Regime is paying Taliban to kill American soldiers

Regime is paying Taliban to kill American soldiers

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Iran's bronzed bodybuilders go for gold

Iran's bronzed bodybuilders go for gold

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Mahmud Ahmadinejad's appointments of special envoys for foreign affairs is seen as a direct challenge to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ahmadinejad Encroaches On Khamenei's Foreign-Policy Turf

By Golnaz Esfandiari - Decisions on foreign policy issues - including the contentious issue of Iran's nuclear program -- are traditionally subject to the supreme leader's approval. However, four appointments made by the president in recent weeks suggest that he intends to exert greater influence on Iranian diplomacy, and could be trying to wrest outright control from Khamenei in the sphere of foreign policy.

Special presidential envoys for foreign policy are not without precedent -- President Mohammad Khatami, for example had two such envoys. The difference is that under Khatami, the appointment of envoys was decided by consensus and subject to approval by the president's cabinet, while Ahmadinejad appears to be making appointments unilaterally.

On August 22, Ahmadinejad appointed his highly controversial chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, as his special envoy to the Middle East. Hamid Baghei, the head of Iran's Cultural Heritage Foundation, was appointed as special envoy for Asia affairs. Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhundzadeh has been named Iran's envoy on Caspian Affairs. And Abolfazl Zohrevand, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, is now the president's envoy to Afghanistan.

'Weakening Of Iran's Diplomatic Apparatus'

The appointments have been criticized as a blow to Iran's Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, who believed to owe his appointment to Khamenei and is considered one of the few remaining so-called pragmatists in the Iranian government. On September 7, Mottaki warned against the "weakening of Iran's diplomatic apparatus," while the Foreign Ministry has denied reports that Mottaki was prepared to resign over the situation.

Tehran-based analyst and journalist Hassan Fathi says Ahmadinejad wants to demonstrate that he can act independently from the supreme leader.

Fathi adds that Mottaki has the support of Khamenei.

“The Foreign Ministry is one ... Read More

The number of secret executions drastically increased in August. Sources added that some 2,000 death row convicts are awaiting their execution inside Vakilabad Prison

Ahmad Ghabel's Sudden Summons To Fariman Revolutionary Court

Prominent theological researcher Ahmad Ghabel has been summoned to the Revolutionary Courts of Fariman, a reliable source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. According to the source, Revolutionary Court authorities in Mashad, Ghabel's city of residence, have disavowed knowledge of the summons. Ghabel will have to appear at the Fariman Revolutionary Courts on Wednesday, 8 September 2010, the summons stated.
Previously, Ghabel spent 170 days at Mashad's Vakilabad Prison inside the Ministry of Intelligence Ward, and was released on bail. He has not yet received a sentence from the Mashad Revolutionary Courts in regards to his earlier arrest and detention.
In a recent interview with the Campaign, Ghabel offered his observations about executions of drug-related suspects inside Mashad's Vakilabad Prison during his detention there this year. Ghabel's summons to Fariman Courts, however, do not seem to be related to his statements. Mashad Revolutionary Court authorities have told Ghabel's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht that they have not been informed about the summons.
According to information supplied by Ghabel and other prisoners inside Vakilabad Prison, over the past year more than 500 prisoners on death row have been secretly executed there. Reliable sources have informed the Campaign that families and lawyers of those executed did not know about the executions and were not present for them. Some family members question the trial process and the way the death sentences were issued. The number of secret executions drastically increased in August. Sources added that some 2,000 death row convicts are awaiting their execution inside Vakilabad Prison, some of them for several years. Most of these suspects have received their death sentences for crimes related to transporting and possessing drugs.
Ghabel told different media outlets recently that he witnessed two group executions of prisoners inside Vakilabad. He was detained inside Ward 6/1. ... Read More

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro was quoted as saying Iran could further the cause of peace by "acknowledging the 'unique' history of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence."

Castro Criticizes Iranian President Over Anti-Semitism

Former Cuban revolutionary and President Fidel Castro has been quoted as criticizing Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for espousing anti-Semitic attitudes and denying the Holocaust. Castro is quoted as making the comments during meetings with Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for the U.S. magazine "The Atlantic," who recently visited Cuba and spent portions of three days meeting with the communist leader.



Writing about the meetings on his blog, Goldberg said Castro, who has been a tough critic of Israel over the years, "repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism" and "criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust" in World War II, when 6 million European Jews were systematically killed by Nazi German authorities.



Castro is quoted as saying Iran could further the cause of peace by what he called "acknowledging the 'unique' history of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence."



The blog report quotes the 84-year-old Castro as saying that Jews "have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything."



Castro, added the report, said the Iranian government should understand that the Jews "were expelled from their land, persecuted, and mistreated all over the world” over slanders that they were responsible for killing Jesus.



Castro, who resigned as Cuban president in 2008 amid health problems, reportedly wanted to meet with Goldberg after reading a recent article he had written about possible conflict between Iran and Israel.

Sotoudeh had represented a number of political prisoners who were taken into custody during the unrest that followed the disputed June 2009 presidential election

RSF Condemns Iranian Lawyer's Arrest

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced the arrest of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Ten Iranian Intelligence Ministry officials raided Sotoudeh's home and office on August 28 and confiscated files and personal belongings. They also told her to appear at the prosecutor's office at Evin prison on charges of "collusion against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic regime." She was arrested when she went to the prosecutor's office on September 4. Sotoudeh had represented a number of political prisoners who were taken into custody during the unrest that followed the disputed June 2009 presidential election.

In a September 7 statement, RSF said that "Sotoudeh has for the past year been the spokesperson of victims of injustice, of those the regime is trying to silence.... By arresting lawyers, the regime is trying to gag the last dissenting voices."

Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, told Radio Farda on September 5 that he and his wife's lawyer went to Evin prison to inquire about her and were told that the order for her detention is valid indefinitely. Khandan added that he was told that he may neither visit his wife nor talk to her by telephone.

In its statement, RSF asked lawyers' organizations throughout the world to demand Sotoudeh's immediate release.

A woman walks past a signboard of Bank Mellat, an Iranian state-run commercial bank, outside its Seoul branch.

After Deliberation, South Korea Decides To Impose Sanctions On Iran

South Korea is joining the U.S., Japan and the European Union with harsh new sanctions against Iran. South Korea has blacklisted 102 companies and 24 individuals who are believed to be helping Iran's efforts to gain nuclear weapons. A woman walks past a signboard of Bank Mellat, an Iranian state-run commercial bank, outside its Seoul branch. Interestingly, one of the key corporations hit is the Seoul Branch of Bank Mellat, one of the Iranian bank’s few foreign branches. It handles some 70 percent of South Korean exports to Iran, which are quite extensive; trade between the two countries was $9.6 billion last year. South Korea sells electronics and cars, technical and financial services, as well as construction. Iran supplies South Korea with 10 percent of its oil.

South Korea did not come to this decision easily, weighing their close alliance with the U.S. with their growing business and oil ties with Iran. Iran has warned that by joining the sanctions regime South Korea threatens those ties.

Also today, wire reports say Iran has suspended a sentence of stoning against a woman accused of adultery. The case has brought a storm of international criticism. Today, the European Parliament called it "barbaric."

This was such a common sight that a joke was made: Khomeini starts his speech and the audience would start crying. Khomeini addresses them and says, "Maybe I wanted to say something funny!"

The Important Role Of Weeping In Iran's Domestic, Foreign Policy

Blogger "Kodan-e Ba Estedad" (Talented Moron) writes about the role of weeping in Iran's domestic and foreign policy. He has put together a number of examples from Iran's recent history. For the last century in Iran's history, weeping has had an important role in the country's domestic and foreign policies. Whether it was due to our historic humiliation by foreign invaders, or domination of the Shi'ite and its mourning nature, should be left for the experts on the matter to decide. It is said that Naser al-Din Shah Qajar went to Karbala and before entering the shrine of Imam Hussein, he said to his prime minister: Find me a person who delivers good sermons on the tragedy of Karbala so I can weep over it. In pursuance of his instructions, the prime minister went to find a few good ones. Whatever they recited, the shah did not weep!

The prime minister was afraid and told the clergy of Karbala that if the shah did not weep, things would go badly. They went and brought an unknown speaker. He was an old person, but one who was an expert and experienced. He told the prime minister, "I will make the shah weep."

As soon as he approached the shah, he turned toward the grave of Imam Hussein and said: "Oh Hussein, when you had lost all companions and were standing alone in the Karbala desert, you raised your voice to say, 'Is there any naser [helper in Arabic] to help me.' Now this Naser [the shah's name] has come, but it's too late."

Upon hearing this, the shah burst into tears. His prime minister feared that something might happen to the shah, so he signaled to the speaker to stop.

When Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran's prime minister from 1951 to 1953, decided to hold a referendum on dissolving the National Assembly, his interior minister, said the referendum was illegal and added, "I wept and told him [Mossadegh], 'We can do anything you say, but it is not correct to hold a referendum.'"

"A [senior U.S. official], who was a close friend of Iran ... Read More

The IRGC denied on September 5 that they and the hard-line volunteer Basij militia had besieged Karrubi's home in recent days. The ICRG said in a statement that the siege was the work of "rogue elements" not linked to the Revolutionary Guards

Karrubi's Son Hails Revolutionary Guards' Denial Of House Siege

The son of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi says he is "happy" that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has formally denied besieging Karrubi's home, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. The IRGC denied on September 5 that they and the hard-line volunteer Basij militia had besieged Karrubi's home in recent days. The ICRG said in a statement that the siege was the work of "rogue elements" not linked to the Revolutionary Guards or to the Basij militia. Hussein Karrubi told Radio Farda on September 5 that this statement demonstrates that the reports of the siege published in hard-line dailies like "Keyhan" are untrue.

"It is very important that an official organization condemns this incident, and I am very happy about it, because the daily 'Keyhan' yesterday (September 4) claimed that [my father and I] gathered a few people around our house intentionally and the incident was staged," he told Radio Farda.

Hussein Karrubi expressed the hope that the Revolutionary Guards will deal with the "rogue elements."

The ICRG statement also says that men inside Karrubi's house were the first to shoot at people who were outside. But Hussein Karrubi denied this. He told Radio Farda that video clips clearly show that "rogue elements" came into the yard of the house "and started shooting."

"[The rogue elements] aimed to occupy the house and the bodyguards just tried to stop them," he explained.

The website Saham News had reported earlier that attackers had opened fire and threw Molotov cocktails at the building, injuring Karrubi's chief bodyguard.

Hussein Karrubi told Radio Farda that police deployed to cordon off Karrubi's house simply watched the attackers and did absolutely nothing to stop them.

"Police forces just closed the street from both sides to prevent ordinary people entering the street and in fact left the rogue elements around our house to act freely," he said.

Nasrin Ghanavi, Sotoudeh’s lawyer, told the Campaign that Sotoudeh was summoned to Evin Prison court on charges of “propaganda against the state,” and “collusion and gathering with the aim of acting against national security

Release Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh

The International Campaign for Human Right in Iran called for the immediate release of prominent human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was arrested at Evin prison on 4 September 2010, and for all charges against her to be dropped. Sotoudeh is a leading human rights lawyer widely respected for her efforts on behalf of juveniles facing the death penalty and for her defense of prisoners of conscience. Sotoudeh, a mother of two, had earlier been charged with threatening national security. Her office and home were searched on 28 August and her assets frozen.

Nasim Ghanavi, Sotoudeh’s lawyer, told the Campaign that Sotoudeh was summoned to Evin Prison court on charges of “propaganda against the state,” and “collusion and gathering with the aim of acting against national security.”
Ghanavi accompanied Sotoudeh to the court summon on 4 September but was not permitted to be present during questioning. After her questioning, Sotoudeh was arrested and held in Evin prison.

“This arrest is nothing more than a crude, arbitrary political move to make it more comfortable for the Iranian government to persecute its citizens,” stated Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign.

A few days before her arrest, Sotoudeh told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran how the authorities were creating bogus tax problems for human rights lawyers as a way to provide pretexts for their prosecution.

“I was referred to the taxation bureau and while there I noticed in addition to my name, they are conducting special investigations into thirty human rights lawyers,” she said. Sotoudeh provided Shirin Ebadi’s tax bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars on her Nobel Peace Prize money as an example, noting as well the irony that human rights cases were all represented on a pro bono basis, and none of the lawyers receive any money from the clients they defend in human rights case. ”The accusation machine is continuing to work ... Read More

Parvin Mokhtare, mother of hunger-striking human rights activist and journalist Kouhyar Goudarzi, told RFE/RL that the prisoners' families have no news about their children, even those who did not participate in the hunger strike.

Political Prisoners Denied Phone Calls, Told To Recant

A few hundred inmates at Tehran's Evin prison are reported to have been denied phone calls since 17 of them launched a hunger strike in late July, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. There are an estimated 200 political prisoners in Evin prison's Ward 350, many of them journalists, students, and civil activists who were arrested during the crackdown following the controversial June 2009 presidential election. Seventeen of them went on a hunger strike in late July to protest what they called mistreatment by prison guards and the violation of their rights. Although the strike is over, the prisoners are still deprived of making phone calls to their families, the mother of one prisoner told RFE/RL.

Parvin Mokhtare, mother of hunger-striking human rights activist and journalist Kouhyar Goudarzi, told RFE/RL that the prisoners' families have no news about their children, even those who did not participate in the hunger strike.

She said prisoners have been told they will be allowed to make phone calls only if they write a letter of recantation.

It's unclear if the apparent ban on phone calls applies to all prisoners held in Ward 350 or political prisoners only.

According to the opposition Kalemeh website, the authorities have ordered prisoners to write a letter expressing remorse for protesting against mistreatment by prison guards and for launching the hunger strike. Prisoners have also been told to ask for forgiveness from prison authorities.

A woman who was in prison with Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani told lawyer Javid Houtan Kian that his client had been lashed over a newspaper photograph that, Iranian authorities thought, showed her without a headscarf.

Lawyer: Woman facing stoning in Iran has been whipped‎

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Masoud Soleimani Shojaei, center, is congratulated by his teammates Khosro Heydari, left, and Andranik Timotian Samarani after scoring a goal against South Korea during their international friendly soccer match in Seoul, South Korea

Iran beats South Korea 1-0 in friendly‎

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Masoud Shojaei's first-half goal Tuesday gave Iran a 1-0 victory against South Korea in a friendly. The Osasuna striker scored in the 35th minute from the edge of the area after receiving a pass from Pejman Nouri following a mistake by South Korea defender Lee Young-pyo. South Korea was playing its second game since reaching the second round of the World Cup, and went close to scoring through Park Ji-sung, Park Chu-young and Lee Chung-yong.

The Koreans put the visitors under pressure for most of the match as both teams continue preparations for the 2011 Asian Cup in January.

The victory marks a successful return to Seoul for Iran coach Afshin Ghotbi, a former assistant with South Korea.

An executive at the Bank Mellat office in Seoul declined comment Tuesday on word of the expected temporary closing. The branch has assets of about $3 billion

South Korea to Close Iranian Bank Branch

By EVAN RAMSTAD - SEOUL - South Korea will move to temporarily close the local branch of an Iranian bank as part of its effort to join United Nations sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, according to people familiar with the matter. But the move will likely disappoint U.S. officials, who praised stronger measures implemented by the European Union and Japan, because Seoul doesn't appear ready to further sever business ties. South Korea's reluctance to move more dramatically indicates how tough it can be for countries to put sanctions in place on resource-rich Iran.

A task force led by South Korea's Finance Ministry has been working for more than a month to develop the penalties under U.N. resolution 1929 and is scheduled to formally announce them on Wednesday. According to people familiar with the plans, a two-month suspension of the South Korean branch of Iran's Bank Mellat will be the centerpiece of the South Korean penalties.

An executive at the Bank Mellat office in Seoul declined comment Tuesday on word of the expected temporary closing. The branch has assets of about $3 billion.

But Seoul is unlikely to cut oil imports or curtail business activities by South Korean companies in Iran. Iran is South Korea's fourth-largest supplier of oil, and South Korean construction firms have sizable projects there. Without such moves, South Korea's sanctions will likely be less sweeping or have less impact than those imposed by Japan, the EU and other countries that have halted investments in Iran and tightened financial transactions with the country.

The U.S. has been pressing many countries, including South Korea, to implement the U.N. sanctions and clamp down on a number of Iranian entities that are suspected of nuclear proliferation activities.

Bank Mellat, Iran's second-largest bank by assets, has been a special target in South Korea. South Korea and Turkey are the only countries in which the bank operates an overseas branch. U.S. ... Read More

Members of Iran's air force shout slogans in support of the country's nuclear programme. Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters

Iran accused by UN watchdog of hampering nuclear inspections

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog today accused Iran of hampering inspections of the country's nuclear programme, banning some inspectors and breaking UN seals on its uranium stockpile.

In its quarterly report on Iran's programme, the International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly complained of Iran's failure to respond to its inspectors' requests for information about its plans and activities. In particular, the report said that Tehran's repeated objections to the accreditation of UN inspectors "hampers the inspection process and detracts from the agency's ability" to monitor Iran's nuclear work, which is already the subject of several UN resolutions and international sanctions.

The IAEA noted that Iran had the right to block inspectors on some criteria – several countries vet inspectors on the basis of nationality for example – but objected strongly to an Iranian claim that two recently-blocked inspectors had made "false and wrong statements" in an earlier report. The report was about the removal of sensitive laboratory equipment under IAEA surveillance, which can be used for separating uranium or plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.

The IAEA said it had "full confidence in the professionalism and impartiality of the inspectors concerned, as it has in all of its inspectors".

The UN agency also pointed out that some of its seals on Iran's stockpile of low enriched uranium (LEU) had been broken. The seals are intended to ensure that Iran is not diverting LEU and secretly enriching it further to weapons-grade purity. Iran told the IAEA the seals had been broken accidently, but the agency said it would have to verify in a stocktaking exercise due next month whether any nuclear material had been diverted.

A source with knowledge of the agency's Iran file said: "Seals are there for containment. Once one seal is broken there is no containment."

A series of UN resolutions has demanded Iran cease the enrichment of uranium, on ... Read More

Bahrain has hinted that Iran was implicated in an alleged plot to overthrow its government after 23 prominent opposition leaders were charged with terrorism offences in the US-backed Gulf kingdom.

Bahrain hints at Iranian involvement in plot to overthrow government

Authorities in the island state, which serves as a US naval base, made the arrests during weeks of unrest in the run-up to a parliamentary election next month.
Officials said activists were members of "a terrorist network with international support" and were planning a campaign of "violence, intimidation and subversion".This sophisticated terrorist network with operations inside and outside Bahrain has undertaken and planned a systematic and layered campaign of violence and subversion," said Abdulrahman al Sayed, a government prosecutor.
"The leaders of the network have been accused of several crimes including the planning and instigation of violence, conducting a wide ranging propaganda campaign against the Kingdom and seeking to overthrow the regime by force."
Although the foreign state behind the purported plot was not named, it was widely understood that Iran was the focus of official suspicion. The Bahraini government, which is dominated by the country's Sunni minority, has frequently accused its Shia Muslim dissidents of collaborating with co-religionists in Tehran.
Hardliners in Iran have sometimes described Bahrain as Iran's "14th Province". It is the only Gulf State with a Shia majority. Accounting for 70 per cent or more of the population, the community has been marginalised for decades and resentment at the much richer Sunni elite has festered.
Western military strategists say Iran is desperate to gain a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula to further its regional clout and believes that Bahrain, an archipelago in the Persian Gulf, represents the best opportunity of achieving that ambition.
Although tiny, with a population of just 800,000, Bahrain's geographical location gives it a strategic importance that easily outstrips its diminutive size.
The US has declared it "a major non-Nato ally" and stationed its Fifth Fleet there.
The charges brought against the 23 activists have been condemned as repressive by human rights ... Read More

Japan joins other nations which have also enforced such sanctions on Iran for its failure to meet its international obligations, including the European Union, Australia, Canada, and Norway

Japan Sanctions Iran

Japan has imposed new sanctions on Iran. The sanctions announced last Friday target Iran's energy and finance sectors as well as individuals and entities linked to Iran's nuclear activities. The sanctions are in line with those announced by the United Nations Security Council in June aimed at making the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities more transparent. Other nations that have since intensified sanctions include the United States, Canada, Australia, the European Union and Norway. "Our nation has traditionally maintained close relations with Iran, and from that special position we will tenaciously push that nat ion towards a peaceful and diplomatic solution," Yoshito Sengoko, the chief Cabinet secretary, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying.

Japan remains a major importer of Iranian crude oil.

The U.S. State Department praised the new sanctions.

"Japan's actions underscore the international resolve to present Iran's leaders with a clear choice: Meet your international obligations and enjoy the benefits of integration into the global system or continue to reject your responsibilities and face growing isolation and consequences," the department said in a statement.ran, Japan's fourth biggest supplier of crude oil, has reacted sharply to Tokyo slapping new sanctions on it, saying that such moves will affect the national interests of the very countries that have taken the punitive measures.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told local media that the latest measures would cause problems for Japanese companies as they will lose out to rivals on Iranian exports.

He blamed the United States for exerting pressure on other governments to impose sanctions on Iran. Terming the measures "illegal and unfair," the Iranian diplomat insisted that Tehran was "interested to use their legitimate right of having peaceful nuclear technology."

Japan, a country having strong trade ties with Iran, announced additional ... Read More

Mohammad Mostafaei, right,who defended a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, left, and French philosopher Bernard Henry Levy, background, during a press conference

Son: Iran woman who faced stoning to be lashed

An Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery is now facing a new punishment of 99 lashes because a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her, the woman's son said Monday. There was no official confirmation of the new sentence. The son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, 22, said he did not know whether the new lashing sentence had been carried out yet, but heard about it from a prisoner who had recently left the Tabriz prison where his mother is being held. The lawyer who once represented Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran said from Paris that the situation was not clear.
"Publishing the photo provided a judge an excuse to sentence my poor mother to 99 lashes on the charge of taking a picture unveiled," Qaderzadeh told The Associated Press.
The Times of London said in its Monday edition it had apologized for the photo, but added that the new sentence "is simply a pretext."
"The regime's purpose is to make Ms. Ashtiani suffer for an international campaign to save her that has exposed so much iniquity," said the piece.
Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the death of her husband a year earlier and was sentenced by a court back then to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death, even though she retracted a confession that she claims was made under duress.
Iran suspended that sentence in July, but now says she has been convicted of involvement in her husband's killing and she could still be executed by hanging.
Her former lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, said in a news conference in Paris that he said it was not at all certain if there really had been a new conviction and sentence over the photograph.
"I have contacted my former colleagues at the court who told me nothing was clear on this situation," he said following a news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "There isn't any ... Read More

Empress Farah Pahlavi: PRESS RELEASE TO AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE about preventing the stoning of Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Empress Farah Pahlavi: PRESS RELEASE TO AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE about preventing the stoning of Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Her Majesty, Empress Farah Pahlavi has signed the petition against the stoning of Ms. Mohammadi Sakineh Ashtiani launched by The Review the Rules of the Game. The Empress Farah Pahlavi, who has always worked for the Defense of Human Rights and the Rights Women, would like especially to recall that beyond the tragic case of Mrs Mohammadi Sakineh Ashtiani, thousands of other cases of violations of most basic human rights occur in Iran. She urges the international community to further mobilize in defense of Human Rights in her country, Iran.

The anti-censorship software is built on a sophisticated mathematical formula that conceals someone’s real online destinations

Slaying The Dragon-Slayer: The Debate About Anti-Censorship Software In Iran

You can see why the media is interested in Austin Heap. His name sounds a bit like a 1970s rock band. He was playing video games at home when he decided to help the people of Iran with his anticensorship software Haystack. Hell, he even looks like a rock star. But now Heap has incurred the wrath of "Foreign Policy blogger Evgeny Morozov, who's never happier than when he's bursting the bubble of techno-optimism.

First, a bit of background. Heap was playing "World of Warcraft" last year when he read about the events in Iran on Twitter. A programmer and marketer, he began posting on his blog advice for Iranians on how to use proxy servers, which allowed people to access sites blocked by the authorities. But then Heap took things a step further and created Haystack. Here's “Newsweek” on how it works:

The anti-censorship software is built on a sophisticated mathematical formula that conceals someone’s real online destinations inside a stream of innocuous traffic. You may be browsing an opposition Web site, but to the censors it will appear you are visiting, say, weather.com. Heap tends to hide users in content that is popular in Tehran, sometimes the regime’s own government mouthpieces.

Morozov, however, is not impressed:

[S]omething just doesn't feel right about Haystack. What really bothers me is that one cannot download and examine their software; as far as the Internet is concerned, Haystack doesn't exist. In fact, Heap says that it is only distributed to trusted contacts inside Iran; putting it online would create a situation where the government could easily get hold of it as well and then reverse-engineer it or ban it or find a way to track its users.

So, in essence, the outside public -- including Iranians -- are asked to believe that a) Haystack software exists, b) Haystack software works, c) Haystack software rocks, and d) the Iranian government doesn't yet have a copy of it, nor do they know that Haystack rocks & ... Read More