This weblog was created to act as a platform for the voice of secular pro-democracy activists in and outside Iran who are struggling against the religious dictatorship of the Islamic clerics in Iran. Follow me on https://gettr.com/user/potkazar or My Telegram Channel https://t.me/SledgeHammerNews
My favourite quote:
"Evil only prevails when the good stay silent"
When Nasrollah's anti-Persian video went round the internet and inflamed the feelings of Iranians, it was some BBC Persian reporter who sawed the seeds of doubt by claiming the video was a fake. In fact it was totally genuine, the text of Nasrollah's speech was available on Hezbollah's website and confirmed exactly with what was said on the video of his speech.
On Saturday, BBC Persian made another similar suspicious error. The demonstration by some Afghans is clearly against the Iranian regime and the recent executions in Iran. The banner clearly says 'We condemn the execution of political prisoners by the Iranian REGIME', yet the BBC headline says 'Anti-IRANIAN Protests across several Afghan Cities'.
The claim that this is some anti-Iranian protest is not just in the headline, it is also included in the main text. It says, anti-Iranian protests in Afghanistan started at the ...
BBC Persian seriously needs to review its personnel seriously sharpish.
Look how many "affluent North Tehran" kids took part in the protests in Tehran (Left) and nearly 'all sections' of the Egyptian society turning up to Tharir Sq. in Cairo (Right)
This is reported as 'Mass Demonstration' by the Western Mainstream media
and yet Iran protests were so under reported. Why? Because IRI quickly kicked out foreign journalists and cracked down hard on any one seen with a mobile phone camera.
It is of course always heart warming to see people any where in the world overcoming despotic regimes. As the Iranian historian Kasravi said 'Nothing is as rapturous as when the people win their freedom'. The recent events in Tunisia and in Egypt, the people power challenging a despotic regime, had many similarities with the events in Iran last year, but there are stark differences which may explain why it seems the concessions won in Tunisia and Egypt have been gained so much quicker.
Watching the pictures from Tunisia and Egypt, it looks the crowd sizes in Iran were much larger. None of the protests in Egypt or Tunisia came any where near the three million crowd who came to the streets in Tehran, six days after the fraudulent elections in June last year. The repression by the regime in Iran was many times more brutal and savage than that in Tunisia or Egypt however. People in Egypt and Tunisia were not attacked in their homes and pulled from their roof tops for simply chanting Allah Akbar at night. The injured protesters in Tunisia and Egypt were not attacked in hospitals and dragged from their hospital beds. Protesters were not arrested and bused into detention centres like Kahrizak and raped in Tunisia and Egypt like they were in Iran.
The Iranian regime is one that seized power through a revolution and is thus well experienced in how to avert a revolution. As a friend of mine in Iran quoted his revolutionary guards commander "we will do everything the Shah didn't do and not do any thing that the Shah did during the 1979 revolution. Just one concession will open the floodgates and increase people's confidence in overthrowing the regime, we will not give one concession to the protesters"
Just one reminder of how brutal the repression in Iran was, watch the video of attack on student dormitories here, which resulted in five students killed:
Foreign journalists were not kicked out in Egypt and Tunisia as they were in Iran quickly after the protests erupted.
When Iranian protesters used social networking tools like Facebook and twitter and citizen journalists uploaded their mobile phone pictures and videos, the Iranian protesters were quickly labeled by rich Western Left-wing intellectuals as "affluent North Tehran kids" who did not represent the country.
Had these pictures been taken in Iran, these girls would have been labeled as middle class elite:
In Tunisia, Trade Unions with several thousand members existed and could be used to organise the protests. In Iran, the smallest gathering and organisation which is not sanctioned and controlled by the official channels is impossible to survive.
Obama and other Western leaders were quick to condemn violence in Egypt and Tunisia, yet when it came to Iran, they dithered and fretted in case their condemnation of killings was interpreted by the Iranian regime as Western interference!
Overthrow of any fierce dictatorship needs the broadest possible coalition, but many Iranian expats did all they could to undermine such coalition and propagate divisions.
Watching all this perhaps nothing was more annoying than the filthy Press TV hypocrite, Yvonne Ridley claim "What the Egyptian people are doing is so courageous because what they are facing, as we can see on our screens, is this terrible machine which seeks to instil fear and brutalises the people."
Yvonne Ridley of course ignores the courageous people who rose up against the terrible state terror machine of her pay masters in Iran.
Stop the War Coalition who through out the protests in Iran refused to express any solidarity with the Iranian protesters by using the excuse that "we are only concerned with war situations" did not lose any time to express solidarity with the people of Egypt. Next Wednesday, they will hold a public meeting in Conway Hall in solidarity with the Egyptian uprising, with speakers like George Galloway and John Rees, God help the Egyptian people from such solidarity expressions!
As Mark Urban said on BBC tonight, "all such revolutions are of epic importance and consequences, the outcome however is uncertain and any extremist violent minority group could seize power as they did in Iran in 1979 and in Russia in 1917"
The chances of a violent minority group seizing power through protests in Iran last year was always much more remote, because of the tolerance and peacefulness displayed by the protesters throughout the protests:
Friday Prayer leader of Mashad, NE Iran, is well known for his outrageous and beyond stupid sermons but I think one his claims, made two years ago, that the Hidden Imam (the Lord of All Ages) is helping Iran's nuclear industry, tops all of his shows.
In an interview two years ago with Raja News, Seyed Ahmad Alam-al-Hoda, claimed that Iran's nuclear scientists had been to see him in Mashad the year before and told him that to move forward with obtaining the nuclear technology, they had purchased a machinery equipment. "The machinery did not work however until the Hidden Imam pointed out there were tiny little holes in it which could not even be observed with the most powerful microscopes!!"
He then went on to say, "some dismiss claims that the management of the country is being aided and supervised by the Hidden Imam, they seem to think that after 1200 years of occultation, the Hidden Imam has become some idle figure living on an island with his family. Some ignorant people say that this island is the same Bermuda Island but the Americans have gone there and have said there is no Hidden Imam there."
Some may really have believed Alam-al-Hoda, when he made the claim about Hidden Imam advising the nuclear scientists about the defects in the machinery that had been purchased, but I wonder if they now ask, so why didn't the Hidden Imam do anything about the Stuxnet virus? Does he just advise on hardware defects and not software issues?
Alam-al-Hoda did however ask a valid question in that infamous interview with the Iranian hardline daily, Rajanews. He asked, those who think the Hidden Imam is not playing a role in running the world and managing Iran's affairs but instead is resting until he is called upon, should ask why would there then be a need for a 1200 year old Imam, when the Almighty might as well create one overnight and send him before it is the right time?
When Majid Jamali Fashi was paraded on Iranian TV as the Mossad agent who had assassinated Iranian physicist, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, it wasn't so much his calm demeanour that prompted questions in my mind but something he said that didn't sound right. Majid Jamali talked about landing at Tel Aviv airport and the visa officer at the airport, who only spoke Hebrew, started giving him problems until the Israeli officer in charge of the operation, waiting in the queue behind him, stepped forward, showed his ID card, sorted out the misunderstanding and took him through.
First question that came to my mind was, if someone was recruited to carry out such an operation, would they go through the normal visa channels in the airport? and even if yes, wouldn't the officer in charge, go up to the visa desk first and explain what is going on, then ask the recruit to come forward? Also where in the world, apart from in Dulles Airport, Washington, do Visa officers at the airports not speak some English?
With these questions in mind, more information about who Majid Jamali Fashi is, has come about. Pictures of him taking part in a kick-boxing tournament in Australia in July, 2010 appeared.
He is seen in this picture standing outside the ring with a camera, while the other member of IRI kick boxing team, Ashkan Tahmasebi, draped in an Islamic Republic flag, is waiting to start his bout.
Just to make it 100% certain that it is him, the tattoo on his left arm gives the game away:
In his televised confessions, Jamali claims to have gone to Israel via Baku, Azerbaijan. Fars News and other martial arts websites on the other hand report he was one of the medal winners during the tournament there in August 2009. People who know Majid Jamali, have claimed he is a die hard Ahamdinejad supporter, who took part in beating up peaceful demonstrators during the widespread street protests by the Green Movement.
There are more questions about the assassination of Iranian physicists too. Just a handful of them:
- Why would such elite units of foreign agencies assassinate two physicists who had nothing to do with the nuclear program? Both AliMohammadi and Shahriari were Iran's representatives on the SESAME project. A regional research project which even includes Israel as one of the project participants.
- Why were these elite units so successful in eliminating two research physicists but failed so miserably in assassinating Fereydoon Abbassi, who is working on the nuclear program and who has been on the sanctions list and a member of the revolutionary guards?
- Why did these elite units choose to carry out their assassination in such an attention grabbing way in middle of Tehran traffic in broad day light, with a high probability of getting caught?
- Why were no cctv footage or appeals made for the witnesses to come forward with information about what the assassins looked like, what their motor bikes were like etc. Compare this with the trouble the intelligence ministry goes to when they want to identify someone who has taken part in a peaceful demonstration.
- What did the reported encounter between the former Iranian Science Minister and his Israeli counter-part during the SESAME project conference in Jordan, while the two assassinate Iranian physicists were there, have to do with these assassinations? Did the physicists come across something they should not have?
Most important of all, why are no Western media asking any of these questions and just repeating what the official IRI line is? Are the Western intelligence agencies and Israeli intelligence agencies actually enjoying these stories, because it makes them look more powerful than they really are? Is it actually to the benefit of the Israeli hardliners to have a hardline Iran uttering hardline rhetoric?
I remember six years ago, we had gone along one of the polling booths held in London, when Ahmadinejad first stood as a candidate for president of the Islamic Republic. We were asking people why they were voting? Some would talk to us and most would ignore us. One Iranian woman voter who did talk to us gave a particularly strange answer. She said 'My 16 year old son and my husband are both against this lot [the ruling clerics], but I always come and vote for Imam Zaman [12th Shiite Imam who went into occultation many centuries ago and will one day return to rid the earth form oppression and corruption]'.
A bizarre answer that prompted my question 'But dear lady, Imam Zaman is not standing as a candidate in this so-called election?!' and she just shook her head and said 'well thats who I am voting for' and went passed me.
I wondered what the source of all this ignorance and superstition was at the time that did not even spare an Iranian woman living here in UK.
These clips from Iranian state TV are just a glimpse of constant bombardment of superstition and nonsense beamed at viewers. Just like the 'If you see Sid...Tell him' commercial from British Gas which still managed to attract 200,000 share applicants from the public who could have bought the BG shares cheaper, in the aftermath of the stock market crash, from any other broker, it proves how powerful Television propaganda is and no matter how much nonsense it blares out, it will still attract an audience.
In the clip below, presenters are presenting the question of whether the Imam Zaman has married and whether he has any children? Some have even sent pictures of Imam Zaman's family to the program:
and in the clip below, the program guest describes the conditions required for the Hidden Imam's return. Apparently some signs that tell His return is imminent have already manifested themselves, like:
'Increase in money lending, Increase in music, women dressing their hair like "camel humps", women riding horses, sky scrapers,..., more people playing chess...'
and the signs that have not manifested themselves yet, amongst them being discussed by "scholars":
"The sun rising form the West"!
The hardest thing to explain to a Western apologist of dictatorships, is the fear people have of looking over their shoulders or their fear of the consequences of what they say. The useful idiots simply can not understand that when they talk to a passer by in a dictatorship, he or she will not tell them what is really in their hearts.
I remember when human rights activist, James Mawdsley was released from Burmese prison and returned to England, one of the first things he appreciated was this feeling of not having to look over your shoulder when you say something.
This fear of who you are talking to and what you say can best be demonstrated in this footage below. Two documentary making students have a permit to make a documentary about Neda Sultan, presumably to make yet another ridiculous claim about how Neda was murdered. They are simply asking the residents and passers by where Neda was nurdered, if they know what had happened in that street? Not one person wants to answer:
The independence of Iran's judiciary has now become a subject for comedy and satire and with the latest harsh sentence against the human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, any pretence of its independence will now only be made by some half wit or a sycophant with a vested interest other than the truth.
11 years prison sentence, 20 years ban from working as a lawyer and 20 years ban from leaving the country, was the court's sentence against Sotoudeh. The breakdown of the sentence is 1 year for propaganda against the regime, five years against their favourite charge, 'action against national security' and five years for appearing without a hejab in a video she had sent to the International Human Rights Organisation of Italy, a non-governmental organisation which had awarded her the International Award of Human Rights in 2008, because she was unable to receive the prize herself after being banned form leaving the country.
Sotoudeh's interrogators from the intelligence ministry had told her she would remain in prison for more than ten years and yesterday's sentence by Judge Pir-Abbassi was nothing other than obliging to the wishes of the intelligence ministry which now effectively runs the judiciary in Iran.
This sentence was a warning to other lawyers in Iran, who dared defend dissidents and activists. Even defending dissidents and activists is now a crime in the Islamic Republic of Iran. A regime which as described by other Iranian clerics is neither Islamic, nor a Republic nor Iranian.
Just like the Burmese government was unable to diminish the status of Aung San Suu Kyi by sentencing her to a long term prison sentence, nor will the Islamic Republic have any success in reducing Sotoudeh's status as a national hero of Iran for eternity.
I can't believe it has been five years since I started this blog, but quite pleased about the stats. A steady rise every year in the number of people who read the blog. Of course 2009 was an exceptional year but I am pleased the increase in viewers continued into 2010.
Remember all the regime hype about the Great Conference of Iranians Abroad? How Galloway started his speech with the opening verse of Koran's chapter, and reported it as a huge show of approval for Ahmadinejad's administration by Iranians from all walks of life from around the world? How an unknown man claimed he was an expat businessman who had turned down a multi-million Dollar deal because the contract included a slight disrespectful remark towards Ahamdinejad and kneeled in front of him after uttering all that nonsense?
One of the many huge budgets allocated for this propaganda stunt was a $200,000 budget dedicated to a TV studio that would report the post-conference activities of the Council of Iranians Abroad headed by non other than Rahim Mashaei, who is being groomed as Ahmadinejad's successor. It was said at the time, that the dedicated studio will record and broadcast news related to the activities of this entity on a daily basis.
In fact there has been ZERO programs made since. Far from Galloway's claims that the conference was a show of approval towards Ahmadinejad's administration by Iranians from all walks of life, it seems the whole show has amounted to nothing more than an opportunistic attempt by some treacherous Iranian expats for a free flight and holiday to Iran with nothing else to follow up afterwards.
The Islamic Republic regime has tried to exploit the UK student protests for its own propaganda. The joint statement below is a slap in the face of IRI's opportunistic exploits. If the regime does goes ahead with the execution of Habibollah Latifi, it would have only shot itself in the foot by further showing its true savage nature.
Please add your name by emailing againstfeesandcuts@gmail.com
We the undersigned call for the release of, and dropping of all charges against, Iranian student Habibollah Latifi. This is urgent: Latifi’s execution was scheduled for 26 December 2010; it was postponed after international protests and after 300 supporters protesting outside the prison gates, but could be rescheduled at any time.
Latifi, who was a law student at Azad University in the south western province of Ilam, in Western Iran, was arrested in October 2007 and sentenced to death in July 2008 after being convicted of moharebeh (‘enmity against God’), a vaguely defined ‘crime’ for which the penalty is death. This was in connection with alleged activities on behalf of a Kurdish liberation group (Latifi is from Iran’s oppressed Kurdish minority; according to Amnesty International, sixteen Kurdish men and two women are on death row in Iran in connection with alleged ‘separatist’ activities).
On 26 December, members of his family including his father and sister were also arrested.
We call on the Iranian authorities to drop all charges against Habibollah Latifi and release him and his family. We will continue to make solidarity with Iranian student activists, who alongside workers have been at the forefront of the struggle for human rights and democracy in Iran.
Initial signatories: Patrick Murphy, National Union of Teachers National Executive member and Leeds NUT Secretary Olivia Bailey, National Union of Students Women’s Officer Barnaby Raine, School and FE Students Against the Cuts Sean Rillo Raczka, National Union of Students National Executive Committee and Birkbeck Students’ Union Chair Alan Bailey, NUS Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Officer (Open Place) Vicki Baars, NUS LGBT Officer (Women’s Place) Claire Locke, London Metropolitan University SU Communications and Campaigns Officer Louis Hartnoll, University of the Arts London SU President Robyn Minogue, University of the Arts SU Education Officer Wanda Canton, Queen Mary SU Women’s Officer Katherine McMahon, Edinburgh University anti-cuts activist Michael Chessum, NCAFC co-founder and UCL Union Education and Campaigns Officer Daniel Lemberger Cooper, Royal Holloway Anti-Cuts Alliance and Save our services in Surrey Bob Sutton, Merseyside Network Against Fees and Cuts Tali Janner-Klausner, London NCAFC activist Rowan Rheingans, Newcastle University anti-cuts activist Jade Baker, University of Westminster SU Vice-President Education Chris Marks, Hull University occupier
Help us to stop the Iranian state murdering Habibollah Latifi! Please add your name by emailingagainstfeesandcuts@gmail.com
We call on NUS and other student networks like the Education Activist Network to support the campaign and promote this statement.
Islamic Republic has invested a lot of propaganda in exploiting the recent protests by UK students. A single statement by the NUS distancing itself from the Islamic Republic and in support of Iran's students can totally spoil all that regime propaganda and show them that executing Iranian students will have a price tag for them. Yet, despite all this, still no statement form the NUS.
On Sunday most people in the free world will be recovering from celebrating the festive season. Quite right too, life is all about working, contributing, loving, resting and enjoying its moments. The terror machine of the Islamic Republic, knows no such things however. Its one efficiency, bringing death and misery to its people remains unhindered.
Iranian student, Habibollah Latifi's family are not looking forward to Sunday. They are fearing that Habibollah will be executed. Habibollah Latifi's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht has been notified that the execution of his client will be carried out on Sunday.
Born on 21St March, Iranian New Year, 1981, Habibollah was a gifted child. He loved sports and excelled in football. He played for Sanandaj Municipal football team but quit playing after it was required of him to join the local Baseej militia. In 2002, Habibollah entered the Ilam University after having graduated with a Maths/Physics diploma to study Industrial Engineering. He was also keen on working with NGOs and cared much for environmental issues. He joined two environmental NGOs, Zhianeh Vah and Shahoo.
For those British students who were getting too enthusiastic to appear before Press TV and describe UK police brutality, this is police brutality in the state which funds Press TV:
I have never tried to interfere in people's spiritual beliefs nor do I ever publicly talk about mine. How people want to make themselves feel comfortable with the mysteries of afterlife and the tragedies that hit us all during our lifetime is a private matter and no one else's business so long as others are not hurt. At the same time I have never concealed my despise for organised religion and men who want to profit from making God into a business.
'Khums', literally meaning one fifth, is a religious tax demanded by the Grand Ayatollahs or Sources of Emulation from the Shiite faithful. Every Shiite faithful is duty bound to pay one fifth of his income to his chosen Source of Emulation.
On Saturday, Ahmadinejad finally announced the removal of subsidies which have been keeping the prices artificially low in Iran's economy. To ease the pain of this move, each Iranian will receive a cash pittance amount in their bank accounts. In his televised announcement, Ahmadinejad, true to his messianic nature, referred to this cash as the Hidden Imam's money. A zero interest loan endowed to the people of Iran by the Lord of All Ages, Imam Mehdi, who will return and rid the earth from corruption and injustice. How far this cash will go and whether this cash injection into the economy will cause inflation or hyperinflation is not what I want to talk about however.
What I want to talk about is what I read on this Iranian news website: http://khabaronline.ir/news-117343.aspx
The cash subsidy is nevertheless an income and so it has brought up the question to the Shiite faithful, will they have to pay 'Khoms' on this cash subsidy?! Will they go to hell if they don't?
Norwegian student who witnessed the masacre of Ashura protesters in Iran last year, talks to amnesty international.
The Norwegian student, named as Lars, agreed to give his first interview with the media about what he experienced on 27th December, last year in Iran, when he was arrested and taken to an intersection in central Tehran.
The student's unprecedented depiction of the horror experience in Iran during December 2009, is now known through a document from the website Wikileaks alerts that VG Nett has been granted access.
Read the exclusive report in Norway's VG Nett:
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/wikileaks/artikkel.php?artid=10028244
I have written about Mohammad Nourizad before. Shortly after I translated his letters from prison, barbed wire and flowers, Nourizad was put before yet another kangaroo court.
The evil judge was the overweight and notorious Judge Moghisseh, who started reading Nourizad's file during his summary trial. Nourizad asked the judge 'Should you not have read my file before this court?' Moghisseh answered ' We are busy, we don't have time'.
Moghisseh then told Nourizad 'You have to prove these allegations you have made'
Nourizad knowing that this is nothing more than a show trial, where the sentence was already dictated beforehand to the judge by the intelligence ministry, replied:
'I recognise neither you nor this court'
Judge Moghisseh told the clerk to write down Nourizad's reply and then told Nourizad:
'If you don't prove your allegations you will be whipped'
Nourizad defied the judge again 'You fear the intelligence ministry, I do not recognise you as a just judge'
Moghisseh getting more irrated continued with his threats 'You pathetic creature, do you know what I will do with you?'
Nourizad remained resolute however 'Do whatever you can, one year, ten years, twenty years, life imprisonment, with each unjust sentence you issue, you fan the flames of your own hell fire'
Moghisseh answered 'You foreign lackey, I will show you. Prove to me what you have written about Abdollah Momeni and Hamzeh Karami'
Nourizad mocked the judge again 'And what if I call the interrogators here and prove it to you? Are you up to giving a judgement against them? No, you are not! for that reason I have not the slightest regard for you.'
Moghisseh 'I have hanged bigger fish than you. I have been a judge for thirty years'
It took judge Moghisseh ten seconds to hand down another further two years imprisonment for Nourizad.
Nourizad has been on hunger strike since Saturday. He said 'I want the Ashura this year to coincide with the day my corpse falls on their heads'.
When Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize, I was utterly disappointed with her for losing the best opportunity until then to highlight the Human Rights abuses in Iran. There she was with the whole world's attention focused on her winning the prize and yet she chose to highlight the problems of Palestinians and remain silent on the plight of her own people.
Many years ago, I attended a meeting by Shirin Ebadi for an Iranian audience at Imperial College, London . There she spoke beautifully about the fundamental wrongs of Iran's legal system, why elections in Iran are fraudulent from the start and the plight of Iran's prisoners of conscience. We were told to hand in our questions in writing during the break. My question was 'why does she not say these things when she faces an international audience?' and she chose not to answer that question.
With the start of the Green Movement, Shirin Ebadi however stood resolutely by the people of Iran. The regime's brutality in suppressing all dissent and all peaceful protesters in such a barbaric way, united the people of Iran in an unprecedented way in the last thirty years. Old differences and criticisms of each other was forgotten, and defeating the coup administration became the common goal that united all of us despite our previous tactical differences.
And so I too became supportive of Shirin Ebadi and backed her efforts to highlight the human rights abuses in Iran and her attempts to solicit international help for the pro-democracy movement.
Press TV has been making a big song and dance about the recent UK student protests, although conveniently Press TV didn't mention a dicky bird about the nationwide student protests that took place in Iran last Tuesday. Below is a footage of Green Movement supporters in London, commemorating the Iranian Student Day at SOAS by displaying pictures of jailed Iranian students. I hope at least the UK students who came across these pictures will become aware as to why they should shun the mouthpiece of a repressive state that kills and jails Iranian students for expressing their opinions.
Islamic Republic, nor its mouthpiece television, Press TV, is no friend of students, it is the enemy of knowledge.
