Loghman H. Ahmedi

Members of the Basij-militia are attacking the house of Mehdi Karroubi, according to his son:

A mob ransacked the entrance to the Tehran apartment complex of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi late Thursday, an assault that resulted in an attack on the head of his security detail, his son said.

“Our situation is not good at the moment,” Mohammad Taghi Karrubi, Karrubi’s son, told CNN.
People have demonstrated in front of his house for four straight days, the son said. Demonstrators gathered outside and chanted for the first two days, but late Thursday a mob broke into the building.

About 40 to 50 demonstrators returned on Friday. Many, armed with guns and paintball guns, surrounded the house Friday and shouted chants against Karrubi and the opposition movement.

This is not the first time that Karroubi is being attacked by Basiji’s or other gangs linked to the regime. Since the 2009 presidential election in Iran Karroubi has been attacked at least three times. This method of trying to intimidate people is not new in Iran; it is actually a very mild version of the terror that the regime has used against its political dissidents since the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

The regime knows that it would not be wise to physically hurt Karroubi to such an extent that his life would be in danger, because he would turn into a symbol for his supporter. The same goes with putting him in prison. So they use this method to, first ridicule him and to portray him as a pathetic figure that is not strong enough to challenge the ruling elite, second to frighten him and anyone else that might think of challenging the regime, and third to show individuals and groups that took part in the demonstrations against the regime after the election that the regime has not forgotten and that they are waiting for the right moment to lash out the appropriate punishment.

Karroubi himself was a supporter of this and other much harder methods when he belonged to the ruling elite, he even had his own prisons, in which dissidents were tortured and even killed, according to different sources. But this does not mean that we should not condemn these attacks on Karroubi, even though he has to some degree represented much of the violence used against political activists in the past. True democrats will condemn these attacks and struggle harder so that no one, even people who has innocent peoples blood on their hands, will be subjected to this kind of violence.

Iran continues to make headway on its nuclear program and the rest of the world is watching on while the theocratic regime comes closer to obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Reza Khalili writes:

Russia turned on the switch to Iran’s first nuclear power plant on Aug. 21 after repeated delays and more than 15 years of construction. The hard-liners in Iran celebrated it as a victory over “the Great Satan,” repeating the famous phrase by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of the Islamic revolution. Their message: America can’t do a damned thing.

The Iranians have managed to open a second front for their nuclear bomb project. The Bushehr nuclear power plant is now untouchable because any military action against its reactor containing plutonium would lead to widespread deadly contamination throughout the region.

The reactor, once fully operational, can produce more than 661 pounds of near-weapons-grade plutonium, enough to make 60 nuclear bombs within the first year or two. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be monitoring the operation of the Bushehr nuclear power plant; however, because the IAEA does not have real-time cameras monitoring the plant, the inspectors will review camera tapes at the site every 90 days. This gives the fanatics ruling Iran sufficient time to divert the fuel into making nuclear bombs, using a “quick and dirty” reprocessing approach made public by Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers in the 1970s. Experts say the process of separating plutonium from spent fuel employs a simple technology – one that is just a bit more advanced than that of producing dairy products or pouring concrete.

Talk about a joint U.S. – Israeli attack has been going on for years now, but the reality is that such an attack is unlikely to happen due to several reasons.

Israel will probably not be able to carry out a successful attack on Iran’s nuclear plants on its own. For a successful attack to be possible Israel would need not only the U.S. support but also their direct involvement, and that is probable based on the Obama administrations current policy towards Iran’s nuclear program.

People in the Obama administration believe that the U.S. should focus on leaving Iraq and Afghanistan and not wage another war that would force the U.S. spend more money and risk overstretching its military capabilities. Moreover, there is a fear in the Obama administration that an attack on Iran would not only have huge consequences on rising oil prises and thus the world economy, but also that it would also inflame the whole region, which would create long-term animosity and problems.

Furthermore, if Israel would decide to attack Iran they would have to involve one or several countries in the region for among other things logistical support, which makes such a venture even more risky.

These and several other reasons is why an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations is highly unlikely. But sooner or later something will have to be done, if nothing is done the world will have to accept a theocratic regime with nuclear weapons and hegemonic ambitions.

Reuters reports that the United Nations lifts the issue of discrimination against Iran’s different non-Persian nationalities:

Iran should do more to protect its ethnic minorities such as Arabs, Kurds and Baluch, a United Nations human rights body said on Friday.The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), a group of 18 independent rights experts, said Iran lacked data on the numbers of ethnic minorities despite a census in 2007, but the participation of such people in public life appeared to be lower than could be expected.

“The Committee expresses concern at the limited enjoyment of political, economic, social and cultural rights by… Arab, Azeri, Balochi, Kurdish communities and some communities of non-citizens,” it said in a report on a regular review of Iran’s compliance with a 1969 international treaty banning racism.

It is a positive step that the UN expresses concern about the situation of the non-Persian nationalities and some of the recommendations are great, but the current regime in Iran will not implement any of the recommendations. Click here to read the full report (Word File)

I have received several angry emails asking about our reaction on the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Governments decision to commemorate Ayatollah Khomeini in the Qazi Muhammed Conference Centre in Erbil for the second year in a row.

It is important to underline that the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government and the two ruling political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan are free to have a bilateral relationship with Iran that serves their interests and does not hurt the interests of Kurdish movement in Iranian Kurdistan without any political or moral judgment from our party.

Regarding the decision to commemorate Ayatollah Khomeini in the Qazi Muhammed Conference Centre, I personally understand that this decision has angered many people, especially after the outrage it created last year. People that I have spoken to would have preferred that the two ruling parties in Iraqi Kurdistan would have chosen another venue to host the event.

For people that feel that it is not suitable to host such an event in the mentioned conference centre, I would recommend that you contact the KRG and express your opinion.

All of the different Kurdish political parties have called for a general strike in Iranian Kurdistan tomorrow, 13 of May 2009, to condemn the recent execution of five political prisoner, of which four were Kurds.

The PDKI writes in a statement that Farzad Kamangar, Shirin Alemholi, Ferhad Wekili and Ali Heiderians only crime was that they were Kurds who did not give up their determination to struggle for the rights of their nation. They were four amongst thousands of individuals whose hearts were filled with a desire for freedom who have lost their lives in the prisons of the Islamic Republic.

There are still thousands of freedom-seeking activists that face torture and death in the prisons of the Islamic republic. If people only act as witnesses to the killings and oppression of our people without doing anything about all of the injustice, violence and oppression facing our nation, the regime will be able to continue to oppress our people with impunity.

That is why we are calling upon the Kurdish people to show their contempt with the Islamic Republics execution of these four youths by staging a general strike in Kurdistan. […] In this way we can show the families of the martyrs that their freedom-loving children are all sons and daughters of the Kurdish nation and at the same time show our contempt with the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has once again shown its enmity against the Kurdish people. In fear of losing their power the regime continues to suppress, torture, imprison and execute Kurdish and Iranian citizens.

The Islamic Republic of Iran announced that they had executed five political prisoners by the names of Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heiderian, Ferhad Wekili, Shirin Alemholi and Mehdi Islamian, on Sunday, the 9th of May 2010.

We, the undersigned political parties, condemn the execution of these brave freedom activists and express our sincerer condolences to these individuals’ friends and families. We also urge human rights organizations and political organizations all around the world not to be quiet about this tragic incidence and to condemn this brutal act.

The Kurdish people will not bow down to the oppression of the Islamic Republic and we will continue with our struggle until we fulfil the goals and hopes of our martyrs, which is to bring about an end to the Islamic Republic and to attain freedom for all of Iran’s different nationalities.

The regime has ones again proven to the Kurdish people that they can never trust the regime, because the regime will take every opportunity given to it to execute our Kurdish youth.

The Islamic Republic has also proven that there is no other way to obtain freedom without the overthrow of this murderous regime.

Long live the Kurdish peoples freedom fighters!

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
Komala – Revolutionary Toilers of Kurdistan
Organization of Struggle for Iranian Kurdistan

The human rights organization HRNA reports that four of the 22 Kurdish political prisoners on death row were executed this morning. The names of the executed Kurdish political prisoners are: Farzad Kamangar, Ali Haiderian, Farhad Wekili and Shirin Alemholi (woman).

It is worth underlining that in at least three of the four cases an appeal court had not yet issued its final sentence, making the executions illegal even according to the Islamic Republics own laws.

According to reports from Iranian Kurdistan nine members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has been killed during the last couple of days in the Kurdish cities of Mariwan, Piranshar, Saghez and Bokan.

Yesterday a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard by the name of Hama Rasoul was found dead in the Kurdish city of Piranshar.

A couple of days ago an unknown group of armed men killed an officer of the Revolutionary Guard by the name of Shefei and two Iranian IRGC soldiers on a bridge in the city of Mariwan.

Two more Revolutionary Guard soldiers were killed in the Kurdish city of Bokan by an unknown group of armed men after that the Revolutionary Guard had harassed the local population.

In another incident two soldiers and a commander of the Revolutionary Guard were killed in the Kurdish city of Saghez. The names of the soldiers are MehbetAllah Shefei (Commander of the Revolutionary Guards Bsami branch in Saghez), Ahmed Abbasi and Moibin Rahmeti.

Finally someone who gets it:

The recent revelation of Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates’ January memorandum to senior White House officials apparently outlining a range of options for dealing with Iran’s persistent drive to achieve nuclear-weapons capability is most timely. On April 19, hard-line Iranian authorities banned the country’s two remaining official “opposition” parties – the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mujaheddin of the Islamic Revolution Organization. Neither of these organizations was a pillar of democracy or threatened Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “religious” dictatorial control of the country. Nonetheless, the elimination of these two parties shows the paranoid mentality of the Ahmadinejad regime.

The United States Defense Department has released a 12 page unclassified report on Iran’s military power that describes Iran’s relative growing military power (including Iran’s nuclear program) and its efforts to become a regional superpower by supporting terrorist organizations and waging a proxy war against the United States and its allies.

Personally I think that the report is mind-blowing. Not because the information is new (we have tried to give most of this information to different stakeholder-states, including the U.S. for some years now), but rather because the report clearly reveals that the U.S. is very well aware of Iran’s military activities, but at the same time the U.S. seems completely lost regarding how to thwart Iran’s efforts to attain nuclear weapons and become the dominant military power in the region.

Just a couple of days ago Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a forum at Columbia University that “Iran getting a nuclear weapon would be incredibly destabilizing. Attacking them would also create the same kind of outcome.”

It is quite obvious that the Obama administration essentially has no strategy for dealing with Iran; they are only pondering two alternatives attacking Iran (which they are not really thinking about) and letting Iran attain nuclear weapons and hope for the best.

But there is a third alternative that would benefit everyone, and that is to support and empower Iran’s democratic and secular opposition in order to bring about regime change. But it seems that the Obama administration doesn’t even consider this as an alternative.