AMIR FARSHAD EBRAHIMI

Quds Force could be planning attack in Turkey

2012-01-19T07:09:00.001-08:00

Intelligence units have warned that the Quds Force, a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, plans to send a group to Turkey to carry out a series of demonstrations that may include a bomb attack on the Embassy or Consulate General of the United States.

The Turkish Security General Directorate (EGM) has warned police departments in all 81 Turkish provinces that they must be vigilant and remain alert to the existence of such a threat. The intelligence pertaining to the possibility of such an attack was delivered in a secret letter to the information department at Turkey's General Directorate of Security. The written statement indicates that a team linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard will be sent to Turkey and that it may be planning to bomb the US embassy or consulate general in the country. The Quds Force is infamous for its role in attempting to export Iran's revolution to other countries through the instigation of chaos and by acting as the overseas branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp.

However, facts about the force are well-guarded and scarce. The statement further details that the team intends to stay in five-star hotels in the city where the plan is to be carried out and that as a result, caution should be exercised when dealing with non-Turkish individuals staying at such lodgings. The statement also noted that groups linked to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah may also take part in the plotted demonstrations or attacks.

Intelligence data regarding the plan have been assessed by Turkish security forces to be an effort by Iran to stir to action illegal Turkish political groups following Turkey’s decision to host a NATO early-warning radar system and recent developments in Syria that have seen the establishment of a training camp for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a step interpreted as a response to Turkey’s criticism of the Syrian regime for its brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests.

A number of Iranian officials pledged revenge on Turkey last year after the country approved the establishment of the NATO defense system on its soil, with prominent military and political figures saying that Turkey would be sorry for siding with the US. Iran has interpreted Turkey’s role in the international community as a threat against its interests, and is convinced the US and Israel are its archenemies seeking to destroy Iran. However, top Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, have assured Turkey that such threats coming from Iranian lawmakers do not reflect the official policy of the country and that Turkey should only consider information from senior Iranian authorities in office.

Salehi has also frequently expressed his concern over such “provocations” that may try to see the brotherhood of Iran and Turkey, which spans centuries, fall apart. He believes the countries should keep in close contact and cooperate regarding regional developments. Although Turkey and Iran are engaged in close cooperation when it comes to combating terrorism and sharing intelligence along their common border, the countries frequently disagree about developments in the region.

One such recent disagreement was sparked last month when US troops pulled out of Iraq and left the country to submerge into a sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites. Turkey, a Sunni-majority country, claims to dismiss sectarian differences in its approach to the Middle East and urges Iran to work for solidarity among sects rather than allowing the Shiite bloc alone to monopolize power in the hands of the sect. Iran is also speculated to be leading a new rise of the Shiite Crescent in the region, supporting Shiite-backed political blocs in other countries, such as Syria, while creating chaos in those ruled by Sunni leaders, such as Bahrain. Iran vehemently refutes this role in both cases and denies having connections to recent arms shipments intercepted by Turkey allegedly on their way from Iran to Syria, where pro-democracy clashes run the risk of leading to a civil war.

Shocking Video & Photo 'Blue bra' girl brutally beaten by Egypt military

2011-12-22T15:26:00.000-08:00

The above photo shows Egyptian army soldiers beating a young woman in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Saturday, the second straight day of clashes with protesters that began on Friday and continued overnight. There's no reason to believe that there was anything special about this woman or even about the way that soldiers treated her. Members of the army, once beloved by Egypt's activists for standing by their side during the revolution in February, have sent hundreds of men and women to the hospital over the last 48 hours and have killed at least 10, some with live ammunition fired into crowds.

But there is something especially barbaric about this photo. The taboo of violence against unarmed women is unusually strong in the Arab world. But to watch three soldiers beat a defenseless woman with batons, their fists, and for one extraordinarily cruel soldier with his boot, is not even the most provocative part. For these men to pull her black abaya above her head and expose her midriff and chest is, for Egypt, a profound and sexually charged humiliation. And there is a certain awful irony of using that abaya, a symbol of modesty and piety, to cover her face and drag her on the street that, though probably not intentional, will not be lost on Egyptian eyes. Here, below, is part of the photo pulled out in detail.

Activists managed to capture a video of the incident. It is difficult to watch. She takes so many blows to her head, and one man stomps on her chest so forcefully, that it's difficult to imagine she required anything less than hospitalization. Though one of the soldiers makes a half-hearted effort to cover her back up (after he is done beating her, of course, on the face and chest with a baton), she appears limp. Three soldiers pick her up from her arms and legs, and then the camera cuts away.

Outraged Egyptian Facebook users posted a composite of three photos from the above video. Taken together, they appear to show that a pair of bystanders -- a man and a woman, both well dressed -- watched the young woman's beating, went to her side after the troops discarded her, and were then beaten themselves for their effort.

The Egyptian military, the strongest and most powerful institution in the country and perhaps the Arab world, has taken a dramatic and dark turn since winning power earlier this year. Though it initially safeguarded the revolution in February by protecting protesters from President Hosni Mubarak's state security forces, it has gradually (if clumsily) consolidated power since his fall, declaring that it will retain independence from and control over any democratically elected government. As protests against the military have grown, the generals have abandoned their earlier pledges to support the people and refrain from violence against civilians. The SCAF -- the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, a panel of top military leaders -- increasingly looks like Egypt's new dictator. Its troops, now openly attacking civilians, are unlikely to deescalate their war against democratic activism.

All crackdowns are brutal. Stories of violence against women, frequently tinged with sexual aggression, are as common in Egypt's crackdown as they are in every other. The story behind this photo, of a modest young woman stripped down and beaten like an animal, is remarkable precisely because it is ordinary.

U.S. officials, analysts differ on whether drone in Iran TV video is real

2011-12-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

Iranian TV aired images Thursday of what it says is a U.S. stealth drone that went down in Iran last week, an apparently intact RQ-170 drone propped on a pedestal and triumphantly displayed

"Military experts are well aware how precious the technological information of this drone is," said Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Forces, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

There was disagreement among Pentagon officials about whether the drone in the video is real. Military and intelligence officials were analyzing the Iran television footage.

One U.S. official said right now the U.S. can't be certain it's the real stealth drone, because U.S. personnel don't have access to it. But he added there's no reason to think it's a fake.

However, a second senior U.S. military official said that a big question is to how the drone could have remained virtually intact given the high altitude it is believed to have crashed from.

Earlier Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman said the video is being examined.

"We've seen the imagery. There are folks that are looking at it," Capt. John Kirby told a news conference.

He and his fellow spokesman, George Little, would not comment further on whether the drone is the one that the U.S. military said went missing. They did say that the missing U.S. drone had not

been recovered

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said his initial impression from pictures sent to him by CNN isn't what one would expect to see after a crash. He said he was guessing that the object is a mock-up prepared for a parade, noting a U.S. flag in the picture.

Pike pointed out that the wings in the picture droop down, whereas in most pictures of such a drone the wings are higher than the center, which is good for stability

Bill Sweetman, an aviation analyst, said the craft appears to be the RQ-170 and it looks real to him.

If the drone came down in what he called a flat spin or what is known as a falling leaf departure, the plane would be pretty much intact, but the belly would be badly scraped. He said all of the electronics inside would most likely be in one piece.

Sweetman doubts the Iranians hacked into the system and took control of the aircraft. It is much more likely it crashed by itself since "that's what drones do."

And the condition also suggests it was not shot down but was a system failure. There are no burn marks from a fire, no holes and no outward damage. Sweetman noticed a dent along the leading edge but doesn't know what that necessarily means.

"It's fairly clear here from the pictures that the outer wings have been separated. The question is, did that happen in the accident or (did they take) them off to move the aircraft," Sweatman said.

The CIA and the Pentagon would not comment on the latest development.

Two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that the missing drone was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission that involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan.

A senior U.S. official with direct access to the assessment about what happened to the unmanned aircraft said it was tasked to fly over western Afghanistan and look for insurgent activity, with no directive either to fly into Iran or spy on Iran from Afghan airspace.

A U.S. satellite quickly pinpointed the downed drone, which apparently sustained significant damage, the senior official said.

Aired by the official Press TV network, the video Thursday showed different angles of the unmanned aircraft. It had been flying over the eastern town of Kashmar when it went down, the network said.

"Recently, our collected intelligence and precise electronic monitoring revealed that this aircraft intended to infiltrate our country's airspace for spying missions," Hajizadeh said.

"After it entered the eastern parts of the country, this aircraft fell into the trap of our armed forces and was downed in Iran with minimum damage."

Hajizadeh said the plane's wingspan "is around 26 meters (85 feet)." It is 4.5 meters (14 feet, 9 inches) long, 1.84 meters (6 feet) tall and "is equipped with highly advanced surveillance, data gathering, electronic communication and radar systems," he said.

Hajizadeh said B-2 and F-35 planes have used the technology found in the aircraft, which is guided via satellite link and land stations in Afghanistan and the United States.

"As far as its platform and coating are concerned, this kind of plane has been designed to evade radar systems and from the viewpoint of technology it is amongst the most recent types of advanced aircraft used by the U.S.," Hajizadeh said.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars said Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss ambassador to Iran, who received an official reprimand for the U.S. actions. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran, which doesn't have diplomatic relations with the United States.

Iran demanded U.S. reparations for the act, which it says is "against every international law and regulation, as well as contrary to the region's peace and security," Fars said.

Meanwhile, Iran's U.N. ambassador said in a letter Thursday to the world body that the drone flew 250 kilometers (150 miles) into Iranian territory "to the northern region of the city of Tabas."

The letter from Ambasador Mohammad Khazaee to U.N. Secretary-Genera Ban Ki-moon and the heads of the General Assembly and Security Council did not specify how the drone ended up in the hands of the Iranians, saying only it "faced prompt and forceful action" by the armed forces.

"My government emphasizes that this blatant and unprovoked air violation by the United States government is tantamount to an act of hostility against the Islamic Republic of Iran in clear contravention of international law, in particular, the basic tenets of the United Nations Charter," Khazaee's letter said.

He called for U.N. condemnation of U.S. "acts of aggression," as well as "clear and effective measures to be taken to put an end to these dangerous and unlawful acts in line with the United Nations' responsibilities to maintain international and regional peace and security."

Iranian diplomats leave UK

2011-12-02T11:15:00.001-08:00

They left Heathrow Airport in the afternoon, the Foreign Office said, and the roughly two dozen diplomats and their dependents will be welcomed back at Tehran airport, according to Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency.

Iran's relations with Britain have become increasingly strained in recent months, largely due to tensions over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment — a process that can lead to the development of nuclear weapons.

Images broadcast around the world Tuesday showed demonstrators tearing down British flags and brandishing a looted picture of Queen Elizabeth II at the embassy compound in Tehran. The incident has deepened Iran's isolation and significantly escalated tensions with the West.

Britain's ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott — now back in Britain — said the experience had been "frightening." "We had no idea how it was going to end," he said, describing how the mob trashed rooms, damaged furniture, scrawled graffiti and tore up a portrait of Queen Victoria, as staff took shelter in a secure area of the embassy.

"It felt like very spiteful, mindless vandalism, but it wasn't quite mindless," Chilcott said. They removed anything that was electronic — mobile telephones personal computers ... anything that might give information about who you were talking to or what you were doing."

He said seven staff at a separate residential compound that was also attacked were seized and "quite roughly handled" by the invaders. In response to the attack, British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Wednesday ordered the Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours.

Hague also pulled Britain's diplomats out of Iran following the embassy attack and backed new sanctions on the Islamic republic. At least four other European countries, including Germany and France, also moved to reduce diplomatic contacts with Iran.

Hague has said the attacks were "clearly premeditated" by high-ranking officials, but claimed there were "divisions within the Iranian regime" about the move. Chilcott said he believed the violence was connected to moves by Iranian hard-liners including parliament speaker Ali Larijani to bolster their standing within the regime.

He said that in Iranian politics, "you can do yourself a lot of good by bashing the Brits." Iran's government has criticized the attacks, but hard-liners have spoken out in support of the protesters. Mohammad Mohammadian, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised the attackers, saying they had targeted the "epicenter of sedition."

As the deadline for the Iranian diplomats approached, about 20 protesters gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in London to demonstrate against the regime in Tehran. Shouting "terrorists, terrorists, must go," the protesters — many from the London Green Movement which campaigns against Iranian human rights issues — stood in front of flags reading "Free Iran."

Iranian Revolutionary Guards occupying British Embassy

2011-11-29T13:37:00.001-08:00

Head of the Revolutionary Guards IRGC Qods brigade

" Karim Jalali"

Among todays attacker at the British Embassy in Tehran

According to the regime, the students stormed the embassy. But this guy is a Quds force officer, Karim Jalali, When he was there, it means Sepah was behind it with direct order of the supreme leader

Explosion rocks Hezbollah arms depot

2011-11-23T08:32:00.001-08:00

The history of military intelligence is full of nation’s whose personnel made rash, foolish and careless decisions ending in disaster. Israel has done this. Yesterday, news broke that the CIA allowed two Hezbollah double agents penetrate and roll up its Lebanese spy network, in part because U.S. agents met repeatedly at the same Pizza Hut, using the code word “Pizza” to arrange their rendez vous.

Now comes an exclusive report from an authoritative Israeli source with considerable military experience, that IDF military intelligence (Aman) has out foxed Hezbollah by deliberately crash-landing a booby-trapped Trojan Horse drone in southern Lebanon.

Here is how the incident was reported by an unsuspecting Wall Street Journal reporter:

On a recent Saturday afternoon, a radar operated by French United Nations peacekeepers picked up a pilotless Israeli reconnaissance drone crossing into south Lebanon. It was given no more attention than any of the dozens of other surveillance missions flown by the Israelis in Lebanese airspace each month.

But when the drone passed above Wadi Hojeir, a yawning valley with steep, brush-covered slopes, it abruptly vanished from the radar screen. The startled peacekeepers contacted the Lebanese army, and a search of the rugged valley was conducted in the early-evening gloom. Nothing was found.

No one can recall the last time that an Israeli drone malfunctioned over Lebanon and crashed, and there were no reports of antiaircraft fire. The Israelis have said nothing. Neither has Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and arch foe of Israel. The peacekeeping force is now abuzz.

And now I can tell them what happened. For over a year, Hezbollah has been attempting to discover how to jam the ground signals commanding the drone so as to disable them in flight. When it discovered the downed craft, its operatives must’ve crowed that they’d finally discovered the key to success. This bit of hubris is how Aman drew Hezbollah into its net. Its soldiers dutifully collected the imagined intelligence trophy and brought it to a large weapons depot it controlled in the area. Once inside the arms cache, Aman detonated the drone causing a massive explosion. Here is how the Daily Star described that event:

A huge explosion shook a Hezbollah stronghold near Siddiqin in the southern coastal city of Tyre overnight, a security source told The Daily Star Wednesday. The source said the cause of the blast, which was heard shortly before midnight, could not be determined due to the heavy security blanket by Hezbollah.

Lebanese security forces were unable to access the scene of the explosion after the resistance group set up a security perimeter around the blast site, which is located in a valley called Wadi Al-Jabal al-Kabir between Siddiqin and Deir Ames, the source added. Local media said the explosion likely took place at a Hezbollah arms cache.

Given that Hezbollah is reputed to have many more missiles and more advanced models than it had before the 2006 Lebanon War, we can only imagine how serious this blow will be to the group’s war fighting capability. Hezbollah is known to possess some of the most advanced Iranian rockets (the Zelzal) in anticipation of possible use should Israel attack Iran. Given the size of the explosion, we should expect that a good deal of its weapons cache in the south has been destroyed.

Hezbollah is known for being highly professional and quite crafty in its intelligence capabilities having penetrated the IDF intelligence network in the 2006 war. That’s why I find it almost inexplicable that its fighters wouldn’t have at least considered the craft might be a Trojan Horse. It’s possible that Hezbollah did consider the idea and searched for an explosive charge & didn’t find one. In that case, the IDF must’ve very cleverly concealed it.

At any rate, as soldiers, even brilliant ones, often do, Hezbollah made a fatal error which the IDF exploited. And before Israel’s supporters jump for joy at another Israeli victory in the unending war on terror, remember that in 1999, a Hezbollah cell phone was brought to the vaunted IDF Unit 8200 headquarters for examination. The soldiers preparing to view it joked “If it explodes, we’ll know.” It did indeed explode seriously wounding the two senior Israeli intelligence officers. Not to mention the major amount of egg it splattered on the face of Israel’s renowned intelligence agency.

The moral being, in this dirty game called asymmetrical warfare, you and your enemy circle each other warily seeking to exploit any weakness. And you will make mistakes because you are only human. The fatal assumption is that your opponent is the only dumb one who will make them, and you never will.

An additional embarrassment for Hezbollah is that the destroyed arms cache is located south of the Litani River in a zone which is forbidden to contain any armaments. This means that the group has committed a major violation of the UN ceasefire resolution 1701.

Hezbollah Holds Lebanese CIA Informants, Officials Say – New York Times

Detective story without any detectives

2011-10-24T04:47:00.000-07:00

Iran’s fraudulent 2009 elections were a critical moment in the country’s recent history, for it was then that Iranians realized how polarized their country had become. The hopelessness of Iranians is painful to describe, but it is palpably there—in the hardening of people and the decay of public manners, and in the cynicism of friends who used to be unfailingly optimistic. Young people with aspirations long to get out of a country where economic growth has stalled and a uniformed oligarchy flourishes in the sealed atmosphere created by sanctions.

The suppression of the Green Movement in 2009 and 2010 has damaged civil society. Some of the country’s brightest activists, journalists, and filmmakers have been silenced or gone into exile. Bloggers and pop musicians operate in a penumbra of semi-illegality. The state devotes much attention to jamming foreignTV channels and blocking Internet sites, while the “loyal” media are full of the uplifting pronouncements of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. As the owner of a tea-shop remarked to me recently, holding up a once-respected Tehran newspaper, “I do the crossword and the rest I use to clean the windows.”

Asghar Farhadi’s film Nader and Simin: A Separation, is a fine account of Iran’s predicament; anyone interested in the mysteries of change and tradition—the difficulties faced by many people as they try and reconcile themselves to modern values and norms—will learn much from it. I saw it in Tehran this summer, and so movingly did it reflect what I was witnessing around me, I was surprised that the authorities had allowed it to be screened and its creator and leading actors to travel to Germany to be honored by the Berlin Film Festival. The film won the Golden Bear for best film, and its male and female casts were recognized collectively, too.

Nader and his wife Simin lead careful, middle-class lives. They live with Nader’s father, who has Alzheimer’s, in the latter’s apartment. They are reasonably well-off, but have restricted themselves to one child, a girl called Termeh, who is in the throes of puberty and exams.

The family is mildly patriotic—they listen to Persian classical music and Nader has a preference for Persian over Arabic loan words—but the West seems to offer more opportunities and freedom. Simin wants the family to emigrate so that Termeh can flourish; Nader refuses to abandon his father. The couple drift acrimoniously toward divorce, with Termeh as collateral damage. Thus, without mentioning politics, Asghar Farhadi makes his portrait of a Westernized Iranian family—exactly the sort of people who would support the Green Movement.

A scene from Asghar Farhadi’s Nader and Simin: A Separation

His depiction of poor, pious Tehran is equally convincing. Razieh, a poor woman who is guided by Islam and whom Nader has engaged to nurse his father, seems like a typical Ahmadinejad supporter but her family has also taken a battering. Razieh’s home is in a distant suburb, and she is pregnant, but she undertakes the arduous daily commute to Nader’s house because she and her unemployed husband, Hojjat, desperately need the money. Razieh is a chador-wearer (unlike Simin) and her reaction if she is confronted by a moral dilemma is to call a mullah for advice. This is what she does on her first day in her new job, for Nader’s father wets himself and she wants to know if it is permissible for her to wash him. (The answer is yes, if there is no male help available).

These two couples are good, conscientious people, undone by the complexity of their lives. Razieh briefly leaves Nader’s father alone in the apartment, with almost fatal consequences. Later we learn that she has lost her unborn baby to a violent blow. Was it landed by Nader, enraged by her failure to take proper care of his father? Accusation and counteraccusation are traded in the prosecutor’s office and here, in scenes of great power, Nader and Hojjat exhibit the mutual incomprehension that exists between two kinds of Iranian. To Hojjat, Nader is glib, impious, and oversexed. Nader is incensed by Hojjat’s self-righteousness. “Oh yes,” he says sarcastically, “and the Prophet belongs only to you?”

Farhadi’s earlier films have emphasized the importance of deceit in human relations; the characters in Nader and Simin are exemplary in this respect. Razieh does not tell her husband that she is going to work in the house of an unrelated male—he is outraged when he finds out. Simin’s demand for a divorce is a bluff; what she really wants is for Nader to beg her to stay. Even Termeh is drawn into the deception. She lies to the prosecutor to conceal a crucial piece of evidence that would have seen her father sent to prison. It is, the filmmaker seems to be saying, a part of growing up.

The film is full of poignant images: Nader, weeping as he scrubs his senile father in the shower; hot-tempered Hojjat, his life in tatters, beating himself violently about the head; and Termeh, tearful but somehow coquettish, a woman by the film’s end, when the bluff becomes real and the family court judge asks her whether she wants to live with her mother or her father. By now, of course, Nader and Simin has become something more than a family drama.

The grim irony at the heart of Farhadi’s film is that the angst and perplexity are the fruit of a “sacred” republic of ideals. Here is the signal failure of the ideological state that Ayatollah Khomeini set up thirty-two years ago, promising truth and redemption for all, but whose children are still waiting for these things, trembling and alone.

IRGC Newspaper: Ahmadinejad Seeks to Establish Relations with the United States

2011-09-24T16:23:00.001-07:00

IRGC-linked newspaper Javan Last week in its printed edition reported that President Ahmadinejad and his close allies are trying hard to establish relations with the United States in order to win the Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

Javan wrote, “Some deviated hardliners for their 1390 agenda plan to consider issues like relations with the United States and defending nuclear enrichment.”

Many supporters of the Ahmadinejad government note that Rahim Mashaei’s dismissal as the Tenth Government’s effort to win seats in the Parliament and succeed in the next Presidential elections.

Javan also wrote that Mashaei’s dismissal as the President’s Chief of Staff was spurious, as it was an institutionalized move to safeguard Ahmadinejad during the next Parliamentary elections.

The IRGC is now one of the most important organizations seeking to bring down Ahmadinejad’s team during the next elections.

Commanders of this military organization, who forged the election results in favor of Ahmadinejad, indicate that they are no longer motivated to continue the Ahmadinejad government.

Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader’s representative in the IRGC, on April 16 officially stated that Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei is not fit for any political activity.

With the Ahmadinejad team’s increased effort to present their agenda for the Ninth Parliamentary Elections, government supporters have increased their threats and harassment.

Saeed Ghasemi, former IRGC commander, specifically said to the Ahmadinejad team that the Hezbollah will not let governments “blacktop” them with “New Year’s ruses”.

Government supporters of Khamenei aver that Ahmadinejad’s close allies this year will initiate strife against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian blinded by acid pardons her attacker

2011-07-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

An Iranian woman blinded and disfigured by a man who threw acid into her face stood above her attacker Sunday in a hospital operating room as a doctor was about to put several drops of acid in one of his eyes in court-ordered retribution.

The man waited on his knees and wept.

"What do you want to do now?" the doctor asked the 34-year-old woman, whose own face was severely disfigured in the 2004 attack.

"I forgave him, I forgave him," she responded, asking the doctor to spare him at the last minute in a dramatic scene broadcast on Iran's state television.

Ameneh Bahrami lost her sight and suffered horrific burns to her face, scalp and body in the attack, carried out by a man who was angered that she refused his marriage proposal.

Bahrami, whose face remains visibly burned, was a glimpse of her former self, wearing a touch of pink gloss on her lips and a loosely wrapped headscarf to the hospital where the sentence was to be carried out. She was helped into the building by two women who held both her hands.

"It is best to pardon when you are in a position of power," Bahrami said, explaining that she did not want revenge.

The sobbing man, Majid Movahedi, said Bahrami was "very generous."

"I couldn't imagine being blinded by acid," Movahedi said, as he wept against a wall.

It is a legal right for victims in Iran to ask for a strict enforcement of Islamic law, under which an attempt is made to reach a settlement with victims or their families. If no agreement is reached, then "qisas," or eye-for-an-eye retribution, is enforced.

Under the Iranian judiciary's policy of qisas, convicted murderers are sentenced to death. In another example of a case where qisas was carried out, authorities amputated the hand of a convicted thief in front of other prisoners in October 2010.

In the trial of Bahrami's attacker, the court ruling allowed the woman to have a doctor pour a few drops of the corrosive chemical in one of Movahedi's eyes as retribution.

A few months after the November 2008 ruling, Bahrami told a radio station in Spain, where she traveled for treatment of her wounds, that she was happy with the sentence.

"I am not doing this out of revenge, but rather so that the suffering I went through is not repeated," she said in that March 2009 interview.

Though she was blinded in both eyes, she said in the radio interview that the court ruled she was entitled to blind him in only one eye.

After undergoing treatment in Barcelona, Bahrami initially recovered 40 percent of the vision in one eye, but she later lost all her sight.

Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said Movahedi would remain in jail until a court decides on an alternative punishment, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.

He said her attacker will have to pay financial compensation as Bahrami has requested. In the past, Bahrami has asked for up to $200,000 in compensation from the assailant.

There have been several other acid attacks on women in Iran. Last week, a young woman died after a man poured acid on her face for rejecting his marriage proposal. Her attacker remains at large.

Amnesty International criticized the Iranian law that allows victims of such attacks to deliberately blind the assailants under medical supervision.

In a statement Sunday, the rights group said the practice was a cruel punishment that amounts to torture.

"The Iranian authorities should review the penal code as a matter of urgency to ensure those who cause intentional serious physical harm, like acid attacks, receive an appropriate punishment — but that must never be a penalty which in itself constitutes torture," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“No Gaza, No Lebanon” in Tehran and “No Hezbollah, No Iran” in Syria

2011-07-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

From the first days of unrest in Syria, the Islamic Republic media tried to completely boycott any news of the protests and pretend that nothing was going in Syria! Hence the Islamic Republic trumpeted continuous propaganda and media support to itself, the Assad government, and the IRGC so that the Syrian people again not forget the Iranian government and the Lebanese Hezbollah in their slogans.

The Syrian people chant “No Hezbollah, no Iran”. Videos posted online show the Iranian and Hezbollah flags being burned along with pictures of prominent Iranian officials. At the same time, some opponents of the Syrian government report that they saw the IRGC and Lebanese Hezbollah among Syrian forces cracking down on protests. It is interesting that they’re also found in photos of Syrian protestors, even [in the crowds] around a burning Russian flag.

Published news from Syria, according to many observers, indicate that the crackdown on the protests look very similar to the IRGC’s crackdown on the post-election protests. Furthermore, such news brings the mind of the Iranian audience back to the tumultuous events of the 2009 post-election crackdown.

During Iran’s post-election unrest, immediately slogans such as “Death to Russia” and “Death to China” sprung up as a response to Russia’s support for the Ahmadinejad coup d'état government. The protestors in the streets of Tehran were more enraged about the Russian support for the Iranian government than their stolen votes.

The slogan “No Gaza, No Lebanon” shouted by the Iranian people on Quds Day came to existence when civil newspapers and citizen-journalists published numerous photos of Lebanese Hezbollah members harboring warm intentions of cracking down the protestors in the streets of Tehran.

Not only the crackdown in Iran and Syria are the same, but it can also be said that the protestors share one demand: »No Hezbollah, no Iran« and the Green Movement’s: No Gaza, no Lebanon.

Tehran mulls giving Syria5.8 billion$ aid

2011-07-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

A Tehran think-tank report says that Supreme Leader Khamenei is backing the idea of rescuing the distressed

Syrian economy, battered by months of protests

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backs offering $5.8 billion in aid to Syria to bolster its economy, a French newspaper said on Friday, citing a report by a Tehran think-tank linked to Iran's leadership.

Damascus has long been Tehran's main ally among otherwise mainly hostile Arab states. After four months of popular unrest, Syria's economy is reeling under the weight of strikes, reduced oil exports, scaled-back trade and international sanctions.

Its troubles have prompted Iran's leadership to consider offering $5.8 billion in financial help, including a three-month loan worth $1.5 billion to be made available immediately, French business daily Les Echos said.

It added that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has backed the idea of the aid, which was outlined in a secret report by the Centre for Strategic Research, a think tank linked to the Iranian leadership.

It was not possible to verify the report on Friday.

Iran, Les Echos said, could also provide 290,000 barrels of oil to Syria each day over the next month while helping to boost border controls to stop Syrians from fleeing the country for Lebanon with cash.

After four months of civil uprising in Syria, human rights groups report that more than 1,400 civilian have been killed, drawing a chorus of condemnation from around the world.

International sanctions are only targeted at Syria's leaders, not its banks and companies. But France and the United States are pressing for tougher penalties and a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown, after the embassies of both countries in Syria were attacked.

Iran's government & Internet Crackdown

2011-07-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

After the much contested 2009 presidential elections in Iran, we saw the rise of the “Green” movement opposing the Ahmadinejad coup d’etat. When anti-government opponents were being exterminated in the streets, Green Internet site-masters did not feel safe, and suddenly a network called the “Iranian Cyber Arm” began to hack regime critics’ websites.

Everybody was convinced since the beginning that the Iranian Cyber Army (especially because of its hacker division) harbored political motives in its actions.

Because this network and its moves are discreet, rumors have circulated that the hackers are Russian and Chinese—hence the Russia and China’s heavy defense of this coup d’etat government. Until recently no accurate information about the skills of the Iranian government was available.

In December 2009, it was impossible to access Twitter in Iran and in other countries. Afterwards, the Iran Cyber Army released a statement online claiming responsibility for the hacking of Twitter and other social networking websites, protesting the Green supporters’ effort to spread the Green message around the world. Of course, the hackers called the Green Movement the “Green Fitna”, the name which Iranian officials use.

A month later, the biggest Chinese search engine “Baidu” was hacked. The message from the Iranian Cyber Army appeared once again on the site’s home page.

The continuation of the Iranian Cyber Army’s destructive actions, attacks, and infiltrations in a number of Persian-language websites compelled a group of Iranian journalists living outside Iran to document and expose this network’s expertise.

!Entrapments for the Goal

In mid-February, an Iranian blogger living outside Iran in the funnies section of his site wrote:

in a strange and unprecedented move, the Iranian Cyber Army hacked the portal of Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, causing disruption in the targeted system. Until Thursday, Mehrabad Airport faced a serious crisis.”

This joke which changed parts of the Army’s original message (which simultaneously hacked the Radio Zamaneh news website) quickly circulated throughout many Persian-language news sites inside and outside the country.

Two days after this hoax broke out, the managing director of Mehrabad Airport Morteza Damghan in an interview with the Voice and Vision-associated Young Journalists’ Club denied that the airport’s website was hacked: “Alien elements tried to disrupt national security by designing a plot to attack Tehran’s international airport’s website (Imam Khomeini Airport), but this attack never precipitated. It is obvious that anti-revolutionary media penetrated into the Iranian Cyber Army’s capabilities, but because they got scared of the Army they made some accusations so they can deviate public thinking.”

After such denial and defense of the Iranian Cyber Army from an Islamic Republic authority, everybody recognized the government dimension of this network. It is obvious that this network is indeed guided by the regime.

Yet the Iranian Cyber Army is not the only hacker and cyber group. During the past decade, there were groups such as “Ashyaneh”, “Sadid”, and “Simorgh”, but there are no past records of them engaging in political activity.

In order to become famous and compete with other professional hackers, these groups freely attacked various websites and took advantage about the lack of criminal computer laws in Iran.

Yet these very groups during the last two years also began to cooperate with the Iranian Cyber Army in its destructive activities. They were also in charge of identifying and confronting opponents on the Internet as well as creating intelligence group to control the flow of information online.

The identity and connections of the Iranian Cyber Army were vague until last year when on 30 may 2010 Fars News reported that Ibrahim Jabbari, Commander of the Ali ibn Abi Talib Brigade in Qom, said regarding to the IRGC’s creation of the Cyber Army:

“We today bear witness that the RIGC has been successful in creating a Cyber Army which is second in the world. With regards to the enemies’ efforts to strike at the Islamic dynasty at all angles including on the Web, the IRGC-backed Iranian Cyber Army entered with strength, preventing the destruction of the country’s cultural and social order.”

Commander Jabbari, a senior IRGC official, for the first time exposed the plan of forming the “Army”.

He revealed that, “Since 2005, the IRGC discussed forming this group, but the plan was quickly executed due to the recent increase of anti-government propaganda. The unit responsible for attracting human power for the Cyber Army would identify and then contact professional hackers who would be threatened to be imprisoned should they not cooperate. With regards to using the best minds in the field of security, the Army’s level of knowledge about the long history of infiltrators in Iran is very high. The power of this army, when focusing on the goal, is comparable to groups such as those active in the American and Israeli intelligence agencies.”

Of course, the IRGC initially set up the sites “Whirlpool” and the “Center for Combatting Cyber Organized Crimes” to openly confront immoral websites. However, these sites became firmly under the IRGC’s supervision when they entered a new political phase after the 2009 elections.

After the IRGC officially claimed responsibility for the “Army”, Iranian hacker groups such as “Ashyaneh” became responsible for training IRGC technicians in hacking thus officially becoming active under the IRGC Cyber Pedafond supervision.

The “Ashyaneh” group is the first to link with the government circle. Collaborating with the most professional of hackers, it began to destroy various anti-Islamic Republic websites. News of this group’s activities would proudly be announced in government media, quickly attracting attention.

In addition to dominating all underground communications and intelligence channels in Iran, currently the IRGC is now directly in charge of guiding and managing the “cyber wars”. The Islamic Republic is committed, with double/shadow organization, to attain its goals and effectively confront threats in the cyber sphere as well as in old media.

General Gholamreza Jalali revealed news of an “Islamic Republic Cyber War Powerbase”: “Activities focused on new battles in which the Internet, telecommunications channels, and underground communications play critical roles are considered priority.”

This elite IRGC commander at the sidelines of the “Conference on National Stability and Preemptive Defense” explained the announcements of the existence of such a powerbase, saying that the Supreme Leader previously notified organizations responsible about “political cyber defenses”.

Of course, details of such politics have never been published. However, with attention to this brief announcement, it can be said that from the legal point of view that all destructive measures of this “cyber army” are under the Supreme Leader’s responsibility.

Unparalleled Cyber Strike Against Iran

Despite all the pompous claims and statements made by Iranian authorities such as IRGC commanders and Iran’s cyber managers, (even though still it cannot effectively hack and infiltrate anti-regime websites as done by the Iranian Cyber Army, and rumors of Russian and Chinese hackers are reasonable), according to Iranian authorities Iran was under a very intense virus attack.

Stuxnet, a computer worm which based on reports published by Islamic Republic agencies was designed by Western intelligence systems to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations and disrupt the centrifuge chains used for uranium enrichment.

General Jalali said that “The Stuxnet virus entered the country through a Siemens software (a German company) and this shows that we must use Iranian experts to fight these viruses.”

But past damages, as well as this Internet attack practically show that these claims of strength are just propaganda just like many of the Islamic Republic’s other defense and security claims. The most important Islamic Republic websites in the realms of education and nuclear energy emphasize on security against foreign elements. They are even benefitting from software and hardware technology from Western companies such as Nokia and Siemens to neutralize and fight opponents.

The Stuxnet virus was able to insidiously penetrate into Iran by affecting receptor controls and systems. Should an attack happen in the future, with respect to daily needs and via different methods, it will be effective. The Stuxnet virus was designed by technical and security teams, and according to some reports it has infected more than 40,000 computer systems. The entire project was successful due to social engineering and exploitations of these installations’ personnel security shortcomings.

All of Iran’s underground communications is IRGC controlled and built on mobilizing tools produced by Western companies. This defense management will make the prospect of an attack against online communications circles more difficult.

From where the “Cyber War Powerbase” is built more than just to attack anti-government websites, it might have security and defense dimensions—since according to Islamic Republic officials threats began during the elections and the widespread protests which followed. It is meant to build barriers against changes which new media imposes and accelerates.

It is still not obvious whether the “Powerbase” is an independent organization or that it is decided whether all groups be consolidated. Until now, other organizations such as “The IRGC Cyber Pedafond”, “The Iranian Cyber Army”, “Center for Institutionalized Cyber Crimes”, “Security Police for Exchanging Information Space” have been established and independently function.

Of course, other organizations have emerged such as “Council of Cooperation of Islamic Revolutionary Cyber Activists” which as usual clearly harbor links to the IRGC. This Council considers itself independent but until now it hasn’t conducted any impressive activity.

Alongside all these organizations, “observing teams” and “monitoring centers” are efficiently carrying out their online activities.

At the same time, news relating to the Iranian Cyber Army’s different operations has been widely published while other reports indicate that the IRGC is trying to attract hackers and security experts with impressive salaries and benefits. Even some news sources report that the IRGC is committed to threaten the best hackers by drawing up their “cyber-crimes” in order for them to cooperate.

The first time that an IRGC official invited other hackers to join the “Cyber War Powerbase” was when General Gholamreza Jalali in an interview with Fars News explained that “Regarding our cyber issue, we welcome active hackers with good and revolutionary intentions who want to work for the Islamic Republic.”

Alongside showing such welcome for revolutionary hackers, Jalali singled out other hackers: “For those hackers who harbor evil intentions to hurt the people, we are watching you and will fiercely confront you.”

All of these empty claims combined with invitations for cooperation, it can be interpreted that despite the establishment of different organizations and big budget for so-called cyber projects, the IRGC is also suffering from lack of expertise in this field.

The Cyber Police

General Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam in an interview with journalists on 23 Dec 2010 in Shiraz announced news of the creation of a new department in the Islamic Republic police force called “Cyber Police”. In this interview, he called attention to the increase of computer crimes. He thought it necessary to set up a “cyber police” in order to provide security for the people and society, preventing possible harm.

Commander Ahmadi Moghadam in the interview did not delve into the specifics of this department. The only generalities discussed, from which a detailed explanation cannot be deducted, was the name “Afta” which stands for “Security for the Space of Exchanging Information”. It can be concluded that this so-called Cyber Police serves as a guard for the Persian cyberspace.

Authorities did not clearly describe about the “Cyber Police”. General Ahmadi Moghadam only talked about providing security for the people and society in order to prevent harm. Considering sanctioned regulations about this issue, it can be said the goal of the Iranian Cyber Police is to pursue an issue within the realm of Internet criminal law.

One must not forget that until now, this case has been formed by a committee for criminal contents as well as the IRGC-linked “Center for Investigating Organized Crime”.

By monitoring the Persian web, the Center for Investigating Organized Crime tried to block anti-regime and anti-religious websites and blogs as well as pornography. There was a famous case in which the Center hacked and blocked a number of Persian pornography websites, even arresting the site-masters.

At this point, considering the little information published about the “Cyber Police”, we cannot exactly answer many questions. However it can be pointed out that the “Cyber Police” is not a new phenomenon. Cyber Police exist in advanced countries such as the USA and UK in order to combat Internet crimes such as fraud or illegal web activities.

It can be said that the cyber police harbors both pros and cons. The positive side is that it can decrease Internet crimes. Based on released official statistics, Internet crimes increased during the last few years by 100%.

However, the downside is that while the cyber police is said to protect the Persian web, it also pursues opposition movements online. The Persian web widely expanded after the 2009 presidential elections in Iran, yet because of the cyber police’s continuous crackdown online, many websites and blogs have been forced to reduce their activity or shut off altogether. In the end, this stems the growth of the Persian web.

?The Keyboard….Or the Baton

The keyboard is a just a choice among searching streets, cyber highways, blogs, organized protests in front of Western embassies and regime opponents’ homes, or production of organized information in a cyber world without borders. The Basij has dealt with this choice for a long time. In the end, the Basij has made the decision to replace the baton with the keyboard, but in this new world they are still looking for scuffles and fights.

For them, the Internet is a battlefield against a powerful enemy, not an arena of peace and cultural thought. Basijis want their weblogs to be virtual just like the enemy’s. Like in the real world, they scream in their weblogs until their voices are heard. Their final goal is to be victorious in the virtual war. A war which prominent people in the government told them to participate in and they see themselves key in executing the plan for the regime.

For example, Hossein Fadaei (blogger of “Section 23” and child of a martyr) calls Khamenei our “daddy”. He calls his blog the “most viewed Persian language blog”. He claims to participate in Khamenei’s semi-private Monday meetings, and he always praises the Supreme Leader in his posts. He says, “Our button is more sacred than the pen. Pen is used for the soft war and the button brings us to Karbala.”

It seems that Hossein Qadyani (someone Khamenei whom calls “soft war officer”) is a Basiji who supposedly participated in the confrontation with opponents during the post-election events. In fact he says that he was injured at one of the struggles.

He is one of those people who believes that, “The Basiji on the Internet must deprive the opponents’ sense of security.”

Mehdi Fatemi Sadr, in his political phrases of violence on his blog, writes his account of the 25 Bahman struggles, emphasizing that “Basijis are responsible for protecting the Islamic Revolution. It is good that the police stand against drug traffickers and bad hijabs, drug abuse, and other difficulties. Whatever prevented the troublemakers from mobilizing, buttons are the most useful means for Basijis who generally don’t carry Basiji IDs.”

Mr. Qadyani believes that, “The hypocrites, like dogs, are scared of Basijis. When they utter shitty words such as ‘death to the dictator’, they must be hit so hard that they yowl like dogs.”

!But this is Not the Entire Story

As the Basij’s custodian, the IRGC on one side is in the plan to nurture “The Iranian Cyber Army”. On the other hand, it contemplates about training and encouraging the culture of blogging in order to increase Basij presence in cyberspace. It is not necessary to remind that naturally the IRGC by blogging means to foster people like Hossein Qadyani who calls anti-regime opponents “troublesome”, “immoral”, “seaweed”, and “dishonorable”. These are people who believe that critics and opponents must be struck so hard that they “yowl like dogs”.

The Latest Cyber Effect

With all the Islamic Republic’s successful and unsuccessful in the field of Internet control and harassment, its first steps are just their last. It intentionally reduces Internet speed in Iran and filters websites, threatens and arrests independent Internet activists. Despite fear of the slightest and biggest of obstacles, these efforts haven’t deterred young Iranians from being attracted to the Internet.

The Iranian government’s security theorists, after their supporters failed to limit the effects of the Internet, have employed a fervent group of pro-government bloggers to dominate the Persian web. The passion to win is part of the strategy to fight the soft war. Based on this strategy, pro-government bloggers must write constantly in order to overwhelm and neutralize the content opponents produce.

Some reports indicate that pro-government bloggers receive impressive money for their online activities. Based on these reports, Basiji bloggers receive $60 for every post. Details of these reports are not confirmed, but considering the big budget set aside by the government for fighting the soft war, such an assumption could be true.

Failure of Breaking Posts

The blogging project launched by the Basij contains organized and well-ordered content. Before the presidential elections in 2009, the project became critical and it was for the first time in November 2008 that the “Downtrodden Basiji Organization” considered the Internet a soft war tool; it announced the launch of 10,000 blogs with valuable content produced by members of this organization. At that time, this organization claimed that it would soon conquer the Persian web but the developments during the presidential election in 2009 struck down the Basijis’ false predictions.

Government organizations made it a priority to neutralize the opposition movement online. They initially intensified their negative politics by heavily filtering the Internet, slowing down Internet speed in Iran, threatening Internet activists, and hacking some opposition websites, but these measures were not enough for government theorists.

After putting behind the shock from the presidential election results, they seriously pursued a project to inject the Basiji into the world of blogging. In February, Mohammad Ali Naini, the Basij Organization’s advisor on cultural and social affairs, announced that “This Organization has made contact with the country’s top bloggers who support the country, and the process of producing topics and contents is precipitating among the Basij.”

Conducting numerous seminars and conferences such as “The Basij As Viewed By Velayat”, “The Role of the Basij in Empowering and Securing the Nation”, “Basij, the Software Movement, and the Production of Knowledge” became a priority. Classes titled “Social Channels, Psychological Operations, and Internet Spy Security” were prepared for Basij volunteers. The result of such training was the creation of blogs whose content adhere to special guidelines.

Take the Money and Blog

Basiji volunteers in the virtual world have kept their distinct language style. Quarrels with opponents, threats, and sometimes the worst foul language define their writing. Beneath the surface of these writings, one can find the footprints of a central ideology which invites everyone to conform to the same way of thought and opinion. The majority of Basiji blog content is full of praise for Ayatollah Khamenei.

In general, these blogs can be divided into two distinct groups with two clear agendas. One group serves to produce pro-government propaganda in order to present a holy image of the Islamic Republic and its Supreme Leader. The other group’s job is to execute negative steps against opponents of the regime, using a variety of insults and foul language.

With this blogging project as a means for the Basijis to fight in the virtual world, it still hasn’t been embraced by all prominent members of this organization. Reading some of the Basijis’ blogposts, this dispute is evident. For example, the blogger of “Soldiers of Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei” in one of his posts reprinted an interview with Basiji Commander Saeed Ghasemi, saying when he told the Commander about his blog, the Commander became very angry. He called it a job for “Basiji sisters” and that the blogger should spend his time in school.

Another point of contention among the Basijis is the financial profit from the blogging project. The blog “Virtual Jihad” exposed this contention, complaining throughout his post about a part of the budget had not been allocated to a group of Basiji bloggers. He said that with the enterprise to inject the Basij into the virtual world, the budget has turned into a big fraud.

He revealed that in the blogging project, every year $600,000 is allocated to the Basij for social channels, $55,000 for sending ten news pieces a day, and $700 a month for writing blogs. This is when reports indicate that big portions of the budget continue to be spent and in the last case one can point to the Basij Organization efforts to initiate 2,000 clerics into the virtual world.

Meanwhile, these efforts to increase the presence of the Basij in the virtual world have still not gained wide support. A few months ago, the Basij’s cultural advisor expressed his dissatisfaction with the Basij’s performance, confessing that this Organization lacks a correct understanding of the virtual world. Chief of Police Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam last year requested the presence of more “religious” people on the Internet. The invitation of more Basij in the Persian web exposes the government policy to conquer the virtual world, confirming international organization reports that call Iran one of the Internet’s main enemies.

Such regime organizations use a variety of possible threats and limitations against independent internet activists. The most clever satanic means are at their forces’ disposal in entering the virtual world. Yet until now, this policy has not helped much to increase the government’s mastery of Persian content in the virtual world. The Internet’s fluid nature as well as the strategy to form an army of salaried bloggers has contributed to the overall failure of the government’s blogging enterprise. It is not doubtful that in the future Basijis will become tired of fighting with a hypothetical enemy, replacing again their keyboards with batons.

Summit Against Violent Extremism (S.A.V.E) in Dublin

2011-06-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

In 2011, the United Nations International Year of Youth, one person in five in the world is between 15 and 24 years old. As recent events in the Middle East, and elsewhere show, millions of these young people are deeply dissatisfied with their life prospects and are willing to contemplate radical action in order to change their country’s political, economic and social systems.

In response to these challenges, next week (from 26-29 June) Quilliam will take part in the Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE), a ground-breaking event in Dublin organised by Google Ideas, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Tribeca Film Festival to address issues of youth and vulnerability, particularly focusing on how young people’s legitimate frustrations and aspirations can be exploited by a wide range of extremists.

The event will bring together nearly 90 former members of violent and extremist groups and will explore extremism across cultural contexts. It will include former members of far-right, Tamil, IRA and Islamist organisations, as well as former gang members. The event will highlight that extremism is not only a problem affecting Muslim communities and that it can occur in almost any cultural, social or religious context

In this seminar, I've been invited and I will attend the seminar

.I said in the past and why I went to Ansar-e- Hezbollah and I got separated from them

:Media information

The event will take place in Dublin, Ireland, between 26-29 June 2011. It is being organised by Google Ideas, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Tribeca Film Festival

Media wishing to attend the event should email save@portland.communications.com

The event will be twittered live by @GoogleIdeas using the hashtag #AVE Against Violent Extremism’

For further information, please email media@quilliamfoundation.org or call 0207-182-7286 or 07789 040 850 ( out of hours

Iranian Revolutionary Guards, was the owner of the gas industry

2011-06-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

A business consortium connected to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard was awarded without tender two giant natural gas development projects, a senior Iranian official said Saturday.

Mahdi Fakoor, a senior Oil Ministry official, said the Revolutionary Guard’s most important financial venture, Khatam-ol-Anbia, will develop two gas fields in the south of the country without tender.

“A contract to develop Halgan and Sefid Baghoon gas fields has been signed with Khatam-oil-Anbia … without tender,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Fakoor as saying.

Fakoor said development of the two gas fields located in Fars Province will result to production of 19 million cubic meters of natural gas a day

Khatam-ol-Anbia is currently the largest contractor of government projects in Iran, handling 1,500 of the country’s most important state projects over the past four years.

The conglomerate is already involved in developing Iran’s giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf. Khatam al-Anbia is one of the country’s largest corporations with stakes in mining, telecommunications and the oil and gas sector.

The guard, which was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend Iran’s clerical rule, has become a vast military-based conglomerate, amassing a network of economic and political power that extends to virtually every aspect of life in Iran.

Its finances are not on the government budget and are free from any state oversight. The Revolutionary Guard is accountable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran.

Iranian activist dies in scuffle at her father's funeral

2011-06-01T03:44:00.000-07:00

Mourners stand around the grave of Ezatollah Sahabi in Tehran. His daughter, Haleh Sahabi, is reported to have been involved in a scuffle at his funeral and died of a cardiac arrest

The daughter of a prominent veteran Iranian dissident has died after reportedly scuffling with security forces at his funeral.

Haleh Sahabi, 54, also an opposition activist and women's rights campaigner, had been allowed out of prison to attend the funeral of her father, Ezatollah Sahabi, on Wednesday. She fell to the ground in the scuffle and died of a cardiac arrest, according to the opposition website Kaleme.

The semi-official Fars news agency confirmed Sahabi's death but denied there had been a clash with police and accused the opposition movement of seeking to politicise the incident.

"Fars reporters present at the funeral service said there was no clash between the mourners and security forces," it said.

Alireza Janeh, head of security matters at the Tehran governor's office, said there were no clashes and that Sahabi had died of heart problems exacerbated by stress and hot weather at his funeral.

Sahabi's death is likely to anger women's rights campaigners and supporters of Iran's opposition movement whose massive street protests after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 were crushed by the government and whose leaders have been put under house arrest.

Sahabi was arrested during the post-election crackdown and was given a two-year jail sentence.

"Security forces tried to interfere in the carrying of the body, she objected and security forces confronted her and other people present," Kaleme said, adding that Sahabi was pushed to the ground. Another opposition site, Sahamnews, said security forces punched her in the stomach.

Kaleme said she was holding a picture of her father to her chest and fell when security forces tried to take it from her. "She fell and did not get up," it said.

Prominent opposition figures and former moderate officials attended the ceremony in the north-eastern Tehran suburb of Lavasan for Ezatollah Sahabi, who was jailed both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution and spent a total of 15 years in prison.

The Green Actress

2011-05-30T04:17:00.000-07:00

Baran Kowsari

Baran Kowsari is an Iranian actress, born into a movie empire. Her mother,Rakhshan Banietemad is an acclaimed Iranian director. Her father, Jahanghir Kowsari is one of the movie industry’s biggest producers. Here she is yesterday, in a conference for her new movie, “Hich” [Nothing].

As an avid follower of Iranian movies, I was not particularly fond of her rise to fame, given what seemed like her mediocre acting ability and mommy-and-daddy-make-me-famous routine (prevalent everywhere in the world of course). But she’s matured greatly in the last few years and her last feature film, Heiran, was delightful.

Negar Javaherian

Her mother has been an outspoken supporter of the movement after the election, and it seems she and her colleague, actress Negar Javaherian, have followed suit (she was an enthusiastic supporter of Mehdi Karoubi before the election). The color of the wall and Javaherian’s coat may be all coincidental, but the green wristband certainly isn’t.

I think the artistic community, as one amongst many, is a good example of how the movement lives on: it doesn’t cease to exist or “boycott” all activity, as some insiders or outsiders would like, the community continues to work and function inside the system, with all its restrictions and limitations, and under the careful gaze of the ayatollahs (as the third picture demonstrates vividly) … but it hasn’t forgotten, it will use any chance it gets … and this will go on for years and years to come.

28 killed in weapons depot blast in Yemen

2011-05-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

Yemen's Defense Ministry says 28 have been killed in an explosion at a weapons storage facility in western Sanaa

The opposition, however, disputes the government's account and says the latest deaths occurred early Thursday during heavy shelling of a residential area by troops loyal to Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Government troops have clashed with fighters led by Yemen's most powerful tribe for four straight days. The latest deaths bring the toll to at least 109 killed.

The battles broke out Monday after Saleh's troops tried to storm the compound of Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, the leader of the largest tribe, called the Hashid.

Al-Ahmar's forces have laid siege to at least nine government ministries and government troops have responded with shelling on al-Ahmar's compound in the heart of Yemen's capital.

On Thursday, Yemeni authorities escalated its campaign against al-Ahmar by issuing an arrest warrant against him and other tribal leaders.

Revolutionary Guard is preparing for a plan by the name of :Emergence Plan

2011-05-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Khamenei followers being beaten endorse Ahmadinejad in Tehran

Following the disagreement between the Iranian Supreme leader Khamenei and Ahmadi nejad, and the fear that more disagreement is likely between the Iranian Cabinet and the Supreme leader in the future, reliable sources have informed us that the Revolutionary Guard is preparing for a plan by the name of “Emergence Plan”. According to the initial points of the plan, that has been directly endorsed by the Supreme leader instead rather than the Supreme National Security Council, the Ground Forces of the Revolutionary Guard, in cooperation with the Basij militia, will be appointed, in 3 phases, to take control of the security of the cities, organizations, and state Ministry offices in order to carry out the execution of the plan.

An informed source in the General Headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard told Iran Briefing: ”…the primary phase of the plan will begin in the mosques and Basij militia bases of all regions by choosing and organizing a network of forces. So that, if the country plunged in turmoil, the regime will have forces throughout Iran ready to perform the urgent plan of controlling.

It is important to say that Basij militia was ordered to recruit people who are completely loyal to the Supreme leader and to avoid employing any pro-Ahmadi nejad individuals. Since last week, members of the Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Organization have been assigned to all Basij Militia regions in order to supervise and monitor the forces recruiting process for the Emergence Plan. Furthermore, in a command that was mentioned in the initial points of the Emergence Plan approved by General Commander of Revolutionary Guard, it was pointed out: “...in order to restore the situation in any crisis as soon as possible, a network of loyal forces from the Basij militia should be available to be deployed in any circumstances".

It seems that the Revolutionary Guard is worried that the disagreement between the Pro-government and Pro-Supreme leader will spread out into the streets, a situation that may be used by the people and Green Movement supporters to organize protests all over the country.

While the commanders of the Revolutionary Guard had previously expected that 70 per cent of the Basij Militia forces and the Revolutionary Guard personnel would rebel and avoid cracking down on protestors in serious crisis, the Revolutionary Guard would face an even more serious crisis among its forces due to this division between the Supreme leader and Ahmadi nejad.

The Basij militia and undercover plain clothed forces operating during the protests to Presidential election played a key role in cracking down on the protesters after the announcement of the Supreme National Security Council that police force was not able to restore the situation in the capital and other cities.

Parts of the Emergence Plan state '...According to a plan that will be sent later, the Revolutionary Guard must keep control of all the governmental offices and the Ministries.'

A reliable source has told Iran Briefing that following the secret preparations of the Emergence plan last week among the personnel of the Revolutionary Guard, the plan will be carried out in two phases of civilian manoeuvres in the coming weeks.

Human rights activists demonstrate in front of the State Security Court in Damascus

2011-05-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

A Syrian riot police officer stands guard as human rights activist demands the release of Rshid Mahmood al-Sheik from jail in front of the State Security Court on April 24, 2005 in Damascus, Syria. Dozens of human rights activist demonstrated in front of the State Security Court 'Amen al-Dawla' demanding the release of two young men who are being tried according the decades long emergency laws.

Ahmadinejad row with Khamenei intensifies

2011-05-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

Iranian president said to be considering resignation after intelligence chief he fired was reinstated by supreme leader.

A political dispute between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader is reported to have intensified.

Ahmadinejad is said to be contemplating resigning after Heidar Moslehi, the intelligence minister he had sacked, was reinstated by Khamenei.

The president is understood to have shirked some of his duties and skipped cabinet meetings for the past ten days in anger over the decision.

Mehrdad Khonsari, an analyst with the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the dispute, which began last month, had become "serious".

"It shows the level of disunity at the very top of the Iranian [political] hierachy [with] Ahmadinejad having already polarised the internal political scene as a result of fraudulent election results that were announced more than 20 months ago," Khonsari said .

"He is now beginning to encroach on the powers and privileges vested in the supreme leader, and he and his constituency - mainly among the Revolutionary Guards - have tried to do this.

"And, of course, the supreme leader has tried to make a stand and in this stand he has been joined by many people from the ruling establishment who have been cast aside by Ahmadinejad".

Khonsari said that since the president came to power "powerful people like [Akbar Hashemi] Rasfanjani and ... [Mohammed] Khatami and many of the key reformers as well as the president of the current Council of Experts" have been sidelined.

"This is quite a standoff," he said. "Ahmadinejad, I think, at this particular time, has bitten more than he can chew and has been forced to essentially step back, but the fact [remains] that both he and the supreme leader are damaged as a result of this conflict".

Although speculation continues that Ahmadinejad may resign, Khonsari stopped short of hinting at the possibility of him quitting and instead said the dispute would lead to "further polarisation; further disunity [and] rivalry ... within a state structure that's already fractured".

'Grave economic issues'

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabari in Tehran quoted an MP as saying that

Ahmadinejad had asked the supreme leader to step down as he insists he cannot work with the intelligence minister.

Khonsari said upheavals in some Middle Eastern countries could spread to Iran if the rift continued.

"You have to bear in mind that what we're witnessing in the Middle East it all started with events in Iran some 20 months ago and Iran is not immune from the global cts from what we're witnessing as a result of this Arab awakening," he said.

"People in Iran are conscious there are grave economic issues; grave foreign policy issues confronting the Ahmadinejad government and the last thing he needs is to be in disarray with the supreme leader in a fight over a situation that's totally impervious to the wishes and aspirations of the general majority.

"There's no question in the minds of Iranians that this is going to be a very hot summer coming up".

The supreme leader wields more power than the president and appoints military leaders and the council that passes laws.

The dispute has led to the arrest of several close allies of the president, including Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the chief of staff.

Mashaei and others arrested have been accused of invoking djinns spirits]].

Ahmadinejad's administration has been dogged by allegations of a fraudulent election, which handed him a second four-year term in office in 2009.

The conduct of the vote led to protests which ended in a deadly crackdown and the detention of key opposition figures, including Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

Iran has also been hit by a wave of sanctions by the US and the European Union over its nuclear programmer, which many Western states suspect is intended to make an atomic bomb.

Tehran says the programmer seeks to develop nuclear energy for solely civilian use.

IRGC MAKING BIG INVESTMENTS IN MACAU BROTHELS

2011-05-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

Following the economic downturn in the United Arab Emirates and Dubai, and from where the IRGC made huge investments in Dubai’s economic, real estate, and financial sectors, this organization has now shifted its assets and economic activity from Dubai to Southeast Asia.

Malaysia and Macau are the two places where the IRGC now concentrates its economic activities, investing in banks and trade towers in Malaysia, especially Kuala Lumpur. The IRGC invests in the casino, Red Light and brothel business in Macau, an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

This industry is very new in Southeast Asia. After successful growth in China, it has gained hold in this region. Since Macau is very close to China, it is a paradise for investment in this sort of trade.

?Why the casino

China has about one billion people in the workforce and a growing middle class. Thus, as logic goes, if the middle class has a little capital, then there must be a vacation spot to spend its money (Until a few years ago, people in general considered vacation exclusive, work their only obligation and wealth unimportant). Yet Macau now has become a place for getting their money, and this mandate has in Southeast Asia made it bigger than Las Vegas. Macau is deemed a threat to Las Vegas, and in this respect our brothers in the IRGC had a lucrative opportunity.

An Iranian is in charge of directing the cash flow from Dubai and Turkey to Macau. This individual known as Haj Safdar Minamand (whose real name is Seyyed Javad Zavarei) is the IRGC’s second general and is a first degree relation to Seyyed Reza Zavarei. Reza Zavarei was one of the kingpins of the Islamic Republic: he was the first Tehran Revolutionary Court public prosecutor, advisor to the Interior Minister (Hashemi Rafsanjani), Head of the National Security Council, the Tehran representative in the Majlis (1981-1987), a legal expert and deputy to the head of the Guardian Council (until 2005), Head of the National Registry and Assets Organization (1989-1997), Presidential candidate in 1989 in the third, fourth, and seventh rounds.

But General Javad Zavarei, in addition to building casinos and hotels, as well as some tourist, leisure, and cultural centers, also works to project an image.

One of the local experts in the real estate affairs believes that Iran has invested up to one billion dollars in Macau but adds that some of these investments were under and sometimes one place could be bought and sold 3.2-10 times in one month—even if there is no record available about the exact amount of inflow investment. All these activities are conducted in the name of business, done under unknown circumstances.

According to some unconfirmed statistics, the IRGC until now has invested up to 20 billion dollars in this region.

IRGC Newspaper: Ahmadinejad Seeks to Establish Relations with the United States

2011-05-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

IRGC-linked newspaper Javan today in its printed edition reported that President Ahmadinejad and his close allies are trying hard to establish relations with the United States in order to win the Parliamentary and Presidential elections.