Prof. Kazem Kazerounian – 8/5/2007
The dynamics of the relation between the United States and the Iran’s mullahs resembles that of an abused wife and the batterer husband. Domestic violence comes as a form of bullying, as a means that is easier than other methods. There are different reasons why spouses stay in physically abusive marriages. Some women stay because they fear the community’s reaction, some hope that their husbands will change, some stay out of fear of the husband’s violent reaction, some stay because of low-esteem, and some stay because they can’t find a way out. United States must find a way out of this dishonorable cycle.
Since 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s dossier of terrorism against the United States includes: taking 52 American hostages in Tehran for 444 days, attacks on U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 killing sixty three people including seventeen American servicemen; second U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut in 1984 killing 24 people, two of whom were U.S. military personnel; Khobar Towers bombing in June 1996 in Dahran, Saudi Arabia killing nineteen U.S. servicemen and injuring more than 500 others, 240 of whom were Americans;
In Iraq, Tehran’s terrorist activities are designed to bully and humiliate the United States and inflict casualties. Mullahs’ activities in Iraq include: smuggling weaponry and explosives to Iraq and placing them in the hands of a potpourri of terrorist groups to create an intimidating environment for Iraqis and an impossible situation for coalition forces; strengthening and utilizing centuries old religious connections to influence the public positions and political landscape; bribing hundreds of corrupt politicians to be Iran’s voice within the newly installed government; conducting targeted terrorist activities to create ethnic and religious tensions; buying houses and businesses extensively in order to establish native proxy clusters; smuggling drugs to Iraq and promoting organized prostitution with intent to create controllable corruption and mafia-like webs; conducting targeted or mass executions to stop resistance to Iran’s infiltration in Iraq; lighting cities and towns on fire to force strategic migrations of Iraqi citizens; destroying holy shrines to spur religious confrontations; facilitating travel and supplies for Al- Qaeda through Iran; conducting direct or commissioned assaults on coalition forces to wear them down; forcing hejab (veil) on Iraqi women.
Nevertheless, the United States reaction over the past two decades has not been more than the reaction of a battered spouse in an abusive relation that she can not break out of. United States has gone to the back door and front door negotiating rooms with mullahs time and again. When the mullahs asked the West for impeding opposition to the Iran’s regime, United States and Europe responded affirmatively by placing Iran’s main opposition group (MEK and NCRI) in the terrorist list for the past ten years. This categorization has tied the hands of the enemies of the ayatollahs and has eased the regime’s anxiety. Nevertheless Tehran’s behavior has not changed. In the past few months, knowing well what mullahs intentions in Iraq are, the US went to the negotiating table twice. In these meetings US envoys complained about the mullahs’ behavior while the mullahs’ proxies delivered their usual insults and demeaning lectures.
A bunch of so called scholars in Washington have played the role of family advisors to the battered wife asking the US to remain in this abusive relationship (read the August 1 st 2007article by Daioleslam in the Global Politician). Such advice will lead to a disastrous situation in which war between US and Iran will be inevitable and will claim the lives of countless Iranian and American young men and women.
It is time for an honorable, just and wise action. The United States must give up hope that the barbaric mullahs will some day learn how to behave in a civilized manner. The only solution for the Iranian people, for the region and for the world is regime change in Iran. More importantly, the agent of change can not be a foreign power or foreign war. Iranian regime must be changed by the Iranian people and their legitimate resistance, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mojahedin-e-Khalgh and all other opposition groups who have not been involved in the crimes of the Shah and the mullahs rule and strive for a secular, free and democratic Iran.
Prof. Kazem Kazerounian teaches at the University of Connecticut. [/spoiler]
[spoiler title=”Explosives from Iran weakening security in Iraq, commander says”]
WASHINGTON (CNN) — An increasing number of attacks using an Iranian-based explosive is undermining security in Iraq, a senior U.S. military commander said Wednesday.
U.S. officials say allegedly Iranian-made explosives are used by Iraqi militants.
The attacks come amid a diplomatic push by the United States to encourage Iranians to help improve the security situation in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told CNN that weapons of Iranian origin, such as bombs called explosively formed projectiles, are making their way into Iraq.
There were 99 EFP attacks in Iraq in July — the most since counting began in December, Odierno said. That type of explosive accounted for one-third of the 79 U.S. troop deaths last month, he said. The military says both parts for the weapons and the weapons themselves are being brought across the border.
The United States can’t prove that Iran’s central government is responsible for providing the weaponry, but officials have been saying for months that such activity is being conducted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-Quds Force.
Iran officially has denied being involved in promoting insurgent activity, but some U.S. officials think the country’s senior leaders must be aware of the activity if the Quds Force is involved. Watch how the U.S. is responding to evidence of Iranian weapons »
Asked about the EFP numbers, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Wednesday that “we have not yet seen any positive results from the Iranians” and that at future meetings, “we will convey that we have not seen any positive developments.”
“We continue to go after these EFP networks in Baghdad and all over the country,” he said.
Additionally, new armored vehicles are being shipped to Iraq. More than 17,000 are needed in Iraq, but right now there are only about 200, the Pentagon says.
Iran — which says the huge border with Iraq is porous and has acknowledged that smugglers and black marketers do traverse it — frequently likens the dilemma with problems the United States faces along its vast border with Mexico.
Military officials have said for weeks that they expect as many weapons as possible to be shipped from Iran to Iraq before September, when Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker issue a report about progress there. The thinking is that Iran intends to make it look like the United States is not making any progress.
In addition to the Iranian-based explosives, military elements in Iran are also hurting Iraq’s security, Odierno said.
Insurgents trained in Iran have been firing rockets and mortars at Baghdad’s Green Zone with greater precision, and money from Iran is ending up in the hands of Iraqi insurgents, he said.
All of this comes as a thaw has unfolded between the United States and Iran, which have been meeting in Iraq to discuss security. The ambassadors have met and a subcommittee has been formed to deal with security matters that have popped up. Iraq has spearheaded the effort.
Officials have said the United States has made its position about Iranian involvement clear in the meetings, the last of which was Monday.
Additionally, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was visiting Iran, where he was discussing security and other matters with officials there.
View Source Here [/spoiler]
[spoiler title=”In death, a martyr’s smile foretells victory”]
By The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/10/2007 01:00:00 AM MDT
UPDATED: 08/10/2007 12:01:49 PM MDT
The world has seen nothing like it. When Majid Kavosifar was hanged in public in Tehran for killing criminal judge Hassan Moghadas, no one expected to see the expression they saw on his face the day of his execution.
As Kavosifar was jostled through the crowd by the regime’s demonic henchmen in ski masks – and even as he was hoisted onto the platform that he was to be hanged from – he wore a triumphant, almost joyful smile on his face. If there were ever an image that qualified for “Is there something wrong with this picture?” it would be this one.
Hanging in public serves the purpose of quelling dissent and evoking fear for Iran’s people. The recent wave of hangings in Iran has proven once again that many of those who are hanged under the pretext of social crimes are indeed people who are fed up with the unjust Iranian regime and are taking matters into their own hands.
Most of the public images of hangings in Iran that have taken place normally show a victim with a much different demeanor than that of Majid. Sullen eyes that speak of endless pain, faces blank with fear, and for the women, dark cloaks, chadors that enshroud their bodies and a blindfold to disguise their anguish.
This scene has become all too familiar, especially since the Iranian regime has stepped up its public executions to horrifying degrees. On July 22, the Iranian regime hanged 12 people simultaneously, and several other hangings took place in July all over the country, including another group hanging in Azerbaijan.
In a televised interview regarding the group hangings, Ahmad Reza Radan, the commander of Tehran’s police force, stated that, “The response to those who stand firm against the Iranian regime and its practices is execution.”
In Iran, legal procedures to execute the most outspoken against the regime are often expedited or simply ignored. Such was the case with Atefeh Rajabi, the 16-year-old girl who was hanged in Neka. Her case was expedited to lightening speeds. In Iran, the judiciary and the government are one and the same, thus leading to dangerous exploitations of the law simply for political purposes.
Majid Kavosifar and his uncle, Hossein Kavosifar, were both hanged for killing Moghadas. They had collaborated and confessed to committing the act. Moghadas was Tehran’s assistant chief prosecutor, responsible for signing countless death sentences. Moghadas’s role was that of a ruthless cleric who bypassed judicial procedures to ensure the swift death of the Iranian regime’s opponents.
Tehran’s public prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, did not allow the press to interview Majid Kavosifar, 22, and his uncle Hossein, 28, as is typical with public executions. However, after the execution, Mortazavi did state that he had spoken to both men, and that they refused to renounce their actions and expressed no regret for what they did. Majid is reported to have said, “I have reached a level of understanding to know who the corrupt and depraved are.”
The price these victims pay for their bravery is the same, and all hangings are equally as disturbing and unjustified. However, the smile that gleamed over Majid’s face as he strained to wave goodbye while handcuffed was indeed victorious, and the message was clear: “I defeated you, I am not frightened, and I am honored to die; hanging me will no longer repel resistance.”
While Majid’s courage is remarkable in the face of such torment and brutality, we can be sure that there will be other fearless Iranian youths ready to give their lives, until that proud smile gives way to the much awaited dawn of change.
Ana K. Sami (ansami@mines.edu) is a master’s degree candidate at the Colorado School of Mines and a specialist on human rights and women’s issues in Iran.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to an editor’s error, the e-mail address for the author was incorrect.
View Source Here [/spoiler]
