Tuesday, November 29, 2005

VOA's interview with Forud Fouladvand



گفتگوی ابراهيم بی پروا (صدای آمريكا) با استاد فرود فولادوند، رهبر انجمن پادشاهی ايران






The interview aired Sunday (Nov 27) and was interrupted after only a few minutes. But those few minutes were sufficient for Mr. Fouladvand to get his message across. Be sure to listen to the phone calls from the listeners as well.

EDIT:

Video clips available HERE.

Another Iranian to be stoned to death

“The U.S. and the European powers will also need to tone down their rhetoric about human rights inside Iran…The legal ban in December 2002 upon the barbaric custom of stoning some criminals to death is trumpeted by diplomats as a triumph of the EU's approach, but it is misleading since the practice was virtually dead in any case.”

---Roger Howard, in Antiwar.com

Hajieh Esmailvand has been convicted of adultery and orders have been given to stone her to death on December 21.

Article

p.s. Lest I disappoint the Iranian reader, and so that there is no misunderstanding, let me add that I consider Amnesty International one of the most morally corrupt institutions on earth.

Soheila Valinejad; Iranian Christian

"Valinejad says while she was in jail, she was beaten, tortured and raped, all while she was three months pregnant. She says officials even put a crown of thorns on her head and sewed her eyes wide open with needle and thread in an attempt to scare other prisoners away from converting."
Fox30

Article in The Telegraph regarding weblogs

I think someone should let Lillian Swift of The Telegraph know that the blog “Regime Change Iran” is not an Iranian blog, but an American blog operated by a gentleman by the name of Gary Metz. For that is surely the impression given by her article “Iran's war on weblogs - the new voice of dissidents”. No corrections, or clarification, YET from Mr. Metz.

As to “Free Thoughts on Iran” being an “Iranian” blog, well, that would be true if we considered supporters of the Islamic Republic---it’s “reformist” or “anti-totalitarian” (Their term, I assure you) factions--- to be “Iranian”. But those of us who are against the Islamic Republic, who consider the republic as an anti-Iranian entity, do not.

Furthermore, the puppet regime in Iran has no need to block access to websites such as FTI and many more like it---although it could put them in spotlight as anti-IR by doing so--- for what is stated there can be easily read elsewhere, in such websites as the BBC or Radio Farda for instance, and discussed by the reformist factions operating within and serving the regime.

Qeshm

While Iranians were, and still are, digging their belongings from the ruins of their homes in the various villages affected by the recent earthquake in Qeshm, Palestinians were welcoming the flow of Iranian money for “Islamic projects”:



TEL AVIV [MENL] -- The Palestinian Authority has welcomed the flow of Iranian funds for Islamic projects.

Senior PA officials have endorsed Iranian-funded charities in the Gaza Strip. These charities have been administered by Iranian-sponsored groups, such as Islamic Jihad, regarded as the most active insurgency organization against Israel.

The endorsement of Iranian funding of Palestinian institutions has included PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. On Oct. 13, Abbas sponsored a ceremony in which the Iranian-funded Al Ansar Charity Association distributed funds in the Gaza Strip.

Al Ansar distributed $1 million to the families of Palestinian insurgents in the Gaza Strip. The funding was said to have gone to families of so-called martyrs, who include those killed in operations against Israel or those detained by the Jewish state.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Notice:

Dear Readers,

This is a notice informing you of a conference taking place, tomorrow (Tuesday, November 29), at 5:00 p.m, in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. This event is being called “Iran After the Elections”. To give you just the names of three of the panelists:

Mohsen Sazegara (Yale)---One of the founders of Khomeini’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, he served the Islamic Republic some 25 years before being paraded as “opposition” as an initiator of the so-called “60000000.com” referendum to a) keep the Islamic Republic while promising to either eliminate or constitutionally limit the power of the Supreme Shiite Leader, and b) to eliminate nationalists (read Royalists) from the political scene. (His name is mentioned in the 7rooz site)

Mehrangiz Kar (Harvard)---Anti-Pahlavist. Associated with the US appeasement lobby wishing to normalize relations with the bloodthirsty Shiite Taliban. Paraded as “human rights activist”. Her ARAJEEF can be heard regularly on Radio Farda.

Michael Ignatieff (Harvard)---A venemous anti-Pahlavist, he went to Iran past July and wrote an article in the New York Times congratulating the terrorist Islamist Republic for its “achievements.” I wrote something about that article HERE.


This event is also mentioned is 7rooz, HERE.

(I contacted Sobhe Iran informing them of this conference minutes before posting here.)

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Protests erupt in Tehran University

Report by Iran Focus.

Several students pushed the ayatollah and knocked his turban off his head:



More pictures HERE.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

The Guardian mistakes Iran for Switzerland

The Shiite Taliban lets Iranians have “open public debates” and we didn't know it:

Time holds the key to change

This time they argue that give the Islamic Republic more time on the nuclear issue, because time could bring change and “Iranians” may change their mind. Fair enough, but note one way which, according to The Guardian, this change is supposed to be brought about:

“Change at the intellectual level, because Iran has yet to have any public debate on nuclear matters and in the past, at least, surprisingly open debate on important issues has taken place.”

Of course, The Guardian, and the several “Iranian” websites where the rag is regularly syndicated, fails to mention examples of such open public debates; perhaps by “open public debates” they mean secret negotiations between the West and the Islamic Republic over our natural resources. But I’m sure readers here remember well the “open public debates” that we’ve had for the past 27 years in our very democratic society!

فرهنگ (بخوانيد بی فرهنگی) اسلامی، اسلامی، اسلامی

مادر و خواهر علي با همدستي مادرم پس از متولد شدن بچه، او را خفه كرده و به
.چاه توالت انداختند


"Ali's mother and sister, with the assistance of my mother, strangled the newborn child and flushed him down the toilet."

Article in Persian.

On the lighter side

اولين ويروس بومي ايراني :Yusufali

sex اين ويروس با بررسي كلماتي مانند
از باز كردن فايل‌ها يا سايت‌هايي در اين زمينه جلوگيري مي‌نمايد، اين در حالي است كه در بسياري از سايت‌هاي پزشكي نيز از اين كلمات استفاده شده است و كاربران آلوده به اين ويروس قادر به استفاده از اطلاعات مفيد اين سايت‌ها نيستند

٥٠ درصد زنان ايراني از کم خوني، کوتاهي قد و سوء تغذيه رنج مي‌برند

براساس يافته‌هاي موجود، نزديک به نيمي از زنان ايراني از کم خوني رنج مي‌برند و حدود 20 درصد از آنها نيز، به علت کم خوني، بيش از سايرين در معرض مرگ و مير قرار مي‌گيرند

خبرگزاری آفتاب

٣٥ درصد رودخانه های ایران مرده اند

.بر اساس آمار ارائه شده از محيط زيست بيش از 35 درصد رودخانه‌ها در گروه رودخانه‌هاي آلوده و به اصطلاح مرده قرار دارند

خبرگزاری آفتاب

35% of Iran's rivers are infested or "dead".

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Dariush Forouhar: Traitor as Hero

Following article was written last year by Spenta, a female Iranian activist.

I think what Spenta has done here is not only commendable, but also courageous. It is commendable because, contrary to the frequent and persistent assertion by the Republic’s “intellectual” guard, Islamist and communist alike, the past matters. Just as without individual memory we would lose our identity and be paralyzed, ignorance of history not only deprives us of even the most superficial understanding of the situation we find ourselves in, but also of the best available guide for action.

We know that Foruhar collaborated with Khomeini and Iran’s enemies. He served a government (Bazargan’s) under which thousands of Iranians, including women and children, were savagely brutalized and murdered. Who will speak for those victims? Why shouldn’t his status as a “hero of the republic”, a status granted him by his supporters, be questioned? The fact that he was subsequently murdered by the savages he himself helped bring to power does not absolve him in the least of his crimes against the Iranian people. Spenta has chosen to speak for the victims. That is courageous.


Left: Forouhar with Jebhe Melli's Sanjabi, Nehzate Azadi's Mehdi Bazargan, Yasser Arafat, and the infamous terrorist and butcher Ebrahim Yazdi of Nehzate Azadi, celebrating the fall of Iran.





Dangers of the Cult of Foruhar
June 2004

The Cult of Foruhar is very dangerous, Iran has had too many of these cults of the martyrs, and attempts at covering up Foruhar's many contributions to the tragedy of Iran in the last 25 years are even more dangerous.

Some background info On Daryoush Foruhar

Daryoush Foruhar: Famous Iranian Political dissident. Opposed the Shah and went to jail under the Shah briefly, but also managed to head a large business once released from prison (many dissidents under the Shah lived quite prosperously and had successful businesses). He was a devoutly religious Muslim who never missed a prayer, supported Khomeini as his leader, and saw him as a saint. During the revolution he betrayed Bakhtiar and his transitional government which was charged with holding democratic elections in support of Khomeini.

According to those who served under the Bakhtiar govt. such as Amuzegar, Foruhar did everything in his power to sabotage Bakhtiar and his government. Alongside Sanjabi and Sahabi of Jebhe Melli, finally they publicly sided with Khomeini against Bakhtiar and his government causing its collapse and Khomeini's subsequent takeover. Many analysts have argued that Foruhar et. al did this, because they were greedy for power and thought that they could takeover Iran with Khomeini, whereas with Bakhtiar they would have to get elected and share power with others. Rather than opting for a democratic process, they opted for a forceful takeover with Khomeini and his militia!

After Khomeini's takeover was complete, Foruhar was rewarded with a cabinet post in Khomeini's appointed govt. He served in this govt. for a year. While minister, the govt. he served in killed more in its first 3 months than the Shah had in his entire reign. This is a govt. that in addition to genocide committed other horrors like attacking thousands of women demonstrators brutally in March of '79 and then stripping them of their rights, massacring entire Kurdish villages in April of '79, lining up Bahais and Jews to kill them because of their religion, and the list goes on.

By the end of the year, the Mullah$ decided to completely takeover the govt., killing off anyone serving in the govt. that was not wearing a turban. Foruhar, seeing what direction the wind was blowing, quickly resigned from the govt. Others like Ghotbzadeh were killed and Bani Sadr was forced to flee.

After leaving govt. Foruhar never publicly criticised Khomeini. Others like Ghotbzadeh (close friend of Khomeini's during the revolution) did and was killed, and Bani Sadr criticised Khomeini and was forced to flee prior to getting killed. Thousands of Mojaheds, Toudeh, Chereekan etc. who criticised Khomeini were killed. Based on Amnesty International's estimates 25,000 political prisoners were killed in the first 3 years after the revolution. Thousands of teachers, professors, scholars, scientists who criticised Khomeini were purged and forced out of their jobs. Thousands were forced to flee Iran. Foruhar, continued to never criticise Khomeini, as many of his colleagues who were killed or forced to flee, did.

Throughout the 1980's thousands more were killed, assassinated in the west, imprisoned and tortured, and fired from their jobs for criticising Khomeini! But Foruhar continued to remain silent and managed to live a comfortable life running a 'tolerated' political party under the direct protection and patronage of Khomeini. While 15 year old girls caught with a political pamphlet were jailed, raped tortured and executed in the thousands, Foruhar raised a family comfortably and prosperously under the direct protection and patronage of Khomeini!

In the 1990s, with Khomeini gone, Foruhar had lost many of his previous privileges, and did not benefit from any favors from Rafsanjani and Khamenei the way he had from Khomeini. Alienated and blocked out of access to privilege of a kind he had enjoyed under Khomeini from the new leadership, Foruhar became more of an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic. In '96 as part of the chain murders, him and his wife were brutally murdered by assassins dispatched by Rafsanjani/Khamenei. Since then he has been enshrined as a hero, by the Cult of Foruhar. He is called as a Nazi Collaborator by many others, including me, who choose to not forget the past, especially when this past involved the genocide of so many and the destruction of a nation!

How should Foruhar be remembered today?

A few years ago, I really didn't know a whole lot about Foruhar. I only knew that he was assissinated by the IRI, so I automatically assumed he was a great hero. Until one day, someone brought Foruhar's entire history to my attention, and then I realised, how mistaken I had been. I then continued to research him, and was even further shocked to find out how much he was involved with Khomeini (even the New York Times mentioned that he was part of the regime, a favorite of Khomeini's who had fallen out of favor after the passing of Khomeini), how he sabotaged Bakhtiar, and how he refused to criticise Khomeini as all his colleagues died for doing so while Khomeini committed the greatest genocides of modern Iran! I was horrified, and then I became angry that like so many others, I had been misled into believing that Foruhar was a hero, when he was just a Nazi Collaborator who helped bring Khomeini and the IRI into power, and then refused to criticise Khomeini, because of his patronage while thousands of his colleagues died for criticising Khomeini!

While Foruhar's murder was horrifyingly brutal and totally wrong, his support of Khomeini and his refusal to criticise Khomeini publicly was equally wrong!

Foruhar’s support for Khomeini and his refusal to publicly criticise Khomeini as all his colleagues died for doing so, and as Khomeini committed the greatest genocides of modern Iran, renders him as a Nazi Collaborator, especially since many of these genocides were based on religion, ethnicity, and gender.

Why Foruhar is called a Nazi Collaborator Because:

1. Foruhar supported Khomeini, who believed in mass genocide based on religion, ethnicity, gender, and political belief. Nazis believed in racial superiority and the elimination of those who were not of them as well. Therefore Foruhar supported, helped to put into power, and served in a govt. that effectively imposed a racial, gender, religious, and ethnic form of apartheid similar to the Nazis.

2. Foruhar sabotaged Bakhtiar's transitional govt. that was charged with holding democratic elections, thus destroying Iran's chances of having a secular democracy. As the coup de grace, he publicly opposed Bakhtiar in favor of Khomeini. He betrayed Bakhtiar, in order to gain power in a Khomeini led govt.

3. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that killed more in its first 3 months, than the Shah had in his entire reign.

4. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that killed without trial or right to representation.

5. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that lined up Bahai men, women and children against the wall and machine gunned them to death for being Bahais.

6. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that brutally attacked thousands of women demonstrators demanding their rights in March of '79.

7. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that stripped women and children of many of their rights.

8. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that stripped religious minorities of many of their rights.

9. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that sent helicopter gunships and Palestinian mercenaries to massacre Kurdish villagers in April of 1979.

10. He served as a cabinet member in a govt. that killed Jewish businessmen in Tehran, for being Jewish!

11. After leaving the government, he refused to publicly criticise Khomeini, as many of his brave colleagues who did so were killed, forced to flee and executed. While Khomeini embarked on the biggest massacres in modern Iran killing anyone criticising him, Foruhar remained silent even as friends were dragged away in the middle of the night to be shot!

12. He ran a political party, that was officially 'tolerated', under the direct patronage and protection of Khomeini for many years, as thousands of dissidents and brave Iranians were either killed or forced to flee. His party engaged in occasional mild and inconsequential criticisms of the govt., that never really challenged the genocides as he continued to enjoy privileges from Khomeini. Many others stood up and spoke up on principal, only to lose everything, get tortured and killed as Foruhar refused to criticise Khomeini, and continued to live comfortably and prosperously in Iran!

13. After Khomeini’s death, he fell out of favor, and did not enjoy the same protection, patronage and privileges he had enjoyed under Khomeini. In the 1990's he stepped up his criticisms of the IRI, since he could not receive the same privileges from Rafsanjani and Khamenei that he had enjoyed under Khomeini. He ran afoul of the mafia, and was brutally murdered alongside his wife by Rafsanjani's assassins.

Are Foruhar and Hoveyda the same?

Are Apples and Oranges the same?

Lately, some people claim that we shouldn't call Foruhar a Nazi Collaborator because he was brutally killed by the IRI. That calling Foruhar a Nazi Collaborator is like calling Hoveyda a Nazi Collaborator. First of all Hoveyda never supported or helped put into power a leader and a government that committed mass genocide of the kind that Khomeini did on the basis of religion, ethnicity, gender and belief the way Foruhar did.

Hoveyda did not sabotage a government charged with holding democratic elections, in order to promote his own candidate, thus bringing about the worst regime of Iran's history since the Mongol invasion. Hoveyda did not serve in a government that killed thousands and thousands without any trials longer than 30 seconds, or any representation. Hoveyda did not serve in a govt that stripped women, religious and ethnic minorities of their rights thus effectively imposing a racial, gender, religious, ethnic apartheid similar to the Nazis. Hoveyda did not serve in a govt. that massacred Kurdish women and children and lined up Bahai families against the wall to machine gun them to death for being Bahai. Hoveyda did not serve in a govt. that killed Jews for being Jews! And the list, quite substantially long here, goes on for some time!

Foruhar's brutal murder was wrong, but so was his support of Khomeini, sabotage of Bakhtiar's govt., and his silence and refusal to criticise Khomeini as thousands perished in the most brutal genocides of modern Iran. And Hoveyda was not by any stretch of the imagination the same as Foruhar, for all the obvious reasons cited above.

Why is it important to state that Foruhar was a Nazi Collaborator?

Being a victim does not absolve anyone of their responsibility. Foruhar's murder was truly brutal and wrong, however this tragedy does not excuse his support of Khomeini, his serving in Khomeini's govt. which committed genocide and apartheid based on religion, ethnicity, and gender, in addition to his refusal to criticise Khomeini even as all of his colleagues who did so were brutally killed for many years!

Let me recount a story about how this cult of martyrdom in Iran can sometimes beget such disastrous results.

Khosrow Golesorkhi was turned into a martyr whose symbol was used throughout the revolution. He had been arrested, tried and executed for treason and terrorism under the Shah. Golesorkhi's trial was broadcast on TV. He was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, to kidnap members of the royal family and to kill them, and to assassinate people. He never denied any of these charges, or that he believed in violent revolution, and the killing and assassination of people, including the Shah's young children. The Shah even offered to grant him a pardon if he was willing to renounce his violent ways, or his support for violence and terrorism, but he refused to, so the trial found him guilty and he was executed. (Note: there were many terrorist attacks, kidnappings, bombings, and assassinations of Iranians and foreigners in Iran throughout the 1970s, and there was an effort to put a stop to these campaigns of terrorism).

During the revolution Golesorkhi was turned into a great martyr. It was like the cult of Golesorkhi. Posters of him, and poems by him appeared everywhere. Young people everywhere idolized him, and cried recounting his execution. He was turned into a saint, his pictures were carried in demonstrations against the Shah, and his martyrdom was used to bring about the revolution and put Khomeini into power.

So what is the lesson here? The lesson is, here was a man who believed in violence, terrorism, killing and genocide whose execution by the regime turned him into a martyr that many idolized. As a result of idolizing people like Golesorkhi and never questioning his violent beliefs and terrorist acts, the nation ended up with a violent revolution, and a government that practices nothing but violence, genocide and terrorism against its own people, namely IRI. On some levels, it should come as no surprise that worshipping and idolizing a violent terrorist would lead to such a regime!

Lessons are repeated, until they are learned. The lesson here is that ultimately nobody is above or beyond questioning, and the faults, mistakes and wrongdoing of no one can be absolved based on their 'martyrdom'! Cults of martyrdom have cost Iran plenty, and its time to learn the lessons. Foruhar’s brutal murder was and is a tragedy, however this tragedy does not absolve him of any responsibility he bears for his choices and actions throughout his life. Nor does this martyrdom prevent anyone from bringing up the facts and additionally the many negative aspects of his life and contributions to the greater tragedy of Iran in the last 25 years.

So today, there is an attempt to do the same with the cult of Foruhar. Well, be forewarned that the cult of Foruhar also has consequences. Here is a man who betrayed his own colleague Bakhtiar in a greedy power grab with Khomeini and sabotaged Bakhtiar's transitional govt. which was charged with holding democratic elections and was Iran's best chance of having a secular democracy. When given a choice between democracy and his own desire for power, he chose his own desire for power. A man who supported Khomeini and served in his govt. which practiced genocide and apartheid based on religion, ethnicity, and gender. A man who lived comfortably and prosperously under the direct protection and patronage of Khomeini for many years as thousands were sent to the gallows in the biggest genocides of modern Iran. A man who remained silent and refused to criticise his diabolical and genocidal patron Khomeini as all of his brave colleagues were killed, tortured and forced to flee the country leaving behind everything, for courageously criticising Khomeini!

The Cult of Foruhar, which attempts to enshrine Foruhar, turn him into an angel and 'martyr', deny and cover-up his support and participation in the creation of IRI, his sabotage of Bakhtiar's govt. and Iran's best chance of democracy, and his silence in the face of Khomeini's genocides (his Nazi Collaborator activities) while all his colleagues who bravely stood up were killed are dangerous. Attempts at silencing the facts by the Cult of Foruhar are dangerous and will not bear any positive results, just as the cult of Golesorkhi 25 years ago did not.

I think of all those thousands of brave Iranian men and women, who unlike Foruhar stood up on principal and fearlessly criticised Khomeini's horrors only to be brutally killed and tortured, to lose everything, to escape out of the country for their lives, throughout Foruhar's shameful silence and refusal to directly criticise Khomeini ... and all I can do is to stand on principal today, in honor of their memory and speak up. So please, allow me to honor their memories by speaking up: Foruhar was a Nazi Collaborator!





More pictures HERE and HERE.

Next time, let Paris burn

حضور نهضت آزادي در كنگره حزب سوسياليست فرانسه

Nehzate Azadi Party (Ebrahim Yazdi's group) represents the Islamic Republic of anti-Iran in French Socialist Party meeting. Report.

Congratulations to “socialists”!

Article by Beeman

Ahmadinejad, of course, is not dedicated to the eradication of Beeman's friends. And Iran will naturally remain an Islamic Republic---or in the best case scenario a secular puppet regime that would continue serving foreign interests; something in appearance resembling Cuba---were its constitution to be revised, whether by Ahmadinejad or the so-called “referendum movement” abroad. Nevertheless, I think you may find THIS ARTICLE by the renowned anti-Iranian William O Beeman, a shameless supporter of the Shiite Taliban, “reformist” branch, of some interest, even though, besides labeling knife-wielding Islamist thugs as “neo-conservatives” and calling Ahmadinejad “an excellent former mayor of Tehran”, all that is said here has been said by our own commentators.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Ayatollah Jannati:

"بشر غير از اسلام همان حيواناتي هستند كه روي زمين مي‌چرند و فساد مي‌كنند"

Comparing non-Moslems to cattle, Shiite cleric Ayatollah Jannati declared: "Non-Moslems are those same animals that graze and perform lewd acts!"

Quoted by ISNA


--------------
Edit:

Ayatollah Ali Jannati (interim Friday prayers leader of Tehran)’s comments on November 11 regarding the mass execution of Iranian monarchists:

That is where the exalted value of the Islamic Republic becomes more evident and one feels obliged to praise God for its establishment, since when Pahlavi Dynasty fell, the Islamic Republic officials did not waste any time in punishing the well known criminals.

For instance [Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's Premier for 13 years Amir Abbas] Hoveyda came to the hearing session and answered four, or five questions, then they finished him off with a bullet.

That is the right thing to do. If that becomes the rule, no one would dare to commit crimes, or oppress.


IRNA

(In bold to note that at least Jannati seems to know the puppet republic’s record far better than, say, a Roya Hakakian. He is, unquestionably, far more honest about it.)

Mullah Khatami to open “cultural dialogue office” in Europe

IRNA
Nov 19, 2005

The Tehran-based Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations will open a branch office in Europe "within the next few months", former Iranian president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami told IRNA in Berlin.

"This European bureau of the Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations will soon begin its activities and we invite all scholars and intellectuals to join us at the office," Khatami said.

"This privately-funded European branch office will be an active link to other international institutions like the UN and UNESCO," he added.

Pointing out that the European office of the Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations was supposed to be established much earlier, Khatami cited funding problems for delays in the opening of the office.

Khatami who is on a five-day visit to Germany following an invitation by the Koerber Foundation in Hamburg, did not say which European country would host the new office.

آيا زيا به راستی چنين وعده پوچی را داد؟

.برنامه را نديدم، بنابراين خود در مورد اين گزارش قضاوت كنيد

Etemad Melli meli

!!!گامي بزرگ و مفيد در راه پرفراز و نشيب مردم سالاري

نهضت آزادي ايران طي نامه‌‏اي به مهدي كروبي، دبير كل حزب اعتماد ملي تشكيل اين حزب را گامي بزرگ و مفيد در راه پرفراز و نشيب مردم سالاري دانست

Saturday, November 19, 2005

بحث داغ زائران حرم امام رضا

Reporter's Notebook: Inside Iran

From Fox News website:

Go "Inside Iran" on Special Report w/ Brit Hume starting Monday,Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. ET.

Un-Ebadiesque

It’s the eighth annual Rencontres internationales du documentaire, a film festival held in Montreal, but filmmakers Moslem Mansouri of New York and Lila Ghobady of Ottawa want to withdraw the documentary they produced to protest the festival organizers’ acceptance of a $2,000 gift from the occupied Iranian embassy in Ottawa.

Article

Regarding the article itself, note the title, “Iranian support should be shunned”. Poor “Iran”, and how unfortunate for Iranians that we can’t even manage to force these journalists to use “Islamic Republic” instead. Also, I obviously disagree that films produced under the watchful eyes of the Islamic Republic have been praised, won “critical” acclaim or welcomed at film festivals “largely for their unflinching, candid look at social problems.” I believe that praising such “unflinching” films, especially during the Mullah Khatami period, was in tune with the foreign policies of the various members of bloodsuckers international.

...

March 2005 Interview with Mr. Mansouri

Article by Lila Ghobady:

“I don’t want my documentary shown at the Montreal Documentary Film Festival, which received bloody oil money from the murderous, corrupt and oppressive Iranian regime. I am calling to cancel the screening of my film, Epitaph at this festival.”


Follow up

"Reformers" without bullet-proof cars! What next?!

Iran's Ahmadinejad opens fire at bullet-proof officials
AFP
Nov 17, 2005

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned officials from buying foreign-made bullet-proof cars, warning that "aristocrats" have no place in regime institutions he is currently purging.

"We will not authorise the import of armoured cars, which cost between three and five billion rials (330,000 and 550,000 dollars) and are used by certain officials," he was quoted as saying in Thursday's papers.

"Aristocracy has no place in my government," said Ahmadinejad, who scored a shock election victory in June partly thanks to his austere lifestyle and vows to fight corruption.

A former member of the hardline Revolutionary Guards and mayor of Tehran, the president has embarked on a major purge of regime institutions seen as either corrupt or too moderate.

Ahmadinejad hit back at people attacking his purge, saying it was "only to be expected that an official who is the director of 15 companies and who earns 33,000 dollars a month criticises my government."

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Ardavan Khoshnood

Born in Iran, 23 years old, and leader of Moderata Ungdomsförbundet (The Swedish Young Conservatives) in Malmo, Sweden.

He is also Webmaster of Aryamehr.org.

May he succeed in all his endeavors.

Article in Persian.

No natives allowed

Bulletin of the Atomic $cientists:

Edoardo Agnelli

Go HERE to Mohammad Ghadiri Abianei’s website (former diplomat of the Islamic regime in Rome), to see a picture of Edoardo Agnelli, son of the Italian billionaire Gianni Agnelli, standing in the first row of Tehran’s Friday Prayers. The picture is dated March 27, 1981.

نخستين جلسه شوراي مركزي حزب اعتمادملي

دار و دسته مهدي كروبي






Picture from the first official meeting of the newly established "National Confidence Party" (a.k.a. National Trust Party) !!!

I'm afraid to ask what he's doing with his other hand!

More HERE.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

A noteworthy omission

I think most of you know of the demonstration that took place on Sunday, outside LA’s federal building, to protest against Ahmadinejad’s comments on Israel. By all accounts, it went well, even “extraordinarily” well according to one radio station, and many Iranians showed up “to show the world”, so they hoped, and we hoped, that Islamists republicans ruling Iran do not represent Iranians. A friend of mine from a neighboring state even flew to LA to be there.

So, is it not remarkable that in THIS report from the AP, the only English language article I’ve been able to find on the rally, there is no mention whatever about the presence of Iranians in the demonstration?


Meanwhile, from Budapest:
Iranian student apologizes to Israel

رو كه نيست سنگ پاي قزوين است

Islamic Republic's "Association of Muslim Journalists" has issued a statement condemning "the violation of Muslims’ civil rights in France," calling on the French government to cooperate with it in establishing a fact-finding commission to investigate the conditions of French Muslims!

AMJ hopes that the French government will cooperate by granting its members visas!

Islamic Republic's Mehr News Agency

No place like home

Interesting story about Iranian Jews in Israel


Immigrant moves back 'home' to Teheran
Jerusalem Post
Nov. 3, 2005
By Orly Halpern

كار درميان كودكان و نوجوانان

Saturday, November 05, 2005

شاهزاده ايراني در ژاپن

Readers here familiar with my writings prior to Sarbaze Kuchak know well of my fondness for the Japanese and their culture. Let me share with you then two articles about Hiroko Nishizawa and her book, Of Iranian Descent. She is a descendant of Sassanian nobles who, after the Arab invasion of Iran, left their native land and settled in Japan.

Azaris not Iranians, according to Peiknet

Iranians in the province of Azarbaijan not Iranians, according to Peiknet

No exclamation mark, because it is not unusual.

If you go to the anti-Iranian website Peiknet, in the right column on the home page, you may see a short paragraph concerning “chauvinism” and a link taking you to THIS article. According to the article, in a recent interview published in the monthly Iran Mehr, “someone called” Ghassem Azinifar has talked to a certain Professor Safi Zadeh regarding Iranian history, in which interview quite a number of delirious assertions have been made.

I did not succeed in finding the interview on the net, but if the article were to be trusted on its quotations, then yes, I too would think the professor wrong on a number of his statements. But according to this article and Peiknet, one “delirious” assertion, cleverly thrown into the bunch, is that Iranians living in the province of Azarbaijan are Iranians!

May I suggest, then, to the political prostitutes at Peiknet, that the next time they borrow an article from a pan-Turkist website openly praising murderers and terrorists, much like Peiknet itself, to at least give their "comrades" credit?

Ahmadinejad: First 100 Days

Nowhere do I find my own thoughts on Ahmadinejad better echoed than in the articles of Amir Taheri. Here’s his latest, an assessment of Ahmadinejad’s first 100 days in office. Readers may wish to compare Taheri’s treatment of the “fall” of the so-called “reformers” with that by the “liberal” press, who openly mourn their “defeat”.

THIS article on the art dealer and thief, Sami-Azar, is but one example. THIS article in The Times is another. Note, for instance, how they characterize one of their NOKARS, the anti-Iranian Mafiosi Mohammad Hossein Adeli:

“One of the most prominent victims of the diplomatic cull is Mohammad Hossein Adeli, the urbane, American-educated Ambassador to London, who has served only for 12 months and is the first Iranian envoy since the Islamic Revolution who speaks fluent English.”

(my emphasis)

Friday, November 04, 2005

Cutthroats

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Statement in USDRI

Click to enlarge


The above article concerns a warning from the anti-Pahlavist Farrokh Negahdar, a long time NOKAR of the Mullahs and now a member of the comedy troupe known as the "Unity for a Secular and Democratic Republic in Iran" organization, on the possibility of the return of the Iranian Monarchy (read, a government capable of defending Iran’s interests)---which he compares with the Velayate Faghih Shiite system in order, first, not to appear as to be ranting against the monarchy alone, and second, to blemish and denigrate what is left of our national character--- and, as incredible as it may seem, the danger of the ROSHANFEKRAN (“intellectuals”) such as himself being sidelined from seats of power! Follow the link below to to read Negahdar's article:



هنوز ایران به آنجا نرسیده است که قدرت تاثیر گذاری دین و وراثت بر رقابت‌های سیاسی و در تلاش برای تکوین قدرت سیاسی ناچیز شده باشد. تجربه عراق و قانون اساسی تازه تدوین شده آن نشان داد که حتی با سرگونی صدام به زور ٢٠٠ هزار سرباز امریکایی (با ادعاهای بسیار مدرن، فوق دموکرات و سوپر حقوق بشری) باز هم قدرت دین، توهم قومی و فقر فرهنگ دموکراتیک از چهره نظام سیاسی و قانون اساسی زدوده نشد. ماجرای انتخاب احمدی نژاد و پدیده‌هایی مثل جمکران باید به روشنفکران ایرانی هشدار دهد که درجه بلوغ سیاسی قشرهای معینی از مردم را واقع بینانه اندازه گیری کنند. گرچه شناخت نسبت به حکومت سلطنتی و حکومت ولایی تا حد معین در جامعه گسترش یافته اما وضع اصلا از این نظر حتی با کشور ترکیه قابل مقایسه نیست. ترکیه را خطر بازگشت عثمانی یا خلافت دیگر اصلا تهدید نمی‌کند. اما ایران، اگر فضای گفتگوی ملی بسته شود، هنوز هم بشدت آسیب پذیر است. هنوز هم "به خیابان ریختن" توده وار "توده‌ها" با شعارهای "جاوید شاه" یا با "کفن پوشان چاله میدانی" بسیار سهل تر و ممکن تر از سازمان دهی"نافرمانی مدنی" تحت رهبری روشنفکران جمهوری خواه است

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Death threats against an Iranian filmmaker in Sweden

Houtan Shirazi, a 27 year old Iranian filmmaker in Sweden, has been threatened with death. He had left Iran some seven months ago, managing to smuggle out his documentary film titled Kargadan.

Kargadan, a documentary on the sexual abuse of Iranian children under the rule of the Shiite Taliban, had been scheduled to run in Guttenberg's International Exile Film Festival.

There is a segment in the film where a boy explains how he was forcefully taken to a mosque and sexually abused by three informers working for the Islamic Republic. In another segment the boy’s mother talks about her appeal to the authorities and being told to keep her mouth shut. In another segment, a group of young men in a village candidly talk about the spread of pedophilia in Iran. In yet another segment, filmed secretly, a member of the Islamic Republic's security forces is shown murdering an Iranian.

Articles in Persian (the website has strict copyright rules; sorry!) :

News of the death threats

Interview with Houtan Shirazi


Houtan has been in contact with Mr. Manouchehr Ganji (look under links) and is now living in an undisclosed location under the protection of Swedish authorities.

The following clip shows the indefatigable Mr. Ganji speaking about Houtan's case on one of the Iranian satellite channels in LA:

Click here

Evil minds or an evil empire?

Another ARTICLE in response to The Guardian’s “The Evil Empire”.

“Iranian” Animated Film for Children Promotes Suicide Bombings



Cheshme "raffigh" Farrokhe Negahdar roshan.

Mahnaz Afkhami

She was Minister for women's affairs in the Iranian government.




Article

Pan-Turanianism takes aim at Azarbaijan