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Weekly Commentary
Mullahs’ Many
Faces of Terror
As the ideals of freedom and democracy are driving Iranians into
daily confrontations with the ruling regime, Tehran rulers are
intensifying a campaign of terror at home and abroad. From labor
and student unrests to women challenging the misogynous mullahs,
the regime is increasingly becoming encircled.
Last week, residents of the oil-rich southwestern city of Ahwaz
and neighboring towns clashed with mullahs’ security forces for
more than six days. The intensity of the public’s rage and the
scale of the uprising forced the authorities to declare a de
facto martial law in the province. According to eyewitness
accounts, the state security forces shot and killed over sixty
protesters, executing a number of young men in the streets.
Meanwhile, some 400 suicide volunteered declared readiness to
conduct attacks on Americans in Iraq and targets in Israel. They
were inspired by a fatwa from a senior cleric who sanctioned
suicide missions. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani, issued
a religious decree in which he stressed "martyrdom operations"
were permissible in the "occupied Islamic countries" as a weapon
of war against modern armies.
The show of force was the latest by the Committee for the
Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign (CCMGIC),
which boasts to have enrolled 35,000 volunteers nationwide for
possible attacks Against Western targets.
Mohammad Samadi, the organizer of the CCMGIC’s event for
recruiting suicide volunteers told Reuters that "America is
definitely considered an enemy" and he encouraged volunteers to
carry out suicide attacks against the enemies of “Islam”. "We
will not dispatch them anywhere ... they will locate the targets
themselves," he added.
According to the Associated Press, Samadi acknowledged that his
group had already carried out suicide attacks inside Israel
against military targets.
A senior Revolutionary Guards official Hassan Abbasi told a
gathering in Tehran last year that, “Our main weapon is jihad…
and through it, we are shaking the foundations of the infidels.”
He added, “Reconnaissance has been done on 29 weak points in
America and the West to prepare attacks on them. Our plans aim
at 6,000 nuclear warheads in America, so that they would be
blown up. By doing reconnaissance on their weaknesses, we will
pass on the information to guerrilla groups and take action
through them.”
Subsequently, a major campaign in Iran was conducted in mid-2004
to dispatch “Battalions of Suicide Bombers” to Iraq and it was
reported that “tens of students from the University of Science
and Technology in Iran” were sent to Karbala.”
There have been ample reports about the increase in the number
of Tehran-linked terrorist attacks in Iraq since last year.
Iraqi officials have gone on the record to voice concern over
Iran’s destabilizing interference in Iraq, including the
dispatch of terrorists, money, arms, and ammunition. More
recently, the Iraqi daily, Al-Mada, reported, “The Police
in Diyala Province arrested a network of terrorists funded by
Iran and responsible for sabotage operations against government
agencies, army officers, Iraqi police and government officials.”
American and Coalition forces, Iraqi police and officials are
not the only targets of Tehran’s terrorists. The regime has also
targeted the members of the Iran’s main opposition group, the
Iranian Mujahedeen (MEK) in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
According to the USA Today, “Army Maj. Kreg Schnell, an
intelligence officer in the Iraqi province that includes Camp
Ashraf, said the CIA last year detained and questioned a man who
appeared to be working for the Iranians and trying to apprehend
MEK members. He was looking to see if it were possible "to
snatch some of them (MEK) back as an example" to others, Schnell
said. Last August, Schnell said, an Iraqi army patrol was
approached by two Iraqis who said they were bounty hunting for
members, offering $400 a head.
Without question, Tehran has declared war on its own citizens
and on peace and stability in the region. Daily public
executions and brutal crackdown on the restive populace across
the country are equally matched by the escalation in Tehran’s
terrorist campaign against Iraqis and Americans in Iraq.
Direct link between domestic suppression and use of terror
abroad, once again makes the case for a US policy, which should
recognize that only a free and democratic regime in Iran,
brought about by the Iranian people and the organized
opposition, could put an end the mullahs’ reign of terror both
at home and abroad. (USADI)
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Radio Free Europe
April 22, 2005
Tehran Opposes
U.S. Pro-Democracy Initiatives
U.S. interest in Iranian domestic politics has increased
recently. The State Department is looking for democratic
organizations or activists to support, and Congress is
considering legislation relating to Iran. Iranian opposition
groups, meanwhile, are soliciting U.S. support…
Pursuant to a $3 million Congressional appropriation, the U.S.
State Department is soliciting proposals from "educational
institutions, humanitarian groups, nongovernmental
organizations, and individuals inside Iran to support the
advancement of democracy and human rights," "USA Today" reported
on 11 April, citing the State Department's Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor…
Iranian state radio commented on 12 April that Washington
already supports "isolated and rejected groups or elements" but
that this only leads to embarrassment for the United States or
these groups. It added that not only have U.S. efforts to cause
"anarchy and domestic unrest" in Iran over the last 20 years
failed, but they have in fact caused "increased public anger and
hatred against America." The commentary concluded: "It seems
that the American officials have thrown themselves in a fatal
abyss by financing opposition Iranian groups."
Foggy Bottom is not the only place where people are thinking
about Iran. Iran is of great interest on Capitol Hill, too.
Two Congressmen -- Bob Filner (Democrat, California) and Tom
Tancredo (Republican, Colorado) -- chaired a 6 April Capitol
Hill meeting of a "think tank" called the Iran Policy Committee,
U.S. Newswire reported. Filner described the meeting as an
effort by the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus of the
House of Representatives to learn more about Iran and to
consider ways to confront it. Tancredo called for an end to the
State Department's designation of the Mujahedin Khalq
Organization as a terrorist group.
Radio Farda reported that the Middle East Subcommittee of the
U.S. House of Representatives discussed legislation relating to
Iran on 13 April in Washington, DC. The Iran Freedom Support Act
(HR 282) defines its purpose as, "To hold the current regime in
Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a
transition to democracy in Iran." The legislation calls on the
White House to support pro-democracy forces that oppose the
Iranian regime.
Opponents of the Iranian regime -- under the umbrella of the
National Convention for a Democratic Secular Republic in Iran --
met in Washington on 14 April to demand U.S. support for their
activities. Mujahedin Khalq Organization leader Mariam Rajavi
addressed the event via a video link from France… Several U.S.
legislators attended this event. Representatives Filner, Dennis
Moore (Republican, Kansas), Ted Poe (Republican, Texas), and
Tancredo were there, as were staff members of Kay Bailey
Hutchinson (Republican, Texas) and James Talent (Republican,
Missouri).
Not surprisingly, Tehran has reacted angrily to these
developments.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on 14 April that U.S.
statements about promoting democracy in Iran reveal that
Washington has a specific timetable in mind, IRNA reported.
Khamenei said anonymous "certain individuals" should not be
allowed to help what IRNA termed an "interventionist
conspiracy."…
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The Wall Street Journal
April 21, 2005
Europe's Misspent
Influence
"Politics is about changing things," Javier Solana recently
said, emphasizing that Europe has a leading role to play in
promoting democracy in the world and particularly the Middle
East.
Such rhetoric coming out of Europe begins to sound similar to
President George W. Bush's own vision of a "Greater Middle
East". Stressing the use of their "soft power," Europeans like
to make the point that they have long championed reforms and
democracy in the region...
Economic interests seemed to have been also the driving force
behind the so-called "critical dialogue" with Iran . Once again
in the name of promoting democracy and reforms (and against the
pleading of Iranian dissidents), the EU improved its economic
ties with yet another despotic regime in the Middle East. Of
course, far from promoting reforms, the Mullahs have grown only
more fanatical over the years. The only "positive" result of
this exercise was that European companies landed lucrative oil
and business deals along the way.
But despite this failure to encourage democratic change in Iran
by embracing the Mullahs, Europe now insists that offering even
more economic and political incentives will steer Iran away from
producing nuclear weapons. As could have been expected from past
experience, the months of talks have only uncovered one Iranian
deception after the other and have done nothing to stop their
nuclear program.
Excerpts from a commentary by Nir
Boms, vice president of the Center for Freedom in the Middle
East.
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Reuters
April 24, 2005
Iran says
determined to resume uranium enrichment
TEHRAN - Iran is determined to resume uranium enrichment whether
talks with the European Union over its nuclear program succeed
or fail, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
Last November, Tehran suspended uranium enrichment -- which
could produce nuclear fuel for power plants or bombs -- while it
negotiated a settlement to its nuclear dispute with the EU.
"We will resume uranium enrichment after a while," Foreign
Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news
conference. "It is on our agenda whether the talks reach a
result or not.
"It's clear the current (enrichment) suspension cannot last
long. Naturally the suspension will continue during the talks
but Iran will never allow the talks to go on for an unreasonable
amount of time," Asefi said.
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