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Revolutionary Guards’ Terror Cells in U.S. Mosques

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

05/24/2012

By: Reza Kahlili

Last week, CBN aired a special report on the possibility of an attack in the scale of 09/11 by Iranian assets here in America: “Will Iran Strike New York City on 9/11 Scale?”

Erick Stakelbeck, the CBN News Terrorism Analyst, who put together the report, explained how Iranian diplomats and other assets are present in America and the possibility of an attack on U.S. soil.

The report included a statement by Congressman Peter King, who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, that hundreds of operatives are in U.S. and that several Iranian diplomats stationed at the UN were involved in much more than it appeared as several of their associates were caught photographing sensitive sites. These people were removed from the UN mission and sent back to Iran.

Also in this report is my interview about how the Islamic regime uses Mosques in the U.S. as their operational centers and how they have done reconnaissance on key sites for terror attacks such as railroads, power plants, food distribution centers, water supplies, bridges, and others. Some of that information was also passed to the FBI.

Today, however, Mashregh news, the media outlet run by the Islamic regime’s Revolutionary Guards, has put up the CBN report with a title “Iranian Assets Present in U.S. Mosques for Terror Attacks,” with a full translation of the report, which even included the original video of the report.

Without refuting the report or any part of it as they usually do, the outlet stuck to a direct translation of the CBN report and included my quotes naming the specific sites that their terror cells might attack.

The regime’s media outlet often mocks reports in the West to play down any threat by the regime. Although the CBN report touches on a very sensitive subject, “Mosques used as operational centers,” they seem to be strangely quiet on the issue. Mashregh News only refers to the CBN report as unsubstantiated and just a repeat of accusations by the U.S. officials.

Also by putting up the video, it seems that I have managed to get under their skin and they are looking for help in trying to figure out who Reza Kahlili really is!

One thing is for sure: My book, “A Time to Betray” was only promoted in the West before, now it’s sure to be a big hit in Iran.

ادعای شبکه تلویزیونی مسیحیان آمریکا:

عوامل ایران برای عملیات تروریستی در مساجد آمریکا حضور دارند + فیلم

عوامل ایرانی در مساجد آمریکا حضور دارند و آماده حمله به تاسیسات انرژی و آب رسانی، توزیع غذا، پل‌ها، تونل‌ها و هر آنچه که بتوان از آن برای ایجاد رعب و اختلال در زندگی آمریکایی‌ها استفاده کرد، هستند.

به گزارش مشرق ، شبکه تلویزیونی مسیحیان آمریکا در گزارشی ایران هراسانه به بررسی این سوال پرداخت که آیا ایران به شهر نیویورک در مقیاس حادثه یازدهم سپتامبر حمله خواهد کرد؟این گزارش چنین آغاز شد: اینجا مرکز سیستم مالی ایالات متحده است و بسیاری از افراد آن را پایتخت جهان می‌دانند. از این رو، سیب بزرگ [از جمله عناوین نسبت داده شده به این شهر] به هدف اصلی تروریست‌ها تبدیل شده است.
از بمب‌گذاری در مرکز تجارت جهانی در سال 1993 تا حادثه یازدهم سپتامبر و تلاش اخیر برای بمب‌گذاری در میدان تایمز، تروریست‌ها به کرات، منهتن را مورد هدف قرار داده‌اند.
اکنون بنا به گزارش‌ها ایران، چنین هدفی در سر دارد.
قانونگذاران کپیتول هیل [محل مجلس قانونگذاری ایالات متحده ] به تازگی پیرامون تهدید ناشی از ایران و حزب‌الله هشدار داده‌اند.
پیتر کینگ، نماینده جمهوری‌خواه از نیویورک در ماه مارس خطاب به کمیته امنیت داخلی مجلس نمایندگان گفت: ما می‌دانیم که عوامل مخفی حزب‌الله اینجا [در آمریکا] حضور دارند.
وی افزود: سوال این است که آیا این عوامل حزب‌الله از ظرفیت حمله به خاک ایالات متحده برخوردارند؟ و مدت زمان دستیابی این نیروها به ظرفیت کامل عملیاتی چقدر است؟
کینگ خاطرنشان کرد: صدها تن از این عوامل در آمریکا حضور دارند و برخی دیپلمات‌‌های ایرانی مستقر در سازمان ملل وظایفی بیش از آنچه در ظاهر نشان می‌دهند، برعهده دارند.
وی همچنین اظهار داشت: تعدادی از همراهان این دیپلمات‌ها در هیات نمایندگی سازمان ملل در نیویورک، پس از اینکه پلیس نیویورک آنها را در حال عکس‌برداری از سیستم راه‌آهن این شهر در سال‌های پس از یازدهم سپتامبر دستگیر کرد، به ایران بازگردانده شدند.
بنا به اظهارات یکی از مقامات پلیس نیویورک، حداقل 5 مورد دیگر از این‌گونه اتفاقات آنچه وی ” عملیات شناسایی خصمانه” عوامل ایرانی علیه شهر نیویورک خوانده، وجود دارد.
این گزارش در ادامه می افزاید: رضا خلیلی، جاسوس دوجانبه پیشین سازمان سیا به سی‌بی‌ان نیوز گفت: آنها اینطور در نظر می‌گیرند که حمله به نیویورک یا در معرض خطر قرار دادن تاسیسات این شهر، بازارهای مالی را بی‌ثبات کرده و به طور خودکار، به اقتصاد ایالات متحده ضربه خواهد زد.
وی هشدار می‌دهد: گروههای بسیاری در اینجا حضور دارند و منتظر حمله به تاسیسات انرژی و آبرسانی، توزیع غذا، پل‌ها، تونل‌ها – و هر آنچه که بتوانند از آن برای ایجاد رعب و وحشت و اختلال در زندگی روزمره آمریکایی‌ها استفاده کنند – هستند.

یک فرمانده نیروی دریایی ایران اخیرا گفته است که نیروهای ایران در صورت تصمیم می‌توانند تا سه مایلی شهر نیویورک پیش روند.
خلیلی اظهار داشت: حمله به تاسیسات هسته‌ای ایران می‌تواند آغازگر چنین رویدادی باشد.
وی در ادامه می‌افزاید: آنها معتقدند که حمله به سوریه یا ایران، دلایل لازم برای واکنش را فراهم می‌کند. این واکنش می‌تواند حملاتی تروریستی در سطح جهان علیه منافع ایالات متحده و اسرائیل و حمله به خاک این دو کشور باشد.

این گزارش مدعی می شود: افشای طرح حمله به دیپلمات‌های خارجی در واشنگتن دی‌سی در سال گذشته از سوی ایران بسیاری از تحلیلگران را متعجب کرد.ایران مجهز به سلاح‌های هسته‌ای احتمالا با جسارت بیشتری دست به عمل خواهد زد.
رایان مائورو، تحلیل‌گر امنیت ملی پایگاه اینترنتی اسلام رادیکال در گفتگو با سی‌بی‌ان نیوز گفت: می‌توان گفت ایران هرچه به سلاح هسته‌ای نزدیک‌تر می‌شود، متهورانه‌تر عمل می‌کند.
وی می‌افزاید: فشار‌های بین‌المللی به جای اینکه موجب خودداری و مهار ایرانیان شود، در واقع آنها را بیش از پیش جسور و متهور ساخته است.
ایران و حزب‌الله از شبکه وسیعی در آمریکای لاتین برخوردارند و می‌توانند از آن برای حمله به ایالات متحده استفاده کنند. بنا به گفته خلیلی، عوامل ایرانی در برخی مساجد آمریکا نیز حضور دارند.
گفتنی است این شبکه برای واقعی جلوه دادن خطر ایران به تکرار اتهامات مقامات آمریکا پرداخته و کوچکترین سند و مدرکی دال بر اتهامات خود نشان نداده است.
معرفی مساجد به عنوان پایگاههای تروریسم و ایران به عنوان عامل تهدید در داخل آمریکا از اهداف اینگونه گزارشها به شمار می رود.

Posted in Iran Update | No Responses »
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Basij, Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Sanctions, Suicide bomber, Terror Plot, Terrorism, UN, War

Jailed blogger on hunger strike

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

RadioZamaneh

Thu, 05/24/2012

Hossein Ronaghi Maleki

Jailed Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has once again begun a hunger strike to protest his dire situation at Evin Prison.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that the Ronaghi Maleki is suffering from a failed kidney and is being refused medical attention so he has begun a hunger strike to draw attention to his situation.

Doctors have said that the jailed blogger’s left kidney has completely failed and his right kidney is on the verge of total shutdown. Therefore, he is in need of urgent surgery.

HRANA reports that Ronaghi Maleki’s medical problems are being superficially treated in prison with injections of morphine and other painkillers, which are compounding his condition with problematic side effects.

HRANA reports that the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence department has forbidden prison authorities from giving Ronaghi Maleki the sick leave recommended by several doctors.

Ronaghi Maleki was arrested during the crackdown on the 2009 election protests and sentenced to 15 years in jail for his critical blogging on government actions.

Iranian Establishment Makes New Social Media Foray With Imam Site

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

RFE/RL

By Golnaz Esfandiari

May 23, 2012

“Hadinet.ir” is Iran’s latest foray into the social media sphere, the domain of young, middle-class Iranians that’s often reserved for poking fun at state policies and religious rulings.

The new social networking site is devoted to Imam Naghi, a Shi’ite saint. Employing a basic layout, it features a collection of quotes attributed to the imam and posts by members who express their love and devotion to the ninth-century figure.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency says the site, which will be officially unveiled on May 23 by Iran’s Culture Minister, is a reaction to “insults” against the imam.

But critics, including many ordinary Iranians, say the site will likely join the list of previous, largely unsuccessful attempts by the establishment to make use of social networking.

Many young Iranians say they are unlikely to be interested in the new site.

Mehr’s mention of “insults” toward the imam appears to be a reference to a popular Facebook page titled, “The Campaign to Remind Shi’ites about Imam Naghi,” which satirizes political and religious sayings and attributes them to him. The page says it was launched to eliminate “superstitions” from Iranian society with humor. It is also a reaction to a rap song titled “Naghi,” which has been deemed insulting. The song was widely shared on social networking sites.

Hard-liners have blasted the satirical page as highly offensive and vowed to take measures against those behind it.

Death Threats

Last year, hard-line blogs published the names and pictures of some of those who had liked the Facebook campaign in order to force them to quit the page.

Recently, prominent Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi has faced death threatsover his new song, named after Imam Naghi. He told RFE/RL it was inspired by the Facebook page.

The song, in which Najafi calls on Naghi to return and save the world instead of the Shi’ite messiah, Imam Mahdi, has been deemed heretical. Several senior clerics have reportedly issued fatwas calling Najafi an apostate and justifying his killing. Iranian officials have not publicly commented on the fatwas.

The new social networking site, however, demonstrates that they have taken note of the controversy and are now trying to strike back with the same tools used by young Iranians.

But even before its launch, critics said the initiative is destined to fail.

Nima Mina, a lecturer at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, notes that the same material on Imam Naghi can be found on scores of religious websites and on the state-controlled media’s religious programming:

“I think those who like [the satirical Facebook page about Imam Naghi] are exactly running away from [the content] that ‘Hadinet.ir’ is offering,” he said. “Recent data shows that Internet users are usually middle-class Iranians living in cities, most of whom loathe this repetitive talk. They’re looking for something else [online].”

Mina, who studies Iran’s blogosphere, predicts that the social networking site will soon join other unsuccessful online initiatives promoted and launched by the Iranian establishment.

Conquering Cyberspace

In recent years, Iranian officials have encouraged hardliners and pro-government activists to become active online to counter the “soft war” they claim Iran’s enemies are waging against the Islamic republic.

Officials have also claimed that thousands of members of the Basij force are ready to conquer cyberspace.

In practice, extensive filtering of sites and the harassment and arrest of bloggers and online activists have been the government’s weapons of choice to fight the free flow of information and discussion of taboo subjects online.

Some hard-liners have admitted in recent weeks that their online activities have been fruitless.

“The Society of Hezbollah Bloggers failed and the Society of Muslim Bloggers failed. The Coordination Committee of Cyber Activists of the Islamic Revolution failed,” wrote prominent hard-line blogger Mohammad Saleh Meftah earlier this month.

In 2010, a social networking site was launched in Iran that was devoted to the followers of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The site failed to attract many members and two years later, it does not exist.

“Hadinet.ir” is likely to have the same fate, a young man in Tehran who did not want to be named told RFE/RL.

“I haven’t ‘liked’ the Imam Naghi campaign on Facebook because of the sensitivity of the issue, but every now and then I visit the page and have a good laugh,” he said. “I think it helps freedom of speech.”

“Hadinet.ir,” he said, has zero attraction for young Iranians like himself.

Protests over lake bring violent response

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

RadioZamaneh

Tue, 05/22/2012

Reports from Iran indicate that tension has gripped the northwestern cities of Tabriz and Oroumiyeh, one day after protests against government inaction about the drying of Lake Oroumiyeh turned violent with police intervention.

Azerbaijani activists were rallied to join demonstrations on Monday to protest the drying of Lake Oroumiyeh and the government’s lack of effective action.

Association for Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners reports that police confronted the protesters with batons, colour bombs and tear gas, and arrested at least 100 people.

Tabriz is languishing under heavy security measures, especially in the main squares and streets.

Last year, scores of protesters were arrested in demonstrations calling for government action to counter the rapidly falling water level in Lake Oroumiyeh. Detainees faced heavy prison terms, flogging and fines.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the protests, saying the condition of the lake is normal and the water levels fall like this every 500 years.

Lake Oroumiyeh, the largest body of water fully contained in Iran, has now lost half of its water, and in some areas its coast has receded by up to 10 kilometres.

Experts have said excessive dam-building along rivers that feed the lake is one of the main contributors to the drying. It is estimated that, at the current rate of drying, the lake will disappear within three years.

The Ahmadinejad administration has committed $950 million toward a recovery plan for the lake.

However, protesters have been accused of politicizing the environmental woes of Lake Oroumiyeh.

Posted in Iran Update | No Responses »
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Basij, Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Sanctions, Suicide bomber, Terror Plot, Terrorism

Iranian political prisoner dies in jail

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

RadioZamaneh

Tue, 05/22/2012

Mansour Radpour

An Iranian political prisoner at Rejai Shahr Prison in Karaj has died in jail, and a preliminary examination points to a cerebral hemorrhage as the cause of death.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that Mansour Radpour died Monday at 8 AM, and his face, neck and feet appeared darkened.

According to HRANA, Radpour suffered from a myriad of health conditions such as high blood pressure as well as heart and kidney problems, but prison authorities refused him adequate treatment.

HRANA also reports that Radpour had suffered from nausea on several occasions, but the prison infirmary had refrained from hospitalizing him.

Radpour made several requests for visitation rights with his son, which often authorities declined.

Radpour, a 41-year-old resident of Karaj, was arrested five years ago and charged with having sympathy for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, a dissident political group.

HRANA claims that Radpour was badly tortured in prison and was refused medical care.

He was sentenced to three years in jail for “activities against national security through collaboration with the PMOI”. After that time was served, he was handed another five-year prison sentence.

Posted in Iran Update | No Responses »
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Basij, Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Sanctions, Suicide bomber, Terror Plot, Terrorism, UN

Iranian rapper in hiding, but defiant after call for his death

Monday, May 21st, 2012

By Don Snyder

Published May 21, 2012

FoxNews.com

The Iranian-born rapper marked for death for insulting a ninth-century imam and criticizing Tehran’s regime as corrupt is determined to press his message to young fans, according to the German author who hid Shahin Najafi in his home.

Najafi, whose song “Ay Naghi” brought two fatwas, or calls for his death, within days of its release on Facebook, will not be intimidated, though he knows he cannot perform live, according to Gunter Wallraff, a non-fiction writer who hid Najafi until German police found him and placed him in a safehouse.

“On the contrary, he feels responsible to himself and to his many young followers, especially in Iran, not to give in,” Wallraff said in an exclusive interview with FoxNews.com. “The death threats show that this regime needs the image of an enemy because it can no longer offer any values and is therefore looking for helpless victims.”

“He feels responsible to himself and to his many young followers, especially in Iran, not to give in.”

- Gunter Wallraff, German author who hid rapper marked for death.

Najafi, 32, who is a German citizen and has lived in Cologne, is a star in his homeland, where he has 200,000 fans on his Facebook page. He fled to Germany in 2005 after being sentenced to a hundred lashes and three years in jail. But his new song brought the ultimate sentence because it is considered an insult to a ninth-century Shiite imam, Ali al Hadi al-Naqi, also known as Imam Naghi. Shiites venerate al-Naqi, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. An Iranian website, Shia Online, has offered $100,000 to anyone who kills Najafi.

View video of “Ay Naghi” here.

The death threat has roiled Germany’s 100,000-strong Iranian community and forced Najafi to cancel all his scheduled appearances. Najafi’s fans argue that Iran’s mullahs have deprived Najafi of freedom of speech, a right enshrined in the German Constitution, and many have criticized German officials for failing to denounce Iran over the issue.

“We asked the foreign minister to make a statement of support for Shahin Najafi and for democratic Iranians who live here and to condemn the fatwa,” said Ulrike Becker, founder of Stop the Bomb, a European coalition that opposes Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. She referred to the fatwa as “a declaration of war against our values – our democracy.”

Najafi’s song calls on the revered Shia figure to come back and help the Iranians with problems like “hollow slogans” and “Chinese-made prayer rugs.”

The song, which is laced with profanity, includes the lyric: “I swear to you on bland and hollow slogans; Naghi, I swear on this shifting flocks of people; They say “Long Live” in the morning and “Death to” at night; On the heroes of fictional stories.”

Najafi was surprised by the harsh reaction.

“The song was not written to provoke anyone,” he told the Berlin newspaper Die Tageszeitung. “I have nothing against Islam. I am not fighting a religion, but I am fighting this regime. No one has harmed Islam more than this regime.”

Najafi claims the regime wants to silence him because he deals with subjects that are taboo in puritanical Iran, such as sexuality, gays and drug addiction. He knows his career outlook is bleak.

“I can’t continue my work because a singer must appear in public,” he told the paper. “I can’t do that anymore. I was advised to leave Cologne, but where should I go and how?”

Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a senior fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy and one of Germany’s leading authorities on Iran, said fatwas can inhibit free speech far outside Iran’s borders.

“This strategy is menacing the world,” said Wahdat-Hagh. “Fatwas are declaring war on the principles of free speech in the free world.”

But Najafi’s young fans cannot be silenced, Saba Farzan, a German-Iranian journalist living in Berlin, told FoxNews.com.

“They may be able to arrest many of us for supporting Najafi,” she said in a telephone interview. “But they can’t arrest millions of us. They see his work as showing how devastating the situation in Iran is.”

Wallraff said he knew his life was also in danger while he hid Najafi, but he refused to give in to intimidation.

“I ignore the threat,” Wallraff told FoxNews.com. “Fear is always the worst counselor.”

IRGC denies influencing election

Monday, May 21st, 2012

RadioZamaneh

Mon, 05/21/2012

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has rejected recent statements by a Tehran MP who says the guards interfered in the parliamentary election process, adding that such claims could be subject to prosecution.

Earlier today, conservative MP Ali Motahari criticized the alleged efforts by the Revolutionary Guards to sway voters to their preferred candidates during the parliamentary elections.

Motahari said the interference of the Revolutionary Guards, which by law is forbidden from getting involved in politics, was one of the chief weaknesses of the March elections.

He called the IRGC’s alleged actions a “scourge” on the Revolution’s future, noting that they completely contradict the word of the Islamic Republic’s late leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.

Motahari said: “According to [Imam Khomeini’s] remarks, the responsibility of the Guards is to protect the ideals of the Islamic Revolution and not to interfere in politics.”

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards, Ramazan Sharif, emphasized that following each election, a number of groups or individuals customarily accuse the Guards of interference in the voting process. He maintained that the Revolutionary Guards Corps has always refrained from taking sides in the elections.

He added that the IRGC reserves the right to seek prosecution of its accusers.

A group of senior reformist figures also accused the IRGC of direct involvement in the presidential elections of 2009, which they said made the outcome invalid. Their criticism was disregarded by the authorities and won them further persecution.

Activist taken to Zanjan Prison

Friday, May 18th, 2012

RadioZamaneh

Fri, 05/18/2012

Nargess Mohammadi

Jailed Iranian human rights activist Nargess Mohammadi has been transferred to Zanjan Prison.

The Melli-Mazhabi website reports that Mohammadi, the deputy head of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders of Iran, was transferred to Zanjan Prison from the Evin Prison infirmary in Tehran.

Taghi Rahmani, another Iranian activist who is currently abroad, reported this transfer, saying: “In view of the dire situation of provincial prisons, this transfer is a continuation of the harassment approach the authorities have taken with regard to Nargess Mohammadi.”

Mohammadi was visited by her family on Tuesday May 8. She is reportedly being interrogated regarding unspecified new charges that have not been communicated to her lawyer.

Mohammadi had been taken to Evin infirmary a few days earlier for serious health complications. Mohammadi was arrested after the controversial 2009 presidential elections, when human rights activists became a chief target of the government’s crackdown.

She is charged with “assembly and collusion against national security, membership in the Centre for Human Rights Defenders of Iran and propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic regime.”

Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s Nobel Peace laureate and a founding member of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders, has written to the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urging her to use all of her influence to get Mohammadi out of prison.

Alcohol consumption in Tehran is “worrying”: official

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES

Alcohol consumption in Tehran, banned since the Islamic revolution, has become “alarming”, according to deputy health minister, Bagher Larijani, quoted Tuesday by the Iranian media.

“We sometimes receive quite disturbing reports from hospitals and doctors concerning the consumption of alcohol in (popular) neighborhoods south of Tehran,” said Larijani, adding that alcohol consumption was also “high” in some other “parts of the country”.

He stressed the need “to pay more attention” in the current times to the problem of alcohol than to diseases like “diabetes, heart illnesses and vascular problems.”

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited in Iran, except for the Christian minorities.

But alcoholic consumption seemed to increase in recent years, despite the severe penalties against the production, consumption and trafficking of alcohol.

According to official figures, 60 to 80 million liters of smuggled alcohol enter the country each year of which only 20 million liters are seized by the police.

A representative of the “anti-trafficking” movement estimated the market of alcohol at $ 730 million per year in early 2011.

Police Chief, General Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, recently said that the country counts some “200,000 alcoholic cases” and that 80% of the smuggled alcohol enters to Iran from the Iraqi Kurdistan.

Besides the illegally imported alcohol, some local areas in Iran clandestinely manufacture their own brews, which would be cheaper but much more toxic, resulting in dozens of deaths every year.

Iranian police has set this year breath testing to detect motorists driving while intoxicated.

Offenders are liable to a fine of 2 million rials (120 dollars), confiscation of driver’s license and prosecution.

Iran hangs man for killing nuclear scientist

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

05/15/2012

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has hanged a man who was sentenced to death for the 2010 killing of a nuclear physicist, state TV reported Tuesday.

Majid Jamali Fashi, who had been accused of being an agent of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, was hanged in Tehran on Tuesday morning, the broadcast said.

Tehran University physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi was killed by a bomb-rigged motorcycle that exploded outside his house as he was leaving for work in January 2010. He had no publicly disclosed links to Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran claims that Israel and the U.S. are trying to disrupt its nuclear program through covert operations. Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has neither confirmed nor denied it, accuses Iran of seeking to develop an atomic bomb.

Iran has denied it seeks nuclear weapons and insists its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes only, such as generating electricity and nuclear isotopes to treat cancer patients.

At least five Iranian nuclear scientists, including a manager at the Natanz enrichment facility, have been killed in recent years. Tehran has accused Israel’s Mossad, the CIA and Britain’s MI-6 of being behind the assassinations. The U.S. and Britain have denied the allegations but Israel has remained silent on the issue.

Jamali Fashi, 24, was tried and convicted last August, and subsequently sentenced to death in Mohammadi’s killing. His lawyer appealed the verdict but Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the execution order issued by a lower court, paving the way for the hanging.

During the trial, he was accused of cooperating with Mossad, traveling to Israel to attend a Mossad training course and receiving money from the Israeli intelligence service.

Last year, Iran’s state TV broadcast what it said were confessions by Jamali Fashi in which he admitted that he was recruited by Mossad.

Political activist temporarily released

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

RadioZamaneh

Tue, 05/15/2012

Mohammad Tavasoli

Mohammad Tavasoli, the head of the political office of the Freedom Movement of Iran party, has been temporarily released after seven months in prison.

Tavasoli was arrested last November in connection with a letter signed by 143 political and social activists addressed to former president Mohammad Khatami.

The letter announced that the signatories saw little chance that the people’s votes would be respected or that the people could have a free and fair parliamentary election.

Tavasoli’s wife has reported that he is suffering from dire health conditions and that she is gravely concerned for his well-being.

Some opposition news outlets had indicated that Tavasoli was threatened with death in the prison infirmary.

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Tags: Ahmadinejad, Basij, Democracy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Islam, Khamenei, Political prisoners, Revolutionary Guards, Suicide bomber, Terror Plot, Terrorism

Religious police monitor holidaymakers on Iran’s beaches

Monday, May 14th, 2012

Shahrzadnews, May 14, 2012

Now that the hot weather has arrived, the police have announced the deployment of religious officers in special vice-squads on the beaches and seaside resorts of northern Iran, with the aim of ensuring that holidaymakers comply with Islamic hejab regulations.

According to the Mehr News Agency, vice-squad commander Ahmad Roozbehani says his department has already cautioned local villa owners about letting their properties to the wrong people. He added that the governors of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan, the main provinces with beaches on the Caspian Sea, have asked the police to rid their resorts of those who behave anti-socially and ignore local regulations.

“Some tourists behave as if the sea belongs to them. Just because they come from other parts of the country they think local regulations don’t apply to them,” said Roozbehani.

He also reported that following a directive from the High Council of Cultural Revolution, 26 government departments have been told to monitor hejab observance. The directive, which was ratified by the president, features 370 clauses on how best to protect Islamic values. 70% of these deal with cultural issues, while the remainder are concerned with police procedures.