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Source: Persian2English

July 25, 2010

Iran Negah conducts an emotional interview with a young girl in the south of Tehran who describes her family’s life in Iran.

Translation by SIAVOSH JALILI

Interviewer: Hello Madam. Is your mother home?

Girl: No.

I: Where is she?

G: She’s at work.

I: Where does she work?

G: On Vali-Asr Street.

I: In Tehran?

G: Yes.

I: What does she do?

G: She works in a manufacturing company. She sews overcoats.

I: What does your father do?

G: [inaudible]

I: Why?

G: Because I don’t feel like talking about it.

I: Come on, tell me.

G: My father is an addict. He injected drugs into another addict who died [of overdose]. My dad is now in prison.

I: For murder or addiciton?

G: For both

I: Did the vicitim’s family ask for Dieh (blood money in return for giving consent and sparing the life of the defendant)?

G: No, we asked them not to give consent [and insisted on Qesas, the death penalty].

I: You, yourselves, asked them not to give consent?

G: Yes.

I: Why?

G: Well, we didn’t like our father.

I: He wasn’t working?

G: No.

[They enter inside]

I: The home is quite cold inside.

G: We only have this one furnace to warm ourselves.

I: It looks very worn out and old. Do you have oil to fuel the furnace?

G: My mom works in the factory from Saturday to Thursday. On Fridays, she works at someone’s home. Whenever she doesn’t work there she goes and brings pits of oil. This last Friday, she went and got two of them.

I: What does she do on Fridays at their place?

G: She cleans their house. There are nights when we don’t have dinner and we go to bed hungry. But we never bring it up with my mother. We don’t want to belittle her. My dad was shooting up for two years. When they came from the police station, they said, “Do you know that your husband has contracted AIDS?”

We are three sisters and one brother. The eldest got married eight months ago. Her husband had an accident and now he sits at home [as the result of the injuries]. I have a younger sister who is ten. She was adopted by a family in Kashan. They were supposed to take me instead. I prepared myself, but then I thought it was more important for Azita to go. I stayed to take care of the household chores. The lady who adopted Azita harasses her. She does not let her talk to us. The way our sister talks to us has changed. In a phone conversation she said, “You guys placed me here. My dad is a very good man. You threw him in jail.” My mom always cries after talking to her. I’m not very hopeful.

I: You’re not very hopeful that the officials and authorities will do something for you?

G: No.

I: Why not?

G: We have gone for help so many times. They don’t do anything, because that is how it is. God only gives to the rich. He gives more and more to the rich, but he doesn’t give anything to the poor people.

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It’s an idea that’s been repeated so often on the Internet that it has become to look like a fact: namely that social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter helped inspire and fuel protests in places like Iran, Burma, China and elsewhere. But is it really? In spite of all the flash, are social media really a good way to organize?

By Philip Alexiou in Washington DC

Source: Voice of America (VOA)

29 July 2010

“The Internet is a wildly powerful and disruptive tool. It can be used for good, it can be used for ill.” – Alec Ross, senior advisor to Sec. of State Hillary Clinton

Last year, the US State Department made an unusual request to a social network. It asked Twitter to delay maintenance that might have interrupted messages from Iranians protesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Twitter obliged by delaying its operation keeping the network open and Iranians free to tweet.

Anger over the Iranian presidential elections spilled into the streets, along with violence as protesters fought with Iranian security forces. So, was this a Twitter moment?  Did Twitter ignite the protests in Iran and abroad?

Not so fast, says Ethan Zuckerman, founder of the “citizen’s media” website Global Voices Online.

“A year after the fact people have tried very, very carefully to get a count of how many people were actually twittering from within Iran,” he says.  “And those estimates, the estimates I find most reliable range from several dozen to a couple hundred.”

According to Alec Ross, the senior advisor on Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, there is very little information to support the claim that Facebook or Twitter or text messaging caused the rioting or can inspire an uprising.

“What I have yet to see is a piece of data, a single piece of data, a single study that says, you know, access to information in environments of historic inter-cultural, inter-ethnic conflict has the following outcome when overlayed with a social media strategy,” he cautions.

“The Internet is a wildly powerful and disruptive tool.  It can be used for good, it can be used for ill.  It disrupts markets, it disrupts communication, it changes the way people connect and collaborate with one another, but it’s just a tool, and it’s a tool used by people for a variety of different ends.”

In other words, Ross says, social media may have some power, but like everything else, it has limitations.

With regard to the news out of Iran, Sanaz, an Iranian student studying in the US, says the social network websites at least helped get the news out about events after the election.

“It’s absolutely crucial for people to be able to use these websites,” says Sanaz, “because otherwise a lot of the news may not have gotten out, if the foreign journalists or Iranian journalists are banned or forbidden from doing their work.”

Largely because these social media tools are so new, those who study its effects have more questions than answers about its influence on conflict and change.

“What we’re really interested in is when someone comes up with a novel way of thinking and framing something,” says Ethan Zuckerman, “not just how that quote spreads through time, but how that idea spreads through time.”

Complicating matters, while analysts try to understand the uses and limits of social media, the technology keeps reinventing itself.  That’s especially true in developing countries, which in some cases have leap-frogged over cumbersome personal computers, instead using their phones as computers.

That’s according to Colin Rule, who is eBay and PayPal’s first director of Online Dispute Resolution.

“And these phones are getting smarter all the time,” notes Rule. “So, they can do text messaging, they can do voice communication obviously, but they can also start to access parts of the web and as they get more and more powerful they’ll be able to access more and more of the web.”

This may nowhere be more true than in many African nations, where use of mobile phones and other portable devices is exploding.  Marc Lynch is an associate professor of international affairs at George Washington University.

“I think one of the things which we all grapple with as social scientists trying to deal with this is that it’s implausible that this fundamental transformation in the way people process and receive information and the way information flows, is its implausible that this doesn’t matter.”

So what’s the real world impact of social media?  Can BlackBerrys and smart phones inspire demonstrations?  Does Twitter, Facebook or YouTube make it easier or more difficult to organize large, diverse groups of people?

Answering that question, says Marc Lynch, remains “maddeningly difficult” and will for some time.

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Source: Persian2English

July 27, 2010

Interview originally aired on Voice of America | July 25, 2010

Translation SIAVOSH JALILI

In a letter addressed to the internal director of Rajai Shahr prison and international organizations, political prisoner Reza Joushan announced a hunger strike in protest to the deprivation of his civil and human rights. According to Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran, Joushan fell into a coma on his sixth day of hunger strike and was transferred to the prison clinic in Rajai Shahr. Joushan’s sister spoke to VOA before he fell into a coma.

Reza Joushan began his hunger strike on July 21, 2010. Zahra Asadpour, Reza Joushan’s mother, is also imprisoned in the women’s ward of Rajai Shahr prison. Previously, Asadpour spent 16 months in jail along with her daughter Fatemeh Joushan for visiting her son in Camp Ashraf (PMOI camp located in Iraq). After her release, she was detained again six months after. Reza Joushan was arrested on November 30, 2009 and was sentenced to two years in prison on the charge of “acting against national security”, “propaganda against the regime”, and “cooperation with the PMOI”.

Reza Joushan’s sister Fatehmeh Joushan, who currently resides in Turkey, described her brother’s ordeal in prison to VOA correspondent Farideh Rahbar.

Fatemeh Joushan: Following the events of June 2009, my brother was twice arrested. The second time occured on November 30, 2009. He was detained because my brother and I had left Iran. My mother was arrested six days later. My brother was subject to interrogation for two months. We have no news on his physical condition since April 10, 2010 because he was transferred to an ancillary ward and his visitation rights were cancelled. My brother was sentenced to two years in prison, given a four-year suspended prison sentence, and five years of exile in the village of Gheylar in the province of Zanjan. He did not have a lawyer because he was not allowed to acquire one.

VOA: Do you know why he went on hunger strike?

FJ: My brother apparently stated that his hunger strike is to protest against the fact that he does not have the right to contact his mother in prison or family outside the prison and, also, officials refuse to transfer him to the general ward. My brother announced on July 11th that he would go on hunger strike. There was a visit by a judiciary official who promised my brother to transfer him to the general ward after July 9th (the anniversary of the 1999 Student uprising). On July 12th, there was a brief meeting between my mom and my brother in the Revolutionary Guard’s ward in the presence of *Mohebi.  They were permitted to speak to my father on the phone for one minute, just enough time for them to say they were doing well. I don’t know what happened during the conversation, but Mohebi grabbed the phone and threatened my father with arrest if he talks or gives any interviews.

VOA: How is your mother and why was she arrested?

FJ: My mother’s physical condition is not very good. After she went on hunger strike in May for ten days, her eyesight has diminished a lot. My mother and I spent one year and four months in jail. She was released for six months, but then was arrested again, and now she has received a one year jail sentence.

VOA: What is your request?

FJ: I ask international organizations to look into the case of my brother and my mother. My brother’s physical condition is not good. He suffers from cardiac and pulmonary diseases and my mother suffered from a heart attack in jail. For the past three months, we have had no news on them except for that short conversation they had with my father. I want their situation be resolved and for them to be released as soon as possible.

*Translator’s Note: Mohebi is a chief interrogator at ward 8 (the IRGC ward) of Gohardasht prison (I.e. Rajai Shahr prison). He leads the team that deals with political prisoners.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad listens to a question during a news conference in Tehran June 28, 2010.… Read more » REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

By Robin Pomeroy Robin Pomeroy

Source: Reuters/Yahoo! News

July 27, 2010

Click here for video

Click here for 2nd video

TEHRAN – Iran expects the United States to launch a military strike on “at least two countries” in the Middle East in the next three months, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told state-run Press TV.

In an interview recorded on Monday, Ahmadinejad did not specify whether he thought Iran itself would be attacked nor did he say what intelligence led him to expect such a move.

The United States and Israel have refused to rule out military action against Iran’s nuclear program which they fear could lead to it making a bomb, something Iran denies.

“They have decided to attack at least two countries in the region in the next three months,” Ahmadinejad said in excerpts broadcast on the rolling news channel on Tuesday.

Israel, which refuses to confirm or deny the existence of its own nuclear arsenal, has a history of pre-emptive strikes against suspected nuclear targets. In 1981 it destroyed Iraq’s only nuclear reactor and in 2007 bombed a suspect site in Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran “the ultimate terrorist threat.” His deputy, Moshe Yaalon, has said Israel had improved military capability which could be used against foes in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or Iran.

Ahmadinejad said Iran had “very precise information that the Americans have hatched a plot, according to which they to wage a psychological war against Iran.”

He also criticized the U.S.-led drive for international sanctions to pressure Tehran over the nuclear issue.

The European Union agreed a new round of economic sanctions on Monday, including a block on oil and gas investment [ID:nLDE66P10R], following a similar move by Washington and a fourth round of U.N. sanctions.

“The logic that they can persuade us to negotiate through sanctions is just a failure,” Ahmadinejad said.

(Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Mohammad Abdollahi’s Case Highlights Complexity of Asylum Petition Process

By Devin Dwyer

Source: ABC News

July 27, 2010

By the time Mohammad Abdollahi figured out he had been living in the United States illegally for more than a decade, he also knew that his personal safety would depend on being able to stay in the country he calls home.

Abdollahi, a 24 year-old Iranian who was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, came to the U.S. as a child when his parents immigrated to study at a state university. He says he learned of his undocumented status in high school, which is also when he first began identifying as a gay man.

“It wasn’t until I was 17, 18 that I began connecting the dots,” he said of his situation. “I grew up in a very Muslim family. I didn’t know what ‘gay’ meant. … I didn’t understand the gap.”

Abdollahi is now facing that “gap” head on, with the looming prospect of deportation to Iran where homosexuality is a capital crime. He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities after a protest in May, and his removal proceedings are scheduled to commence later this summer.

“It’s not something I can imagine,” he said of the thought of returning to Iran. “It would be a very scary thing because I haven’t hidden my sexuality in talking with friends or the media.”

Abdollahi is one of thousands of illegal immigrants each year who seek asylum in the U.S. from physical threats abroad while simultaneously facing imminent deportation by immigration authorities.

Iran has a documented record of persecuting gays and lesbians, including by death, according to U.S. government officials and international human rights groups.

Still, Abdollahi’s case for asylum is not cut and dry: As an undocumented U.S. resident for twenty years, he missed the one-year window of opportunity by law to proactively apply for protected status. He now faces the more difficult task of appealing defensively before an immigration judge.

More than 13,000 immigrants in situations such as Abdollahi’s requested so-called “withholding removal” status in U.S. immigration courts last year, according to the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. But only 14 percent of the requests were granted, reflecting a much more stringent standard than that applied to asylum applications filed by people not facing deportation.

“He’s looking at having to prove greater than 50 percent chance of persecution, a clear probability of persecution,” said D.C.-based immigration attorney Kimberley Schaefer, who handles asylum cases.

The risk of physical harm must also be demonstrably linked with either his race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidelines.

Sexual orientation is loosely classified under “membership in a social group,” according to immigration officials, and has been recognized by the courts as a protected category since 1994.

“In Iran, it’s illegal to be gay,” said Hossein Alizadeh of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, who received U.S. asylum as a gay Iranian in 2001.

“Even if you’re not charged, however, you face the threat of honor killings by family members and vigilantes. The government does nothing to protect these individuals.”

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, which processes asylum applications, received 198 petitions from Iranians last year of which 91 were granted. But it’s unclear how many, if any, were based on an individual’s sexual orientation because the agency does not track those statistics.

Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, which advocates for gay and lesbian asylum seekers, said the group handled more than 200 cases last year, including several from Iran.

“We see an artificially deflated number of cases from the Middle East because the opportunity for single, Arab men to get here after 9/11 is very low,” she said. “But we do see them.”

The extension of asylum to individuals such as Abdollahi has critics, however, who warn that the system is prone to fraud and abuse, employing too loose a standard to ensure protection of a worthy few. Two recent high-profile cases in Washington State and Pennsylvania exposed rings of asylum seekers appealing for and receiving asylum based on phony claims of persecution and sexual orientation.

Still, Abdollahi, who dreams of being a social worker in his Michigan community, says he’s confident, with the help of his pro bono attorney, that a judge will look favorably on his case.

“The two vectors in his case, like most glbt asylum cases, is ‘are you who you say you are, are you gay?’ and the other piece is ‘how bad is it in the country you left?’,” said Tiven.

A judge will decide whether the accumulated record of human rights abuses in Iran and testimonies from Abdollahi and his friends about his sexuality are incompatible and sufficient reasons to allow him to stay.

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Timcheh-Mahdiyeh, Tehran’s historic bazaar outlet in danger of demolition

Adel Azar

* * Adel Azar, Director of the Iranian Center for Statistics in Iran has finally admitted that 40 million, out of the 70 million population of Iran lives on or below the poverty line. The Iranian Student’s News Agency reported that Azar has announced: “Today due to extremely serious unemployment, unrelenting and ever-increasing inflation and a lack of accountability of the expenditure of cash flow, 10 million people live under the poverty line and the other 30 million, just on the poverty line. And though Iran is endowed with such extensive natural resources, a large majority of Iranians are near destitution.”

* * And below is yet more videos of Tehran’s long gas station lines.

* * Below: Video of William Hague, British Foreign Minister: Tougher EU sanctions on Iran “increase pressure”

Hamid Massouminejad

* * Mohammadali Hosseini Iran’s ambassador to Italy announced that, Hamid Massouminejad, an Iranian who was arrested is no longer under house arrest in Milan though forbidden to leave Italy. The ambassador said that the Milan prosecutor signed the release order, which was also approved by the prosecutor on Monday. Though the case is not closed, Hosseini described it as a “positive step”.

In December 2009, Hamid Massouminejad and Ali Damirchilo along with five Italians were arrested and charged with smuggling arms to Iran via the United Arab Emirates and Romania. In May Massouminejad’s was permitted by the Milan prosecutor to be detained under house arrest.

* * Below: A video of the Friday, July 23rd football game where the spectators throw bottles of water at the regime’s agents who are standing on the edges of the pitch. Even the TV announcer (speaking in Persian) mentions it.

Ahmadi Beeghash

* * Ahmadi Beeghash, member of Iranian Parliament (Majles) who is in charge of travel protocol to Gaza, announced that despite continued requests, the government of Egypt has refused to allow four of the Iranian MP’s, to travel to Egypt, following their trip to Gaza. Beeghash added: “We four members of the Majles have coordinated all our efforts and we have even purchased our plane tickets in order to travel to Egypt, however and unfortunately the Egyptians announced that they will not be issuing visas to us. So far the Egyptian government has created a lot of serious problems for us. The Egyptians knew we were traveling to Gaza and requested information about our work and we provided them with resumes and all kinds of background information but they have refused us. The Iranian leadership supports those “innocent” Palestinian leaders and we are planning to travel to Gaza to deliver that message and let them know that the Majles supports them.”

Cyrus Sazdaar

* * Oil specialist teams leaving Iran in droves. Kalameh website reports that Cyrus Sazdaar, member of the Energy Commission of the Iranian Majles said: “We’ve been producing oil for over 100 years and yet, we’re still importing refined oil. We are partners in most of the oil fields and if we cannot even yield from these shared fields, the fields will be lost to the future generations as “our neighbors” will reap the benefits. Unfortunately we seem to have neglected this fact; perhaps there are other reasons, concealed reasons which we are unaware of. If we invest $40 million in gas and oil production, we can glean $60 million per year but unfortunately we are seeing that after 100 years or more of oil production, when it comes to provisions, we are still dependent on foreign sources. In the area of gas and oil, two things are a threat to us. First, the negligence of the planners has put us in a situation where we cannot take any steps forward technologically and industrially and second our oil specialists are leaving Iran in droves. We need to pay attention to these issues. Unfortunately when it comes to investment, our officials failed and now our relations with the world at large is such that we cannot attract any foreign investments; that then is coupled with the departure of all specialists. Today, we are the importers of gas; why is Turkmanestan the exporter? The contract that have been signed for this deal is going to put us in the same position as we are in with our oil…where we see that now we are unable to provide for the country’s petrol usage.”

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Compiled and translated by Iran Press News/Planet Iran

July 25, 2010

Fars News, the media arm of the Revolutionary Guard reports: On Sunday, Ahmadinejad spoke at the 5th National Chief Executives Fair where he announced: “Any country who participates in the American scenario against Iran’s rule will be considered an enemy and will be met with a strong response.  They (the U.S.) attack Middle Eastern countries, pointing their arrows at us, claiming that Iran wants to build bombs; all this so that they can force Iran to stop or retreat but they should know that they are mistaken. We are not interested in fighting and confrontation and we are not welcoming any sanctions either; we are interested in friendship and logic but they better understand that their tantrums will have no other result but to discredit themselves. Anyone who takes action against Iran, doing things like inspecting our ships, will face Iran’s immediate retaliation and experience has shown that Iranian retaliation has had regretful consequences for them. They also claim that they’re going to put sanctions on the importation of (refined) oil. I dream of them imposing that sanction…they can go right ahead and do it. Within two days, we will have 17 million liters to replace it. We’ve covered all our bases and everything is ready to be set in motion. It’s ultimately up to us. They can put sanctions on whatever they want…within no time, our own experts will come up with a better replacements.”

In addition, the Iranian regime-run TV & Radio also reported Ahmadinejad as saying: “If anyone wants to lift a hand of aggression toward Iran, we will chop their arms off. It is clear what Westerners are afraid of. They have all wound themselves up and imagine that with their propaganda and psychological war they can get Iranians to back off. In the past Iranians did not have to send troops; we were able to conquer countries with our mindset and culture, removing corrupt power-mongers. In confronting the U.S. we do not need to go to war. Iranian policy, and Iranian culture will pull them down but they don’t have the guts to admit to any such thing and continue to lie and cover up. The current battle is based on logic, culture and management of the world and we will not allow you (the U.S.) to filch from countries around the world. They know that if our culture flourishes, that their continued thieving will have to stop, leaving no room for their modernism. They think that they will glean results from their propaganda. That is why they have coalesced and coordinated with Russian and European media. They have also connected with some people inside Iran, which is something whose dimensions I will discuss at a later date. Thank God that their scenario was leaked and all the information was put at our disposal. If you pathetic westerners were in fact telling the truth,  how come you’re so afraid of an Iranian bomb? And all the while, you yourselves have bombs. You are all liars, deceivers and cowards. The bottom line is that they fear the awakening of the Iranian soul and the fact that we are so powerful that they feel they must stand in our way. They simply are too jealous to allow us to progress.”

On Friday too, Ahmadinajed addressed another group claiming: “A new plan for psychological war has been set in place and they have diabolically managed to coordinate with some people inside Iran. All this in order to create, according to themselves of course, a heavy atmosphere around the world, against us. They want to put pressure on us, escalate the pressure and then they attack two Middle Eastern countries which we consider friends, and then with the aid of these despicable Zionists they want to find some angle where they can get Iran to stop or show some kind of weakness in order to submit and surrender. But what Mr. Medvedev, the President of Russia said in a meeting with their ambassadors, was that Iran is going toward building a bomb. Of course the Russia is a grand nation, we are friends and wish to see that friendship continue between our two countries. But know this: that what he (Medvedev) said is in fact nothing more than the publicizing of a scenario that the U.S. wants to carry out against us, and yet it was set in motion (for the U.S.) by the President of Russia. America and all the degenerates around the world want to gather in order to pull all their might together, publicize and get their mouths running, all because they want to make Iran retreat…well, they can take that dream to the grave with them. Iran, through it’s will and it’s uniqueness will destroy hundreds of these scenarios.”

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Source: Los Angeles Times Babylon & Beyond

July 23, 2010

The military option against Iran’s nuclear program always seems to be discussed in the context of one table or another. On the table, off it or under it, the possibility of a strike lurks in the background, a semi-abstract code for something potentially awesome — and not in the cool sense of the word.

President Obama told Israeli television in a recent interview (in itself an interesting occurrence) that the possibility of Iran possessing a nuclear weapon was unacceptable and that the issue has been the No. 1 priority in foreign policy of the last 18 months. ”We continue to leave the door open for a diplomatic resolution of this challenge, but I assure you that I have not taken options off the table,” he told Channel 2.

Again, the table. So whose table is it?

Israel feels genuinely and directly threatened by Iran’s nuclear program but consistently warns that everyone else is too. It maintains that the international community, not Israel, should be spearheading the move to stop the program. It has also indicated that when push comes to shove, it won’t rely on anyone else to defend Israel.

Recent polls show most Americans would support an Israeli strike to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. Other figures from a recent Pew Research global attitude survey found strong objection to Iran possessing nuclear weapons and no small numbers willing to consider military action too, although it wasn’t stated by whom.

Asked about concerns that Israel might strike Iran on its own, Obama said he thinks the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is sufficiently strong “so that neither of us try to surprise each other, but we try to coordinate on issues of mutual concern and that approach is one I think Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is committed to,” Obama said.

A new report by the Oxford Research Group says the potential for an Israeli military strike has “grown sharply” and estimates that even if carried out solely by Israel, such a strike would be viewed across the Middle East as having been undertaken with the knowledge, approval and assistance of the United States. So the question of who’s sitting at the head of the table is irrelevant; crumbs will be falling everywhere.

The course is almost run, say analysts from the Institute for National Security Studies, or INSS, a think tank in Tel Aviv. Typically, the pattern of the West has been diplomatic processes to nowhere. Iran’s obvious nuclear progress is now such that the international community is taking a more realistic approach and making stronger statements. Punditry is talking about possible war and some, write experts Emily B. Landau and Ephraim Asculai, are “setting the stage for blaming Israel for pushing the U.S. to take military action.”

The Responsibility to Prevent Coalition argues that Iran is everybody’s table and that there’s more than just the nuclear threat on the menu. Irwin Cotler, Canadian member of parliament and former Canadian justice minister, presented a 200-page report titled “The Danger of a Nuclear, Genocidal and Rights-Violating Iran: the Responsibility to Prevent Petition” last week in Israel. Focusing strictly on the nuclear issue has sanitized other threats, he warns, such as Iran’s “genocidal incitement” and “domestic repression.” The report has been endorsed by 100 leading jurists, scholars, rights activists and leaders and offers an 18-point ‘road map’ for dealing with Iran.

Along with the tables come windows, windows of opportunity that open and close. And with the geo-political sands shifting, airspaces also open and close, shuffling the likelihood of different scenarios.

A special report broadcast last week by Channel 2 outlined various strike scenarios accompanied by a nifty graphic feature. For those who don’t speak Hebrew, here are the main options, in order of appearance on the clip above and their likeliness:

• From Israel to Saudi Arabia and then to Iran. 1,600 km, refueling over Saudi Arabia. The only scenario that allows passing through one country’s airspace.
• From Israel to Jordan and then to Iran. 1,600 km, refueling over Iraq, not far from border with Iran.
  Israel would have to get permission from two countries for use of airspace.
• From Israel to Jordan, then Saudi Arabia, then to Iran. 2,000 km, refueling over Saudi Arabia near its borders with Iraq and Kuwait. Recent reports that Saudi Arabia granted silent permission for Israel to use its airspace were denied.
• From Israel to Syria, then to Turkey, then to Iran. 1,800 kms, refueling over southeast Turkey, near its borders with Iraq and Iran. Considering Israel’s nose-diving relations with Turkey, use of Turkish airspace is not taken for granted.
• From Israel to Syria, then to Iraq and on to Iran. 1,500 km, refueling over north Iraq. It’s a shortcut but pretty unlikely, said the report.

– –  Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem.

Above: Israeli television Channel 2 special report about possible strike scenarios. Via Youtube.

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Iranian hair style

* * Below: Georgian women protest stoning and execution of Iranian women, in front of Iranian embassy in Tbilisi.

* * Firebrand Mullah Ahmad Khatami (not to be mistaken with former president Mohammad Khatami) who spoke at the pulpit at Tehran’s Friday (July 23rd) prayer called for Revolutionary Guards and Basij to be always alert as the flames of sedition can be fueled at any time. Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts of Leadership added: “The Continuation of people’s protests against the Iranian regime and the Supreme Leadership can flare up again, at any time. Our Revolutionary Guards, members of our Basij and protectors of our Islamic revolution should stand up to and block any advancement by our revolution’s enemies. Suffocate all conspiracies and inroads by the traitors, otherwise, chaos will break out again. Though for now, the elements of chaos and their movement has suffered a setback, there is always the possibility of their reemergence and the smoldering fire underneath the ashes to reignite.”

* * Iranian regime guards attack defenseless people of the township of Khaash, in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Received reports indicate that following the Jundollah suicide bombings in Zahedan last week, the Iranian regime has stepped up all efforts to further intimidate and oppress the people of the province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

The township of Khaash is the most far flung and poorest parts of that province. The residents who are Sunni Baluchis are said to be the latest victims of abuse and brutality at the hands of the Iranian regime’s agents. Caught between the ferocious conflict between Jundollah and the Iranian regime, the residents of that area are now the latest in the long line of abused minorities in Iran.

* * In a shootout in the center of Vienna, on Thursday afternoon a man was killed and two others were severely wounded.

According to police, that after a business meeting at CERAGEM Holdings Group, a dispute broke out among business partners. According to police spokeswoman Iris Seper the four Iranian men had met each other at 4 p.m. at the CERAGEM offices, on the second floor of a professional building in the Weihburggasse, to discuss business matters. But about 5 p.m. one of the men drew a pistol and fired several times on the others.  A 75-year-old man was struck and killed; the other two parties a 57-year-old was shot several time in the chest, and is said to be in critical condition as was the third, a 66-year-old man.

The assailant shot his victims with a 7.62 mm pistol manufactured in Eastern Europe. A women who was in another room at the time of the shooting was unharmed.

That 70-year-old suspect, who turned himself in on Thursday evening after the fatal dispute, has himself suffered a heart attack, shortly after his arrest and had to be hospitalized. Iris Seper said on Friday, that though the man was in stable condition, an interrogation was still not possible. One of the two seriously wounded victims on the other hand, is still hovering between life and death.

Seper said that the mild heart attack, the suspect was not played. Although he was on Friday morning no longer in critical condition, the police must wait for a hearing on the permission of the doctors. As long as the background would indeed remain unclear. The 66-year-old seriously injured, who had escaped with a Brustdurchschuss, is, according to police on the road to recovery. The 75-year-old victim, the alleged perpetrator was hit three times in the chest, was as of Friday morning still in danger.

The  reason for the dispute remains unclear. What the business meeting was about, also remains unclear. According to it’s website, the CERAGEM Group and its subsidiaries operate a number of projects inside Iran and claim to do “import/export” of gas, oil, cars and car parts.  However, the 75-year-old Iranian man who was shot and killed is said to be a well-known drug lord in Austria.

* * Extreme heat worsens already unsanitary conditions at Tehran’s Evin prison. A lack of funds to cool down the prison has lead to the spread of various diseases as well as an infestation of head and body lice. There is no cold running water and the sanitary facilities are also said to be out of order.

* * Iranians in Italy chant “death to the dictator” during Iranian National football team match with Italian team Lazio. In 2006 Lazio played a friendly match against Iranian team in Austria, where they defeated the Iranian football club 4-1.

Iran’s channel 3 broadcast the match live. At first the sounds of the spectators chanting could be heard however after several minutes the sound of the chanting spectators was turned down or off.

The team returns to Iran after finishing the two-week training camp. The three-time Asian champion is preparing itself for the AFC Asian Cup which will be held in Qatar in January 2011.

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Source: Homylafayette

July 22, 2010

The Italian city of Genoa renamed one of its squares ‘Rotonda Donne di Teheran’ (Women of Tehran Square) in the Fiumara commercial district as part of its Human Rights Week on July 21, 2010. (View Fiumara district in Genoa, Italy in a larger map)

Mayor Marta Vicenzi (left) & Shirin Ebadi

Mayor Marta Vincenzi unveiled the new plaque honoring the women who demonstrated for freedom on the streets of Iran’s capital at a moving ceremony attended by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi. ‘This is a sign of solidarity with the women of Iran, and other parts of the world, who are fighting for freedom,’ said Mayor Vincenzi.

She expressed the hope that mayors in other major cities around the world would follow Genoa’s lead and pay tribute to Iran’s women.

Below, video in Italian.