Q&A: “There Is No War on Terrorism”
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Nov 10, 2010 (IPS) - “The U.S. intentionally confuses al Qaeda with other groups around the world fighting for their independence or liberation, but it’s [just] a convenient way to whip up support and get people very afraid,” says author and journalist and Reese Erlich.
“There is no war on terrorism,” he tells IPS.
Based on original research and firsthand interviews, Erlich’s new book “Conversations with Terrorists” draws fresh portraits of six controversial leaders: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Hamas top leader Khaled Meshal, Israeli politician Geula Cohen, Iranian Revolutionary Guard founder Mohsen Sazargara, Hezbollah spiritual advisor Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fadlallah, and former Afghan Radio and Television Ministry head Malamo Nazamy. Read more
November 10, 2010 72 Comments
Iran Primer: The Youth
by OMID MEMARIAN and TARA NESVADERANI[ primer] Iran’s youth have been politically active since the 1953 ouster of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. The death of three students in protests against Vice President Nixon’s 1953 visit — to support the shah after a CIA-backed coup against the elected government — is still a national holiday. The young were key players in the 1979 revolution. Today, their strength is also in numbers. A baby boom after the revolution almost doubled the population from 34 million to 62 million in the first decade. Iran is now one of the youngest societies in the world, skewing politics, the economy and social pressures. The demographic bulge is one of the biggest threats to the status quo.
The youth bloc has been shaped by political and military crises. In the 1980s, they were the majority of combatants in the eight-year war with Iraq; even pre-teen Basij volunteers became human minesweepers. In the 1990s, Iranian youth demanded their post-war due in politics, the economy and society. By 1997, their growing numbers helped elect reformist President Mohammad Khatami. But as he failed to produce change, the young pulled back. The partial youth boycott of the 2005 presidential election was key to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election. Their reentry into politics in the 2009 election seriously altered Iranian politics. Read more
October 1, 2010 63 Comments
Iran’s “Blogfather” Gets 20-Year Prison Sentence
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sep 28, 2010 (IPS) - A week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told heads of state gathered for the U.N. General Assembly in New York that his government does not jail its citizens for expressing their opinions, Iran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Hossein Derakhshan, an internationally known Iranian-Canadian blogger, to 19 and a half years in prison.
On Monday, the conservative website Mashreq announced the verdict issued by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Courts.
Arrested in October 2008, Derakhshan had been charged with “cooperation with hostile states” and “propagating against the regime”, among other counts, the site said. In addition to the lengthy prison term, he was fined and banned from membership in political parties and work in the media for a period of five years. Read more
September 28, 2010 135 Comments
Iran’s “Blogfather” Gets 20-Year Prison Sentence
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sep 28, 2010 (IPS) — A week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told heads of state gathered for the U.N. General Assembly in New York that his government does not jail its citizens for expressing their opinions, Iran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Hossein Derakhshan, an internationally known Iranian-Canadian blogger, to 19 and a half years in prison.
On Monday, the conservative website Mashreq announced the verdict issued by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Courts.
Arrested in October 2008, Derakhshan had been charged with “cooperation with hostile states” and “propagating against the regime,” among other counts, the site said. In addition to the lengthy prison term, he was fined and banned from membership in political parties and work in the media for a period of five years. Read more
September 28, 2010 Leave a Comment
Activists Warn of Rights Crisis Ahead of Ahmadinejad Visit
NEW YORK, Sep 17, 2010 (IPS) - Speaking at a press conference in New York Friday, Shirin Ebadi, a highly-regarded Iranian attorney and the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, warned that the human rights situation in Iran is deteriorating, particularly for the many journalists and civil society activists considered political prisoners.
“If Mr. Ahmadinejad claims that Iran is a free country, he should let Physicians Without Borders go to Iran and visit the prisoners in bad health condition,” Ebadi said ahead of the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to address the U.N. General Assembly Sep. 23.
The event was organised by two New York-based rights groups, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and Human Rights Watch, as well as the Nobel Women’s Initiative. Read more
September 18, 2010 199 Comments
Ahmadinejad Was Freed Hiker’s Captor, Not Saviour
IWPR- By Omid Memarian - 17 Sep 10The release this week of Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans held for more than a year on spying charges, has been presented as an act of clemency by the Iranian regime. But by claiming the credit for freeing Shourd, the government reveals serious inconsistencies with its own account.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has portrayed himself as Shourd’s benefactor, but it was his intelligence service that held her for 14 months. He was thus directly responsible for her detention without trial.
Shourd was freed on September 14, just a week before Ahmadinejad was due to travel to New York to attend the 56th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Read more
September 17, 2010 Leave a Comment
Green Light, an Interview With Faezeh Hashemi
FOREIGN POLICY, Sep 8, 2010- Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, daughter of Iran’s powerful Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a prominent advocate of the Green Movement, speaks to Foreign Policy about the future of Iran’s opposition and her (low) opinion of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, 48, was one of Iran’s leading members of parliament from 1992 to 1996 and the founder and editor of Zan, Iran’s first-ever daily women’s newspaper. She is also the daughter of Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the country’s most influential men and strongest opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During the widespread protests that followed Iran’s contested presidential election last year, Hashemi was a vocal supporter of the Green Movement and was briefly imprisoned by the Iranian government for her activism. She spoke to Omid Memarian about how Iran has changed since that election and the future of the Green Movement. Read more
September 8, 2010 Leave a Comment
Q&A: Mousavi’s Revelations Would Destroy the Govt’s Legitimacy
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Aug 24, 2010 (IPS) - Responding to pro-government critics, Iran’s defiant opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has said several times in recent months that he would reveal “untold secrets” from his tenure.
Mousavi served as prime minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989, until constitutional changes abolished the post. He was a leading opposition candidate in Iran’s contested presidential elections last year.
Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first president after the Islamic Revolution, who now lives in France, told IPS that he believes Mousavi’s life is danger. “Many people who have had access to the regime’s secrets or who have tried to reveal them have been murdered,” he said.
Last month, Banisadr published what he says is Mousavi’s 1988 letter of resignation on his website, Enghelab-e Eslami. The letter was addressed to then-President Seyed Ali Khamenei, now Iran’s Supreme Leader. Neither Mousavi nor any of the Iranian government authorities, including the Office of the Supreme Leader, has reacted to the letter’s contents. Read more
August 24, 2010 14 Comments
Mysterious Letter Exposes Iranian State Secrets
The Daily Beast, August 7 2020- A letter rumored to be written by opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi 20 years ago has resurfaced and is lighting up Iran’s blogosphere. Omid Memarian on why the letter could open decades of dark secrets and bitter rivalries.
Hidden away for more than 20 years, a mystery letter suddenly reappeared last week.
The letter, supposedly written by a Tehran insider turned opposition leader, was explosive: it alleged that Iran sponsors terrorism abroad.
Like a middle manager ignored by his bosses, the letter writer expressed frustration that he was kept in the dark about Iran’s involvement in events that he described as “operations abroad.”
“If they were to engage about the validity of the letter’s contents, skeletons would come tumbling out of the closet, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone in power.” Read more
August 7, 2010 23 Comments
Poll Finds Dwindling Support for Govt
President Ahmadinejad at the review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in May 2010. Credit:UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Jul 28, 2010 (IPS) - A recent poll conducted by a credible Iranian university centre concerning the post-election events of 2009 has found that 56 percent of participants believe President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s popularity has declined over the past year, while just 22 percent believe it has increased.
Opinions of Ahmadinejad in the capital Tehran declined, despite the fact that the president’s cabinet enjoys a monopoly over state television and radio stations.
Over the past two years, dozens of reformist publications have been shuttered, and journalists and political activists critical of the government’s policies have been arrested and imprisoned. Read more
July 28, 2010 25 Comments
Worries Mount over Sanctions’ Ripple Effect
WASHINGTON, Jul 8, 2010 (IPS) - Although the United States and its allies insist that the latest round of U.N. sanctions against Iran targets high-level government officials rather than the general population, interviews with a number of analysts, activists and journalists in Tehran reveal a growing concern over the impact on the country’s middle class.
“The government will use the oil money to prevent pressure on the lower classes, but the main pressure will be on the middle class, the majority of whom are anti-government,” a former governmental official told IPS on the condition of anonymity. Read more
July 9, 2010 77 Comments
Iran Pressured to Open Doors to U.N. Rights Investigators
GENEVA, Jun 11 (IPS) - The Iranian government rejected charges that it has violated human rights and freedom of speech and assembly before a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva Thursday - the same day that the Iranian opposition’s request to hold a peaceful protest was denied by authorities.
Although Tehran insists there is a standing invitation for U.N. special human rights rapporteurs to visit, none have gained access to the country since 2005. ”We would like see the Iranians actually follow through with concrete action on their commitment to allow special rapporteurs, as well as the [U.N.] high commissioner’s office, to enter Iran and do full investigations of the human rights situation,” Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the Council, told IPS. Read more
June 17, 2010 6 Comments
Anniversary Preview: Tehran Gets the Jitters
June 10, 2010 | 10:29pm, the Daily Beast
Tension is building in Tehran ahead of Saturday’s anniversary of the Iranian protests. Omid Memarian talks to people in the Iranian capital.
In advance of the one-year anniversary of Iran’s disputed elections on Saturday, the government has sent security forces into the streets of Tehran to prevent another popular uprising. Already, plainclothes police and students have clashed violently, and the government has warned against further protest rallies. Confrontations with women over how to dress, and the execution of five dissidents last month have contributed to tensions in the capital.
When students gathered at the Azad University recently, chanting slogans such as “death to the dictator,” and protesting recent arrests, plainclothes officers swiftly cracked down on the demonstrators, who were beaten, according to reports by people who were there.
“It seems that as we get closer to the anniversary of last year’s elections… confrontations and threats intensify.”
A few days later, the police commander of greater Tehran, General Hossein Sajedinia, told an official news agency that police forces would not hesitate to confront illegal demonstrations.
Read more
June 10, 2010 84 Comments
Iran’s Hanging Judge
Jun 9 2010, Institute for War and Peace Reporting- Abolghasem Salavat, dubbed “Judge of Death”, and two colleagues have presided over most political trials since last year’s unrest.A decision to show clemency to 81 of the people detained in the unrest that followed last year’s presidential election in Iran has once again shone the spotlight on the country’s judicial and penal systems.
On June 2, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved a recommendation by the head of the judiciary. Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, to release some of the 81 under amnesty and reduce the sentences of the rest. Read more
June 9, 2010 60 Comments
Divisions Sharpen as Iran Girds for Renewed Protests
BERKELEY, California, Jun 7, 2010 (IPS) - A week before the first anniversary of Iran’s contested presidential elections, the disruption of a speech by the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini during a memorial service for the founder of the Islamic Republic on Jun. 4 has once more publicly exposed the rift within the top level of Iran’s leadership.
According to the government, two million Basij militia members and supporters from all over the country were mobilised to come to Tehran to participate in last week’s ceremonies marking the 21st anniversary of Khomeini’s death.
However, many believe the rallies were in fact intended to intimidate the opposition protesters expected to take to the streets on Jun. 12, a year after the polls in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner and the government waged a bloody crackdown in which hundreds were arrested and jailed. Read more
June 7, 2010 26 Comments