man of similar appearance who, it alleges, was one of the pro-regime demonstrators who stormed Mousavi’s office in Tehran after disputed presidential elections last June. The opposition claims the Revolutionary Guard uses Hezbollah operatives for some bloodthirsty tasks because they have a reputation for ruthlessness, and are outsiders and can always be blamed as opposition sympathisers. Tehran has gone to great lengths to suggest that Mohammadi was killed because he was a nuclear scientist, implying that he was part of Iran’s program to develop nuclear weapons. However, Majid Mohammadi, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Global Studies at Stony Brook University, New York, and also a friend, said: “He was not a nuclear physicist. He was just a physicist. I believe the Iranian [official] media highlight this word ‘nuclear’ to imply he was killed by the Israelis or Americans.” Click here for more from the Sunday Times. FoxNews
 IRANIAN nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi was killed today in a rare bomb attack in Tehran which state media quickly blamed on "counter-revolutionaries" and foreign powers. MrMohammadi, a lecturer at Tehran university, died when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle was triggered by remote control outside his home in the northern Tehran neighbourhood of Qeytariyeh, state media said. Iran's state broadcaster said Mr Mohammadi was "assassinated in a terrorist act by counter-revolutionaries and agents of the arrogance," without naming any sources. Iranian officials usually refer to the United States and some other Western powers as the "global arrogance". Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the ISNA news agency that Mr Mohammadi was a lecturer in nuclear energy and said the booby-trapped bike was parked outside his house and exploded as he was getting into his car. Bomb attacks are rare in Iran although several security officials and members of the elite Revolutionary Guards have been killed in bombings by rebels in restive Sistan-Baluchestan province in eastern Iran. A witness said today's explosion was a "strong blast breaking window glasses in neighbouring houses and cars." Iran's state-run Arabic-language TV Al-Alam identified Mohammadi as a "hezbollahi" teacher -- a term used for staunch supporters of the Iranian regime. "This assassination may have been carried out by the Hypocrites (Iran's exiled People's Mujahedeen opposition) or planned by the Zionist regime," Al-Alam said. Iranian authorities have consistently accused arch foes the United States and Israel of seeking to ferment unrest in Iran. Hardliners have also accused the People's Mujahedeen of infiltrating anti-government protests and carrying out attacks. The Australian
 WASHINGTON: Iran has hidden a large part of its atomic complex in networks of tunnels and bunkers across the country, shielding its infrastructure from military attack in warrens of dense rock while obscuring the scale of its nuclear effort, according to reports yesterday. The effort to hide its capability complicated the West's military and geopolitical calculus and helped shield Tehran from attack, US reports said. The Obama administration is pressing for strong and immediate new sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program. Analysts told The New York Times that Iran's tunnelling - which Tehran calls a strategy of "passive defence" - was a crucial factor behind the push for non-military solutions to the issue. The report said US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates had discounted the possibility of a military strike against Iran, in the belief it would only slow Tehran's nuclear program by one to three years while driving the project further underground. "It complicates your targeting," Richard L. Russell, a former CIA analyst now at the National Defence University, told the paper yesterday. "We're used to facilities being above ground. Underground, it becomes literally a black hole. You can't be sure what's taking place." US government and private experts told the paper there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tunnels in Iran, and that the lines separating their use could be fuzzy. Companies owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, for example, built civilian as well as military tunnels. No one in the West knows how much, or exactly what part of Iran's nuclear program lies hidden in the tunnels. The report said the original hub of the nuclear complex at Isfahan consisted of scores of buildings that were easily observed and easy to attack, but US government analysts said that in recent years Iran had honeycombed the nearby mountains with tunnels. Satellite photos showed six entrances. But the Obama administration has been careful to leave the military option on the table against Iran, and the Pentagon is racing to develop a deadly tunnel weapon. The report said the device - seven metres long and called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator - began as a 2004 recommendation from the US Defence Science Board, a high-level advisory group to the Pentagon. It underwent preliminary testing in 2007, and its first deployment is expected in the northern summer. It will be carried by the B-2 stealth bomber. The report yesterday came as a Pentagon-sponsored study by the Rand Corporation said the Revolutionary Guards had "gained primacy" in Iran since the 2009 presidential election. The Australian
 These events have been reported to World Threats. These 17 people have been detained by the regime during the Ashura and Tasua uprisings. These detainees are:
1-Bahram Moosivand, 27years old, air force seargent,
2-Mahsa Yadollahi Razavi, 24years old, arrested under Hafez bridge,
3-Roojan Noorian, 31 years old, arrested in Vali-e-Asr Sq.
4-Ashkan Saeedi, 24 years old, arrested in Vali-e-Asr Sq.
5-Majid Poor Abed, 29years old, arrested in Imam Hossein Sq in Tasua,
6-Seyyed Aliraza Hosseini, 25years old, arrested in Enghelab. He was attacked by plainclothes and while two Plainclothes dragged him they threw him in SSF’s van and transferred him.
7-Amir Amir Entezami, 30 years old, arrested in Hafez St.,
8-Hamed Asgharpoor, 22years old, arrested in Imam Hossein,
9-Mohsen Hakimi, 30 years old,
10-Arin Nezam Abadi, 23 years old, arrested in Tohid,
11-Ahmadreza Ghasempoor Najafabadi, 28years old, arrested in Vali-e-Asr intersection,
12-Aref Naseri, 21years old, arrested in Keshavarz Blvd.,
13-Ali Zolanvar, 36 years old, arrested in Azadi,
14-Farshid Karimi, 27years old, arrested in Azerbaijan St.,
15-Mehdi Vaezi , 24years old,
16-Mostafa Arab, 32years old, arrested in Vali-e-Asr Sq.,
17-Kamal Heydardost, arrested in Ferdosi.
Jan. 5 - Thirty six members of the Majlis (Parliament) who are also former torturers and RGC commanders have demanded that the detainees of the uprising be executed as soon as possible.
They are characterizing the detainees as Mohareb (presuming this is some kind of negative religious term). Jan. 5 - The deputy head of the Parliament has demanded the suppression of members of the opposition who are out of the country. Jan. 5 - To spread an atmosphere of terror, the regime is hanging people in different cities on a daily basis. Analysis. The mullocracy is not doing well. Considering the size of the demonstrations during the ten days of Ashura, it is highly doubtful that even mass hangings will cause any diminution of the hatred for the regime.
Attempts to get at the PMOI in Iraq will not go over well with the Iraqis. Attempts to get at the PMOI in France and other parts of Europe will go over even less well. The Europeans are already unhappy with Iran over their nuclear programs. Should expatriate Iranians start turning up dead the Europeans will consider taking a lot more serious action against Iran. World Threats 
 The United States said on Monday it had begun discussing with other countries fresh sanctions to try to pressure Iran's government and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to curb Tehran's nuclear programs. "We have already begun discussions with our partners and with like-minded nations about pressure and sanctions," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani. "Our goal is to pressure the Iranian government, particularly the Revolutionary Guard elements, without contributing to the suffering of the ordinary (people), who deserve better than what they currently are receiving," she added. Clinton said the United States, which accuses Iran of secretly pursuing nuclear arms under the cover of its civil nuclear program, will continue its "dual-track" approach of seeking an end to the program through negotiations while also considering sanctions as a way to change Tehran's policy. Iran has rebuffed the West's year-end deadline to accept an enrichment fuel deal aimed at quelling international fears it is trying to build nuclear weapons, something Clinton said disappointed the Obama administration. She also said Washington was "disturbed by the mounting signs of ruthless repression" that the Iranian authorities have shown in cracking down on protests against the leadership since a disputed election in June. YNet
 The Obama administration believes domestic unrest and signs of unexpected trouble in Iran's nuclear program make the country's leaders particularly vulnerable to strong and immediate new sanctions. As US President Barack Obama faces pressure to back up his year-end ultimatum for diplomatic progress with Iran, reports yesterday said strong and immediate new sanctions would initiate the latest phase in a strategy to force Iran to comply with UN demands to halt production of nuclear fuel. The sanctions proposal comes as the administration has completed a fresh review of Iran's nuclear progress. Mr Obama's strategists believe Iran's top political and military leaders were distracted in recent months by turmoil in the streets and political infighting, and that their drive to produce nuclear fuel appears to have faltered, officials told The New York Times. The White House wants to focus the new sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps believed to run the nuclear weapons effort. Although repeated rounds of sanctions over many years have not dissuaded Iran from pursuing nuclear technology, a US administration official involved in the Iran policy said the hope was that the current troubles "give us a window to impose the first sanctions that may make the Iranians think the nuclear program isn't worth the price tag", the paper noted. The Obama administration officials said they believed Iran's bomb-development effort was seriously derailed by the exposure three months ago of the country's secret enrichment plant under construction near the holy city of Qom. Exposure of the site deprived Iran of its best chance of covertly producing the highly enriched uranium needed to make fuel for nuclear weapons. As well, international nuclear inspectors report that at Iran's plant in Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges spin to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel, the number of the machines operating has dropped by 20 per cent since the northern summer, a decline that nuclear experts attribute to technical problems. Others, including some European officials, believe the problems may have been accentuated by a series of covert efforts by the West to undermine Iran's program, including sabotage on its imported equipment and infrastructure. These factors have led the Obama administration's policymakers to lengthen their estimate of how long it would take Iran to accomplish what nuclear experts call "covert breakout" -- the ability to secretly produce a workable weapon. "For now, the Iranians don't have a credible breakout option, and we don't think they will have one for at least 18 months, maybe two or three years," the paper quotes one senior administration official as saying. The administration has told allies that the longer time frame would allow the sanctions to have an effect before Iran could develop to the full its nuclear ability. The Australian
 Introduction: Since the fraudulent June 12th Presidential elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), an increasingly emboldened opposition, the green movement, has arisen to demand the overthrow of the IRI. The green movement refuses to desist from launching massive street protests in Tehran, Qom, Isfahan and other major Iranian cities. All this is occurring despite violence wreaked upon thousands of valiant regime opponents by the ruling Mullahs and President Ahmadinejad.
As of this writing more than 15 have been killed in clashes with Iranian security services including the nephew of reformist Presidential candidate Mir Mohammad Mousavi, former IRI Prime Minister. Moreover several dissident leaders have been jailed. Something major is brewing in Iran - possibly revolution. As the year was closing, first a crescendo of massive protests occurred at Students Day events. Then tens of thousands used the occasion of the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri to demonstrate their determination to end the rule of the Supreme Ruling Council head, Ayatollah Khamanei, and his puppet President Ahmadinejad. The final bloody weekend of 2009 witnessed the faltering IRI regime undertaking unprecedented security measures to pre-empt public mourning and observances of the Shi’a Ashura holy day. Police, revolutionary guard and the Basiji para-military forces blanketed Tehran in a vain attempt to stifle public gatherings. They failed. Massive throngs of people from all classes in Tehran and other major cities defied bans in spite of warnings that violators would be dealt with mercilessly.
As a Der Spiegel article reported these protesters were shouting: “We will fight, we will die, we will reconquer our country.” There were graphic video images sent via the internet of protesters engaged in street battles with Basiji forces. Now there are reports that elements of the Iranian Military may have sided with the opposition in support of a secular republic. Jane Jamison in the American Thinker noted in a report, “Iranian Military moves in support the people’s revolution”: It is difficult to verify, but factions in the Iranian military may be breaking rank to join the people’s cause. A group calling itself the National Iranian Armed Resistance Forces (NIRU) posted a news release on an Iranian protest website at the end of the day’s violence. We, a number of Officers, Soldiers and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, hereby declare our readiness for rise to the armed defense of our nation against the forces of the criminal, illegitimate transgressing and occupying current Government of Iran, and hereby inform our brothers and sisters serving with the armed security forces of Iran, invite them to join us, request their support and ask them to provide cover for us in this moral & national act. A special request for support & cooperation goes to our brothers of the Military Police. The NIRU says it intends to secure Iranian radio and television stations, the Parliament, and the courts, will hold local elections and referendums within 3 months and new presidential elections within 9 months and will dissolve the murderous “Basij” plainclothes police and establish a new national police force. Protection and firepower from even a few factions of the military could signal a critical momentum change for the Iranian people, who by law cannot own weapons. All this occurred despite the visible tyranny imposed by Basij para-military, Revolutionary Guards, and regime secret police arresting, beating and torturing opposition student and opposition political leaders. All this amidst vain attempts to prevent the news of this emerging Iranian revolution reaching the world by cell phone and the internet. Some observers have even suggested that the apocalyptic version of Shia Islam espoused by the ruling Mullahs, might ultimately be consigned to the dustbin of history if such a revolution occurred. Amir Taheri, expatriate Iranian journalist, in a Wall Street Journal column, “Iran’s Democracy Moment,” has pronounced the democracy movement a possible “hinge moment” in Iranian history reflecting the increasing demand by opposition protesters for replacement of the oppressive theocracy with a democratic secular republic.
This development comes at a time when the ruling Mullahs are desperate to retain control in a truculent nation where many clearly despise Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei and President Ahmadinejad. These unexpected developments throw into confusion the responses of the Obama Administration in Washington and that of other international players regarding how to deter the Mullahs from their inexorable quest for the ultimate apocalyptic weapon of choice- a nuclear bomb and the missiles for delivering it. In the face of evident rebellion by Iranians against the Mullahs, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Sen. John Kerry, was seeking clearance from the White House to travel as an emissary to Tehran to confer with the IRI regime that could be in the throes of dissolution. This was an incredible affront to the opposition movement leaders in Iran and supporters of Iranian regime change in America, Europe and Israel. Ehud Barak, Israel’s Minister of Defense in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government announced daunting prospects of a possible unilateral military option against the IRI’s nuclear facilities. In a Jerusalem Post report when he said: . . . that the recently revealed nuclear facility at Qom was “built over a number of years, located in a reinforced underground bunker and immune to standard bombs.” Barak further noted the indifference of the West in assisting Iran’s beleaguered people, when he went on to say: “It is not pleasant to see the response of the free world to the activities there, to the trampling of citizens by the regime.” More at CFP
 HUNDREDS of thousands of government supporters took to Iran's streets overnight in a show of force against the opposition, with a senior cleric telling their leaders to repent or face death. Just hours later, state news agency IRNA reported that top opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had fled the capital fearing for their lives but this claim quickly came under suspicion.
"Two of the chiefs of the sedition left Tehran for the north of Iran after learning that the population was increasingly angry and demanding their punishment," IRNA said.
They were said to be in the locality of Kelar-Abad, in the northern Mazandaran province on the Caspian Sea.
But Karroubi's son, Hossein, denied the report and said he saw his father last night.
"Some are trying to create a climate of fear and terror ... by spreading information about the arrest or exile (of my father) to put pressure on him," he said in a statement posted on Mehdi Karroubi's website Sahamnews.
 These events have been reported to World Threats. Dec. 20 - In Qom after the death of Ayatollah Montazeri a large crowd went towards his home. An unannounced curfew was being implemented and SSF, RGC and Bassiji were deployed in the entire city. Dec. 20 - Residents of Tehran were informed of the death of Montazeri at 1230. People were paying condolences to each other in the streets, buses and public places. After 1500 Tehran became uneasy especially in the south. Helicopters were seen patrolling the city. People told each other they should rush to Qom before the regime closes the highway. An eyewitness said that the traffic was very heavy. SSF and plainclothes officers were stationed on the highway due to an accident between two trucks. The highway was closed and people were told they should go back to Tehran or take another route. Dec. 20 - A large crowd gathered in Mohsine Square at 22:30 and chanted “death to the dictator”. They were dispersed by security forces. Dec. 21 - In Isfehan people are moving in groups towards Bagh Meli to commemorate Montazeri. The agents stood by afraid to start a rebellion by arresting anyone. Dec. 21 - In Qom a huge crowd has gathered at Montazeri’s funeral. They chant: Montazeri is a true cleric, death to Supreme Leadership, death to dictator. The funeral ended at 1030. Some pro-state slogans were chanted using loudspeakers but the crowd silenced them. Among the slogans the people are chanting are: Montazeri is not death. It is the state that is death. Iranian will die but will not surrender to oppression. This month is the month of blood. Sayeed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown. Death to the principle of Supreme Leadership. Dec. 21- In Isfehan people are moving in groups of 500 or 1000 on different streets towards the National Park. The mosques are filled with mourners. Almost all the people in Najaf Abad are mourning the death of Ayatollah Montazeri. All shops and schools are closed. Qom - Clashes Dec. 21 - At 0930 the body of ayatollah Montazeri was taken from his home and slowly moved through thousands of people to reach Massoumeh’s Shrine. People chanted “There is no God except Allah”, “it’s mourning day today. The enchanted Montazeri is mourned at”, “death to the dictator”, and “Montazeri your path will be followed if bullets take all of us” as they marched to the shrine. Clashes took place between the regime’s forces and the people. After the burial the shrine’s doors were blocked due to the huge crowd. At 1230 the crowd participating in Montazeri’s funeral was larger than the crowd gathered to protest the June 15th election. When Khamenei’s statement was read the people booed and chanted death to the dictator. The regime’s forces attacked the crowd with stones. There may be a mourning ceremony in Azam Mosque after dark. The Seventh day of Montazeri’s death coincides with Ashura. Dec. 21 - At noon students of Abaspour University held a ceremony in the university’s amphitheater. They are sharply criticizing the regime. Students of Sharif University staged a gathering at 11:30 to mourn the death of Montazeri. Security forces are currently stationed at the entrances to the university to keep the students from protesting in the streets. Eyewitnesses have said that the Qom-Tehran Highway is very crowded. Security forces have stopped hundreds of buses on the highway to prevent the people from attending Montazeri’s funeral in Qom. Three films of Montazeri’s funeral in Qom are available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SyBkdRjRVE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbbKRZSITBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnZeds0kxsw
Analysis. I highlighted the reference to the seventh day celebrations of Montazeri’s death and the celebrations of the death of Hussein as I expect that the two occurring together will be no end of trouble for the regime.
I suspect that if pressured enough on Ashura, the people of Iran will engage in serious revolutionary actions. Could be interesting. World threats
 TEHRAN, Iran — After months of denials, Iran acknowledged Saturday that at least three people detained in the country's postelection turmoil were beaten to death by their jailers. The surprise announcement by the hard-line judiciary confirmed one of the opposition's most devastating and embarrassing claims against authorities and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces that led the crackdown after June's disputed presidential vote. There was no immediate public reaction from the opposition, but some activists asserted that authorities under pressure over abuse claims were merely seeking to punish low ranking staff while shielding senior level officials who the opposition says are most to blame. Still, the statement offered some rare vindication for the government's critics, who had rejected earlier explanations from the police and the judiciary that the detainees' deaths were caused by illnesses like meningitis, not physical mistreatment. "The coroner's office has rejected that meningitis was the cause of the deaths and has confirmed the existence of signs of repeated beatings on the bodies and has declared that the wounds inflicted were the cause of the deaths," the judiciary statement said, according to the Web site of Iran's state TV. The judiciary also said it has charged 12 officials at Kahrizak prison — three of them with murder, but it did not identify them. The prison, on the southern outskirts of the capital, Tehran, was at the center of the opposition's claims that prisoners were tortured and raped in custody. Anger over the abuse claims, which emerged in August, extended far beyond the reformist camp, with influential conservative figures in the clerical hierarchy condemning the mistreatment of detainees. The outrage forced Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to order the immediate closure of the Kahrizak facility. The opposition says at least 72 protesters were killed in the postelection crackdown, but the government puts the number of confirmed dead at 30. More at FoxNews
 The Sunday Times covers how the Iranian people are changing how they protest the regime, highlighting the efforts of one of the founders of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Sazegara, who defected from the regime in 1988. According to the article, Sazegara claims the regime killed 178 people and arrested 4,000 following the June 12 “election” when the uprising hit its height. Here’s a summary of some of the tactics described in the piece:
“What I offer is non-violent tactics,” he said. “When they banned street protests, we told people to go to the roofs and shout ‘Allahu akbar’ [God is the greatest] or to drive along the streets at night, honking their horns. When they ban noise, we tell people to march in silent columns.” He and others scour texts for methods used in revolutions in eastern Europe and Latin America and most recently Ukraine. “When they stopped us writing slogans on the walls we started writing them on bank notes,” he said.
He estimates 80% of the currency is stamped with “Death to the dictator” or slogans in support of Mousavi. …He tells people to boycott goods manufactured by factories belonging to the Revolutionary Guard and to hoard small change to make daily transactions impossible. They arrange to plug in kettles, irons and hairdryers simultaneously to try to crash the power grid. He also suggests so-called “white strikes” where workers go to factories but do nothing. “The objective is to paralyse the government,” he said. Sazegara also says the opposition photographs members of the Basiji, finds their homes, and put pictures of those killed on their walls and even go to the schools of their children. He says these tactics are very effective. He also confirms that the Iranian Army is becoming less loyal to the regime, and that protestors have signs calling on them to support the people. World Threats
 The Iranians just keep escalating the conflict in the Gulf. It is remarkable how far they are willing to go to support their extremist Houthi allies fighting the Yemeni and Saudi government. First, Iran reacted to the Saudi naval blockade by sending their own warships to the Gulf of Aden. Then, the Iranians tried to instigate riots during the hajj in Saudi Arabia. Now, this: The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reports, citing Iranian sources, that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has submitted to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a plan to take over the Yemen and Saudi Embassies in Tehran, like the U.S. Embassy takeover in 1979. The plan, which the report says includes kidnapping Saudi and Yemeni diplomats, was drawn up on Khamenei’s instructions, with the aim of pressuring both countries to stop fighting the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. Source: Al-Siyassa, Kuwait, December 11, 2009 World Threats
 THE leaked documents regarding Tehran's atomic secrets pinpoint Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as the man everyone would like to reach to learn the secrets of Iran's nuclear program. No one outside Iran has succeeded so far. The classified memo, leaked to London's The Times newspaper is signed by Mr Fakhrizadeh, identifying him for the first time as the chairman of the Field For The Expansion of Deployment of Advance Technology (FEDAT). Intelligence sources say this is the most recent cover name for the organisation running Iran's nuclear weapons program. The UN's atomic watchdog has long believed him to be the head of Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program but Tehran, which jealously guards his secrets, has rejected attempts to interview him. Mr Fakhrizadeh, a physics professor and a former officer in the Revolutionary Guard, is no longer able to leave Iran because the UN Security Council slapped travel sanctions and an assets freeze on him. He is regarded as one of the regime's most loyal servants. The Iranian government denies the existence of any military nuclear program, insisting the only nuclear activities in the country are under the civilian control of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, which purports to be developing a nuclear power program. Western diplomats believe it to be little more than a front for a clandestine military program, the justification for the production of nuclear fuel despite the absence of a single home-grown nuclear power plant. The memo bears a close resemblance to documents presented at an extraordinary board meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna at the beginning of last year. Those documents included letters -- to the same department heads as mentioned in the memo seen by The Times -- that chastised staff for using the real names of military scientists. The latest document uses only their titles. FEDAT's obsession with secrecy is evident in another leaked document, an internal report from 2007 that was drawn up within the Centre for Preparedness at the Institute of Applied Physics, one of the organisation's 12 departments. It lays out a four-year plan for the testing of a neutron initiator, a key component in a nuclear weapon. It also offers an insight into the structure of a program that ensures as few people as possible gain a complete overview of it. More at the Australian
 Hundreds of students at Tehran University renewed anti-government protests for a second week yesterday, accusing authorities of fabricating images of demonstrators burning photos of the Islamic Republic's founder. Students moved to the forefront of opposition on the streets with massive protests last week. They say authorities are using the images of students burning photos of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a pretext to crack down ontheir protests, which have helped to revitalise the pro-reform movement. State television has repeatedly shown images, ostensibly taken during student-led protests on December 7, of unidentified hands burning and tearing up pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini. It is considered a grave and illegal insult against the former leader, still widely respected in the country. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei yesterday warned opposition leaders to distance themselves from protesters he accused of acting against Ayatollah Khomeini. Student activists say authorities are trying to discredit them just as they begin to put up a new, powerful challenge to the regime.
The opposition's mainstream leaders have struggled to dent the power of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's clerical leadership. Students at Tehran University played a major role in demonstrations in support of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-US shah and brought Iran's clerical rulers to power. Reformists contend Mr Ahmadinejad was re-elected by massive vote fraud, a belief that brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets at the height of post-election unrest. The protests evolved into a broader confrontation against the country's ruling theocracy, but died down in the face of a harsh crackdown by security forces. Former president Mohammad Khatami, a prominent opposition voice, said yesterday the students were not responsible. "Do not use the Imam to justify a harsher approach against those you do not like," he said on a pro-reform website Parlemannews. The Australian
 There Is No Fun In Islam* Alert: "Makeup? It's against Islam, Iran women told," from AFP, December 3 TEHRAN: Women appearing in television programmes will not be allowed to wear make-up because it is against Islamic law, or sharia, media today Twitter Facebook Share Email Print Save Comment quoted the head of state television as saying. "Make-up by women during television programmes is illegal and against Islamic sharia law ...
There should not be a single case" of a woman wearing make-up during a programme, Ezatollah Zarghami was quoted as saying by the reformist Etemad newspaper. Zarghami, a former member of the elite Revolutionary Guards who was re-appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, also ordered that women guests should "preferably" be hosted by women. Speaking at a conference of network directors, he also call-ed for cutting down on music during programmes and urged his staff to take a cue from Western movies, which have "excellent and calm music." "I do not mean that we should become like them, but we should use positive points. Therefore we (should) put on the agenda the reduction and refining of music," he said. "As of today, you in the production department should launch new supervisory methods... I do not want to tell you to filter, but you should be vigilant that nothing inappropriate happens," Zarghami said. Zarghami told directors they should also prohibit "repulsive jokes" between men and women on TV or radio, Fars news agency quoted him as saying. * The Ayatollah Khomeini said that. With thanks to JihadWatch
 Michael Ledeen has an update on the massive protests occurring today in Iran, and Ken Timmerman has a great article as well. I found this excerpt particularly important: During the previous wave of anti-regime demonstrations in November, the anti-riot squads, known as Basijis, virtually deserted, leading Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to send them to barracks without arms. “They had to hire 3,500 people, paying them $400 each per day, in order to crack down on the November demonstrations,” Sazegara told Newsmax. “We have succeeded in destroying the Basij force as it has been known until now. Today, it is only a name.” A senior Revolutionary Guards commander for Tehran announced on Saturday that he had ordered his troops to give flowers to student demonstrators on Monday. Today, December 7, is another anniversary that the regime tries to use to stage pro-government, anti-Western rallies. Lately, all such holidays have been hijacked by the opposition who are using them to stage massive anti-government protests. Since the regime calls for people to come out onto the streets these days in solidarity with the Islamic Revolution, it is more difficult for them to crack down on gatherings of people.
These dates are also known by all Iranians so there’s minimal need to try spread notice about when protests will happen, as all the people understand that the regime’s holidays are when everyone is gathering. World Threats
 Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president and opposition member, has accused the country's rulers of being intolerant, amid restrictions on journalists imposed by the authorities. "The situation in the country is such that constructive criticism is not accepted," Rafsanjani told students in the northern city of Mashhad on Sunday, the ILNA news agency reported. He called on Iran's political groups to work together to "create a climate of freedom which will convince the majority of people and erase ambiguities". Rafsanjani was speaking a day before the annual Student Day, when demonstrations against the rule of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, are expected to go ahead. Several websites have urged people to gather on Student Day near Tehran University campus. "Those who demonstrate or protest must express themselves through legal means. Leaders must also respect the law," Rafsanjani said. "There have always been extremist factions and excessive attitudes on both sides ... several problems will be solved if we adopt the path of moderation." Iranian authorities have ordered journalists working for foreign media organisations not to leave their offices to cover the protests that are expected to take place on Monday. "All permits issued for foreign media to cover news in Tehran have been revoked from December 7 to December 9," the culture ministry's foreign press department said in an mobile phone text message sent to journalists on Saturday. Police and Iran's Revolutionary Guards have said that they will move against any "illegal" rally that takes place in Tehran. "Any illegal gathering outside universities will be strongly confronted," Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, a police chief, was quoted by Etemad newspaper as saying. Residents of Tehran said that internet access, including access to email and websites loyal to the political opposition, had been limited in the run-up to Student Day. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in June in the immediate wake of Ahmadinejad's re-election, claiming that the Iranian authorities had rigged the vote. Hundreds of people were detained by authorities and dozens were killed in clashes with police and pro-government militia. Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who were defeated in the presidential election, have not announced whether they will join the planned Student Day protests, as they have done in the past. Al Jazeera
 I wrote for Pajamas Media a few months ago that a leaked videotape of a secret high-level meeting chaired by Ahmadinejad showed that he was planning a second Cultural Revolution aimed at cleansing the universities of dissident elements. This is indeed happening. The New York Times reports on a few recent developments: It is implanting 6,000 Basij militia centers in elementary schools across Iran to promote the ideals of the Islamic Revolution, and it has created a new police unit to sweep the Internet for dissident voices.
A company affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards acquired a majority share in the nation’s telecommunications monopoly this year, giving the Guards de facto control of Iran’s land lines, Internet providers and two cellphone companies. And in the spring, the Revolutionary Guards plan to open a news agency with print, photo and television elements. The IRGC also took over most of the duties of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security and is now in charge over almost all domestic security forces. World Threats
 A majority of the Netherlands parliament voted this past week to place Iran's elite military unit, the Revolutionary Guards, on the European Union (EU) terror list. The Dutch resolution appears to be the first European motion to target the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity. The resolution cited the IRGC's support for Hamas and Hizbullah as reasons to label the Guards as an unlawful organization fomenting terror.
A second anti-terror resolution was also passed by the Dutch parliament. That motion urges the UN-affiliated International Maritime Organization (IMO) to bar Iran from "accession" to the IMO council because of Teheran's "illegal transportation of weapons." While the United States designated the Revolutionary Guards a global terrorist organization in 2007, European Union countries have been reluctant about clamping down on the 125,000 member military wing of the regime. The resolution will be discussed in December at an EU meeting in Brussels. When asked if the German government plans to support the Dutch parliament motion on the EU level, a Foreign Office spokesman said, "We have a good policy of not commenting on friendly European neighbors and partners, especially resolutions of independent parliaments." According to the resolution, the "IRGC is increasingly functioning as the most important instrument of the present regime" and "this organization has played a leading role during the bloody suppression of the recent popular protests and that it is increasingly active in facilitating international terrorism, among which support to Hamas, Hizbullah and anti-Western militias in Iraq." The resolution urged "the Government (Dutch) to advance that the European Union places the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the European list of terrorist organizations." A political left versus right vote split among the Dutch parties was evident, in which 80 votes from the conservative-liberal parties favoured the terror label and 70 votes from the left of center parties opposed the resolution. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen's Christian Democratic Party voted for the anti-IRGC resolution. The liberal and right-of-center parties-the Christian Union, the Orthodox Protestant Christians, Gert Wilders' Party for Freedom, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy- also supported the legislation. In contrast to the voting pattern of the liberal and conservative parties, the block of leftist parties-the Labour party, the left-wing Liberals, Greens, Socialist Party, and Party for Animals-rejected the designation of the IRGC as a terror organization. The groundbreaking vote of the Dutch parliament has received scant attention in the European press. Critics argue that the EU's flourishing trade relationship with Teheran plays a significant factor in blocking the labelling ofthe Revolutionary Guards as a terror organization. Last year, the European Union did 14.1 billion euro worth of trade with Iran. Meanwhile, the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin is slated to discuss the role of the IRGC at its international conference "Time to Act" on Saturday and Sunday in Berlin. Israeli, German and American experts will be speaking at the event."Money, Power and Terror: The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps" is one of the panels at the event. The global terror of the IRGC and its economic system in the Islamic Republic are listed as lectures. JPost
 |
|
|
Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
|
|
|
By: Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Posts
