Mashaie Convicted

Esfandyar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff and his controversial choice to become his first vice president, was convicted in a Tehran court on charges of “financial misconduct,” Jomhouri Eslami reported on Thursday [Farsi text on Jahat-e Etella page].

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had ordered Ahmadinejad to withdraw Mashaie’s nomination for vice presidency. Mashaie’s conviction will be a severe blow to Ahmadinejad. Jomhouri Eslami reports that the court has sentenced Mashaei to 2-month suspension from his government post.

US Calls Iranian Defense Minister Choice ‘Disturbing’

Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi,

Defense Minister-designate

AFP Photo

The United States today expressed concern over Ahmadinejad’s choice of Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as Iran’s new defense minister. Vahidi is sought by Interpol in connection with a deadly 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington that the US is troubled by the choice.

"Clearly if this report is true, and if this man is confirmed as a cabinet minister and he is wanted by Interpol for his involvement in a terrorist act, of course this would be disturbing," Kelly said.

The US has joined Argentina, Israel and others including Jewish groups in voicing its concern about the nomination of Vahidi, a former commander of IRGC’s elite Quds Force, notorious for its operations outside Iran’s borders.

Uskowi on Iran broke the news of Vahidi’s selection to become the minister of defense on Wednesday.

Iranian Oil: Transformation from the Old Guards to the Revolutionary Guards

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been campaigning for the past four years on breaking up the country’s oil mafia. Yesterday he named former IRGC senior officer Masoud Mir Kazemin to head the ministry of oil. Ahmadinejad’s idea of breaking up the oil mafia seems to be merely a change of guards: from the old guards to the revolutionary guards!

IRGC already controls big chunks of Iran’s commerce and they practically control the country’s construction industry. Now with the oil added to their growing portfolio of commodities and services, they can go after the old guards and control the country’s biggest industry, oil and gas.

Mir-Kazemi served as minister of commerce during Ahmadinejad’s first term. Prior to that, he headed IRGC’s Center for Strategic Studies and its Shahed University.

Iran is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, pumping 3.79 million barrels a day.

Iran & The West: Nuclear Confrontation

Third of the three part series Iran & The West which debuted on BBC last February detailing the history of Iran's relation with the west (primarily the United States) which is 30 years old this year!

This episode entitled Nuclear Confrontation details Iranian and Western relations after 9/11 and the subsequent US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the controversy over Iran's nuclear program.

Iran & The West: The Pariah State

Second of the three part series Iran & The West which debuted on BBC last February detailing the history of Iran's relation with the west (primarily the United States) which is 30 years old this year!

This episode entitled The Pariah State details the history of Iran's relationship with the west from the end of the war with Iraq up until the start of the 21st century.

Iran & The West: The Man Who Changed the World

First of the three part series Iran & The West which debuted on BBC last February detailing the history of Iran's relation with the west (primarily the United States) which is 30 years old this year!

This episode entitled The Man Who Changed the World is mainly about Ayatollah Khomeini and the revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah.

Ahmadinejad Names New Cabinet

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has named the new cabinet for his second tem. The ministers individually, and the government as a whole, need to obtain votes of confidence from Iran’s parliament, the Majlis. The vote of confidence requires a simple majority, but at least in case of few proposed ministers the outcome is unclear.

Among the ministers named:

Haidar Moslehi, intelligence minister. Mr. Moslehi is a cleric who has served as the representative of the supreme leader at IRGC, Basij and IRGC’s Qaemol Anbia base. Moslehi is a compromise candidate over the names recently put out by the conservatives opposed to Ahmadinejad.

Mostafa Mohammad Najar, interior minister. IRGC Brig. Gen. Najar is currently Iran’s defense minister. Naming a uniformed IRGC general to a post controlling the country’s elections process with additional jurisdiction over the political parties and organizations and large gatherings is indeed very troubling.

Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, defense minister. Gen. Vahidi is a former commander of IRGC's Quds Force, an elite unit of IRGC operating outside Iran, especially in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan. Vahidi had previously served as the IRGC director of intelligence.

Manouchehr Mottaki, foreign minister. Mr. Mottaki holds on his current portfolio amid calls for his replacement by some of Ahmadinejad’s supporters. His retention was perhaps the most surprising nomination.

Masoud Masoud Mirkazemi, oil minister. Dr. Mirkazemi is currently the minister of commerce.

There are also three women nominees: Dr. Sousan Keshavarz, education minister; Dr. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, health minister and Fateme Ajorlou, welfare and social security minister. This is the largest number of women ever named to the cabinet.

Ten of the 21 ministers have been retained from Ahmadinejad's first cabinet.

Mousavi's Letter of Support to Karrubi

Iran’s opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in a letter written to Mehdi Karrubi lauded his courage in disclosing the abuse of the detainees inside prisons. Karrubi had alleged the detainees had been raped and abused while in custody.

“Your letter exposing the ugliness of the way some of the detainees have been treated in prisons has made anti-Iran media and pro-coup newspapers very apprehensive. What does their apprehension telling us? Are there more horrendous news coming out that we are unaware of as of yet,” Mousavi said in his letter [Mouj, 18 August 2009, Farsi link to the original post].

"It is the main duty of revolutionary clergy to reflect the realities, but some have closed their eyes and ignored this responsibility," Mousavi told Karrubi, putting senior clerics on notice that they need to speak out on this moral issue.

"I praise your courage and commitment and hope your efforts would be strengthened by the voices of other pillars of the progressive clergy," Mousavi said at the end of his letter to Karrubi.

Iran’s Chief of Staff Writes Letter to Hidden Imam

Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi

Iran's Chief of Staff

MEMPRI today published the English translation of excerpts from a letter written by Iran’s Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi to the Hidden Imam. In the letter, dated 12 July 2009, Gen. Firouzabadi depicts the post-election protests as a conspiracy against the Iranian regime by the West and the reformists in Iran. He also rejects accusations of Basij brutality. He urges the Hidden Imam Imam to come speedily and launch a worldwide Islamic revolution.

The letter written in Farsi was published by ISNA on 12 July. Following are the excerpts translated by MEMPRI.

"O Lord of Time, peace be upon you... I wish to speak to you once again... [In 1979,] as the celebrations and rejoicing over the Islamic Revolution still reverberated [in the streets], America, the West, as well as the [Iranian] infidel parties on orders from their masters, [were already hastening] to turn every corner of Iran - including Kurdistan, Gonabad, Khuzestan, Amol and Tehran - into arenas of brutal psychological warfare and hotspots of secessionism, essentially striving to annihilate the Islamic Revolution and [its] regime...

"[Today] another round has begun in the cultural attack [on Iran]... In the current round, some of those involved [meaning Mousavi and his supporters] turned their backs on the glorious past of the [Islamic] Revolution, and wished to join Uncle Sam, thereby bringing shame upon the sacrifice and istishhad of our nation. They wished to launch a dialogue with those who attack the rights of the free [peoples] and condemn and assault the values of the [Islamic] Revolution, [i.e. those who attack] freedom, the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini], the rule of the jurisprudent, and the clerics...

"Those [Iranians] who constantly spoke of tolerance towards the dissidents, chanting [pluralistic] slogans like 'long live those who oppose me,' [actually] wanted the Basij philosophy dead. The essence of the reforms that they wanted was to eliminate the Basij and its philosophy... They targeted the very foundations of the regime, viewing the Basij, and all the revolutionaries and believing [Muslims] in the nation, as an obstacle in their path. They brought about a catastrophe, harmed [the regime] and violated its sanctity, started fires, and fanned the enemy's hope. They blamed the Basij for crimes that they themselves had committed [a reference to allegations of Basij brutality during the suppression of the protests]...

"When the Arrogance [i.e. the U.S.] saw its hope of toppling the regime dwindle, it mobilized the anti-Basij front, composed of old anti-revolutionary [Iranian] forces and fragments of [groups] that had been disbanded, whose common denominator is hostility towards the Basij and its philosophy, and towards [Iran's] national awakening.

"This front began its war, orchestrated by [the West], under the guise of [participation in] the presidential elections. When it failed to win, thanks to the praiseworthy participation of 40 million voters, it became enraged, and instigated a bitter civil war. This civil war, which from the outside looked like a 'velvet revolution' but from the inside was harsh and brutal, targeted the culture and people of my homeland.

"[O Hidden Imam], you are my witness that [the members of] the armed forces and the Basij regarded all the [presidential] candidates as [honest] revolutionaries, and [some of them] voted for [these candidates]..., as did [other] Iranians, according to the dictates of their conscience. Despite this, you witnessed the curses and accusations that [these presidential candidates] hurled at us. They harmed the people's security, and when we stood up to defend the people, they called us dictators and tried to disgrace us...

"Dearest Mahdi, we have taught our children and our grandchildren to await your arrival, and to raise the banner of this holy regime until you do... O lord, please beseech God, as we do, that the Islamic Revolution take root alongside the worldwide revolution that you [will bring]...

"Awaiting your arrival,

Hassan Firouzabadi."

Etemad-e Melli Closed Down

The authorities in Iran have "temporarily" closed down the country's leading reformist newspaper, Etemad-e Melli. The paper is a publication of Ayatollah Mehdi Karrubi's Etemad-e Melli party.

The police is trying to disperse people who are gathering in front of the newspaper's office in Tehran. Chants of "Marg bar Dictator" (Death to Dictator!) are being heard.

UPDATE: Police are throwing tear gas to disperse demonstrators gathered in front of Etemead-e Melli office. There are reports in Twitter that people are being attacked by Basij and plain clothed police. Also reports of many being arrested.

UPDATE: The authorities closed down the paper's printing facilities just before it was to publish a statement by Mehdi Karrubi on his allegations that protesters were raped while in custody.


Tehran. Karim Khan Zand Blvd. 17 August 2009. Chants of "Khamenei Qateleh, Velayatash Bateleh" (Khamenei Murderer, Not Leader Anymore!)



Tehran. Karim Khan Zand Blvd. 17 August 2009. Chants of "Marg bar Dicatator" (Death to Dictator!)

Documentary on the Iran/Iraq War

Interesting documentary about the war fought between Iran and Iraq throughout the 1980's.

IRIAF F-14 overhauled after 12 Years

Impressive maintenance and manufacturing of spare parts have shown just how capable Iran is of keeping it's aging F-14 fleet in service, some 25 Tomcats remain in service with the IRIAF after a lengthy 30 year embargo which started not long before an eight year war with Iraq!

Iran Detainees Were Tortured To Death- Karoubi

Iran's former speaker of parliament and presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi said today in Tehran that some of those arrested during the post-election protests in Iran were actually tortured to death.

"We observe that in an Islamic country some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans in protests," Etemad-e Melli website quoted Karrubi as saying.

Karoubi had said on Sunday that some protesters, men and women, had been raped in detention. He repeated the allegation today, calling for the formation of an independent fact-finding committee to review his evidence in "a calm atmosphere where relatives of detainees and freed protesters can talk."

four terrorists arrested in Zahedan

Courtesy of Press TV

Iran's Intelligence Minister today has stated that four terrorists have been arrested, they belong to Abdolmalek Rigi's group Jundullah whom have carried out terrorist attacks against Iranian citizens before and have also claimed responsibility for the bombing of a mosque in Zahedan last May which killed over 20 people!

Warden of Notorious Kahrizak Prison Arrested

The warden of the notorious Kahrizak prison was arrested today in Tehran on charges of torturing detainees arrested during post-election protests.

"After an investigation of the Kahrizak detention centre, the head of the centre was arrested,” said Tehran’s Police Chief Brig. Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam.

"There have been some violations in this centre and some of the officials there have not followed instructions.

"I was also responsible for some of the incidents there and do not want to escape responsibility.

"There have however been clear instructions not to take students to that place [Kahrizak Prison] and not confront them physically," Gen. Moqaddam said.

Iran Prosecutor General Acknowledges Torture of Prisoners

Iran’s Prosecutor General Qorbanali Dori-Najafabadi told reporters in Tehran on Saturday that some detained arrested during post-election protests had been tortured in prisons.

“Maybe there were cases of torture in the early days after the election,” Dori-Najafabadi said, “but we are willing to follow up any complaints or irregularities that have taken place.”

Dori-Najafabadi blamed the torture on the government agencies that made the arrests, the IRGC and the Basij. Iran’s judiciary does not have control over those agencies. They come under the direct command of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Iranian opposition had accused the government of torturing the prisoners, but this is the first such acknowledgement by a high-ranking judiciary official.

The prosecutor general said “mistakes” had to led to few “painful accidents which cannot be defended, and those who were involved should be punished.

Statement on Iran by 40 Engaged Scholars

Statement on Iran by 40 Engaged Scholars

‘Human Beings are Members of a Whole’
Protecting the Iranian Civil Society

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.

--A poem by the Persian poet Sa’adi (1210 – 1290) gracing the entrance of the Hall of Nations of the United Nations building in New York City

If we speak out against the threat of force against Iran (regarding the nuclear conflict) and warn against a military strike, we cannot be silent on the use of force in Iran itself against its own civil society. For solidarity with the civil society and a peaceful order in the region constitute the primary concern of our efforts. If we condemn foreign sanctions against the Iranian people, we deplore all the more domestic sanctions directed at peaceful demonstrators, journalists, trade unionists, professors, students and others. Thereby the government deprives itself from the domestic basis needed against foreign threats.

Not only as individuals but also conjointly as a group of engaged scholars, we want to announce our resolute protest against the brutal clampdown of demonstrators and against the mass arrests, and strongly advise a peaceful dialogue with the civil society. We call upon the government to release all political prisoners of the last few weeks – amongst them many professors – and to seek dialogue with precisely those persons as moderators of the civil society. Freedom of opinion and the right to demonstrate – cornerstones of the UN Charter of Human Rights to which Iran is a signatory – are being massively violated in today’s Iran.

We strongly remind that the state of siege and the continuing threat of force that have emanated from foreign governments once again fatally demonstrate how thereby the space for a democratic development in Iran are being reduced.

At the same time, we deplore the slanted and misleading depictions of the recent events in Iran in some international media. As supporters of the Iranian civil society, we stress the genuine nature of the protests by the Iranian democracy movement. Composed of various societal strata, the demonstrators first and foremost have advocated free elections and freedom of expression.

Also, it is astonishing that precisely those who have supported crippling sanctions and pushed for preventive strikes against Iran whereby civilians have been and would be harmed, suddenly speak about solidarity with the Iranian people. They only will be convincing when they stand up against sanctions and the threat of force and advocate a peaceful dialogue in the region.

Signed by:

1. Dr. Behrooz Abdolvand, Free University of Berlin & Academic Advisory Board of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)

2. Prof. Gilbert Achcar, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

3. Dr. Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

4. Ahmad Ahgary, Association of Iranian Scientists and Engineers in Germany (VINI)

5. Prof. Mohammad Ala, Persian Gulf Taskforce & Iran Heritage

6. Tariq Ali, writer, London

7. Dr. Katajun Amirpur, Jesuit School of Philosophy in Munich

8. Dr. Matin Baraki, University of Marburg & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

9. Angelika Beer, Co-Chair of the EastWest Institute’s Parliamentarian Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Brussels

10. Dr. Bettina Bouresh, Archive of the Regional Authority (Landschaftsverband) Rhineland, Germany

11. Reiner Braun, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

12. Prof. Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University

13. Prof. Hans-Peter Dürr, Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) 1987 & Patron of the International Munich Peace Conferences

14. Prof. Abbas Edalat, Imperial College London & Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)

15. Ali Fathollah-Nejad, University of Münster & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

16. Prof. Sasan Fayazmanesh, California State University, Fresno

17. Prof. Ali Gorji, University of Münster

18. Homeira Heidary, “Panorama Hindukush” Festival, Cologne

19. Foaad Khosmood, University of California at Santa Cruz & CASMII International Steering Committee

20. Prof. Mohssen Massarrat, University of Osnabrück & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

21. Naz Massoumi, convenor of Campaign Iran, London

22. Prof. Georg Meggle, University of Leipzig

23. Prof. Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh, Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran & Urosevic Research Foundation, London

24. Tobias Pflüger, former MEP (German Left Party) & Information Agency Militarization (IMI), Tübingen (Germany)

25. Daniel M. Pourkesali, U.S. Board of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)

26. Prof. Ahad Rahmanzadeh, University of Bonn & & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

27. Sanaz Raji, University of Leeds & London School of Economics and Political Science

28. Lt. Col. Jürgen Rose, German Air Force, Munich

29. Prof. Werner Ruf, University of Kassel & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

30. Prof. Dr. Nader Sadeghi, George Washington University, Washington D.C.

31. Prof. Muhammad Sahimi, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

32. Dr. Sabine Schiffer, Institute for Media Responsibility (IMV), Erlangen (Germany)

33. Dr. Yvonne Schmidt, University of Graz & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

34. Prof. Ursula Schumm-Garling, Sociologist, Frankfurt

35. Miriam Shabafrouz, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg

36. Siba Shakib, author & filmmaker

37. Prof. Albert Stahel, University of Zurich & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

38. Dr. Rainer Werning, political scientist & author (Germany)

39. Kaveh Yazdani, University of Osnabrück (Germany)

40. Azadeh Zamirirad, University of Potsdam (Germany)

From Juan Cole's Informed Comment, Saturday 8 August 2009

IRIAF post war buildup

In 1991 during the US led Operation Desert Storm against Iraq no Iraqi aircraft was safe, not even the reinforced concrete hangars that protected them from Iranian air strikes in the Imposed War thanks to the new bunker buster missiles carried by coalition aircraft.

Several Iraqi aircraft however flew to Iran to avoid destruction, it is not known whether Saddam himself gave the order and it is curious that they went to Iran of all places considering the fact that Iran was a Iraq's mortal enemy under Saddam Hussein, the aircraft included:


Former Iraqi Air Force Mirage F-1's
source

Mirage F1s, MiG-25 Foxbats, MiG-21 Fishbeds, MiG-27s, MiG-29 Fulcrums, Su-20s, Su-22M Fitters, Su-24MK Fencer-Ds, Su-25 Frogfoots, MiG-23s and a smaller number of Il-76s transport planes.

Iran seized these claiming them as reparations for the Imposed War and several examples are still seen flying today, while at the post war time the IRIAF was partially rebuilt to bigger numbers from the Iraqi Aircraft, MiG-29 fighters and Su-24 bombers from the Soviet Union and F-7M and FT-7 fighters from China.

Britain Calls Trial of Embassy Staff an Act of “Provocation” by Iran

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said today Iran is discrediting itself with the trial of a British embassy worker. Hossein Rassam, a 44-year-old political analyst at British embassy in Tehran, was among those paraded in front of a mass trial in Tehran today.

Iranian authorities maintain Rassam was involved in inciting post-election protests in Tehran. But the foreign secretary attacked the charges against Rassam and his co-defendants, including French national Clotilde Reiss.

“I am deeply concerned by the unjustified charges today laid against Hossein Rassam in Tehran,” Miliband said.

“Hossein is a member of our embassy staff going about his legitimate duties.

“Iranian action against him, and those against and a member of the staff of the French Embassy in Tehran only brings further discredit on the Iranian regime.

“Our Ambassador has raised our concerns today with the Iranian deputy foreign minister, and the FCO political director, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, with the Iranian Ambassador in London.”

Miliband said European nations were united in their opposition to the mass trials.

“We are in close contact with our European and other international partners. I have spoken today to French Foreign Minister Kouchner and to Swedish Foreign Minister Bildt in his capacity as EU Presidency.”

“We have reaffirmed our solidarity in the face of this latest Iranian provocation.”

Foreign reporters were barred from today’s proceedings in Tehran but the Iranian media is reporting that Rassam has ‘admitted’ to inciting unrest on the orders of the British government.

the Shah's F-16's

Artists rendition of an IIAF F-16

Many are familiar with the Shah's militarization of Iran to counter the threat of invasion from the Soviet Union and the fact that in that time bought 80 F-14 Tomcats (79 of which were delivered), America's prime naval fighter at the time and one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world.

But few realize that the Shah had also in 1976 (at the same time of ordering only 30 Tomcats) ordered and paid for 160 F-16 Fighting Falcons, he followed up this order with another 140 bringing the grand total of aircraft for Iran to receive to 300!

Ground equipment and personnel begun to arrive by 1978, however at the start of the revolution the first two F-16's to arrive in Iran were canceled (as was the last of the order of the F-14's), however General Dynamics (the maker of the F-16) never gave Iran compensation or even it's money back obviously not recognizing the new regime there.

These F-16's were instead delivered to Israel (which remains the second largest operator of that aircraft today) and a handful to Pakistan following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Iran has lobbied for its refunds often citing the purchased F-16's as weapons the Shah had purchased but not received.

Ahmadinejad Unlikely to Serve His Full Term- Ansari

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is unlikely to serve his full second term and Iran will remain unstable politically. These predictions were made by Ali Ansari, a prominent Iran scholar at the London-based thinktank Chatham House.

"I would not want to predict a revolution but I definitely do not think Ahmadinejad will fulfill his full term," Ansari, also a co-director of the Institute of Iranian Studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland, told AKI [adnkronos international, 8 August].

"I think they [Islamic Republic leaders] are in a very difficult position and unless ultimately they find some compromise, I think they will have serious problems.

"I mean the underlying thing you have to bear in mind about Ahmadinejad is he is taking over a country whose political and economic health is not good. So if you wait long enough, the economy will basically bring him down."

Ansari said that it will be difficult for Ahmadinejad to form a credible government because he doesn't have the total support of the parliament, which he stressed was crucial.