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Iranian Presidential Election Turning into a Circus

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani issued a press release Tuesday denying reports that he received a letter from Secretary of State John Kerry that said the United States would support him if he chose to run in Iran’s presidential election next month.

Whether his denial will carry any weight, however, may be moot, as Iranian media is reporting that Rafsanjani and another candidate, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s handpicked successor, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, were disqualified from the race.

In a May 15 exclusive, I reported on WND that a secret message from Kerry was delivered to Rafsanjani of U.S. support, according to a source affiliated with the office of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Over 100 of the regime’s media outlets, including Channel 1 TV, immediately picked up WND’s report, which forced Rafsanjani’s office to post a denial on his official website.

“After the false publication of internal media quoting American WND regarding a secret letter by John Kerry to Ayatollah Rafsanjani and on the threshold of the presidential elections,” Rafsanjani’s press release said, “some vengeful media in Iran, without considering the national interest of the country and with the goal of character assassination, have expanded on news and rumors of anti-revolutionary foreign media.”

The press release said it’s unfortunate that some “internal media,” based on their political tendencies, have chosen to become aligned with WND’s report.

After a warning that Rafsanjani might reveal some official regime secrets, the release asks, “Are (the media) willing to publish reports against all officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran!?”

The release said Rafsanjani’s office regretted this “anti-human and anti-moral” behavior by the “internal media” that have become the “loudspeaker” of the anti-revolutionaries and he reserved the right to take legal action against those in regime media who expanded on the WND report.

The outreach to Rafsanjani goes back to what led to the Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980s in which a direct channel of communication was established with Rafsanjani, who was then the speaker of parliament.

Rafsanjani had promised the American administration that once Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, died, then relations between the two countries could improve, but his promises then and after continued to be hollow as he bought time for the regime to progress in various fields.

My reports of April 30 and May 2 on WND also revealed that Ahmadinejad had been arrested and detained for several hours recently and warned by regime officials to keep his mouth shut.

Earlier, the regime’s media outlet Baztab reported that Ahmadinejad had warned associates that if Mashaei was rejected as a candidate, then Ahmadinejad would reveal recordings confirming that the regime defrauded the voters in the 2009 presidential election.

Our revelation of the news caused a firestorm inside the regime, which then arrested the editor of Baztab for publishing the report. They then attacked WND and me for publishing the report of the arrest and the revelation about the recording, which reportedly quotes officials telling Ahmadinejad in 2009 that they would announce his total winning tally as 24 million votes where, in fact, the actual number was much lower.

The source who provided the information about Ahmadinejad’s arrest then revealed the content of the tape (which is a bit longer than 11 minutes) as being between Ahmadinejad and Vahid Haghanian, the head of the supreme leader’s office. The two discuss the fraud in which Haghanian said election officials added millions of votes to Ahmadinejad’s tally to declare him the winner.

During that phone call, the two argued as Haghanian told Ahmadinejad what Khamenei expected of him. Haghanian told him that they had to add millions of fake votes to declare him the winner despite having all the Guards and Basij personnel voting for him.

The actual results of the election, as provided by the source were:

• Mir Hossein Mousavi won the election with over 19,250,000 votes.
• Ahmadinejad was second with a little over 13,000,000 votes.
• Mohsen Rezaei had approximately 3,700,000 votes.
• Mehdi Karoubi had approximately 3,200,000 votes.

Millions of Iranians took to the streets after the 2009 election results were reported, calling Ahmadinejad’s reported 62 percent tally of voters a fraud and demanding a free election.

Thousands were arrested, with many tortured and executed. Mousavi and Karoubi have been under house arrest ever since.

It will be interesting to see if Khamenei steps in to get both Rafsanjani and Mashaei on the approved list for the presidency and if not what the reaction of the two factions will be but one thing is for sure and that is Khamenei to pick his own candidate out of the hat, as the regime always does, and as they did with Ahmadinejad himself, to keep the clerical regime alive longer.

It is important to point out that, the Iranian presidential election next month will not be free. The candidates have all been selected to run because they are loyal to the Islamic dictatorship.

Most of the candidates are criminals, including three with arrest warrants issued against them by either Interpol or Argentinian courts for the 1994 Jewish Community Center bombing in Buenos Aires: Mohsen Rezaei, the ex-chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards, and two former regime officials, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Akbar Velayati.

Another candidate, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, current mayor of Tehran and former police commander, has said of the 1999 student protests:

“I was the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force at the time. Photographs of me are available showing me on the back of a motorbike, with Hossein Khaleqi, beating them (the protesters) with wooden sticks. … I was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that. I didn’t care that I was a high-ranking commander.”

Recently an audiotape surfaced on the Internet revealing his 2003 speech to the Basij paramilitary forces bragging about his role at the Supreme National Security Council meeting to get the authorization to attack the student protesters: “I spoke very harshly. Didn’t observe proper protocol, and I told them as head of the police, I will demolish anyone who would show up tonight on the campus to protest … with my behavior I intimidated them to get the permission to enter and also to shoot (at protesters).”

Under the Islamic Republic’s constitution, the 12-member Guardian Council decides the eligibility of who can run for office, and anyone with any history of opposing the regime is barred from participation. The council is made up of six Islamic faqihs (experts in Islamic law) appointed by the supreme leader and six jurists nominated by the head of the Judiciary (who is himself appointed by the supreme leader), and then approved by the parliament.

The last report by the source is that the security forces are present in Tehran and wide arrests are underway of associates of Mashaei and Rafsanjani.

WND REPORT DISQUALIFIES AYATOLLAH?

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

Iran’s presidential elections hit by turmoil over U.S. support

05/21/2013

WND

By: REZA KAHLILI

Iranian media earlier has speculated that would happen, with reports that Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei would be rejected by the council that approves candidacies.

Ahmadinejad has warned that if his handpicked successor, Mashaei, was rejected, he will release a tape that proves his 2009 re-election was fraudulent.

In a May 15 exclusive, WND reported that a secret message from Kerry was delivered to Rafsanjani of U.S. support, according to a source affiliated with the office of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The source, who remains anonymous for security reasons and who has provided valuable information before, said that on May 3, Kerry’s letter was delivered via the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who arranged through the Saudi Embassy in Tehran to present the message to Rafsanjani indicating support from both the White House and the Saudi monarch.

Over 100 of the regime’s media outlets, including Channel 1 TV, immediately picked up WND’s report, which forced Rafsanjani’s office to post a denial on his official website.

Become a part of the investigative reporting team uncovering the truths about Iran, and get author Reza Kahlili’s “A Time to Betray” about his life as a double agent inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The press release said it’s unfortunate that some “internal media,” based on their political tendencies, have chosen to become aligned with WND’s report.

After a warning that Rafsanjani might reveal some official regime secrets, the release asks, “Are (the media) willing to publish reports against all officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran!?”

Fars News Agency, the media outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, published Rafsanjani’s denial under a big headline: “I did not receive a secret message from the U.S. Secretary of State.”

Jamnews, a regime media outlet, not only put up the WND report in full but partly translated it into Farsi.

Another regime outlet, Yjc.ir (Young Journalist Club), also run by the Revolutionary Guards, not only fully translated the WND piece but said the news of U.S. support for Rafsanjani was published at a time when other U.S. officials had stated that Rafsanjani’s candidacy would be their best scenario for the June 14 presidential election.

Rafsanjani, who portrays himself as a moderate, announced his candidacy just before the May 11 registration deadline, drawing harsh reaction by the hardliners in Iran, who requested that authorities bar him from the election.

Rafsanjani played a major role in the 2009 election by supporting Mousavi, who actually won the vote against Ahmadinejad, whose victory was assured under orders by the supreme leader to add millions to his tally. That fraud touched off days of rioting in which thousands were arrested and many imprisoned or executed and led to the Green Movement, angering the hardliners.

WND reports of April 30 and May 2 revealed that Ahmadinejad had been arrested and detained for several hours recently and warned by regime officials to keep his mouth shut.

As also reported, Ahmadinejad had promised to release a tape that would prove the 2009 election was fraudulent if his handpicked candidate, Mashaei, was denied a spot in the presidential election. That WND report also caused a firestorm in Iran.

The Guardian Council, which must approve candidates, had said its decisions would be announced Wednesday. The source who provided the information both on Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani to WND said security forces have been stationed around Tehran in anticipation of possible rioting should one candidate or another be rejected.

The source said the WND reports have not only touched off a furor in Iran but have caused grave complications for the regime, which is now confused about what to do in its approval process, fearing instability as the elections nears.

WND’s reports have continuously unnerved the regime in ways that no other reports have done, the source said. This only benefits the Iranian people, he said, who as a majority “want nothing to do with this regime and the so-called moderates (Rafsanjani) who are as much of a criminal as the other officials of the Islamic Republic, whose only goal is for the survival of the regime for a bit longer.”

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and author of the award winning book “A Time to Betray” (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).

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Tags: Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Terrorism

Iranian Presidential Election Turning into a Circus

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

American Thinker

May 21, 2013

By Reza Kahlili

The Iranian presidential election next month will not be free. The candidates have all been selected to run because they are loyal to the Islamic dictatorship.

Another candidate, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, current mayor of Tehran and former police commander, has said of the 1999 student protests:

However, what makes this presidential election interesting this year is the confrontation between Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the latter’s handpicked candidate, close confidant and top adviser Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

As I reported on April 30, Ahmadinejad was arrested after his visit to Tehran’s 26th International Book Fair. He was held for seven hours and was warned to keep his mouth shut about matters detrimental to the Islamic regime before being released, according to a source within the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence unit.

The actual results of the election, as provided by the source were:

Millions of Iranians took to the streets after the 2009 election results were reported, calling Ahmadinejad’s reported 62 percent tally of voters a fraud and demanding a free election.

Thousands were arrested, with many tortured and executed. Mousavi and Karoubi have been under house arrest ever since.

According to the source, Ahmadinejad plans to derail the elections if Mashaei’s registration for presidential candidacy is not accepted. Khamenei desperately wants this election to go without incident to show the world that the regime is united and has popular support.

It will be interesting to see if Khamenei backs down and allows Mashaei to run just to keep Ahmadinejad in check, but then picks his own candidate out of the hat, as the regime always does, and as they did with Ahmadinejad himself, to keep the clerical regime alive longer.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and author of the award-winning book A Time to Betray (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).

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Tags: Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Jihad, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Terror Plot, Terrorism

Too late to stop Iran’s nuke program? Read

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

American weapons expert calls ‘Quds’ facility ‘very scary’

IranMissile

05/20/2013

WND

By: REZA KAHLILI

One of the America’s foremost experts on nuclear weapons calls Iran’s secret “Quds” nuclear facility very scary and a sign the Islamic regime might be close to taking on the world.

In an exclusive March 20 report with updates on March 24, March 25 and April 10, WND revealed the vast “Quds” site. Iranian scientists are trying to perfect nuclear warheads at this underground facility previously unknown to the West.

According to WND’s source, an officer who has been assigned to the regime’s Ministry of Defense, the site, approximately 14 miles long and 7.5 miles wide, consists of two facilities built deep into a mountain along with a missile facility housing over 380 missile silos/garages that is surrounded by barbed wire, 45 security towers and several security posts.

The most significant information provided by the source is that the regime has succeeded in not only enriching to weapons grade but has converted the highly enriched uranium into metal.

Moreover, the source said, successfully making this metal neutron reflector indicates the final stages for a nuclear weapons design that would be a two-stage, more sophisticated and much more powerful nuclear bomb. Regime scientists are also working on a plutonium bomb as a second path to becoming nuclear-armed, the source said, and they have at this site 24 kilograms of plutonium, which is sufficient for several atomic bombs. The scientists are at the last stage of putting together a bomb warhead, he said.

The nuclear weapon-effects test expert, who could not be named but who served at the U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency and who inspected more than 200 tunnel structures of Russian nuclear test sites as well as Russian operational facilities and silos, viewed the imagery of Iran’s new secret facility.

“The site is similar to a common approach by several other nuclear-capable countries which have used advanced design in hardening these types of tunnels or garages for a quick deployable system,” he said. “I understand exactly what Iran has at the site … (including) a very important part of the structures … the apparent hardened underground stub tunnels for secure storage of mobile systems which can be quickly moved to launching sites.”

“… the overheads indicate there are many apparent tunnel portals designed to hold a weapon and/or an operational controlling element (support system) for the weapons, an indication of an advanced design for a quick deployable nuclear weapons system capable of surviving retaliation, very much similar to what the U.S. had in mind in the 1960s in its major confrontation with the Soviet Union. … And it is very scary because its defeat may not be as easy as attacking it with a couple bombers, even if they have nuke weapons. This layout is very scary because it is … ready for the operational weapon systems to be installed, and then they are ready to take on the world.”

The source said there is close collaboration among Iran, North Korea and key figures in China in working on the nuclear warheads and that he will soon reveal detailed information of this collaboration, along with the plans and the timing for both Iran and North Korea to arm their missiles with nuclear warheads. The source emphasized that the world does not have much time but the time for negotiations with the Islamic regime is over.

Other experts also viewed the imagery.

“(The satellite images) suggest the possibility that Iran may in fact be further along in its nuclear weapons program than is generally assumed,” said David Trachtenberg, who for 30 years served in the national security policy field and who, as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense, played a leadership role in nuclear forces and arms control policy. “It is clear they have gone to great lengths to bury and protect high-value assets at this site, which also complicates the possibility of direct military action and illustrates the risks of allowing years to pass while hoping diplomacy will work.

GoogleEarth 12-2012 Image, Quds secret nuclear facility

“An accelerating train is harder to slow and takes longer to stop. These images reinforce my concern that Iranian nuclear progress is accelerating. The more emphatically the U.S. declares its determination to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state, the harder it may be to ensure that outcome.”

Fritz Ermarth, who served in the CIA and as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, reviewed the satellite photos and said, “(This) imagery strongly suggests that Iran is working on what we used to call an ‘objective force’ … a deployed force of nuclear weapons on mobile missiles, normally based in deep underground sites for survivability against even nuclear attack, capable of rapid deployment.”

“This open-source analysis by itself illustrates that Iran is very serious about building survivable facilities for its nuclear enterprise,” said Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, the executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, a congressional advisory board. Pry, who has served with the House Armed Services Committee and in the CIA, also reviewed the imagery and added, “The location of the site amid an Iranian missile armory, protected by a vast array of defensive and offensive missiles, is consistent with the intelligence reporting that the site is for the final stages of nuclear weapons development. The complex appears to be the most heavily protected site in Iran.”

“Reza Kahlili (who revealed the Quds site) has provided the West with one of the most critical pieces of evidence of the Iranian government’s drive to break out its nuclear development into a fully operational capability,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney (Ret.). “All the red lines have been crossed. Beware America, Israel and the West, a nuclear Iran is here!”

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said last week that a 10th round of talks with Iran over Tehran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons had failed.

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Tags: America, Hezbollah, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Sanctions, Terrorism, UN

The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

The John Batchelor Show

Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re:HEZBOLLAH PREPARING TO ATTACK ISRAEL, COMMANDER SAYS Hezbollah is in the final stage of preparation to attack Israel with sophisticated weapons, according to a high-level commander of the terrorist group.

May 20, 2013

Listen Here

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Tags: Ahmadinejad, Assad, Hezbollah, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Jihad, Khamenei, Sanctions, Syria, UN

Iran acts to expand sensitive nuclear capacity: diplomats

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

By Fredrik Dahl

VIENNA | Tue May 21, 2013 10:40am EDT

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waits before an official meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei in Tehran October 4, 2009. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

(Reuters) – A U.N. nuclear agency report due this week is expected to show Iran further increasing its capacity to produce material that its adversaries fear could eventually be put to developing atomic bombs, Western diplomats said on Tuesday.

But they said it is also likely to indicate that growth in Iran’s most sensitive nuclear stockpile has been held back because some of it has been used for reactor fuel, potentially providing more time for diplomacy between Iran and major powers.

Tehran’s holding of medium-enriched uranium gas is closely watched in the West as Israel – which has threatened air strikes if diplomacy and sanctions do not stop Iran’s atomic drive – says it must not amass enough for one bomb if further processed.

Critics say Iran is trying to achieve the capability to make atomic arms. Iran denies this, saying it needs nuclear power for energy generation and medical purposes and that it is Israel’s reputed nuclear arsenal that threatens regional peace.

The next quarterly report on Iran’s nuclear program by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expected on Wednesday, is likely to show continued installation of the centrifuges used for enriching uranium, diplomats said.

That would include an advanced model known as IR-2m which, once operational, would enable Iran to speed up sharply its accumulation of refined uranium, which can have both civilian and military purposes.

The number of IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings that have been put in place at Iran’s main enrichment site near the town of Natanz is expected to have risen significantly since February, when it stood at 180, they said.

Iran has for years been trying to develop centrifuges more efficient than the erratic 1970s-vintage IR-1 machines it now uses, but introducing new models has been dogged by technical hurdles and difficulty in obtaining key parts abroad.

“We expect that they’ve continued to install more advanced centrifuges at Natanz,” one diplomat said.

Another Western envoy said Iran was also believed to be pressing ahead in the construction of a research reactor, which experts say could offer it a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb, if it decided to embark on such a course.

Nuclear analysts say the type of reactor that Iran is building near the town of Arak could yield plutonium for nuclear arms if the spent fuel is reprocessed, something Iran has said it has no intention of doing.

NUCLEAR STOCKPILE

Diplomats will also scrutinise the IAEA report for what it has to say about Iran’s possession of medium-enriched uranium as this represents a technical threshold relatively close to the level required for nuclear bombs.

Since Iran in 2010 began processing uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent it has produced more than the 240-250 kg that would be needed for one bomb, if refined more.

But while the stockpile has expanded, Iran has still kept it below Israel’s stated “red line” by converting a large part of the uranium gas into oxide powder in order, Tehran says, to yield fuel for a medical research reactor in the capital.

As a result, the increase in the holding of 20 percent gas has been less than the production. In February, the stockpile was 167 kg, a rise of roughly 18-19 kg since the previous report in December but a significant slowdown from a 50 percent jump in the previous three-month period.

“It seems that they are converting nearly all the material that they are producing,” a Western official said.

But while the uranium conversion activity may postpone any decision by Israel on whether to strike Iranian nuclear sites, Western diplomats made clear Tehran must do much more in order to allay suspicions about its atomic program.

Turning uranium gas into oxide powder in order to make fuel plates may also be just a temporary positive development because the process is possible to reverse, Western experts say.

The six world powers involved in diplomacy with Iran – the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China - want it to stop refining uranium to 20 percent and suspend work at the underground Fordow site where most of this work is pursued.

(For an interactive timeline on Iran’s nuclear program, click on link.reuters.com/gad76r )

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Tags: Hezbollah, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Sanctions, Terrorism, UN, War

Iran cracks down on activists in runup to election

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

• Activists held and campaigners targeted as elections near
• Guardian launches database of Iran’s prisoners of conscience

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 May 2013 14.39 BST

Iran's prisoners of conscience - an interactive guide

Still image from Guardian database of Iran’s prisoners of conscience

Iran has launched a public crackdown on dissent before next month’s presidential election, executing two men charged with espionage and waging war against God, arresting a group of activists and summoning campaigners for questioning. Political prisoners in some of the country’s most notorious jails have had their parole or visiting rights withdrawn and some transferred to solitary confinement.

Human rights campaigners in Iran, speaking on condition of anonymity, say state repression has intensified in the runup to the polls on 14 June amid authorities’ concern of a repeat of the anti-government protests that followed the 2009 election, which was described as a sedition led by the country’s foreign enemies.

The crackdown comes as the Guardian launches an online database that catalogues the extent of repression by the Iranian authorities. The research shows there are 2,600 prisoners of conscience in the country, among them hundreds of activists, scores of students, dozens of women’s rights campaigners, lawyers, artists, former politicians and many members of the country’s religious and ethnic minorities.

After the 2009 election, which gave president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office, thousands of Green movement activists took to the streets to protest against the official results, which they alleged had been rigged. They were met by anti-riot forces who killed dozens of protesters and arrested hundreds more.

Those still in jail include at least 391 students, 90 teachers and professors, 65 writers, poets and film-makers, 20 lawyers and 131 identified as journalists or bloggers. But almost 1,900 prisoners are either awaiting sentencing or the details of their jail terms have not been publicly disclosed. Most of them were sentenced under vague charges, such as acting against the national security or propaganda against the regime, and have been denied adequate legal representation.

Of the religious and ethnic minorities in Iranian prisons, at least 572 are Kurds, 203 Arabs, 192 Azeris, 240 Baha’is, 13 Balouchs, 40 Christians, 98 Sufis, Zoroastrians and one Jew, the research shows.

The Guardian database only shows details for 870 prisoners whose identity and circumstances appear to be clear.

Anita Hunt, a researcher who has focused on documenting the arrests of Iranian activists and tracking their situation since 2009, said: “There’s a tendency to assume protests are confined to educated, middle-class youth, but the list [of prisoners in the interactive] tells us a different story. To me, this is evidence that what happened in 2009 was really a popular uprising across many sectors of society in Iran.

“The dissent has been muffled by constant systematic repression, but as long as we remember these prisoners, it has not been silenced. Behind the numbers and statistics are thousands of stories of real people enduring physical and mental torture and so many kinds of deprivation.”

With the general election fast approaching, the authorities appear to be worried about any repeat of the events of 2009.

Student activist Bahareh Hedayat, journalists Ahmad Zeyed-Abadi, Bahman Ahmadi-Amoui and Masoud Bastani are among the people who were all arrested in the 2009 post-election crackdown but have had their parole cancelled this week. Bastani and his wife, Mahsa Amr-Abadi, who is also a journalist, have since spent most of their time in jail, only seeing each other for few hours.

Masoud Bastani and Mahsa Amr-Abadi

Masoud Bastani and Mahsa Amr-AbadiThe opposition website Kaleme also reported on Monday that a number of activists have been arrested in Iranian provinces and some summoned for questioning. Ali Ghazali, the editor of the conservative website, Baztab, also remains in jail since his arrest in early May. Meanwhile, Iran News Network, a pro-government website, reported that several campaigners sympathetic to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his favourite candidate, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have also been arrested by the authorities and many called in for interrogation.

Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, a 28-year-old blogger who spent 376 days in solitary confinement after his arrest in 2009, has notified friends via Facebook that he was due to return to jail despite his deteriorating health condition. In jail, he developed a kidney disease and was operated on at least four times. He has staged a number of hunger strikes in protest at his 15-year jail sentence.

Ronaghi Maleki, an expert in computer programming and setting up websites aimed at circumventing online censorship, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2010 on charges of “spreading propaganda against the regime”, “membership of the internet group Iran Proxy” and “insulting the Iranian supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] and the president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]“.

During his time out, Ronaghi Maleki wrote a letter to his interrogator in which he said: “We are worried about Iran and Iranians, we are not the enemy!”

Kouhyar Goudarzi, a 27-year-old journalist from the Committee for Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) in Iran, was sentenced to five years in jail in March 2012 but fled Iran to Turkey while on a temporarily leave from prison. The CHRR was established in 2004 with the aim of reporting violations of human rights in Iran.

He said that members of the CHRR have received a combined total of 50 years in jail, including Saeed Jalilifar, who is serving a three-year sentence, Shiva Nazar-Ahari four years, Navid Khanjani 12 years and Saeed Haeri two years.

While in jail, Goudarzi said, he was put under pressure to give a false confession against himself and his friends. “I was held in solitary confinement and taken to interrogation sessions every morning. My interrogator would throw a piece of paper in front of me and leave me in the room for 12 hours with a radio on constantly playing static noises.”

He said: “I used to collapse and experience convulsions but the prison’s doctor only increased the dose of my medicine so I could resist more under interrogations instead of asking them to treat me better.”

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Tags: Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Terrorism

Reports: Iran bars two top figures from June ballot

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Associated Press, Tehran -

Iran’s Guardian Council, which vets candidates, has rejected former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (L) and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei (R), a close confidant of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (File Photo: Reuters)

Iranian news websites boosted speculation Tuesday that election overseers have barred two prominent but divisive figures from next month’s presidential ballot, in a move that would eliminate a threat to the country’s hard-liners.

The Tasnimnews.com website said the Guardian Council, which vets candidates, has rejected former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close confidant of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The semiofficial Mehr news agency carried the same report.

Mehr said only eight hopefuls, most of them hardliners loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been approved. The reports are not official. The announcement on the list for the June 14 election is expected later Tuesday or Wednesday.

Rafsanjani’s unexpected entry into the presidential race had re-energized reformist groups that have been under relentless pressure and crackdowns since major protests following Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009. His candidacy scrambled the vote’s equation because of his popularity, reputation and potential to draw voters away from conservatives

If he is indeed barred from the race, it would deal a demoralizing blow to pro-reform groups and dim hopes for a high turnout. It also would boost the chances of a Khamenei loyalist winning the election.

The Iranian media didn’t provide any reason for disqualifying Rafsanjani, but his opponents have claimed that at the age of 78, he is too old to run the country.

On Monday, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, spokesman for the Guardian Council that vets election candidates, said the council would bar candidates who are limited in their physical abilities, which was widely seen as a jab at Rafsanjani.

Rafsanjani is a founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the clerics to power, and was the closest confident of the revolution’s spiritual leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The country’s current supreme leader, Khamenei, largely owes his position to Rafsanjani’s support.

The head of the Guardian Council, 87-year-old Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, warned Friday that those who did not distance themselves from 2009 turmoil were not eligible to run, referring to the popular protests over the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad as “sedition.”

It was another hint that Rafsanjani, who is viewed as a serious threat to hardliners, could be banned.

A government crackdown in 2009 put an end to street protests, but Rafsanjani remained critical over the way the ruling system dealt with the crisis.

Mashaei’s purported disqualification, meanwhile, is a serious blow to Ahmadinejad, depriving him of levers of power with which to influence the next government. Ahmadinejad cannot run in this election because Iran’s constitution bars him from seeking a third term.

Ahmadinejad has been promoting Mashaei, whose daughter is married to the president’s son, as successor in recent years. But Mashaei is believed to have been at the heart of a messy power struggle between Ahmadinejad and the ruling clerics in recent years, earning him the enmity of Iran’s hard-liners.

Hard-liners accuse Mashaei of being the leader of a “deviant current” that seeks to undermine Islamic rule and compromise the Islamic system. Some critics have even claimed he conjured black magic spells to fog Ahmadinejad’s mind.

According to the unofficial news reports, among those approved for the June ballot are Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, prominent lawmaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati and Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf – all top Khamenei loyalists. Former chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaei and a little known former minister have also reportedly been approved.

Of eight, only two of them are pro-reform figures: Former top nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani and former first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref.

Reformers now have the option of rallying behind Aref or Rowhani or boycott the polls altogether.

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Tags: Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Revolutionary Guards, Terrorism

Saudi Arabia detains 10 more in Iran-linked spy case

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Al Arabiya with Agencies -

Spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, Mansour al-Turki, said in April that initial investigation has revealed direct involvement of those arrested with Iranian intelligence. (File Photo: AFP)

Saudi authorities have detained 10 more suspects in an alleged Iranian spy ring it announced in March, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

“Initial investigation carried out by the authorities led to the detention of 10 others for involvement in spying activities,” state television news channel al-Ekhbariya reported, citing the Interior Ministry.

The suspects include eight Saudis, a Lebanese and a Turk, it said.

On March 19, the Interior Ministry said authorities had arrested 16 Saudis, an Iranian and a Lebanese in four regions including the Eastern Province.

While Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged spy ring, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, Mansour al-Turki, said in April that initial investigation has revealed direct involvement of those arrested with Iranian intelligence.

Meanwhile, Turki said that the Lebanese man held in March has been released.

All of the Saudis arrested in March were members of the kingdom’s Shiite Muslim minority, Reuters reported leaders of the community as saying.

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Tags: Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism

Israeli army fires back on Golan Heights after ‘attack from Syria’

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Al Arabiya with AFP -

An Israeli Merkava tank maneuvers on the Israeli annexed Golan Heights overlooking the Syrian village of Breqa. (AFP File Photo)

Israeli soldiers patrolling the disputed Golan Heights along the border with Syria fired back after coming under fire overnight Monday, an Israeli Defense Force statement said, reporting a “direct hit.”

“Overnight, shots were fired at an IDF patrol on the border in the central Golan Heights, damaging a military vehicle,” said a statement on the army’s website. No one had been wounded, it added.

“In response, IDF forces returned precise fire at the source of the gunfire. They reported a direct hit,” the statement added.

“The IDF views the recent incidents in the north with concern and has lodged a complaint with UNDOF,” the U.N. Disengagement Force responsible for patrolling that area.

Syria’s army said it had destroyed an Israeli military vehicle that it said had crossed the sensitive ceasefire line in the Golan Heights, the military declared on Tuesday in a televised statement.

“Our armed forces have destroyed an Israeli vehicle with everything that it had in it… The vehicle had crossed the ceasefire line and was moving towards the village of Bir Ajam, situated in the liberated Syrian zone” of the Golan, the statement said.

But the Jewish state denied one of its vehicles had been destroyed.

The Syrian army “fired on an Israeli patrol, which we confirmed six hours ago, but did not destroy a vehicle or kill anyone,” Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adraee wrote on Twitter.

The Golan Heights have been tense since the beginning of the conflict in Syria more than two years ago.

However, there have been only minor flare-ups in the region to date, with Syrian shells crashing in the occupied Golan and Israel firing in retaliation.

The attack on Tuesday follows similar reports of shots fired from Syria on the Golan Heights on Monday, where an Al Arabiya reporter said the shots hit near an Israeli military patrol.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that shots were fired, but she said it was not clear whether the gunfire was intentional.

The shots were “most likely were stray bullets, we don’t know if it was intentional,” the spokeswoman told AFP news agency, adding that the Israeli army had not fired back and that Israel had submitted a complaint to the United Nations force in the region.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Syria, Terrorism

Security forces in place for announcement of candidates

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

RadioZamaneh

Tue, 05/21/2013

An Iranian opposition website reports that Tehran “has put on a military face” as the Guardian Council is set to announce today the presidential candidates that have been approved to run in the election.

The Kaleme website writes that the possible disqualification of Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the preferred candidate of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad camp, has given Tehran a military face.

The Guardian Council is about to announce the qualified candidates for the presidential election today.

According to the report, “security and anti-riot forces have been stationed at various points in the city, much to the surprise of the citizens.

Meanwhile, a reformist youth group involved in the Hashemi Rafsanjani campaign has been shut down in the lead up to the announcement of the qualified candidates.

Iran’s presidential election is slated for June 14.

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Tags: Elections, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Terrorism

Iran Plan for Low-Key Race May Be Threatened by Rafsanjani

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

By Ladane Nasseri - May 21, 2013 7:02 AM PT

bloomberg.com

Former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani waves as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election at the interior ministry in Tehran on May 11, 2013. Photographer: Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images

Iran’s political leaders face the choice of blocking Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s late bid for the presidency, or allowing him to run and wrecking a carefully crafted field of loyalists.

The ex-president, who kept his plans to himself until minutes before registration closed, stole the limelight from the more consensual candidates favored by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to analysts. If his candidacy was approved, it would “mobilize people to participate, whether for or against him,” said Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of Middle East politics at Qatar University.

There were signs that it may not happen. Mehr news agency, citing “hearsay” from its correspondent, said Rafsanjani would be excluded from a final shortlist of eight candidates, due to be announced by May 23. Iran’s Guardian Council is vetting more than 650 applications for the June 14 vote, and usually narrows the field to less than a dozen.

With an economy feeling the strain of international sanctions imposed to halt its nuclear program, and Israel and the U.S. threatening military action, Iran’s leaders have signaled they prefer a presidential contest less divisive than the last one. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election triggered allegations of ballot fraud to defeat a reformist candidate, and street protests that were violently crushed.

Security Tightened

Security in Tehran has been tightened in the past 24 hours as the deadline approached, with anti-riot units and other police deployed at several of the capital’s main squares.

Rafsanjani challenged the 2009 crackdown, urging respect for the opposition and the release of detainees. That helped sideline him politically, and in the past year two of his children were jailed on charges of inciting unrest.

This year, only politicians who “in their hearts have a belief” in the Islamic Republic will be approved, said the council’s spokesman, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei. He added: “Perhaps some errors have been committed in the past.”

Some say letting Rafsanjani run would be another error.

Rafsanjani is backed by supporters of “sedition,” the editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, appointed by Khamenei, wrote on May 13. The same word was used in a letter to the Guardian Council by about 100 lawmakers, calling for Rafsanjani to be excluded from the vote. Other top officials in recent days have hinted at oppositions regarding his candidacy.

The Shark

Kadkhodaei said yesterday that the Guardians won’t allow candidates to run if they’re not physically fit enough for the job, a possible reference to Rafsanjani, who was born in 1934. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the Guardian Council, said on May 17 that the president must “lead a simple life” in order to empathize with poor people, another indirect jab at Rafsanjani, who’s known for his wealth.

There may be repercussions, though, from rejecting such a prominent figure, analysts said.

Rafsanjani is one of the republic’s founders and was president from 1989 to 1997. He ran again in 2005, when he lost to Ahmadinejad. He heads the Expediency Council, a top advisory body, and has been chairman of the Assembly of Experts, which nominates the supreme leader. His political nickname is “the Shark.”

Barring Rafsanjani would “provoke a frenzy within the system,” Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, said in a phone interview. “To suggest that he doesn’t meet the qualification to run for president would call into question the credibility of institutions that he has engaged with.”

‘Rock the Boat’

Rafsanjani has been endorsed by Mohammad Khatami, who as president until 2005 eased restrictions on the press and on women’s clothing, making him a figurehead for reformists. Yet he’s really a “pragmatic conservative” with a foot in both camps, said David Hartwell, a Middle East analyst for IHS Jane’s. “He’s not one who’s going to rock the boat.”

There’s also an advantage, as well as risks, for Khamenei if Rafsanjani engages more of the public, according to Hartwell.

Iranian leaders cite voter turnout as a gauge of the system’s legitimacy. Khamenei on May 15 urged Iranians to participate, saying an “exciting and populous” election would display support for the Islamic Republic and thwart its enemies.

The supreme leader wants “a contest that has legitimacy.” Hartwell said. The ruling elite “would like to organize that without having Rafsanjani in the contest. But if having him will boost the legitimacy and the credibility of the results, they may choose to allow him to stand.”

Ahmadinejad Protege

Another high-profile candidate is even less likely to make it through the Guardians’ vetting, according to analysts.

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei is a confidante of Ahmadinejad, who has backed him for the post. Mashaei portrays himself as a nationalist, tapping a current of anti-clerical feeling, and he’s been charged with representing a “current of deviation” by critics. Mehr said he was excluded along with Rafsanjani from the shortlist.

“There’s no possibility they would want someone in this election who they’ve defined as an enemy of the system,” Maloney said.

Ahmadinejad has an increasingly fractious relationship with the Iranian establishment, engaging in public disputes with senior officials and earning a rebuke from Khamenei.

He’s also been criticized for his handling of the economy. Inflation (IACIGY) has surged as sanctions deprived Iran of hard currency and pushed oil output to the lowest levels since the 1980s.

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Tags: Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Terrorism