

September 27, 2006 Amnesty International Urgent Action

Here is part III as promised.

Stewart Bell, National PostPublished: Tuesday, September 26, 2006
- - -
"It was all about my children," he said.
Then the Americans invaded Iraq.
Somayeh was not among them.
The MEK had a history of targeting embassies.
It was all over in seconds.

Losing a son
Stewart Bell, National Post
Published: Monday, September 25, 2006


Camp life was rigidly regulated.
"She wasn't happy," he said.

"He was recruited by the Mujahedin," Mustafa said.
He never got a reply.
In the name of God,
expresses his deep feelings and concern about you too.
God bless you
Your father
Mustafa and Mahboobeh



September 23, 2006 National Post Stewart Bell

For all the Mojahed supporters out there please enlighten me
4. both groups have their own prisons and torture techniques
Need I say more?

Fazail Azizan has been in custody since monday. He had earlier anouned that in case of arrest and detention he would go on a hunger strike and according to reports he has been on hunger strike for the past 6 days. His wife Ms. Kobra Ghorbanzadeh was also arrested on Thursday while visiting her husband in prison. It is important to note that she is three months pregnant and any physical or phychological torture may very well lead to losing the unborn child. Both Mr. Azizan and Ms. Ghorbanzadeh have been active members of a committe for the support from political prisoners in Iran. Their lives and the life of their unborn child is in danger. Please write to all human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights watch and pressure them into campaigning for the freedom of these two human rights activists.
"man agar barkhizam, to agar barkhizi, hame barmikhizand, man agar benshinam, to gar benshini, che kasi barkhizad"

From talking with a lot of people who are a generation older (35-45 years old) or even people closer to my own age I have seen that so many of them have become extremely cynical and jaded when it comes to any possible change in Iran. Who can blame them for being discouraged when we see how political prisoners are killed everyday without anyone daring to raise a voice or question anything. Many of us believe that a real change can only happen through the efforts of people who are INSIDE Iran but how can that happen when people are just not willing to take a risk and stand up? (Majority of people that is, ofcourse there is the activist fraction consisting of students, workers, women and human rights activists). Well I heard something on Radio Farda on Monday that really gave me renewed hope and courage, maybe change is forthcoming after all. A husband and wife by the name of Azizan (hopefully im not mis-spelling the name) who reside in Ardebil decided that they were going to hold the government accountable for the death of Akbar Mohammadi and Feyze Mahdavi and they went and stood in front of a government building (not sure exactly which one) and hold up a poster saying why did these above named prisoners had to die in custody. Ofcourse within 30 minutes they were attacked by government officials, the husband was beaten and taken away, after the wife arrived home numerous male government officials forced their way into their house and searched the entire house and took away many of their personal belongings. I do not have any update on what has happened in the past two days, but the moral of the story is we have strong coragous people who are willing to stand up and risk everything while holding the government accountable for their crimes. This couple who had absoloutely no relations with Akbar Mohammadi or Feyze Mahdavi said that they could not sit back and let people die for no reason. This is so encouraging and gave me brand new hope that things are really changing and people are just not willing to obey the dictatorship anymore. I would love to hear more thoughts on this.


Elie Wiesel calls on U.N. to expel Iran

I just finished listening to a part of Khatami's speech, where he responds to a Jewish students question in regards to the missing Israeli pilot Arad. His answer was disturbing on so many different levels. He basically said that if he had any idea where this pilot was he would do everything he can to return him to his home because its terrible when people go "missing" and have their families waiting for them for years not knowing what is going on. This coming from a guy who is personally responsible for the dissapearance of so many innocent Iranian students and activists! In Farsi we have a saying "faghat bayad ru dashte bashi" and he DOES. I have never seen a bigger hypocrite in my life!! To speak publicly of how bad dissapearance is when he personally has hand in the dissapearance of so many is DISGUSTING. If anyone had any doubts once again he has proved what a lying snake he is!



Now this I found really interesting. I was listening to an interview on Radio Farda yesterday about this very topic where one journalist was talking about another cartoon that had supposedly insulted the Azari Basiji's and how how the basiji's had pressured the government to close down the newspaper. It seems like not only is there crack down on written articles but also thins like caricatures. Today they are not allowed to draw donkeys and tomorow maybe monkeys (god forbid if people mistake the monkey for Ahmadinejad ;) ) and the next day god knows what. How far will they take this censorship, will it go to the point where no cartoons will be allowed? Or all cartoons will have to be approved by the government before its published? And in return what does this really mean? Is the Islamic Regime that WEAK and PATHETIC that they believe they will cruble against a simple cartoon? Maybe so... I wouldn't be surprised.




The rights group Reporters Without Borders voiced concern last week about harassment of Iranian journalists, including prison sentences and interrogations. Ahmadinejad has purged dozens of journalists, university professors and government officials seen as supporting warmer ties with the West.Iran's most prominent reformist daily, Shargh, or East, ran a cartoon Thursday depicting a horse and donkey facing each other on a chess board. The donkey - a symbol of ignorance in Iranian culture - has his mouth open and light around him, while the horse shows no emotion.Iranian judiciary officials apparently took the donkey to represent Iran in nuclear negotiations with the West, journalists said.Ahmadinejad reportedly said he felt there was a light around him, and that world leaders focused unblinkingly on him when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly last year. Ahmadinejad is reportedly planning to address the assembly again later this month."We got a call from the Press Supervisory Board saying that we have no right to publish our newspaper as of today," Shargh editor Mohammad Ghouchani told The Associated Press.Iran's official news agency reported the paper was ordered closed down for "dozens of violations," including the cartoon's publication and "publication of material against the rulings by the Supreme National Security Council." The council handles Iran's nuclear negotiations with the West."In recent months, nuclear officials have been warning the press to be careful over what they publish over Iran's nuclear policy and not write anything that contradicts what they do," reformist lawmaker Esmaeil Gerami Moghadam told the AP.State-run television said Shargh was shut because it failed to appoint a new managing director to "more aggressively supervise material published in the paper."The current managing director, Mahdi Rahmanian, denounced such a demand."Pressure on the press to change their managing director is illegal. The law doesn't allow the board to make such a demand," he said.The Press Supervisory Board also ordered the political monthly Nameh, or Letter, to be closed down, IRNA reported Monday.The paper's editor, Majid Tavallaei, said the reason behind the closure was the publication of a poem from dissident female poet Simin Behbahani. The text of the poem was not immediately available."Publication of the poem is seen as the main reason for the closure. They have taken that as an insult," Tavallaei said.Echoing the rhetoric of the nation's 1979 Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad appears determined to remake Iran by reviving the fundamentalist goals pursued under the republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.Upon taking office last year, Ahmadinejad replaced nearly all his country's governors and lower provincial officials, as well as 40 ambassadors. Many of Iran's top government officials are now either former commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guards or former hard-line security officials.Last week, he urged students to push for a purge of liberal, secular university teachers, and dozens of such instructors have been sent into early retirement during Ahmadinejad's rule.Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei both appear on a list of "press freedom predators" compiled by Reporters Without Borders each year.Iran saw a wave of newspaper closures in past years amid a confrontation between reformers and hard-liners during the 1997-2005 tenure of reformist President Mohammad Khatami.The hard-line judiciary shut down more than 100 pro-reform newspapers and jailed dozens of editors and writers on vague charges of insulting authorities.But Moghadam said the new wave of press crackdown meant no tolerance for criticism ahead of upcoming elections."It is a clear message that they don't tolerate any voice of opposition. They also don't want reformers to convey their message through Shargh to the people ahead of the elections," he said.Iran is preparing to hold elections for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical panel that has the authority to choose or dismiss Iran's top leader, and city council elections. Both are slated for Dec. 15.

Is it me or has there been virtually no reports of the protests that took place against Khatami's visit to the United States? The very few reports that I came across reported the number of protestors to be much lower then what it really was. To the best of my knowladge the number of protestors was over 1000 but most media outlets who bothered to report on the demonstrations reported the number to be around 200. Talk about conspiracy!! I would love to hear other peoples views on this, I will write a more complete detail about the protests hopefully later today. Until then...

Long Live Iran

Khatami's Disdain for Zahra Kazemi:
Dialogue as Brutality

by Russell Berman

September 11, 2006

Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami advocates a dialogue between civilizations, and Harvard defended its controversial decision to give him the prominent forum of the Kennedy School invitation because of the importance of the free exchange of ideas.

Yet Khatami evidently cannot tolerate dialogue within a civilization, i.e., free and open discourse within Iran; and Harvard has given a forum of freedom to freedom's enemy.

This became painfully evident in a detail of the exchange following his speech. An Iranian in the audience questioned him about an egregious case of the suppression of free speech: the arrest, rape and murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi.

Khatami's propaganda mission has been to present a softer image of Iran to a West perplexed by the antics of his successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yet the material of this question was not immediately relevant to that project, since it involved an internal Iranian scandalâ€”no matter how much it also involved Canada and the world public. "Dialogue between civilizations, but tyranny at home"â€”this seems to be Khatami's motto. He offered no condemnation of Ahmadeinjad's call to purge Iranian universities, no apology for his own role in the suppression of dissidents in Iran.

Born in Shiraz in 1949, Kazemi moved to Paris to study literature and cinema in 1974. In 1993, she immigrated to Canada and acquired dual citizenship. As a journalist she traversed the Middle East, covering, among many other topics, the US role in Iraq. Working in Teheran, she was arrested in front of Evin prison in June of 2003; nineteen days later she was dead. In the abortive murder trial, her family was represented by Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Prize the same year.

But the issue here is not the scandalous story of Kazemi's murder and the cover-up perpetrated by the Iranian "justice system." It is Khatami's callous response to the student's question. The friendly reformer's reply to a question about a brutal killing:


So it's the fault of the relatives who wanted to see a murderer brought to justice. It's their fault for having pursued justice through the institutions available to them. For all his chatter about dialogue, what Khatami lacks is the basic capacity for human empathy. Hardly a good place for dialogue to begin.

This small detail is unlikely to work its way through the press, predisposed as it is to give Khatami a pass. Too bad. One might have expected some solidarity in the press corps with their murdered colleagueâ€”let alone some appreciation for those true Iranian reformists who want nothing more than an end to theological tyranny and to propagandists like Khatami

September 08, 2006 Kenneth R. Timmerman

I have been thinking about these issues for a while now and I don't have the answers, just questions. Ofcourse I do also have my theories, but I am asking anyone who might know the answers to please enlighten me. About a month and a half ago Akbar Gangi was in the United States, promoting a hunger strike in support of three perticular political prisoners. None of those prisoners where students. This was at the very same time when Akbar Mohammadi was on hunger strike in Evin Prison. Why did Mr. Gangi forget about Akbar Mohammadi at a time when it was well known that he was on hunger strike and under very dangerous conditions? Another question why is it that while Akbar Mohammadi could not even get a medical leave to leave Iran, Akbar Gangi gets a visa to visit the United States of all places? How does anyone smuggle pictures of Akbar Gangi from the Evin prison while he was on hunger strike, when it is so difficult for other prisoners to let the outside world know about their plights and their hunger strikes? Call me paranoid but I find a few BIG holes in this picture. If anyone knows the answer to my questions please enlighten me, otherwise I have no choice but to come to the conclusion that Mr. Gangi orchestrated that hunger strike to steal all media attention while Mr. Mohammadi was dying in the Evin prison. A big distraction, and a disturbing one if you ask me.

Last night a friend brought it to my attention that the link between Carleton University the Islamic Regime and Terrorism may not be very clear. So I thought I would shed some light on the issue. I did my undergraduate degree at Carleton University and I am very familiar with the student body as well as the numerous student organizaitons.

For starters Carleton University is the only Canadian University that has an admission office in Iran. Numerous Iranian students come to Carleton each year funding htier education through governmetn bursaries. these bursaries are given to students who at the very least have a very strong Islamic background. Many of them come to Carleton University under the disguise of studying, but in reality they have other assignments. One of the things these students are actively involved with is information gathering against students and groups who are opponents of the Islamic Regime.

How do I know this? I was the founder of a student group that opposed the Islamic Regime while doing my undergraduate degree and I have had numerous unpleasant experiences with these students, from being snubbed to being verbally attacked to having to defend myself against complaints made to the university because I refused to use the Islamic Regime’s flag and always organized my events under the Lion and Sun (Shiro Khorshid) Flag.
There is also another group of students who are very closely related to the Islamic Regime. This is the Islamic fundamentalist students who have numerous religious organizations in the University. These students consist of both Iranian and Arab students.

In 2002-2003 I was well acquainted with the leader of one of these groups which shall remain nameless. This individual personally informed me that their group was funded by the Islamic Regime Embassy in Ottawa. This was a group which would put up the pictures of Khomeini (the so called Islamic Leader) and would promote suicide bombings in Palestine. This organization is still running strong 4 years later as is many newly developed Islamic Fundamentalist groups.

Few activists that have remained at the university are operating under real fear for their safety and well being. I have tried on numerous occasions to bring the attention of journalists to this issue, unfortunately there has never been enough proof to link these students to any illegal/terrorist activities. UNTIL NOW that is. I have no doubt that the case of this particular Iranian girl is not an isolated incident. Carleton University is full of extremists Islamic Students who are financially backed by the terrorist Regime of the Islamic Government. I have no doubt that if further criminal investigations are undertaken in Carleton University it will be discovered that many things are going on under the disguise of student organizations including possible and very dangerous terrorist activities.

According to the latest news from Radio Farda, another political prisoner Mehrdad Lohrasbi has been put under great "pressure" in order to force him in front of a camera stating that Mr. Mahdavi committed suicide and did not die as a result of hunger strike.

Today we are faced with the tragic death of another political prisoner. Valiollah Feyzal Mahdavi is the second political prisoner to die as a result of hunger strike in the past two months. Mr. Mahdavi had been charged with being a member of Mojahedeen and was originally sentenced to death. His sentence later was commuted to life imprisonment. He had been transferred from the Evin prison to the Rajaee Shahr prison two years ago. He had not been able to have any visitors for the past two years including his lawyer. 11 days ago he went on a hunger strike protesting the terrible prison conditions and asking for three simple things including seeing his lawyer and being transfered to the Evin prison. Unfortunately none of his requests were granted and he passed away while on hunger strike. There have been reports of the Islamic Regime authorities pressuring his inmates into stating that he had died as a result of suicide instead of a hunger strike.
We have lost another young individual to the brutality of the Islamic Regime. It's important to point out that just a month ago we lost Mr. Akbar Mohammadi while he had been on a two week hunger strike, today its Mr. Mahdavi and tomorow... Let us break the silence before its too late.

Down with the Islamic Regime

Here is an interesting article, for years now I have been saying that the Islamic Regime imports terrorists under teh disguise of students to carleton university. Now there is literal proof. Lets hope the Canadian governemtn will start to open up their eyes to what is going on right under their nose.
Carleton student says she funnelled cash to terror cell
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
She started out looking for a husband. Instead, the young Carleton University student became a key conduit for thousands of dollars that, police say, was financing terrorism.
Zenab Armend Pisheh, an Ottawa-area chemistry student in her early 20s, says she was used by young, aspiring jihadists in Britain and Canada and that she was handpicked because "sisters don't get caught -- brothers get caught if they send money."
For the first time yesterday, Ms. Armend Pisheh emerged as a key, co-operating witness for British and Canadian prosecutors, who are trying to prove that seven young British men and an Ottawa man, Momin Khawaja, conspired to blow up a British landmark in 2004.
The seven Britons have been on trial for months, and Mr. Khawaja, the first person charged under Canada's anti-terrorism legislation, is slated to begin his trial in January. Although Ms. Armend Pisheh didn't appear in court in London yesterday for the trial of the seven men, a statement detailing how she was first wooed, and later made a co-conspirator, was read into the record by British prosecutors. Her double life as a money runner, she says in her statement, began in the summer of 2002, when she was finishing her CEGEP studies, the college program that Quebec teenagers must complete before attending university. Although The Globe was unable to locate Ms. Armend Pisheh, associates said that, at that time, she lived in Aylmer, Que.
She lived with her Iranian parents.
It was around that time that, through an Internet chat room, she got to know a man who identified himself as Abdul Rahman Adam. It was a whirlwind romance, and soon he was phoning her from Britain and discussing marriage. He also told her that he and some other brothers were interested in unspecified "training" in a place she presumed to be Pakistan, she said.
The man she met, prosecutors say, was actually one of the seven accused British men, Anthony Garcia, 24.
The wedding never happened; her suitor insisted that she move to Britain and live with him and his parents, and she wanted him to come to Canada, she said in her statement.
She kept in contact with him, though, and she alleges that he asked her for money.
Shortly after that, Ms. Armend Pisheh received an e-mail from a man who identified himself as "Hamza." British prosecutors have identified Hamza as Mr. Khawaja, an Ottawa software developer who is accused of designing the cellphone detonator that the Britons were allegedly planning to use to ignite 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate.
At first, Hamza talked about jihad and the "cause of Allah," she said in her statement. Eventually, they met in person, she said.
"He later told me he needed a woman to send money," she said in her statement. "He said it had to be a woman because sisters don't get caught -- brothers get caught if they send money."
In a meeting at the University of Ottawa, he handed her cash, she said. In total, she estimates that she and "Hamza" met between 10 and 15 times, and that on one occasion he gave her $4,000 to send. She had orders to send the cash through a Western Union in downtown Ottawa's biggest mall, the Rideau Centre.
"He also gave me CDs and jihad videos. One showed training. . . . He gave them to me over a period of time," her statement said.
Over the next few months, she would send more cash, and a debit card for a bank account which, prosecutors say, was later used by the British suspects.
Ms. Armend Pisheh also says she once met with Mr. Khawaja and his friend, Younes Lasfar. Mr. Lasfar told her that using e-mail was unsafe, she said in her statement, and soon, the group began communicating through the same joint e-mail account.
They shared the same user name and password and would write draft messages to each other. That way no e-mails would be sent and intercepted, she said.
Reached yesterday, Mr. Lasfar said he had no idea what Ms. Armend Pisheh was talking about.
"All I know is that she used to be friends with my sister and that's it," he said.
Last year, Mr. Lasfar told the CBC's fifth estate that he and Mr. Khawaja used to play paintball and to avoid suspicion, they would sign up with Western names such as Matthew and Robert. If they talked about paintball on the phone, they would refer to it as "hockey," he said.
He hasn't been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing.
The alleged financing scheme came to a halt when Ms. Armend Pisheh started to question the sanctity of their operation, she said. She abandoned the bank account because she "didn't think what [Mr. Khawaja] was doing was right," she said.
"I don't think it was right as a woman and they kept getting caught. If it was religiously right it would go smoothly."
When Mr. Khawaja was arrested in April of 2004, she said she realized what she had involved herself in. Although Mr. Khawaja always referred to himself as "Hamza," she said he had signed off one e-mail with the name "Momin," her statement said. However, she also said her in statement that the outdated photograph of Mr. Khawaja that appeared in the media after his arrest didn't look exactly like the man she had secretly been meeting.
"I could not be sure because Hamza had a beard and the picture of Momin on the news did not have a beard."
Lawrence Greenspon, Mr. Khawaja's lawyer, said yesterday that if he has the chance to cross-examine Ms. Armend Pisheh, her motives for helping the authorities will be explored thoroughly. Mr. Khawaja's older brother, Qasim Khawaja, told The Globe that he didn't know the woman.
Her involvement in the case made him wonder about what sort of deal, if any, she had made with the Crown and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, it is an offence to enhance, directly or indirectly, the ability of someone to facilitate, or carry out, a terrorist plot.
"If she alleges that she's running money . . . then how come she's out there?" Qasim Khawaja said.

Here are some pictures from the memorial for the political prisoners who were massacred in 1988. As usual the regime made it extremely difficult for the families to gather, but they climbed walls and walked through through tunnels to get to the cemetary. As most of you know a brutal massacure took place in 1988 where thousands of political prisoners were executed following a 3 minute trial/sentencing. The exact number of prisoners that were murdered is not known, but some say it was as much as 10,000 people. It is important to remember this day, to make sure that we never allow such attrocity to take place in the future.

Valiallah Feyzi Mahdavi- A political prisoner in Rajai Shahr Prison suffered from a cerebral vascular accident (CVA) on september 3rd 2006. He had been on a hunger strike for 9 days when he suffered from cardiac arrest. He was transferred to the prison hospital, the cardiac arrest was treated, but immadiately after Mr. Mahdavi suffered from CVA. He has been transferred to a hospital outside of the prison. Mr. Mahdavi had been asking for three things during his hunger strike. 1) For the new verdict commuting his death sentence to be submitted to him. 2) to be transferred to the Evin prison. 3) to have access to his lawyer.

As most of you know about a month ago Akbar Mohammadi was murdered in the notorious Evin prison while on a two week hunger strike. The news was devestating not only for the student movement, but for all Iranians who are in support of a free and democratic Iran. This is something you may not have heard about just yet. Manouchehr Mohammadi was smuggled from Iran about a week ago. His whereabouts as of now are not known, but we know that he is out of Iran and safe. He is awaiting to get acceptance from a safe country. I personally feel very optimistic about this new development. I believe that Manouchehr Mohammadi could be a great asset to the student movement outside of Iran, because he is credible and becasue of his in debt knowladge of Iranian politics and personal experiences of the past 7 years. I look forward to hearing about the new developments as they take place.