One day after Iran launched its first nuclear power plant, former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has hailed “positive” cooperation between Tehran and Moscow.

Iran began injecting the first supply of nuclear fuel into the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Saturday, after Russia delivered its first batch of nuclear fuel.

The fact that Russia is supplying Iran with fuel is “very positive,” as it demonstrates that Tehran could rely on foreign suppliers for its fuel need, Blix told the BBC on Sunday.

The remarks came on the heel of similar claims by State Department spokesman Darby Holladay.

Holladay acknowledged that the Iranian nuclear facility carries no risk of proliferation but stressed that launching the power plant “underscores that Iran does not need an indigenous enrichment capability if its intentions are purely peaceful.”

The west insists that Iran should exchange its low-enriched uranium abroad for fuel for a medical research reactor.

However, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi has rejected such claims.

“Suppose we receive the required nuclear fuel for the plant from the Russians for the next ten years, what are we going to do for the next 30 to 50 years?” the Iranian nuclear point man queried on Saturday.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that they do not “trust” the West and cannot rely on it for nuclear fuel supply.

Israel and its allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program through its enrichment program.

Tehran rejects the accusations, arguing that as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has the right to peaceful nuclear energy. -- Press TV

Ahmadinejad unveils new ‘ambassador of death’ unmanned drone bomber
August 22, 2010
FoxNews.com

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday inaugurated the country’s first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an “ambassador of death” to Iran’s enemies.

The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to a state TV report — not far enough to reach archenemy Israel.

“The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship,” said Ahmadinejad at the inauguration ceremony, which fell on the country’s national day for its defense industries.

The goal of the aircraft, named Karrar or striker, is to “keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases,” he said, adding that the aircraft is for deterrence and defensive purposes.

The president championed the country’s military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue “until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation.”

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo and now produces its own tanks, armored personnel carries, missiles and even a fighter plane.

Iran frequently makes announcements about new advances in military technology that cannot be independently verified.

State TV later showed video footage of the plane taking off from a launching pad and reported that the craft traveled at speeds of 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers) and could alternatively be armed with two 250-pound bombs or a 450-pound guided bomb.

Iran has been producing its own light, unmanned surveillance aircraft since the late 1980s.

The ceremony came a day after Iran began to fuel its first nuclear power reactor, with the help of Russia, amid international concerns over the possibility of a military dimension to its nuclear program.

Iran insists it is only interested in generating electricity.

Referring to Israel’s occasional threats against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming.

“The scope of Iran’s reaction will include the entire the earth,” said Ahmadinejad. “We also tell you — the West — that all options are on the table.”

Ahmadinejad appeared to be consciously echoing the terminology used by the U.S. and Israel in their statements not ruling out a military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

On Friday, Iran also test-fired a new liquid fuel surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam-1, with advanced guidance systems.

BUSHEHR, Iran — Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel Saturday into Iran’s first nuclear power plant, which Moscow has promised to safeguard to prevent material at the site from being used in any potential weapons production.

After years of delays, the fueling of the Bushehr plant in southern Iran marks the startup of a facility for energy production that the U.S. once hoped to block as a way to pressure the country to stop separate nuclear activities of far greater concern.

There have not been strong objections to the Bushehr plant itself as there have been with Iran’s separate efforts at other sites to accelerate uranium enrichment — a process that makes the fuel for power plants but which can also be used in weapons production.

Even as Iran’s nuclear chief said the plant demonstrated the country has only peaceful aims, he celebrated it as a defiant “symbol of Iranian resistance and patience” in the face of Western pressure.

“Despite all pressure, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we are now witnessing the startup of the largest symbol of Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities,” Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters inside the plant.

Washington and other nations do not oppose Iran’s stated aim of producing nuclear energy, but are concerned that if Iran masters the enrichment cycle it would have a pathway to weapons production under the convenient cover of a peaceful energy program. Iran denies such an intention.

It is the enrichment work that has been the target of four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Russia, which helped finish building Bushehr, has pledged to prevent spent nuclear fuel at the site from being shifted to a possible weapons program. After years of delaying its completion, Moscow says it believes the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperate with international efforts to ensure Iran does not develop the bomb.

The United States, while no longer formally objecting to the plant, disagrees and says Iran should not be rewarded while it continues to defy U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment.

On Saturday, a first truckload of fuel was taken from a storage site to a fuel “pool” inside the reactor building under the watch of monitors from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Over the next two weeks, 163 fuel assemblies — equal to 80 tons of uranium fuel — will be moved inside the building and then into the reactor core.

Workers in white lab coats and helmets led reporters on a tour of the cavernous facility.

It will be another two months before the 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor is pumping electricity to Iranian cities.

The Bushehr plant is not considered a proliferation risk because the terms of the deal commit the Iranians to allowing the Russians to retrieve all used reactor fuel for reprocessing. Spent fuel contains plutonium, which can be used to make atomic weapons. Additionally, Iran has said that IAEA experts will be able to verify that none of the fresh fuel or waste is diverted.

Of greater concern to the West, however, are Iran’s stated plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds. Iran said recently it will begin construction on the first one in March in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

Nationwide celebrations were planned for Saturday’s fuel loading at Bushehr.

“I thank the Russian government and nation, which cooperated with the great Iranian nation and registered their name in Islamic Iran’s golden history,” Salehi said. “Today is a historic day and will be remembered in history.”

He spoke at a news conference inside the plant with the head of Russia’s state-run nuclear corporation, Sergei Kiriyenko, who said Russia was always committed to the project.

“The countdown to the Bushehr nuclear power plant has started,” Kiriyenko said. “Congratulations.”

Iran’s hard-liners consider the completion of the plant to be a show of defiance against U.N. Security Council sanctions that seek to slow Iran’s other nuclear advances.

Hard-line leader Hamid Reza Taraqi said the launch will boost Iran’s international standing and “will show the failure of all sanctions” against Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Friday that Tehran was ready to resume negotiations with the six major powers trying to curb Iran’s enrichment work — the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany.

Ahmadinejad, however, insisted Iran would reject calls to completely halt uranium enrichment, a key U.N. demand. The president had earlier said the talks could start in September, but in an interview with Japan’s biggest newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun, he said the talks could start as early as this month.

Russia signed a $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant in 1995 but has dragged its feet on completing the work.

Moscow had cited technical reasons for the delays, but analysts say Russia used the project to try to press Iran to ease its defiance over its nuclear program.

The uranium fuel Russia has supplied for Bushehr is well below the more than 90 percent enrichment needed for a nuclear warhead. Iran is already producing its own uranium enriched to the Bushehr level — about 3.5 percent. It also has started a pilot program of enriching uranium to 20 percent, which officials say is needed for a medical research reactor.

The Bushehr plant overlooks the Persian Gulf and is visible from several miles (kilometers) away with its cream-colored dome dominating the green landscape. Soldiers maintain a 24-hour watch on roads leading up to the plant, manning anti-aircraft guns and supported by numerous radar stations.

There are several housing facilities for employees inside the complex plus a separate large compound housing the families of Russian experts and technicians. The site is about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of Tehran.

Russians began shipping fuel for the plant in 2007 and carried out a test-run of the plant in February 2009.

Iran says it plans to build other reactors and says designs for a second rector in southwestern Iran are taking shape.

The Bushehr project dates backs to 1974, when Iran’s U.S.-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi contracted with the German company Siemens to build the reactor. The company withdrew from the project after the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the shah.

The partially finished plant later sustained damages after it was bombed by Iraq during its 1980-88 war against Iran.

Before making the Russian deal to complete Bushehr, Iran signed pacts with Argentina, Spain and other countries only to see them canceled under U.S. pressure.

PREVIOUS RELATED: Israel Has Until Week’s End to Strike Iran Nuclear Facility, Bolton Says

telegraph.co.uk
August 20, 2010

Iran has test fired a surface-to-surface missile, according to the country’s defence minister.

Ahmad Vahidi’s announcement comes a day before Iran is scheduled to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

Television images showed the sand coloured Qiam (Rising) blasting into the air from a desert terrain, amid chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Iran fires missile capable of hitting IsraelThe words “Ya Mahdi” were written on the side of the missile, referring to Imam Mahdi, one of the 12 imams of Shiite Islam, who disappeared as a boy and whom the faithful believe will return one day to bring redemption to mankind.

Mr Vahidi, who was speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, did not say when the launch took place nor did he disclose the precise range of the missile.

“The missile has new technical aspects and has a unique tactical capacity,” he said on state television, adding that the device was of a “new class.”

“Since the surface-to-surface missile has no wings, it has lot of tactical power, which also reduces the chances of it being intercepted,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr Vahidi had said that Qiam was to be test fired during the annual government week, the period when Tehran touts its achievements in various fields. This year government week begins on Monday.

The third generation Fateh 110 (Conqueror) missile was also to be test fired during this period. Iran has previously paraded a version of Fateh 110 which has a travel range of 150 to 200 kilometres (90 to 125 miles).

Also during government week, the production lines of two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj (Lamp) and Zolfaqar (named after Shiite Imam Ali’s sword) are due to be inaugurated, while a long-range drone, Karar, is expected to be unveiled.

The firing of Qiam comes days after a top commander from the Revolutionary Guards said Iran will mass produce replicas of the Bladerunner 51, often described as the world’s fastest boat, and equip them with weapons to be deployed in the Gulf.

On August 8, Iran took delivery of four new mini-submarines of the home-produced Ghadir class. Weighing 120 tonnes, the “stealth” submarines are aimed at operations in shallow waters, notably in the Gulf.

Iranian officials regularly boast about the Islamic republic’s military capabilities and the latest missile launch comes at a time when local officials have been warning against any attack on the Islamic republic.

On Saturday, Iran is launching its Russian-built first nuclear power plant which eventually aims to generate electricity.

The plant is scheduled to go online after more than three decades of delays.

Israel Has Until Week’s End to Strike Iran Nuclear Facility, Bolton Says
August 17, 2010
FoxNews.com

In this November 2009 photo released by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), the reactor building of Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is seen. (AP Photo)

Israel has until the weekend to launch a military strike on Iran’s first nuclear plant before the humanitarian risk of an attack becomes too great, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said Tuesday.

A Russian company is expected to help Iran start loading nuclear fuel into its plant starting on Saturday, after which an attack on the Bushehr reactor could trigger harmful radiation, which Israel wants to avoid, Bolton said. So unless the Israelis act immediately to shut down the facility, it will be too late.

“Once it’s close to the reactor … the risk is when the reactor is attacked, there will be a release of radiation into the air,” Bolton told FoxNews.com. “It’s most unlikely that they would act militarily after fuel rods are loaded.”

Earlier Tuesday, Bolton told Fox Business Network the Israelis will have to move in the “next eight days” if they want to attack the Bushehr facility — a reference to the window between when the start-up was announced last week and the loading date. Bolton said Tuesday that the date has fluctuated, but he described the start-up as the ultimate deadline.

Though Iranian officials insist the reactor is for peaceful purposes, Bolton warned about the danger of the up-and-running reactor.

“What this does is give Iran a second route to nuclear weapons in addition to enriched uranium,” Bolton said. “It’s a very, very huge victory for Iran.”

Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador during the Bush administration, expressed doubt that Israel was planning a military strike but suggested it’s an open question.

“If they were going to do anything, they certainly wouldn’t be talking about it,” he said.

He noted that the reactor gives Iran something that both Iraq and Syria were never able to achieve because their facilities were destroyed.

“Iran will have achieved something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States really in the Middle East has, and that is a functioning nuclear reactor,” he said on Fox Business Network.

Iranian officials on Tuesday warned Israel not to take military action. Iranian media quoted Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s defense minister, as saying Israel would be taking a huge risk with such an attack.

“We may lose a power plant, but the whole existence of the Zionist regime will be jeopardized,” Vahidi was quoted as saying.

The reactor project has been in existence for decades, but the Russians have helped push it to the finish line. Russian state firm Rosatom announced last week that the Bushehr facility would be starting up on Aug. 21. According to the Iranian state Mehr news agency, the head of that company, Sergey Novikov, says the plant “just generates electricity.”

Russia’s Nuclear Help To Iran Stirs Questions About Its ‘Improved’ Relations With U.S.
FoxNews.com
August 14, 2010

The Russians know that Obamao is out to weaken the U.S. as much as he can. And they are more than happy to help him on his way.

Apr. 8: President Obama signs the New START treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Prague Castle.

Russia’s announcement that it will help Iran get nuclear fuel is raising questions about what President Obama calls the “better-than- ever” relationship between Russia and the U.S. after the two former Cold War adversaries recently signed a nuclear reduction treaty.

Obama also recently declared his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev, would help the U.S. “secure strong, tough sanctions on Iran.”

But Moscow announced Friday it will start loading fuel into Iran’s first and only nuclear power plant next Saturday, giving Tehran a boost as it struggles with international sanctions and highlighting differences between Moscow and Washington over pressuring the Islamic Republic to give up activities that could be used to make nuclear arms.

Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on August 21, beginning a process that will last about a month and end with the reactor sending electricity to Iranian cities, Russian and Iranian officials said Friday.

While the UN nuclear watchdog and U.S. officials say the Bushehr reactor is not a proliferation risk, Russia’s decision to supply the fuel calls into question why Iran is enriching uranium in the first place.

“It quite clearly I think underscores that Iran does not need its own enrichment capability if its intentions as it states are for a peaceful program,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

If Russia carries out its plan, it will end years of foot-dragging on Bushehr. While Moscow signed a $1 billion contract to build the plant in 1995, its completion has been put off for years.

Delaying the project has given Russia continued influence with Tehran in international attempts to have it stop uranium enrichment — a program Iran says it needs to make fuel for an envisaged reactor network but which also can be used to create fissile warhead material. The delays also have served to placate the U.S., which opposes rewarding Iran while it continues to defy the U.N. Security Council with its nuclear activities.

After Russia said in March that Bushehr would be launched this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that until Iran reassures the world it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon, “it would be premature to go ahead with any project at this time.”

Formally, the U.S. has no problem with Bushehr.

Although at first opposed to Russian participation in the project, Washington and its allies agreed to remove any reference to it in the first set of Security Council sanctions passed in 2006 in exchange for Moscow’s support for those penalties. Three subsequent sanctions resolutions also have no mention of Bushehr.

Still, the U.S. sees the Russian move as a false signal to Tehran as Washington strives to isolate Iran politically and economically to force it to compromise on enrichment.

Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays. But Bushehr has also been an ideal way to gain leverage with both Tehran and Washington.

Delaying the project has given Russia continued influence with Tehran in international attempts to have it stop uranium enrichment — a program Iran says it needs to make fuel for an envisaged reactor network but which also can be used to create fissile warhead material. The delays also have served to placate the U.S., which opposes rewarding Iran while it continues to defy the U.N. Security Council with its nuclear activities.

After Russia said in March that Bushehr would be launched this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that until Iran reassures the world it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon, “it would be premature to go ahead with any project at this time.”

Formally, the U.S. has no problem with Bushehr.

Although at first opposed to Russian participation in the project, Washington and its allies agreed to remove any reference to it in the first set of Security Council sanctions passed in 2006 in exchange for Moscow’s support for those penalties. Three subsequent sanctions resolutions also have no mention of Bushehr.

Still, the U.S. sees the Russian move as a false signal to Tehran as Washington strives to isolate Iran politically and economically to force it to compromise on enrichment.

Iran Claims It’s Digging Graves For U.S. Troops In Case of Attack
FoxNews.com
August 10, 2010

Iran has dug mass graves in which to bury U.S. troops in case of any American attack on the country, a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday, warning that a military strike would spark an “extensive war” in the region.

The announcement appears to be a show of bravado after the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said last week that the U.S. military has a contingency plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a military strike is probably a bad idea.

The U.S. and some of its allies accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charges, saying its nuclear program is geared merely toward generating electricity, not bomb.

The deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Kan’ani Moghadam, said graves for any attacking U.S. troops have been dug in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, where Iran buried Iraqi soldiers killed during the ruinous 1980-88 war between the Islamic republic and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“The mass graves that used to be for burying Saddam’s soldiers have now been prepared again for U.S. soldiers, and this is the reason for digging this big number of graves,” Moghadam said, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

Moghadam, however, said American troops would likely not be able to set foot on Iranian soil, repeating warnings that Iran will retaliate against U.S. bases in the Gulf if there is an attack on Iran. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters is based just across the Gulf from Iran in Bahrain.

“I assume that the enemy will be hit in its own military bases out of our borders and will not have any chance to have its forces land in Iran,” he said.

“If the U.S. decides to take a pre-emptive action and attack Iran, Iran will have no choice but to strike the American bases in the region,” he said. “The heavy costs of such a war will not be just on the Islamic Republic of Iran. America and other countries should accept that this would be the start of an extensive war in the region.”

The war of words has intensified between Iran and the United States after the U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of tougher sanctions in June in response to Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or material for an atomic bomb.

The U.S. and Israel have said military force could be used if diplomacy fails to stop what they suspect is an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Iran put the Guard — its most powerful force — in charge of defending the country’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf in 2008. Iran has sought to upgrade its air defense systems and naval power, saying any possible future attacks against Iran will be air and sea-based.

TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were exaggerated in a fresh broadside at the United States just days after President Barack Obama voiced willingness to talk to Iran.

Well-known for his anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric, the hardline populist Ahmadinejad also repeated his denial of the Holocaust, on which the consensus of historians is that six million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany.

Ahmadinejad said the Sept. 11 attacks with hijacked airliners on New York and Washington D.C. had been trumped up as an excuse for the United States to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

Speaking at a Tehran conference, Ahmadinejad said there was no evidence that the death toll at New York’s World Trade Center, destroyed in the attacks, was as high as reported and said “Zionists” had been tipped off in advance.

“What was the story of September 11? During five to six days, and with the aid of the media, they created and prepared public opinion so that everyone considered an attack on Afghanistan and Iraq as (their) right,” he said in a televised speech.

No “Zionists” were killed in the World Trade Center, according to Ahmadinejad, because “one day earlier they were told not go to their workplace.”

“They announced that 3,000 people were killed in this incident, but there were no reports that reveal their names. Maybe you saw that, but I did not,” he told a gathering of the Iranian news media.

There is a published list of Sept. 11 dead from more than 90 countries available online.

A total of 2,995 people were killed in the attacks, including 19 hijackers and all passengers and crew aboard four commandeered airliners, according to official U.S. figures. The United States blamed the assaults on al-Qaida, led by Saudi-born Sunni Muslim fundamentalist Osama Bin Laden.

Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. government of exercising more media censorship than anywhere in the world.

Holocaust ‘made up,’ Iran leader reiterates
He had previously said the “9/11″ attacks were a “big fabrication” and has rejected the historical record of the Holocaust. On Saturday, Ahmadinejad repeated his belief that the Holocaust had been invented to justify the creation of Israel.

“They made up an event, the so-called Holocaust which was later laid as the basis for the innocence of a group,” he said.

Ahmadinejad last week challenged Obama to a televised debate on global issues during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

Two years ago he asked to visit the site of the World Trade Center “to pay his respects” but New York police refused.

Washington succeeded in June in getting a fourth round of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran to pressure it to suspend its disputed nuclear program.

Tougher U.S. and European measures have further tightened restrictions on doing business with the major OPEC country.

Obama signaled on Thursday he was open to talks with the Islamic Republic and was seeking “a clear set of steps that we would consider sufficient to show that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons.”

Ahmadinejad has said he is prepared to return to international talks, which were last held in October, but insists that Iran has the sovereign right to enrich uranium.

Western powers fear the Islamic Republic aims to stockpile the material for possible use, when more highly enriched, in nuclear weapons, and U.N. nuclear inspectors cite indications that Iran is researching how to build a nuclear-tipped missile.

Tehran says it is refining uranium only for electricity and medical treatments.

Israel considers the combination of Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and his pursuit of nuclear technology a potential threat to its existence and has said it does not rule out military action to prevent Iran developing atomic bombs.

A Washington-based think-tank with access to intelligence said on Friday Iran had begun using recently installed equipment to enrich uranium more efficiently, a step it said could be justified nominally on civilian grounds but in fact made more sense in the context of learning how to make bomb-grade uranium.

TEHRAN – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad survived an attack with a homemade explosive device on his motorcade during a visit to the western city of Hamadan on Wednesday, a source in his office said.

The source said Ahmadinejad’s convoy was targeted as he was traveling from Hamadan’s airport to give a speech in a local sports arena and the president was unhurt but others had been injured in the blast.

One person had been arrested, the presidency source said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The populist, hard-line Ahmadinejad has accumulated enemies in conservative and reformist circles in the Islamic Republic as well as abroad.

Al Arabiya television said an attacker had thrown a bomb at Ahmadinejad’s convoy before being detained.

Dubai-based Al Arabiya television cited its own sources as saying the bomb had hit a car carrying journalists and presidential staff.

Ahmadinejad appeared on live Iranian television at a sports stadium in Hamadan. He was apparently well and made no mention of any assault.

During a speech to a conference of expatriate Iranians in Tehran on Monday, Ahmadinejad said he believed he was the target of an assassination plot by Israel. “The stupid Zionists have hired mercenaries to assassinate me,” he said.

The oil market initially reacted calmly to reports of the attempted attack.

One energy analyst said: “People are just waiting to see what this is about – to confirm the nature of the action.”

Ahmadinejad recently sought to isolate rival political factions by declaring that “the regime has only one party, which is the velayat” — a reference to Shi’ite Islam’s hidden Imam, for now represented by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

One of Ahmadinejad’s trademarks has been constant travel around his vast country to deliver provocative speeches before outwardly adoring crowds who shout “death” to Iran’s foes.

U.S. Has Iran Attack Plan, Mullen Says
August 01, 2010
FoxNews.com

Adm. Mike Mullen speaks during a July 25 news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The United States military has a plan to attack Iran in order to prevent the country from developing a nuclear weapon, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed Sunday.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the top-ranking U.S. military officer, said a military strike would have severe downsides — but so would a nuclear-armed Iran. He described the challenge as a choice between two very bad options.

“I am extremely concerned about both of those outcomes,” he said.

But Mullen, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said the military option is an important one. He said it’s a decision that’s up to the president to make.

“The military options have been on the table and remain on the table,” he said. “It’s one of the options that the president has. … I hope we don’t get to that, but it’s an important option and it’s one that’s well understood.”

Asked whether the U.S. military has an attack plan, Mullen said: “We do.” He did not elaborate.
Mullen, who addressed the topic in the wake of new sanctions against Iran being imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations, said there is a narrow space between those two options. He said that space involves sanctions, diplomacy and international pressure and that he remains “hopeful” the combination will yield positive results.

“It’s those unintended consequences that are difficult to predict in what is an incredibly unstable part of the world,” Mullen said.

Tehran, Iran (CNN) — An attorney representing an imprisoned Iranian woman facing possible execution by stoning remained missing Tuesday, although his wife and brother-in-law were in custody, a human rights activist said.

Mohammad Mostafaei’s wife and brother-in-law were being held at Tehran’s Evin prison, said Mina Ahadi, chairwoman of the International Committee against Execution and Stoning. Neither has had access to a lawyer, she said.

Mostafaei’s father-in-law was contacted by officials Monday, who told him that both his children would be freed in exchange for Mostafaei himself, Ahadi said. She said Monday that Mostafaei’s office has been closed.

Mostafaei represents Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and was originally sentenced to death by stoning. The sentence was put on hold earlier this month after an international outcry.

Protesters rallied worldwide Saturday in support of Ashtiani, pushing for her release.

Earlier this month, Mostafaei told CNN that his client confessed to the crime after being subjected to 99 lashes with a whip. She later recanted the confession and has denied wrongdoing, he said.

Iranian state media reported this month that the nation’s judiciary chief halted the execution of Ashtiani.

“Although the verdict still stands and is definite, the execution has been halted on humanitarian grounds from the order of the honorable judiciary chief, and will not be implemented at this time,” Malek Ajdar Sharifi, a judiciary official in East Azerbaijan province, told Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency.

There is no clear timeline for Ashtiani’s case, Ahadi said Tuesday. The imprisoned woman has two attorneys, and Ahadi was expecting an update from the second. He must get an appointment with authorities in order to move forward on the case, she said. CNN

PREVIOUS: Iran Jails The Family of “Stoning” Defendant’s Lawyer

Iran stoning case lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s relatives arrested

The lawyer defending Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani himself faces re-arrest as his wife and brother-in-law are held by Iran authorities

Authorities in Iran have issued an arrest warrant for an acclaimed Iranian lawyer and arrested his wife and brother-in-law over his involvement in the case of a woman sentenced to death by stoning.

Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s office in Tehran was ransacked, and he was interrogated in Evin prison for four hours on Saturday over his human rights activities and involvement in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two who was convicted of adultery and whose plight in Iran has drawn international attention since her children launched a campaign for her release almost a month ago.

Mostafaei called Sakineh’s stoning sentence “a bogus conviction” and “absolutely illegal” in an interview with the Guardian earlier this month.

He was released, then called back for further questioning before being set free. Authorities then issued an arrest warrant.

When they were unable to find him the authorities arrested his wife, Fereshteh Halimi and her brother Farhad Halimi to try to force him to surrender. However, it is still unclear whether Mostafaei has been arrested or he has managed to evade officials.

“It is ridiculous that they [officials] have taken Mostafaei’s family as ransom, they have somehow taken them hostage. This confirms what Sakineh’s son wrote in his public letter, that there’s no justice in Iran,” said Mina Ahadi, a human rights activist for Iran Committee against Stoning (ICAS), based in Germany who spoke to Mostafaei after he was interrogated.

“Mohammadi Ashtiani’s sentence is not Mostafaei’s first stoning case, he has defended many others against execution by stoning but it was Sakineh’s story which took world attention and made the Iranian authorities angry,” she said.

Mostafaei initially wrote an open letter about Sakineh’s death by stoning after her sentence was handed down. He then tried to publicise her case by giving interviews to international media and helping her children launch the campaign for their mother’s release.

Unlike his well-known Iranian colleagues Shirin Ebadi, a peace Nobel laureate and Shadi Sadr, a winner of Human Rights Defenders Tulip awards 2009 who were forced to leave Iran, Mostafaei was still working inside Iran although he was arrested for a while last year.

“Mostafaei is not a normal lawyer, he is also a human rights activist and he has represented several stoning cases and juvenile offenders in Iran,” said Soheila Vahdati, an Iranian activist who is based in California.

“Mostafaei writes regularly for Iranian media and his blog and his role in making Iranians aware of the human rights abuses in Iran has made it difficult for the Iranian regime to tolerate him anymore,” she said. – Guardian UK

Strike on Iran Becoming More Likely, Former CIA Chief Says
July 25, 2010
FoxNews.com (AP)

WASHINGTON — A former CIA director says military action against Iran now seems more likely because no matter what the U.S. does diplomatically, Tehran keeps pushing ahead with its suspected nuclear program.

Michael Hayden, a CIA chief under President George W. Bush, says that during his tenure a strike was “way down the list” of options. But he tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that such action now “seems inexorable.”

He predicts Iran will build its program to the point where it’s just below having an actual weapon. Hayden says that would be as destabilizing to the region as the real thing.

U.S. officials have said military action remains an option if sanctions fail to deter Iran.

Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro took his warning of impending nuclear war to Cuba’s Foreign Ministry on Friday, where he explained the reasons for his dire prediction in his fifth public appearance in 10 days.

Castro’s sudden re-emergence after four years in seclusion has raised questions about what it all means. But his message has been consistent — a devastating war is at hand if the United States, in alliance with Israel, tries to enforce international sanctions against Iran for its nuclear activities.

He also has predicted the United States will attack North Korea.

His latest outing was reported on state-run website www.cubadebate.cu, which said he met with Cuban ambassadors at the ministry in Havana and that a videotape of the session would be shown on Friday evening on national television.

It said Castro, 83, talked with the ambassadors for 1-1/2 hours, during which he showed them news reports and political analyses that were the basis of his prediction. He also fielded questions, the report said.

Foreign Ministry employees and people from the surrounding neighborhood gave him a spontaneous send-off with a “prolonged ovation and emotional (shouts of) ‘Viva’” as he left, it said.

Castro disappeared from public view following emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006 and ceded power to his younger brother, now President Raul Castro.

He resurfaced on July 7 at a scientific research center in Havana and has since made several appearances in person and in a videotaped television interview.

Theories abound about why the man who ruled Cuba for 49 years after taking power in a 1959 revolution has returned to public view. The only things known are that he keeps pushing his warning of war and that it all coincides with Cuba’s biggest release of political prisoners since 1998, in a deal cut with the Catholic Church.

The Church announced on July 7 that 52 political prisoners, or about a third of the island’s jailed dissidents, would be freed over the next few months.

Castro’s videotaped interview was aired on Monday and drew international attention away from the start of the prisoner releases that same day.

Other speculation is that Castro is sending a message of stability at a time of uncertainty about Cuba’s future, that he felt his warning of war was being ignored, or that he simply wanted to return to the limelight.

Some have theorized that Raul Castro has health problems and Fidel Castro is preparing for a return to power.

The theories are simply speculation for now, because the Cuban government has said nothing except for the reports of his visits in state-run media. – From a fawning REUTERS

Iran-Sunni Insurgents Kill 27 in Iran Mosque Bombing
July 16, 2010
FoxNews.com (AP)

July 15: Twin bombers from a Sunni insurgent movement struck outside a mosque in Zahedan, Iran, killing 27 people including members of the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

TEHRAN, Iran — A Sunni insurgent group said it carried out a double suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque in southeast Iran to avenge the execution of its leader, as Iranian authorities Friday said the death toll rose to 27 people, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guard.

The blast was the latest by the group Jundallah, which has repeatedly succeeded in carrying out deadly strikes on the Guard, the country’s most powerful military force — including an October suicide bombing that killed more than 40 people. It was a sign that the group is still able to carry out devastating attacks even after Iran hanged its leader Abdulmalik Rigi and his brother earlier this year.

Jundallah has been waging an insurgency for years in the remote Sistan-Baluchistan province, a lawless area where smuggling and banditry are rife. The groups says it is fighting for the rights of the mainly Sunni ethnic Baluchi minority, which it says suffers discrimination at the hands of Iran’s Shiite’s leadership. Iran has accused the group of links to Al Qaeda, but experts say no evidence of such a link has been found.

Iran executed Jundallah’s leader in June in Zahedan, a month after hanging his brother Abdulhamid Rigi, who had been captured in Pakistan in 2008 and extradited to Iran. The group named a new leader, al-Hajj Mohammed Dhahir Baluch.

In a statement posted on its Web site, Jundallah claimed responsibility for Thursday night’s blast, saying they were to avenge Abdulmalik Rigi’s death. It showed pictures of two suicide bombers wearing explosive vests, identified as Mohammad and Mujahid Rigi, apparently members of the leader’s clan, though the site did not specify their relationship to him.

A Sunni insurgent group said it carried out a double suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque in southeast Iran to avenge the execution of its leader, as Iranian authorities Friday said the death toll rose to 27 people, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guard.

Homicide bombers target Iranian mosque

The group said its “sons of the faith … carried out tonight a heroic unprecedented operation at the heart of an assembly of the Guard at Zahedan,” claiming to have killed more than 100.

Shiite worshippers were attending ceremonies marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, when the first blast went off outside the mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan. The male bomber was disguised as a woman, local lawmaker Hossein Ali Shahriari told the ISNA news agency.

Inside the mosque, a cleric was reading from the Quran in front of lines of faithful sitting crosslegged on the floor when the building suddenly shook from the blast and screams were heard from outside, according to footage taken at the time and aired on Iranian state TV.

As people rushed to help, the second explosion detonated, causing the majority of the deaths and injuries. The technique is often used by Sunni militants in Iraq to maximize casualties.

Members of the Guard were among the worshippers, particularly because the ceremonies coincided with Iran’s official Revolutionary Guard Day. The deputy interior minister, Ali Abdollahi, told the Fars news agency Thursday that several Guard members were among the dead.

Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastagerdi told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that the toll stood at 27 dead but could still rise, with another 270 injured, including 11 in serious condition.

Iran accuses the United States and Britain of supporting Jundallah in a plot to weaken Tehran clerical leadership, a claim both countries deny. On Friday, officials blamed them for the latest attack.

Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guard, told worshippers during Tehran Friday prayers that the victims “were martyred by hands of mercenaries of the U.S. and U.K.”

He was echoed by influential lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi who said “America should be answerable for the terrorist incident in Zahedan.”

President Obama condemned the attacks, saying in a statement that the deaths of innocent civilians in their place of worship is an “intolerable offense” and that those responsible for the blasts must be held accountable.

Jundallah has repeatedly targeted the Revolutionary Guards. In its deadliest attack, a suicide bomber hit a meeting between Guard commanders and Shiite and Sunni tribal leaders in the border town of killed Pishin on Oct. 18, killing 42 people, including 15 Guard members.

The group struck another mosque in Zahedan in May 2009, killing 25 people. In February 2007, a Jundallah car bomb blew up a bus carrying Revolutionary Guards in Zahedan, killing 11.

TEHRAN, Iran – The lawyer for an Iranian widow sentenced to be stoned to death for an adultery conviction expressed cautious optimism Saturday after Iran said it will review the decision, which has drawn international condemnation.

Human rights activists and other officials, however, warned that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, could still be hanged.

The outcry over the death sentence is the latest thorn in Iran’s relationship with the international community, with the United States, Britain and international human rights groups urging Tehran to stay the execution.

Stoning was widely imposed in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran’s judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are often converted to other punishments. The last known stoning was carried out in 2007, although the government rarely confirms that such punishments have been meted out.

British media reported late Thursday that the stoning would not occur, citing the Iranian embassy in London.

Mohammed Javad Larijani of Iran’s human rights council told the state news agency late Friday that the “review and appeal of the verdict is on the agenda,” though he maintained it was not due to outside pressure.

“The hue and cry that the West has launched over this case will not affect our judges,” he said. “The implementation of Islamic regulations like stoning and the headscarf have always been faced with their impudently hostility and opposition.”

He added that converting sentences of stoning to alternative punishments has been common over the past years.

Ashtiani’s lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, said he was optimistic the review would bring an end to his client’s suffering after years of living “with the nightmare of death by stoning.”

Amnesty International, however, warned Ashtiani should not be executed by some other method, noting that three people sentenced to stoning last year were instead hanged.

“A mere change of the method of execution would not address the injustice faced by Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director in a statement Friday.

Human Rights Watch, one of several groups publicizing Ashtiani’s case, said she was first convicted in May 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men following the death of her husband — for which a court in Tabriz, in northwestern Iran, sentenced her to 99 lashes.

But later that year she was also convicted of adultery, despite having retracted a confession which she claims was made under duress.

Mostafaei said the trial had not been fair because Ashtiani had no access to her lawyer during the trial.

“I entered the case after the verdict was issued,” he said, insisting that Ashtiani had never confessed to adultery and there were no witnesses.

In its report Friday, the state news agency added that Western media, specifically BBC and Radio Free Europe’s Farsi services, had launched a propaganda campaign over the case.

Opponents of the Iranian government held a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London on Sunday to condemn the death sentence. Several celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan, also have taken up her cause.

The last confirmed stoning death was carried out against Jafar Kiani, a man convicted of adultery in northern Iran.

Iran’s judiciary did not elaborate on how the stoning was carried out. Under Islamic rulings, a man is usually buried up to his waist, while a woman is buried up to her chest with her hands also buried. Those carrying out the verdict then throw stones until the condemned dies.

Ashtiani’s stoning was approved by the country’s Supreme Court, but the law could allow the judiciary to order another trial or appeal for a pardon from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.

Iran backs down
World fury forces Tehran to spare ‘adulterous’ mother from being stoned – but will they hang her instead?
by Wil Longbottom The Drudge Report
July 9, 2010

Condemned: There is a growin international campaign to stop Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, from being stoned to death

A woman convicted of adultery has been spared execution by stoning after Iran backed down in the face of rising international outrage.

A statement issued by the Iranian embassy in London said that ‘according to information from the relevant judicial authorities in Iran [Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani] will not be executed by stoning’.

But it did not say whether Ms Ashtiani, a mother-of-two, would be spared or executed by hanging instead.
Mohammed Mostafaei, the 43-year-old’s lawyer, told The Times: ‘This is a positive development but nothing is clear yet.

‘There have been cases in Iran of stonings being changed to hangings.

‘We have to wait and see what happens.’

Ahmad Fatemi, of the International Committee against Stoning and Execution, which has campaigned for her release, said: ‘It’s a tactical retreat… they never expected this kind of pressure, so they want to buy time.’

British politicians have been lending their support to efforts to stop the stoning as the international outcry increased.

Foreign Minister William Hague described stoning as a ‘medieval punishment that has no place in the modern world’, adding: ‘If the punishment is carried out it will disgust and appal the watching world.’

In May 2006, a court in the northern city of Tabriz convicted Ms Ashtiani of having an ‘illicit relationship’ with two men and sentenced her to 99 lashes.

Later that year, the mother-of-two was accused of murdering her husband. Those charges were dropped, but a panel of judges re-opened the inquiry into adultery charges.

Ashtiani was convicted by a majority of three judges to two, according to a legal loophole called ‘udicial knowledge’, which permits judges to make decisions based on their personal feelings, regardless of actual evidence.

Barbaric: A woman is pictured being buried before she was stoned to death in Iran. The punishment has been written into the country’s penal code since the Islamic Revolution in 1979
Actors Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and Juliette Binoche, fashion designer Katherine Hamnett and playwright Sir David Hare are among a host of celebrities who have signed up to the campaign for her release.

Author Philip Pullman, film producer Lord Puttnam, director Sir Richard Eyre and philosopher A.C. Grayling are also backing calls for clemency.

The son of the condemned woman, 22-year-old Sajad Ghadarzade, had risked his own freedom by sending a letter to human rights groups in which he rejects the adultery charges against his mother and says repeated attempt to secure her release have fallen on deaf ears with Iranian authorities.

In the letter, he told Iran’s judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani: ‘I, as an Iranian citizen who has not yet succeeded in getting an audience with your office, say to you, the head of the judiciary who tells the television networks day in, day out, that justice must prevail and officials guilty of misconduct must be punished, that there is no justice in this country.’

Mr Ghadarzade, who lives in Tabriz, said the family had travelled six times to Tehran to petition Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad and written hundreds of letters, but was yet to receive a reply.
They fear their mother could be stoned to death at any time.
Outrage: British actors Colin Firth and Emma Thompson have joined a growing list of celebrities calling for clemency for Sakineh Ashtiani

He told CNN: ‘All I ask for is a letter. I want a letter for my dear mother. Please write this letter of pardon because she is innocent, 100 per cent innocent.’

Earlier this week, Mr Ghadarzade and his sister Farideh, 17, wrote: ‘Today we stretch out our hands to the people of the whole world.

‘It is now five years that we have lived in fear and in horror, deprived of motherly love.
Foreign Secretary William Hague has joined in the outcry
‘Is the world so cruel that it can watch this catastrophe and do nothing about it?

‘We resort to the people of the world, no matter who you are and where in the world you live. Help to prevent this nightmare from becoming reality. Save our mother.’
Under Iran’s Islamic penal code, adultery is punishable by stoning to death or flogging, while hanging is the penalty for murder and other crimes such as drug trafficking.

Stoning was officially introduced into the penal code after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Men are buried up to their waist and women up to their breasts before a group of around 20 men hurl stones and rocks at them until they are dead.

Article 90 of the penal code states that men or women who manage to free themselves from the pit are pardoned. It is easier for men to escape because they are not buried so deeply.

Families of victims are often made to watch and death is caused by concussion and brain damage caused by repeated blows to the head.

John Kerry, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: ‘Stoning is an appalling and barbaric punishment.

‘The government of Iran should abolish this act as a legitimate form of punishment.’

Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, added: ‘I am horrified by the Iranian Government’s plan to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and to do so in the cruellest way imaginable.

‘This is inhumane.’

In December 2008, a man convicted of adultery escaped death by stoning after dragging himself out of the pit he had been buried in.
But two other alleged male adulterers were killed in the same incident in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.

Iranian activists against stoning say it is not prescribed in the Koran.
Iran has the highest execution rate in the world. Amnesty International has recorded 126 executions between January and June – among them five political prisoners.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1293297/World-fury-forces-Iran-spare-adulterous-mother-stoned.html#ixzz0tCQk4mzF

Iranian Man Protests Mother’s Imminent Death By Stoning
July 08, 2010
FoxNews.com

In the depraved world of the sexually-frustrated Islamic man, the unfortunate people who must suffer the brute force of this degeneracy are the women who live in these backward societies. The imminent death-by-stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is a disgrace to the Iranian nation. She may not have been the wife of the year, but by no means should she have suffered what she has already received-99 lashes and then this barbaric death sentence. The perverted men who sentenced her will some day have to answer to God for their actions. And by-the-way, where is NOW? I wonder what do they think of this? They are no doubt to busy screwing up our own nation to take an interest in this lady’s plea for life and help.

This undated image made available by Amnesty International in London shows Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a mother of two who is facing stoning to death in Iran on charges of adultery.

Claiming there is “no justice” in Iran, a 22-year-old man has sent a letter to the Islamic Republic’s top officials in a last-ditch effort to save his mother from being stoned to death for adultery.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 42, was convicted in 2006 and has already spent five years in prison and endured 99 lashes for her illicit relationship with two men. Now, to complete her sentence, she will be put to death by stoning, an execution that appears to be imminent.

Ashtiani’s son, Sajad Ghadarzade, has petitioned Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its judiciary chief, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, to protest his mother’s impending execution.

“I, as an Iranian citizen who has not succeeded in getting an audience with your office, say to you, the head of the judiciary who tells the television networks day in, day out, that justice must prevail and officials guilty of misconduct must be punished, that there is no justice in this country,” Ghadarzade wrote to Larijani.

The young man, who lives in the northern city of Tabriz, wrote that he has traveled at least six times to Tehran to visit the three leaders and has written to them more than a hundred times — but he has not received a response.

Iran is facing growing criticism for the imminent stoning of the mother of two. Among those who have issued statements condemning the sentence are the U.S. State Department, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.

According to a statement released last week by Amnesty International, which tracks death penalty cases worldwide, Ashtiani has retracted a confession she made during interrogation, indicating that the statement was made under duress.

She was convicted by three of five trial judges on the basis of the “knowledge of the judge,” a provision in Iranian law that allows judges to rule even in the absence of clear or conclusive evidence. Her death sentence was confirmed by Iran’s Supreme Court in May 2007, according to the statement.

Under Iranian law, Ashtiani will be buried up to her chest, and people will throw stones at her until she dies. (Men are buried up to their waist prior to stoning.)

“If the execution goes ahead, that’s what would happen to her,” said Ann Harris, a London-based Iran researcher for Amnesty International.

She said a date for Ashtiani’s execution has not yet been set, but it could occur at any time since there is no legal obstacle to stop it.

“She’s been on death row for some time now,” Harris said. “It could be at short notice. Without pressure on her case, she remains at risk.”

At least 139 executions have taken place in Iran this year through Wednesday, Harris said, adding that 10 others — including three women — are facing execution by stoning.

U.S. State Department officials did not return several messages seeking comment, but a spokesman said Thursday that the agency has “grave concerns” that Ashtiani’s punishment does not fit her crime and cited “significant” human rights concerns.

Kerry, D-Mass., blasted the execution method as “appalling” and “barbaric” and called for the government of Iran to abolish it as a form of capital punishment.

Attempts to reach Ashtiani’s attorney, Mohammad Mostafaei, were not successful Thursday.

FoxNews.com’s Joshua Rhett Miller and Newscore contributed to this report.

The Iranian woman was forced into a confession after enduring 99 lashes … For a year and a half this administration’s State Department has chosen asinine words to deal with brutality and threats around the world. Crowley’s remarks on this case are disgusting:

“We have grave concerns that the punishment does not fit the alleged crime, ” Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley said Thursday. “For a modern society such as Iran, we think this raises significant human rights concerns.”

Calling Iran’s judicial system “disproportionate” in its treatment of women, Crowley said, “From the United States’ standpoint, we don’t think putting women to death for adultery is an appropriate punishment.”

EXACTLY what crime would said punishment be appropriate? And in his comment of “disproportionate” is he suggesting men too should be subjected to ‘death by stoning’?

Campaign for Iranian woman facing death by stoning

Iranian family say adultery conviction was bogus and that woman has already been subjected to 99 lashes.

A 43-year-old Iranian woman is facing death by stoning unless an international campaign launched by her children forces the authorities to quash what her lawyer calls a bogus conviction.

In a case that highlights the growing use of the death penalty in a country that has already executed more than 100 people this year, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of conducting an “illicit relationship outside marriage.”

Sakineh already endured a sentence of 99 lashes, but her case was re-opened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery charge was reviewed and a death penalty handed down on the basis of “judge’s knowledge” – a loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present.

Speaking to the Guardian, her son Sajad, 22, and daughter Farideh, 17, say their mother has been unjustly accused and already punished for something she did not do.

“She’s innocent, she’s been there for five years for doing nothing”, Sajad said. He described the imminent execution as barbaric. “Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years.”

Under Iranian sharia law, the sentenced individual is buried up to the neck (or to the waist in the case of men), and those attending the public execution are called upon to throw stones. If the convicted person manages to free themselves from the hole, the death sentence is commuted.

Iran, embarrassed by the international attention over stonings, has rarely practiced it in public in recent years. But the country still executed 388 people last year – more than any other country in the world apart from China, according to Amnesty International. Most are hanged.

Tonight protesters gathered outside the Iranian embassy in London to demand Sakineh’s release.

Five years ago when Sakineh was flogged , Sajad was 17 and present in the punishment room. “They lashed her just in front my eyes, this has been carved in my mind since then.”

Mohammed Mostafaei, an acclaimed Iranian lawyer volunteered to represent her when her sentence was announced a few months ago. He wrote a public letter about her conviction shortly after. “This is an absolutely illegal sentence,” he said. “Two of five judges who investigated Sakineh’s case in Tabriz prison concluded that there’s no forensic evidence of adultery.

“According to the law, death sentence and especially stoning needs explicit evidences and witnesses while in her case, surprisingly, the judge’s knowledge was considered as enough,” he said.

Mina Ahadi, a human rights activist in Germany who helped Sakineh’s children to launch their campaign internationally has been in regular contact with Sajad and Farideh.

She said that after the campaign was launched last week, she received phone calls from the families of two other women kept in Tabriz prison, where Sakineh is, revealing that they are also convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. Azar Bagheri, 19, and Marian Ghorbanzadeh, 25, are their names, Ahadi disclosed.

“Azar was arrested when she was just 15. They couldn’t punish her before she became 18 years old according to the law, so they waited until now … and want to stone her to death,” Ahadi said. She has been subjected to mock stonings, complete with partial burial in the ground. “They’re preparing her for the real one,” said Ahadi.

Ahadi who has been following the stoning sentence in Iran over the past few years says that she is aware of the names of 12 other women who are sentenced to death by stoning in Iran at the moment.

“These are just the women I know, I estimate that at least 40 to 50 other women are waiting for the same destiny in Iran right now,” she said.

“Stoning to death is not simply just a judicial punishment, it’s a political means in the hands of the Iranian regime to threaten people. It has more function than just a simple punishment for them.” – Guardian UK

Death by stoning imminent for Iranian woman, attorney says

Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a mother of two, is waiting to die in Iran by a method of execution described by her lawyer as “barbaric” — stoning.

She will be buried up to her chest, deeper than a man would be, and the stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately, according to an Amnesty International report that cited the Iranian penal code.

The 42-year-old woman from the northern city of Tabriz was convicted of adultery in 2006, and her execution is imminent, said prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei.

Ashtiani was forced to confess after being subjected to 99 lashes, Mostafaei said Thursday in a telephone interview from Tehran.

She later retracted that confession and has denied wrongdoing. Her conviction was based not on evidence but on the determination of three out of five judges, Mostafaei said. She has asked forgiveness from the court but the judges refused to grant clemency.

Iran’s supreme court upheld the conviction in 2007.

Mostafaei believes a language barrier prevented his client from fully comprehending court proceedings. Ashtiani is of Azerbaijani descent and speaks Turkish, not Farsi.

The circumstances of Ashtiani’s case make it not an exception but the rule in Iran, according to Amnesty International, which tracks death penalty cases around the world.

“The majority of those sentenced to death by stoning are women, who suffer disproportionately from such punishment,” the human rights group said in a 2008 report.

On Wednesday, Amnesty made a new call to the Iranian government to immediately halt all executions and commute all death sentences. The group has recorded 126 executions in Iran from the start of this year to June 6.

“The organization is also urging the authorities to review and repeal death penalty laws, to disclose full details of all death sentences and executions and to join the growing international trend towards abolition,” the statement said.

In Washington, the State Department criticized the scheduled stoning, saying it raised serious concerns about human rights violations by the Iranian government.

“We have grave concerns that the punishment does not fit the alleged crime, ” Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley said Thursday. “For a modern society such as Iran, we think this raises significant human rights concerns.”

Calling Iran’s judicial system “disproportionate” in its treatment of women, Crowley said, “From the United States’ standpoint, we don’t think putting women to death for adultery is an appropriate punishment.”

Human rights activists have been pushing the Islamic government to abolish stoning, arguing that women are not treated equally before the law in Iran and are especially vulnerable in the judicial system. A woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man.

Article 74 of the Iranian penal code requires at least four witnesses — four men or three men and two women — for an adulterer to receive a stoning sentence, said Mina Ahadi, coordinator for the International Committee Against Stoning. But there were no witnesses in Ashtiani’s case. Often, said Ahadi, husbands turn wives in to get out of a marriage.

Mostafaei said he could not understand how such a savage method of death could exist in the year 2010 or how an innocent woman could be taken from her son and daughter, who have written to the court pleading for their mother’s life.

The public won’t be allowed to witness the stoning, Mostafaei said, for fear of condemnation of such a brutal method. He is hoping there won’t be an execution.

Mostafaei, who himself did jail time in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections in June 2009, said he realizes the risk of speaking out for Ashtiani, for fighting for human rights. But he doesn’t let that deter him.

He last saw Ashtiani five months ago behind bars in Tabriz. Since then, he said, he has been searching for a way to save her from the stones. – CNN

System Could Help Tehran Dodge Israeli Strike; a Blow to U.S. Strategy on Damascus.

JERUSALEM—Iran has sent Syria a sophisticated radar system that could threaten Israel’s ability to launch a surprise attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities, say Israeli and U.S. officials, extending an alliance aimed at undermining Israel’s military dominance in the region.

The radar could bolster Syria’s defenses by providing early warning of Israeli air-force sorties. It could also benefit Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon and widely believed to receive arms from Syria.

Any sharing of radar information by Syria could increase the accuracy of Hezbollah’s own missiles and bolster its air defenses. That would boost Hezbollah defenses, which U.S. and Israeli officials say have been substantially upgraded since 2006, the last time Israel fought the southern Lebanon-based group.

The mid-2009 transfer was described in recent months by two Israeli officials, two U.S. officials and a Western intelligence source, and confirmed Wednesday by the Israeli military. Though they didn’t name the system’s final recipient in Syria, these and other officials described it as part as a dramatic increase in weapons transfers and military coordination among Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

Iran and Syria both denied that a radar transfer took place.

The increased sophistication of the weapons transfers and military cooperation among the three signal an increased risk of conflict on Israeli’s northern border. U.S. officials worry any new fighting would be more likely to include Syria, which hasn’t directly engaged Israeli in combat since 1974.

The radar transfer could potentially violate a 2007 United Nations Security Council resolution that bans Iran from supplying, selling or transferring “any arms or related materiel.”

Though officials say the transaction took place about a year ago, Israel and the U.S. haven’t publicized it, a departure from years past when Israeli officials were often eager to trumpet Iranian arms transfers to Syria and Hezbollah as violations of Security Council resolutions.

Some analysts say Israel believes Iran wants to escalate tensions on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and Syria to divert attention from its nuclear program. Israel has shied away from publicizing the transfer, these people say, to avoid playing into Iran’s hands by increasing domestic pressure on Israel’s government to take military action.

The radar report is likely to place greater pressure on the Syria strategy of the Obama administration, which has aimed to tamp down tensions with Syria as it tries to rebuild diplomatic ties.

U.S. officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sent a high-level trade delegation to Damascus in June, continue to argue that Washington has the best hope of altering Syrian President Bashar Assad’s behavior, and weakening his alliance with Tehran, through diplomatic dialogue.

A White House spokesman declined to comment on the transfer.

Israeli officials confirmed in private the transfer of the advanced radar, but the military wouldn’t release specifics in response to queries by The Wall Street Journal.

“Iran is engaged in developing Syrian intelligence and aerial detection capabilities, and Iranian representatives are present in Syria for that express purpose,” the Israeli military said in a statement. “Radar assistance is only one expression of that cooperation.”

Ahmed Salkini, the spokesman for the Syrian Embassy in Washington, called the report of the radar shipment “classic Israeli PR stunts aimed at diverting the world’s attention from the atrocities they are committing in Gaza and other occupied territories, and we will not continue wasting our time” commenting on them.

Iran denied that it had sent sophisticated radars to Syria. “It is absolutely not true,” said Mohamad Bak Sahraee, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations. Hezbollah officials in Beirut declined to comment.

Syria, which has long struggled against Israel’s superior military, has its own interest in acquiring advanced radar. Israeli fighter jets bombed a Syrian site in 2007 that Israelis say housed a nuclear reactor in the final stages of construction. Syria said it was a defunct military facility.

Some military analysts have suggested that Israel was able to slip into and out of Syrian air space during that raid by jamming older Syrian radar.

In the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, “There was no opposition to our jets. We flew freely,” said Cpt. Ron, an active duty Israeli F-16 pilot, who under Israeli security restrictions would allow himself to be identified only by his first name and rank. “In the next Lebanon war, we know it will not be like that.”

Israeli officials have in recent months accused Iran and Syria of transferring to Hezbollah Syrian-made M-600 missiles, capable of striking targets in Tel Aviv within a few hundred feet of accuracy; advanced shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles; and an arsenal of short-range rockets that Israeli officials say has grown to more than 40,000, from 12,000 in 2006.

U.S. and Israeli officials also say Hezbollah has received training in Syria on more advanced radar-guided, truck-launched anti-aircraft missiles, though they say it isn’t clear whether those weapons systems have been transferred from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In April, Israeli President Shimon Peres publicly accused Syria of transferring Scud missiles to Hezbollah, an accusation that U.S. officials privately affirmed.

The public accusation marked the first time Western intelligence agencies believe a state may have transferred ballistic missiles to a non-state militia that the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist group. The missiles would give Hezbollah the ability to hit virtually all of Israel from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Syrian, Lebanese and Hezbollah officials have denied the Scud transfer.

A radar deal stands to further shift the region’s strategic balance.

Israeli and U.S. officials wouldn’t say how they determined the shipment took place or discuss the radar’s type or capacity.

But they say it would give Syria and its ally Iran improved visibility of Israeli air space and provide early warning of any imminent Israeli strike. Amid Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West, Israeli officials have suggested they could strike Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

More advanced radar technologies would also likely increase the accuracy and lethality of Hezbollah missiles aimed at Israeli cities and incoming Israeli aircraft.

“An effective long-range radar is the kind of thing you’d need to make longer-range missiles accurate,” said David Fulghum, an electronic warfare and radar expert. “Up till now, [Hezbollah] was just sort of lighting the fuse and shooting them to land wherever.”

A clear picture of the skies above Israel and Lebanon would give Hezbollah greater freedom of movement during any conflict, since the group would know when its fighters were at risk of being bombed from the air.

“The Iranians have two interests,” said a U.S. official who is familiar with the arms transfers. “They need Hezbollah to be a powerful threat against Israel, and they are interested in knowing what is coming to them from Israel.”

Current and former U.S. officials who’ve worked on Syria said the U.S. and Israel have often had to trend lightly on the issue of Damascus’s arms dealings for fear of stoking a broader Middle East war. President George W. Bush’s administration was notified of Israel’s planned 2007 attack on Syria.

For more than a half year, the U.S. kept secret its intelligence outlining the reactor’s construction, fearing that publicizing it could pressure Israel and Syria into a conflict, said a former U.S. official who was part of the deliberations.

“We didn’t comment on the reactor for six months” after Israel’s attack, only then accusing the Syrians of building a reactor, this official said. “We wanted to find a way to use the situation for our advantage.”

Indeed, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert communicated to Mr. Assad through third channels after the attack that Israel remained open to peace talks.

Many Syrian and Israeli officials said the two sides made progress on resolving their dispute over the Golan Heights region before Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in early 2009 stalled the process. – WSJ