Hanna Makhmalbaf Addresses the People of Lebanon Ahead of Ahmadinejad's Visit

Hanna Makhmalbaf is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the famous Iranian film director and an ardent revolutionary in his youth. So much so that during the Shah's rule, by the time Mohsen Makhmalbaf was 15, he had formed his own Islamic militia group and by the age of 17 he was shot and arrested while trying to disarm a policeman.

Neither Mohsen Makhmalbaf nor his daughter Hanna now support what is going on in Iran. In fact they both now back the Green Movement and desire a democratic change in Iran like most Iranians do. Having had the experience of living in a religious state, Hanna hopes her experience will alert the people of Lebanon ahead of Ahmadinejad's imminent visit to Lebanon. Her address to the people of Lebanon comes after the Lebanese authorities decided to stop the showing of her award winning film, Green Days, ahead of Ahmadinejad's visit, during the Beirut International Film Festival, so as not to upset the Iranian dictator who has promised a half billion Dollar loan to Lebanon.

How the People of Iran Were Lied to 30 Years Ago

The picture on the left is an amalgamation of some newspaper titles 30 years ago. It demonstrates how the people of Iran were lied to at the beginning of the revolution.

Starting from top right hand corner, the titles are numbered 1 to 9.

1 - Water and Electricity will become free.

2- Imam Khomeini "In an Islamic state, there is no dictatorship"

3 - Marxists will be allowed freedom of expression

4- Islamic Republic differs from a religious state

5- Imam Khomeini "I will not become the top chief in the country"
6- Elimination of Bank Interests is Certain

7- Do Not Buy Houses, We Will Give Everyone a Home

8- The hapless leader of Iran's secular National Front, Karim Sanjabi "The essence of the Islamic Republic is democratic"

9- Imam Khomeini "The clerics must not become president"

15 Years for Iran's Cyber Hero, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki

There never was an anti-filtering software called Haystack. It simply never existed, yet its advocate, Austin Heap, was sweeping awards and accolades one after another. There was no shortage of media attention for Austin Heap, it was the story of Emperor's Clothes all over again. So much so that Haystack even got exemption from US technology export ban to Iran.

There is no hard evidence that Hossein Derakhshan, a blogger with strong connections to the regime, who constantly justified Ahmadinejad's administration and labelled Iranian opposition figures as Western stooges, is even in prison, yet the plight of the 'Blogfather' is all over the Western media.
Five Western Human Rights organisations and advocators of free speech have called for Derakhshan's release, Article 19, CFJE, CPJ, Index on Censorship and PEN Canada.

The true hero of Iran's struggle against internet censorship, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, however is in dire condition. He has just received a 15 year prison sentence and is in his sixth day of  hunger strike in protest against this unjust sentence.

Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court, presided by judge Mirabbas, issued the verdict. A court secretary by the name of Sattari orally served Ronaghi-Maleki the verdict.The judiciary officials told Ronaghi's mother, Zoleikha Moussavi, she should be grateful because her son's sentence should have been execution but they reduced it to a prison sentence and if he had co-operated and appeared on a television confesion it would have been further reduced.

Yet there is nothing about Hossein Ronaghi Maleki in the Western media. To my knowledge no freedom of expression organisation or human rights organisation in the West is actively campaigning for Hossein Ronaghi Maleki's release. What do you have to do to get in the Western media and win awards? have a non-existent product or be a regime apologist?

Hossein's mother with the picture of her son outside the prison:

Sadistic Bullies in Iran's Judiciary and Prisons

I have written about Hamed Rouhinejad before, the Iranian student of philosophy who is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and suffers from the debilitating MS disease.

Hamed's crippling MS has not made the Islamic Republic judiciary and prison authorities any more lenient or merciful. In fact they seem to enjoy maximising this poor young man's suffering. Iran's prison authorities and judiciary not only have denied him his medication, they transferred him to the remote prison in Zanjan too.

These sadistic bullies seem to enjoy watching a young man being tormented to a slow death. Hamed has now lost 50% of his visual and hearing senses and day by day more parts of his body is paralysed. To be a strong healthy man in Islamic Republic's prisons is hell, to endure these dungeons while incapacitated with a terrible disease like MS is beyond any imagination.

Despite the long journey from Tehran to Zanjan, Hamed's family have made every effort to visit him so that their son is not alone as he suffers this gruesome slow death. You would have thought even the cruelest, the most sadistic and heartless fiends would not prevent a young man in such conditions from having the one luxury of a family visit every now and then, yet after having made the long journey to see their son last week, Hamed's family were told they were not allowed to see him and his visiting privileges have been stopped until further notice. How utterly inhumane is that?

Those Iranian expats who attend the regime's dinners, should think about the Hameds in Iran before scuffing their iniquitous morsels.

Arya Aramnejad's Heroic Defence

I am standing before you in this court so that the Almighty will be a witness before you and I. A witness to what is happening today to our beloved Iran and to its brave sons and daughters. So that upon the judgement day when we are held accountable, those of us who stand proud and those of us who hold our heads down will remember that such is destiny. The final reward and punishment is only by God.

If justice was the benchmark, instead of me standing trial today, it should have been those who have disgraced Iran and Islam who should have been standing trial. The very people who want to plunder Iran's wealth and use Islam to cover up their foray and despotism.

The Derakhshan Enigma

'Iran doesn't have a policy of imprisoning people for the content of their blogs, as some human rights campaigners would have us believe.' - These were the words of Hossein Derakhshan, printed in the Guardian, May 7th, 2007.

But now the person who was responsible for writing that nonsense and a lot more nonsense on his blogs, especially on his blog in Persian, is supposed to have received 19 and half years in prison, or has he?

To me, Derakhshan just came across as a bisexual who liked his wine too much and so preferred to live outside Iran and enjoy the privileges and the freedoms in the West but at the same time he wanted the regime in Iran to survive, so that his rich daddy could finance his idle lifestyle. Which is more or less what can be said about many Lefties in the West, who although admire tyrants, still rather live in the centre of imperialism and rather not miss their intellectual progressive champagne parties.

Hossein Derakhshan is well connected in the elite circles of power in Iran. The Supreme Leader himself performed the wedding ceremony of Derakhshan's first marriage in Iran. His father is a wealthy Bazaar merchant and a member of the hardline Islamic Coalition Group in Iran. His uncle was a victim of the MeK bombing of the Islamic Republic Party Head Quarters in the eighties, the famous 'more than 72 martyrs' case, where IRI news agencies reported the casualties as 'more than 72 dead' to make it similar to the  battle of Karbala tragedy, where the prophet's grandson, Imam Hussein and his 72 companions were martyred in an unjust battle against the ruling Khalif.

Dying to Tell a Story - Journalists Under Attack

I went to a meeting organised by Article 19 and POLIS at Free Word Centre in Farringdon last night. The organisers had gathered an impressive panel of journalists and others who had personal experiences of violence against journalists around the world. In the panel were Sorious Samura, Heather Blake, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya, Rodney Pinder, Christopher Cobb-Smith, Maziar Bahari, Nathalie Losekoot, Milica Pesic and the meeting was chaired by Charlie Beckett. I let you google these panelists yourself or click on the links to see who they are.

My first thoughts as I sat down were if these panelists were all Iranians and the meeting was for an Iranian audience, there is no way the chairman could manage to wrap up the meeting in its allocated two hours. In fact one more addition to the panel was via a Skype connection with a journalist in Mexico, but embarrassingly I have forgotten his name. Credit to Charlie Beckett though, he chaired the meeting really well and the whole thing despite the variety of its panelists went very seamless and remained focused on the issues and finished in time.

So Who Were the People Who Attended Ahmadinejad's Dinner in New York

They call them Sundis-khors in Iran. Sundis is a cheap soft drink handed out to those who participate in the government organised rallies as rent a crowd pawns. Sundiskhor means someone who drinks Sundis and is a reference to those people who for the sake of getting a free Sundis drink are prepared to take part in the pro-regime rallies. One can argue that the Sundis-khors in Iran have a valid reason and we should not be judgemental about them, they may be hungry and poor, but the ones in the footage below who attended Ahmadinejad's dinner in NY, are not poor and hungry. You need a little more than a cake and a drink to buy these greedy expats. They need at least a three course meal at a posh hotel.

Liars Have a Bad Memory

The most I have been dreading about Ahmadinejad's trip to UN is the thought of US news networks interviewing him. So much so that I left the following comment on my Facebook status:

'I hear Larry KIng will be interviewing Ahmadinjead in New York again. If this is true, can someone tell this idiot not to make this monster look like a cuddly celebrity by asking him soft questions and instead educate himself with what is going on in Iran'

If we are to go by past precedence, a typical UN trip by Ahmadinejad will be a propaganda opportunity for this tyrant to represent his government as the 'axis of justice' and all Western governments to be the real human rights abusers, followed by some stupid US anchormen who will interview him without doing much background homework on what is going on in Iran and throw some soft questions at him which will win him more popularity with more 'useful idiots' turning up at his dinner invitations to take photos with him, and at the end he will return to Iran with his state controlled media calling the trip a huge success that has won over many friends for Iran!

Defecting Diplomats and Detained Lawyers

What are the signs of a regime crumbling and falling apart? Antony Thomas who fought against apartheid in South Africa most of his life, says 'It is unreasonable to expect unarmed people to win over the armed security apparatus of a repressive system, what happens at the end is that the very people in the ruling establishment reach a conclusion that it is impossible to continue with the status quo'.

Over the last fifteen months we have seen the circle of those still loyal to the establishment getting smaller and smaller. Karroubi described the Islamic Republic ship to have been reduced to that of a dingy boat. Significantly this week, we have seen two major defections within the Iranian Foreign Ministry's diplomatic service. The number two Iranian diplomat in Finland and the Press Attache in Belgium defected this week and openly affiliated themselves with the Green Movement. No one should underestimate these defections. These were both senior diplomats with more than 20 years service in the Iranian FMA. It must have been exceptionally hard for them to leave their positions, their careers and their privileges and risk the consequences of their decisions which includes the safety of themselves and their families. The Green Movement has embraced these courageous men with open arms and must value their sacrifices.

These defections started with the Iranian consul in Norway, Mohamad Reza Heydari. Unfortunately the media is always limited by air time and by the number of words to disseminate all the information. For example I doubt any Western media or Persian media for that matter, have reported Heydari's services during the war against Saddam Hussein. Heydari is registered with the Martyr Foundation and is classified as having received 40% injuries during the war. "The 1979 revolution has deviated from its path and from its original goals. When we fought and defended the country against Saddam, we did not envisage the country to deteriorate into the situation it is in now. What we want is for our people to gain their own destiny again and be free".

When the system starts to crumble, even the law of the land itself goes out of the window. This is what we are seeing within the Iranian judiciary. The establishment has become so desperate in preserving itself  that the judiciary itself has become the biggest law breaker in the country. Prominent Human Rights lawyers like Mohamad Olyaifard and Nassrin Sotoodeh are detained for daring to defend their clients and even their lawyers and their families are threatened for publicising their plight.

The dinghy boat now seems to be full of holes, with the remaining elite forcefully and hurriedly trying to patch the holes or throwing off more passengers to continue their miserable survival.

A Book is for Reading not for Burning

After the Islamic revolution, the zealot revolutionaries, ransacked Shapour Bakhtiar's home and destroyed all his books from his extensive library by burning them. Years later one of those zealots who had ransacked Bakhtiar's home, fled the Islamic Republic and seeked asylum in Paris. Repentant by what he had previously taken part in, he contacted Dr. Bakhtiar to express remorse and seek his forgiveness. Dr. Bakhtiar had replied "If you want forgiveness from me, all you have to do is read some of the books you destroyed"


I remember watching books being torn and set alight during the "cultural revolution" in Iran. It was a defining moment in my life. The horror of watching ignorant illiterate zealots destroy books was a horrifying experience. 


Those who kiss a book and those who burn books only show their ignorance. A book is for reading, you may like it or you may not like it but reading the book is the only way to treat a book.

How Do Chants of 'Death to Moussavi' Help the Palestinian Cause?

You only need to look at these two video footages to understand the hypocrisy of the AlQuds rallies held by the IRI embassies throughout European cities. In UK, the rally is organised by an IRI funded body calling itself Islamic Human Rights Commission. Here in this footage one can see Massoud Shajareh, the Iranian head of IHRC. At first he says some very nice encouraging words, "coming together regardless of creed standing up to the oppressors", but then watch him when he is asked about the oppression of Iranian protesters:



And here you see some Pakistani participants in the AlQuds rally chanting 'Marg bar Moussavi', Death to Moussavi!



Why would a body that calls itself Islamic Human Rights Commission teach its puppets to chant 'Death to Moussavi' in a supposedly 'pro-Palestinian' rally? How does that help the cause of Palestinians?

These goons are taught to chant Death to Moussavi, someone who led Iran during the war against Saddam Hussien and are marching towards the rally point, where former Saddam and Uday Hussein stooge, George Galloway will be speaking to their cheers and applauses.

I really hope these people will educate themselves a bit about the facts or we will sadly carry on witnessing more of these inhumanes scenes in Pakistan (see below), where lynch mobs beat two innocent Pakistani brothers to death in front of the local Sialkot police chief in Pakistan. If you want to liberate others first of all put your own house in order:



The Al-Quds rally does not do anything for Palestine or Palestinians. All the Al-Quds rally shows is that there is so much freedom in this country that even its most hardened adversaries are allowed to march in the streets. I mean imagine if the UK embassy organised a march in the streets of Tehran with protesters carrying pictures of the queen and the prime minister! I don't think we need to think twice what would happen to them.

Somaye Zadeh in Pro-IRI AlQuds Rally in London

Somaye Zade, or Somaye Bagherzadeh (full name) is the daughter of former MKO member, Hossein Bagherzadeh.  As well as being a studio manager for BBC World Service, she is also an active member of Iran Campaign, the arch apologists for the Iranian regime. She has gone on record during a Stop the War Coalition meeting as suggesting Iran's homosexuals are not harassed and they are free as long as they change their sex'  :))

Here she is trying to remove an Iranian dissident and former political prisoner from one of the Campaign Iran meetings in SOAS before she was assisted by a number of embassy goons. SWP member Dominique Kavakabian is seen standing next to her.



When the post election protests erupted in Iran, on a number of occasions she tried to take pictures of herself and her SWP comrades handing out Campaign Iran leaflets, so that they could pretend the protests outside the embassy were in tune with the Campaign Iran apologists and not in favour of regime overthrow.

Of course she was kicked out every time she was spotted:

and here she was marching amongst the Iranian regime organised AlQuds march yesterday:

More pictures from yesterday's rally by pro-Iranian government supporters:

Hammer and Sickle flag of Communists aloft at the pro-Iranian government rally. Don't these stupid people know how many unGodly Communists have been killed in Iran? Another clear demonstration of the failure by the Iranian Left to tell their comrades what Islamic Republic is about.

As usual, no one from BBC Persian to cover the event.

Media Coverage of Mostafaei's Family Reunion

Norwegian TV:
http://www.vgtv.no/?id=31818&category=1

Fox News coverage:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4328761/iranian-lawyers-family-reunited/?playlist_id=86857

Amy Kellogs:
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/09/02/lawyer%E2%80%99s-family-flees-iran/

Times Front Page:

A Beautiful Family Reunion

As soon as you can see Norway's magnificent forests and lakes from your aeroplane window, you get a sense of a freshness and natural beauty. You won't be wrong either, it is a beautiful country, it is efficiently run and the only oil producing country which has not fallen victim to despotism, corruption and mass poverty. Norway is prosperous, its people are beautiful, hospitable, courteous and very civilised. This was my first visit to a Scandinavian country but I wasn't going there as a tourist. I was going to Oslo to be alongside the famous Iranian Human Rights Lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, in what turned out to be a roller coaster of emotional anxiety and waiting but fortunately a very happy ending.

Mostafaei got in trouble with the regime in Iran after he helped publicise the stoning case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Unable to get hold of Mostafaei, the Iranian intelligence ministry had resorted to the despicable act of taking his family members as hostages. Mostafaei's wife, his brother-in-law and even his elderly father-in-law were all taken into Evin prison. They were being held as hostages to get their hands on Mostafaei. The regime's desperate act of taking family members as hostages however, only exposed the backwardness and illegality of Ahmadinejad's administration. As someone once told me, Islamic Republic's worst enemy is itself. They accuse everyone who disagrees with them as 'threats to national security' but the real threat to national security is none other than their own backward laws, their intolerance and their disregard for human rights and normal behaviour.

This morning however all those terrible times were put behind the Mostafaei family. Finally common sense prevailed and a loving wife and daughter joined their dear husband and father.

I am not going to write much more, I let the mass media that were there to cover this joyful event, do a better job than me. Just one note however to finish this post. There was not a single Iranian journalist there, no one from BBC Persian, VOA Persian, Radio Farda or any of those well funded organisations. An observation that once again confirms what I have said, we do not have good reporters outside Iran. We have lazy journalists who at best like to interview people. 


Watch the footage of the reunion here:
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10027091

Cry No More Parmida. No One Will Arrest Your Mum or Dad Now. 

Takhti, the People's Champion

Today is the birthday of Iran's greatest wrestler, Gholamreza Takhti but Takhti has not remained in the hearts of Iranians just for his sporting prowess and his medals, he was an icon of a true champ, a humble, gracious and valiant man who loved his people and stood by them until his last day. He had the strength of an ox, the heart of a lion and a legendary benevolence that will keep his memory alive for future generations of Iranians.

Takhti was born eighty years ago on this day in South Tehran's working class district of Khani Abad and started to train in the ancient art of zoorkhooneh and submission wrestling before being introduced to freestyle olympics wrestling and his subsequent successes in Iran's most popular sport at the time..

In 1961, in Tokyo, Takhti faced his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Medved, who had an injured knee. Rather than taking advantage of his rival's weakness and injured knee, Takhti made sure he went nowhere near Medved's injured knee. This honourable sportsmanship by Takhti earned Medved's respect and he spoke many times about Takhti's nobleness. Medved has visited Takhti's grave in Ebn Babooyeh cemetery in South Tehran several times since Takhti's death.

During the oil nationalisation struggle, Takhti wholeheartedly embraced the national movement of Iranian resistance and became the honorary member of the movement's central council. Despite his ever growing popularity because of his sporting prowess, his charitable work, his patriotism and loyalty, he remained as humble as ever. His untimely death devastated a whole nation, thousands joined his funeral procession and seven people reported to have committed suicide in the sorrow of losing Takhti.

Whose side would Takhti be on if he was alive today? Have no doubt, Takhti never submitted to bullies and dictators.

The Hero Amongst the People

Takhti, First followed by Russian and US champions

Takhti Proudly Carrying the Sun and Lion Flag

What Women Should and Should not Watch

More from Ahmad Khatami, Tehran's Friday Prayer Leader. This time he talks about what women can watch and can not watch and 'useful idiots' think by supporting these clerics in Iran they are 'progressive' and working for peace :)))

See exact translation of what he says below:



'The contaminated look, saws the seed of lust and this is the agent of sedition, this satellite aerial has no common ground with the religion and morality of your children, you open your eyes and see a child without a religion has been brought up in this house, boy and girl with no religion have been raised, satellite channel films, even the scientific ones are with sexual attraction, their sport programs are also with sexual attractions, their mission is nothing but to subvert the viewers, not just Iranians or Arab countries, they have the mission of subversion, so know that these satellite dishes and programs have nothing other than the subversion of religion and morality of your children, some times they say we want to watch their sports programs, see their scientific programs, these are all excuses, praise Allah, our own state TV produces the most advanced scientific programs, most advanced sports programs for our youth, just one contaminated look at a contaminated film causes them to distance themselves from the mosque and Hosseinieh, I want to emphasise that is also haram for women to watch namahram men, women do not have the right to watch a wrestling [film] that is being shown on TV, this is the stipulation of the fatwas by the sources of the emulation, they[women] are not allowed to watch swimming [films] shown on TV where male swimmers are, this is haram, these have been stipulated by grand sources of emulation, do not tell me so why does the state tv show them? well the state tv shows these but it does not mean every person is allowed to watch every program. Of course let me emphasise here that television should observe the sharia laws in its programs, we are not here to justify [wrongs] but this is the crunch of the matter, what is decreed for this woman who is watching tv when a wrestling match for youth or otherwise is shown, is she should not watch them,'

Finally Some Common Sense About the 1953 Coup

You only have to search my blog to see how I have been screaming about apologists and useful idiots who keep using the 1953 coup as an excuse for justifying their support for the atrocities committed by the current theocracy in Iran. How often have I come across useful idiots who no matter what the Iran related topic is, whether it is Neda's murder or Zahra Kazemi's murder, somehow think it is relevant to bring up the 1953 coup against Mossadegh. Those who read my blog will know how often I have been reminding these apologists and useful idiots that the main culprits of the 1953 coup were non other than the Iranian clergy and their army of cut throat thugs and hoodlums always at their disposal.

At last I think some common sense is finding its way through. Ray Takeyh's article in the Washington Post correctly concludes:
'American politicians have a penchant for acknowledging guilt and apologizing for past misdeeds. But responsibility for the suffocation of the Iranian peoples' democratic aspirations in the summer of 1953 lies primarily with those who went on to squash another democratic movement in the summer of 2009 -- the mullahs. It is they who should apologize to the Iranian people.'
Well done Ray Takeyh for finally knocking some sense into the issue of the 1953 coup.

More interestingly, is the recent revelation by Iran's first elected president, Banisadr, who was ousted by an impeachment signed by Ayatollah Khomeini in June 1981. In an interview with Iran-Emrooz, he reveals that the messenger cleric who received the fatwa, in support of the coup, from Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi, the Major Source of Emulation for the Shiites at the time, and passed it to Ayatollah Behbahani,  was none other than Khomeini himself. Well there you go, no wonder Ayatollah Khomeini hated Mossadegh and even the mention of his name so much! Will the apologists and useful idiots now stop justifying the regime's atrocities with the 1953 coup?

Sermon on Good Words and Respectful Speaking

Translation:

Tehran's Friday Prayer leader speaking on Good Words and Respectful Speaking:

"In the battle of Siffin, Amirolmemenin [The leader of the faithful – the prophet's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, the first Shiite Imam and fourth Sunni Khalif] saw some of Islam's early disciples, some distinguished disciples in fact, I don't want to name names, were insulting Moavieh's [opposing side of the battle of Siffin] disciples, the Amir told them not to, he said 'I don't like you to be vulgar and shout obscenities at others, instead of hurling profanites at them lets show them the wrong path they have taken, there is no need to use foul language'.

At the end of this however, I have to say that to clarify one's position is not the same as uttering profanities, chanting Death to America and Death to Israel is not profanity as some people suggest, it is declaring where we stand, It says it in the Koran itself, 'Death to the unbelievers' or 'May the unbelievers be damned forever' is a statement on where one stands, no one should interpret these as bad language, this is not profanity, this is in the holy Koran, Death to America is a statement of distancing ourselves from unbelievers, because a Muslim must seek friendship with the faithful and keep his distance from the unfaithful. Meaning a Muslim has both holy compassion and holy rage at the same time. And so this was my talk on speaking good words and respectful speaking"

Ali Karimi v Ajorloo, Good v Hypocrisy

There have been some reports in the Western media on Ali Karimi, dubbed 'Maradona of Asia', having been sacked from his club, Steel Azin, for refusing to fast during a football match. There is more to all this however than just the fasting issue during the month of Ramadan. Ali Karimi's saga is part of a wider story which is going on in Iran right now, the divide between those sportsmen and artists who are standing by the people against the coup administration and those sycophants who are going out of their way to endear themselves to the ruling oligarchy.

Ali Karimi was one of the six Iranian national football team players who wore green armbands in solidarity with the Iranian protesters during the world cup qualifying match with South Korea in Seoul. Apart from his sporting heroics, Karimi is a true people's champion. Former Iranian national football team player, Hamid Steeli who scored with the unforgettable header against the US in the 1998 world cup, describes Karimi as a truly genuine human being who, unknown to most people looks after several orphan kids, he is frank and speaks fearlessly for what is right, I have never known someone so frank, especially that his candid remarks are often made in support of others.

Steeli has not been the only one to speak up for Karimi. Khodad Azizi, also a former national team player, said in support of Karimi 'when Karimi speaks, he dares to say what millions of people are too scared to say, I too broke the fast during the football matches, to fast or not to is not a matter that can be forced on people. We are all responsible for our own actions in the afterworld.'

Karimi's team mate at Steel Azin club, Gholami in a truly sporting spirit has also stood up for Ali Karimi and said 'I came to this club because of Karimi, we will all do everything to reinstate him'. Gholami also confirmed national team player, Mehrzad Madanchi's statements that everyone in the club that day had lunch in a restaurant. Madanchi said 'We are all Muslims but we can not fast during football matches, it is impossible. There were water bottles by the side of the pitch for the players but I never saw Karimi drink one during that football match'.

Babak Massumi, the former captain of Iran's indoor football team told IPNA news, "People must know that when I was diagnosed with cancer and the medics had lost all hope, it was Ali Karimi's generosity that made sure my medical bills were paid. He even paid for me to be upgraded to a private room and yet he never told a soul about this'.

Within hours of Karimi's sacking, thousands joined a facebook page set up in his support (حمایت از علی کریمی). 

Yesterday, even pro-Ahmadinejad sites admitted that during Steel Azin's match without Ali Karimi, the crowds continuously chanted in support of Ali Karimi.

So you get the picture what sort of a person Ali Karimi is and the support he enjoys amongst other players. Lets see now who his adversary, Mostafa Ajorloo, the managing director of Steel Azin, who is responsible for sacking Karimi is.  This is how Mostafa Ajorloo described himself on the popular sports program, Ninety:
'I am Mostafa Ajorloo, a revolutionary guard, and I have faith in all religious values, after all, our Islamic revolution, as described by the Supreme Leader and the late Imam, as being all about observing our religious values and nothing else, and I am not here just for football, I am here for my religious values' - Enough said I think.


Karimi with orphan kids:

Karimi with Babak Massoumi:

People's champion:

New 'Your Excellency' Replaces the Old 'Your Excellencies'

So finally Press TV broadcast Galloway's interview with Ahmadinejad last night. Galloway kept referring to Ahmadinejad as "Your Excellency". At 14:14 he also tries to endear himself to Ahamdinejad by referring to the 'attack' he suffered in the House of Commons! The 'attack' he refers to of course is when we asked him how he could go on about the brutality of the UK police when he worked for Saddam and now Ahmadinejad.



And here is another excellency he was very keen on in the past:



and of course the Mother of All Your Excellencies, the indefatigable Saddam Hussein :

More Pictures From the Conference of Iranians Abroad in Tehran [Ahmadinejad Propaganda Circus]

Some more pictures from the Great Conference of Iranians Abroad".

An Iranian "elite" expat raises his fist in the air and demands that "a new suit is his blatant right for participating in the conference". Naturally he gets one the next day:

Expat lovers of the "popular" president in the conference rush towards him to get his autograph or pass on their letters of request to him. A female Iranian expat in the process is surrounded by men and seems to like it:

The most sickening picture of the conference. How low must one get to kneel in front of Ahmadinejad?

Letter from One of the Participants in the Pro-Ahmadienjad Conference

This letter has been received from one of the participants in the pro-Ahmadinejad propaganda circus which was named 'The Great Conference of Iranians Abroad'.

'I am an experienced doctor currently residing in Germany who took part in the conference you wrote about and was unwillingly used for the propaganda purposes of this administration. I just wanted to tell you about some aspects of this conference which until now have not been reported.

1- The conference was supposed to be a two day conference only and even then one day only was allocated for the conference, the first day was supposed to have been for rest and settling in. As soon as we arrived however, they told us they were extending the conference to three days.

2- When we arrived in the airport we were kept behind for five hours. They told us this is because they wanted to issue us with proper conference photo IDs, but after they scanned our passports and all the waiting, we were issued with very ordinary passes with no photos and just our basic details. I will explain later why they did this.

3- No one had told us Ahamdinejad would turn up in the conference. We were told we would be divided up into working groups based on our expertise and there will be work shops which will be participated by the country's relevant universities. Needless to say that none of these workshops happened and we were surprised when Ahmadinejad turned up.

4- More than 700 people had been invited but if you look at the pictures you will see many empty chairs. This is because something around 250 people left the conference room when Ahmadinejad appeared. More left when they heard Ahmadinejad's speech and on the second day of the conference, some even left their hotels and went and stayed with their families.

5- From the minute we got to our hotels, an argument broke out between Foreign Ministry staff and those working for the presidential office. At the end the argument intensified so much so that the Foreign Ministry staff decided to leave altogether and were replaced by more from the president's office.

6- Both the FM staff and those from the president's office were continuously asking the conference guests how they could apply for a scholarship and go abroad to study. These questions became so repetitive that on the second day one of the conference guests screamed back and said 'why do you think we are university scholarship agents?'

7- None of us managed to make the slightest contact with any of the universities. In fact any such attempt was blocked by security staff.

8- Just before the opening ceremony, we saw a large batch of conference cards brought into the conference room and handed out to people who looked nothing like academics nor had they come from outside Iran. None of the guests in any of the three hotels ever saw them staying in the hotels either. This was why Foreign Minister staff had been arguing with staff from the president's office. The Foreign Ministry office staff wanted to issue photo id conference cards and only let the invited guests from outside Iran into the conference but the presidential office staff had plans to mix in their own stooges and stage manage the propaganda exercise.

9- That person you mentioned in your post about kneeling down in front of Ahmadinejad, was one of those who was not from abroad and was planted in. He was their own stooge and it seemed they had rehearsed this stomach wrenching scene many times before. It was all planned, he knew exactly which way to go and when and where to kneel in front of Ahmadienjad.

10- Lastly let me tell you about the AIC president, Hooshang Amirahmadi, who was in Tehran at the time too. I was in the same hotel with him. I walked up to him when I saw him and exchanged greetings.
I asked him if he will be speaking at the conference? He said no I am not even coming to the conference, it is not expedient and will be controversial if I do. I then asked jokingly, have you brought a message from Obama? He said curtly 'No.' I said 'So are you carrying a message from here to Obama?' his reply was a long drawn 'we will see'

Who is Threatening the 'National Security'?

Mohammad Mostafaei, the lawyer who was defending Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and many others including more than 100 political prisoners is accused of threatening Iran's national security by the regime's intelligence ministry, presumably by creating bad publicity for the country with the Sakineh story. Mostafei however is not the one who is keeping the Sakineh story in the news. The Sakineh story was about to run out of its newsworthiness until the regime's intelligence ministry tried to arrest Mostafaei. That then became new news. Then they took his wife and brother-in-law as hostages to get him back, this again became new news. Then they arrested his father-in-law, again this meant the Sakineh story was still news worthy. They then continued to incarcerate Mostafei's wife even on their daughter's seventh birthday. Keeping an innocent mother away from her daughter even on her seventh birthday once again stirred emotions and it became new news. Yesterday they made Sakineh to confess on TV against herself and her lawyer which once again hit the international headlines.

If the Islamic judiciary in Iran sees the Sakineh publicity as a threat against national security, then it only has itself to blame. In order not to appear to give in to international pressure, the regime is digging a hole for itself that is even distancing its own allies like the Brazilian president De Silva. It is the regime itself that by insisting to keep a barbaric law like stoning in its penal code is showing its true outdated medieval nature to the world public opinion, not a lawyer who is only doing his duty, defending his clients.

They Pulled My Teeth Out to Teach Me a Lesson

Ahmad Bab is a Kurdish civil activist from Marivan. He worked with various civil groups in the Iranian Kurdistan, including the environmental NGO, CHYA in Marivan.

Two years ago he organised a peaceful demonstration by 1000 unemployed workers in Marivan outside the governor's office, with their main slogan of 'Bread, Peace, Freedom'. He has never been a memebbeen in and out of Islamic Republic prisons in the last seven years for his involvement in civil activities, but this time things were different. On September 27th last year, armed agents burst into his house at night and took him away with them. His seven year old son, Karo, has suffered a stutter from the sheer fear he experienced that night ever since.

Galloway's Broadcast from Tehran

George Galloway's Press TV broadcast from Tehran after he attended Ahmadienjad's propaganda conference last week:

Richard Frye's Reward

The American academic, Richard Frye, got more than the Iranian expats who took part in the Ahmadinejad propaganda circus last week. Apart from free flight ticket and accommodation, Professor Richard Frye was also given a residential house in Isfahan.

Frye accepted this generous award at a time when the regime had issued an arrest warrant against the human rights defence lawyer, Mohammad Mostafei, and had taken his family as hostages. Frye accepted this reward when 17 Iranian political prisoners are on hunger strike and their families have been beaten up for protesting outside Evin prison. Why are these academics so remote from what goes on this planet? How long does the 90 year old Frye think he has left? Is it worth taking this blood gift in the last days of one's life? Is it worth leaving such a legacy? I hope the regime's days are as numbered as his.

See pictures below:

Presumably they expect him to convert into Islam in return, they have left him a prayer mat in his bedroom:

Showing off his state of the art shower, but will be able to wash off the stain on his name:

I wonder who he will dine with:

When They Murdered Bakhtiar

Today is the anniversary of the murder of Shapour Bakhtiar. Killed alongside his secretary, Soroush Katibeh, by the agents of the Islamic Republic and with the collusion of Mitterand's Socialist government in France.

Bakhtiar, a long time opponent of the Shah, who had served a total of six years in the Shah's prisons, accepted his premiership in the peak of the 1979 frenzy, because he had the foresight to see the catastrophe that was about to happen in Iran. If only more people had the vision of this great Iranian secular politician.

This year France released one of his killers, who received a hero's welcome by the Islamic Republic officials.

The Treachery of Iranian expats who Took Part in Ahmadinejad Propaganda Conference

For several months, Islamic Republic embassies throughout Europe and North America have been searching for Iranian expats to attend a propaganda conference to promote Ahamdinejad and his administration. A masquerade disguised as the get together of the Iranian 'elite' outside Iran, but the real purpose was none other than to demoralise the population inside Iran by pretending the government enjoys widespread support outside Iran.

Once the so called expat 'elite' were short listed by the embassies, the letter seen on the left here was sent to them. The last paragraph undertakes the entire cost of the trip and the accommodation etc. will be paid by the government.

This conference was held over the last two days in Tehran. So lets see who some of this pro-Ahmadinejad elite are.



And why not start with our own favourite George Galloway, who despite losing his seat in the parliament, is still introduced by the Iranian state TV as a UK MP. How he fits in with the Iranian 'elite' baffles me:



and here is Sheikh Mansour Laghaii, the Iranian Shiite cleric who was deported from Australia. Does he still count as an 'elite expat'?

And of course the familiar London based Parivash Fatemi, who used to wine and dine with the Shah's generals in the imperial court cocktail parties [Picture on the Left] but is now suddenly keen on wearing a scarf [Picture on the Right, back row] and applauding over enthusiastically for Ahmadienajd:

This character, I don't know who he is yet, wins the super sycophant award of the conference. He claims he trains pilots abroad and that he was about to sign a business deal worth 8.5 Million Euros but because there was a petty insult against the popular Mr. President, I refused to sign the contract! Yeah Right!

And here is a BIG Iranian expat 'elite' studying the lunch menu next to probably some clueless arsehole expat 'elite' who has probably been put off lunch for a while:

And watch this from last year, take it forward to 2:46, yes it is Ali Dezaii who sadly couldn't attend this year's conference, as he is now a guest of Her Majesty's Prison.

Now They Have Arrested Mostafaei's Father-in-Law

Never underestimate this regime's ability to shoot itself in the foot. The stoning of Sakineh story which had grabbed the headlines in the Western press was about to pass its newspaper sell by date, when the Islamic Republic's 'intelligence' agents decided to arrest Mostafaei, Sakineh's lawyer. When Mostafaei went into hiding, the regime instead embarked on one of the things it is best at, taking hostages. Mostafei's wife and his brother-in-law were taken hostages and so the Sakineh story got a new life in the Western press.

Over the weekend the regime has shot itself once more in the foot, they have now arrested Mostafaei's elder father-in-law on Saturday.

My heart in all this goes to Mostafei's six year old daughter, more than anyone else. It is her seventh birthday tomorrow. It should have been a happy occasion and a cause for celebration with friends and family around. Instead this poor little girl is now all alone with her elderly grandmother looking after her.

They told the severn year old Parmida, that her father is away seeing a client in a provincial town and her mother and uncle have gone away for a short break, but Parmida is not eating and is crying all the time. She is convinced her parents have died and they are not telling her the truth. Now she is missing her grandfather too. This talented little girl will now be scarred for the rest of her life.

Damn this regime, damn its supporters, damn those who choose to remain silent against all this evil.

Families of Political Prisoners Gather Outside Prosecutor's Office

In Iran, when there is no news from political prisoners and visits are stopped, it is usually bad news. It reverberates memories of the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. Back then too, just prior to the massacre, all contacts from inside and all visits by family members were stopped.

Yesterday, families of some political prisoners gathered outside the prosecutor's office and protested to the worsening situation of political prisoners in Iran.

A Regime that Detains Lawyers for Defending their Clients

This is a picture of Abolfazl Abedini, his hands and his feet are chained as he is briefed by his lawyer. Abolfazl Abedini is a human rights activist. He has never taken up arms or engaged in any violence.

After the crackdown by government security agents against human rights activists, Abedini was arrested at his family’s home in Ramhormoz on March 3, this year. He was brutally assaulted, beaten, and taken away. He was later transferred to ward 2a in Evin prison and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.

His council, seen in the picture holding papers, is Mohammad Oliyaifard. He is also now detained in ward 350 of Evin prison to serve a one year prison sentence

Iran's Forgotten Cyber Warrior

His name is Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, or as he was better known with his Noms de guerre on Facebook, Babak Khorramdin, the Iranian hero who resisted the Arab invaders from his castle in Badh,  for more than twenty years.

Hossein is an IT whiz kid, a genius who decided to use his intellect to serve his people in beating the government control on information and news censorship. During last year's post-election fraud protests, Hossein played a pivotal role in providing anti-filters and fresh updated proxies before the expected protest days, which were then quickly spread amongst Iran's cyber community to help the citizen journalists to show what was going on inside Iran to the world. His arrest became the intelligence ministry's top priority. The Supreme Leader, Khamanei, was the modern day Caliph, hell bent on capturing the modern day Babak, who was shaking the very foundations of his rule, from his cyber base trenches.

When the historic Babak was captured, the Abbassid Caliph,  Al-Mu'tassam, wanted to convey the most devastating message to Babak's followers by handing out the most barbaric punishment to Babak. The Caliph ordered his henchmen, to cut off Babak's legs and arms one by one and make him die of a slow death.

Babak bravely dabbed his face with the drained blood pouring out of his cuts, thus depriving the Caliph and the rest of the Abbasid army from seeing his face go pale as a result of the heavy loss of blood, so that they didn't get the impression he looked scared.

Since his capture, Hossein has been subjected to the most horrific tortures, and to make matters worse, he suffers from heart and kidney ailments. His brother Hassan was also imprisoned, even though Hassan had no role in any political activity. To put eve more pressure on Hossein in order to break him down, he was forced to watch his brother being tortured for a month, which led to Hassan suffering neck injuries.

The regime is denying Hossein much needed medical treatment. On the last occasion he had a telephone conversation with his mother, he could not finish his call because of constant severe coughing.

Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, our modern day equivalent of Babak Khorramdin, is now on hunger strike, and is resisting all the regime's barbaric pressures to appear on state TV and make a false confession. He is dabbing his face with blood to deny the regime's henchmen the satisfaction that they have broken him down.

While so many people undeservedly are basking in receiving awards and acclaims without ever having contributed to breaking the internet censorship in Iran, with much hype on bogus non-existent anti-filter softwares, the true hero of Iran's cyber revolution, Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki remains forgotten and unattended but he is standing proud and resolute to the end.

Released Iran Student Exposes the Conditions in Iran's Prisons

Iman Sadighi was a student at Babol Industrial university, and active member of the university's Islamic Society. he is banned from continuing his education and served 130 days in Babol prison. He was charged with 'acting against national security and carrying out propaganda against the regime'.

The following are excerpts of his account of what goes on inside Iran's prisons:

'I was arrested in my house, they broke my door, pointed a gun at me and took away all the electronic equipment as well as my personal belongings and documents in my house. I was taken to Babol intelligence ministry and was tied to a metal bar for four hours before I was interrogated. After 10 days of interrogation, I was taken to Babol prison, I was released on bail 17 days later until my trial,which turned out to be a complete show trial, it was obvious the  judge had already made up his mind and sentenced me to 10 months in prison. Once again I was taken to Babol prison.

We were held with dangerous common criminals, prisoners who had committed crimes like murder, kidnapping, rape. There were ten rooms in that wing and each room held 15 prisoners. Fighting amongst prisoners and homosexual acts was a daily occurrence. In one incident two inmates had a fight with each other and one of them bit the other's ear off, then to prove how dangerous he was, he chewed and swallowed the ear.

On another occasion, two prisoners were chained to each other from the legs and brought out in the yard for punishment. One of them had to perform a homosexual act on the other and every time he got tired and stopped, he was beaten on the head and made to continue. Other inmates who were watching just cheered and laughed.

You felt that there was nothing of humanity left inside the prison. At times like this one even hates being a human being. Most of these inmates were so high on drugs, they had become insane, they should have been in mental hospitals and not in prison.

We asked the prison authorities to give a special wing for political detainees, but the prison chief said, 'I don't provide special wing for counter revolutionaries'.

One of our friends, Mohsen Barzegar was attacked by another prisoner while using the phone, he was slashed across the throat, the news leaked out and finally the prison chief agreed to put the political detainees in a special wing. The special wing was a run down place not used to hold prisoners for years. To begin with, we had real problems with the basic hygiene. Our rooms were infested with cockroaches, sometimes the cockroaches would even get in our food. At night, the cockroaches would get into our beds and we would wake up with them crawling over our faces. To add to all this, our blankets were infested with lice and there were rats that came in the cell from time to time. We killed over 180 cockroaches in five days and washed the blankets which I think were last washed 10 years ago, to make life easier, but despite all this, we were better off than what as happening to Mr. Ali Tari, who was Moussavi's campaign manager in Babolsar.

This 51 year old man was kept in a solitary cell, so small it was like one's grave, for seventy two days. There are no toilets in these solitary cells, prisoners are only ever allowed to use the toilets three times a day, many times they can't wait for their turn and they have to do their toilet in the cell, which is why the solitary wing cells reek of excrement stench. This 51 year old man was accused of having sprayed paint over the Supreme Leader's banner and the intelligence ministry agents used to boast about what they had done to Mr. Tari.

During my time in prison, I saw a reformist prisoner, who had served 8 years during the war with Iraq, he had several of his fingers cut off as a result of war injuries, yet despite his glorious war record, he was put in the same hole as the rest of the common criminals. One thing is for certain though, whoever serves in the Islamic Republic's prisons will never forgive this regime ever again.

Defected Iranian Diplomat Faces Deportation by Japan

At a time like this all efforts should be made to expedite regime defections. The whole establishment has ran out of options and could crumble like a pack of cards if the right push is given. What is happening to the defected Iranian diplomat, Abolfazl Eslami in Japan, does not however inspire confidence, as he and his sons face deportation to the Islamic Republic by the Japanese authorities.

Abolfazl Eslami joined Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986, but after the murder of Iranian born Canadian photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, he decided to resign and encouraged his other discontented colleagues to resign too. Since he was previously the Iranian embassy councillor in Tokyo and it was not possible for him to contact Western embassies in Iran, Eslami decided to leave Iran for Tokyo.

In January 2006, he arrived in Tokyo. He was told Japan is a member of UNHCR and he could seek asylum there. As he waited for the UNHCR to complete his process, the Iranian regime traced his whereabouts and first tried to entice him into returning by bribes and promises and when that didn't work, the tactics changed to physical harassment and threats and Eslami had to relocate his family outside Tokyo.

With the start of the Green Movement in Iran, Eslami was more encouraged and along with his two sons, they took part in the demos outside the Iranian embassy in Tokyo. On May 16th, this year, his house was raided by seven Japanese policemen after a complaint was made by Abbas Eraghchi, the IRI ambassador to Tokyo. The Japanese police wanted to detain his two sons who had splashed green paint on the embassy walls.

Eslami and his sons were taken to a police station and interrogated for hours. Eslami explained that he and his sons were demonstrating against the cruelty of the regime in Iran but the Japanese police were more interested in that splashing paint on a public building wall is a criminal act with a maximum of 3 years imprisonment, 300000 Yen fine and payment of the cleaning expenses. Even worse, Eslami was told his two sons faced deportation back to Iran after their student visa ran out. Eslami explained what would happen to them if they were deported to Iran, but the Japanese police were unsympathetic and said 'If prison and torture is the punishment for opposing the government in Iran, then your sons should obey the Iranian law'.

The Japanese police were keen to show some flexibility however, if Abolfazl Eslami and his sons apologised to the Iranian ambassador in Tokyo, then he may be persuaded to drop the charges.

Not exactly an inspiring story to encourage other regime officials to defect. Imagine if a Soviet diplomat defected during the cold war years, I am sure he wouldn't have been treated like this.

Common Goals of the 'Great Leader' and the 'Supreme Leader'

Whenever someone used to ask me to explain to them what is going on inside Iran, I would start by saying Islamic Republic is not North Korea, meaning the despotism is not as absolute in Iran as it is in North Korea and there are avenues for dissent and civil society within the Islamic Republic. Sadly however IRI is fast moving towards becoming an Islamic version of North Korea.

In a fringe meeting of Inter Parliamentarian Union conference in Geneva, Iran's speaker of Parliament, Ali Larijani, 'hailed staunch bilateral ties between the two 'nations!' and thanked North Korea's contributions to Iran under Kim-Il-Sung, the Great Leader' Press TV reports.

For his part, North Korean speaker Choe Thae Bok highlighted his country's full support for the Islamic Republic and the common goals the two states have.

Its obvious what the common goals of Communist North Korea that allows no worship of any religion in the country and that of the Islamic Republic which has massacred thousands of Iranian Communists are, the total subjugation of their people. Ideologies they pretend to adhere to after all are just superficial excuses to control the people.

And just what were the two doing in Geneva? So much for the strict European sanctions.