The independent

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 31 December 2006

When they hanged him, he was America's vanquished foe, likened to Hitler and Stalin for the murderous evil of his ways. What is forgotten is that once, for more than a decade, Saddam Hussein was staunchly supported by the US.

Indeed, it was Washington that supplied him with many of the weapons of mass destruction the dictator used against his foes - weapons that one day would serve as a pretext for the US-led invasion that toppled him.

The dealings between the US and Saddam's Iraq over the quarter of a century before 2003 are a story of deceit, miscalculation and strategic blunders by both sides. And they began, as they would end, in the shadow of a common enemy: Iran.

Saddam seized complete power in 1978. Two years later he attacked Iran, in what he called an "Arab war against the Persians", to overthrow the Islamic revolutionary regime.

Washington was under no illusions about the brutality of Saddam's regime. But as Tehran gained the upper hand in the fighting, he came to be seen as the lesser of two evils - a vital bulwark against domination by a radical, anti-Western Iran of the strategically vital Gulf region, with its colossal oil reserves.

Quietly, the US delivered the technology, weapons and logistical support to prevent Iraq's defeat. Its policy was symbolised by the cordial meeting in Baghdad in December 1983 between Saddam and a certain Donald Rumsfeld, then President Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East. Two decades later, as Secretary of Defence, he would plan the invasion that toppled Saddam.

American assistance often took the form of dual-use technology that had legitimate civilian uses, but which Washington was well aware could (and would) be used on the battlefield. US intelligence also provided Iraqi commanders with crucial information on Iranian troop movements.

American backing grew ever more explicit. In 1982, the administration ignored objections in Congress and removed Iraq from its list of countries supporting terrorism. By November 1983, the National Security Council had issued a directive that the US should do "whatever was necessary and legal" to prevent an Iranian victory. Washington did nothing to deter Saddam's use of chemical weapons.

As the 1980s progressed, a clandestine network of companies developed in the US and other countries to help the Iraqi war effort. The conflict between Iraq and Iran ended in 1988, but Saddam continued his Western-supported military build-up until the very moment he invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

It would be the turning point. Until then, the US had dealt with Saddam in the context of keeping Iran at bay. Thereafter, however, the Iraqi dictator was the enemy in his own right. The irony, of course, was that America's previous support encouraged him to think he could get away with annexing Kuwait.

Indeed, just a week earlier, on 25 July 1990, the American ambassador, April Glaspie, had met Saddam. According to a transcript of the meeting, she informed him that Washington had no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts, "like your border disagreement with Kuwait".

The US-led coalition drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in a 100-hour ground war, but the first President Bush decided not to press on to Baghdad, creating the stalemate that in one form or another continued until 2003. In the meantime, however, the truth gradually emerged about how the US (and Britain) helped to create the monster they had now half-slain.

Events thereafter make familiar reading: Saddam's moves against the Kurds and the Shias, as the first President Bush encouraged them to rise up but did nothing to support them; a dozen years of sanctions that brought misery on ordinary Iraqis but not to the regime; and Operation Desert Fox in 1998, as the US and Britain launched their heaviest air attacks until the 2003 war itself.

All the while, Saddam remained in power. Almost from the moment he came to office, the second President Bush had his eye on finishing his father's business.After a three-week ground war he was duly overthrown. But in doing so, the US has achieved exactly what it sought to prevent when it backed him in the 1980s.

It is a matter of debate whether Iraqis are now worse off than under Saddam's dictatorship. The chaos in their country, however, has produced one undisputed winner: an unchecked Iran, more menacing today than in Ayatollah Khomeini's time.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will never give up its nuclear programme and unfair treatment of the country over its atomic work will have consequences for the West and the Middle East, powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Sunday.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last week to impose sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology, in an attempt to stop uranium enrichment work that could produce material that could be used in bombs.

"This is a dangerous resolution ... It will not bring about the desired outcome. No resolution can make us give up atomic work," Rafsanjani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told worshippers at Tehran University on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Rafsanjani said there would be consequences if Iran was treated unfairly over its nuclear programme, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes only and the West fears is a cover for building nuclear bombs.

"They (Westerners) are creating problems for themselves and the region ... the consequences of this fire will burn many others," Rafsanjani told worshippers who chanted "Death to America".

Rafsanjani did not elaborate on what those consequences might be. "They should not start a path, which could be dangerous for everyone," he said in comments broadcast live on state radio.

U.S. and British officials have accused Iran of aiding terrorism and fuelling armed groups inside Iraq, undermining the Lebanese government and blocking Israeli-Palestinian peace. Iran denies the charges.

Iran's parliament passed a bill on Wednesday obliging the government to "revise" its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to accelerate its drive to master nuclear technology in a reaction to the U.N. resolution.

The bill gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government a free hand to adopt a tougher line against the IAEA, including ending its inspections of Iran's atomic facilities.

Iran in February ended voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that allowed for short notice IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites, after being referred to the U.N. Security Council.

Under Iran's system of clerical rule, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last say on state matters, not the president. Khamenei has previously said Iran would not yield to pressure.

Rafsanjani, head of the powerful Expediency Council, Iran's main legislative arbitration body, insisted Iran "wanted to resolve the issue peacefully".

By Hadi Elis
KurdishMedia.com

Saddam's execution and the future of Kurdish national demand for historical justice on genocide and crimes against Kurdish people

So far the US government did only one thing right which is the occupation of Iraq for removing Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime from the power. However the rest of the political and military process has been the story of wrongdoings; swing from being right to the accused of doing it all wrong. The very first wrong was done by President Bush in recalling Jay Garner to replace him with Paul Bremer. It is also the biggest and most important mistake.

Second one was Paul Bremer's most important mistake of disarming the Iraqi Army, and letting the Sunni insurgency have the men and the weaponry to fight back to US forces. Look at that where we are now.

Third mistake was setting up the Trials' order from Genocide and Crimes against the Kurdish People - the ones that US administration spoke of so much - to the ordering of killings of 148 Shia people. From the beginning it was looking suspicious, now we know why it happened that way. As Mrs. Mizgin Tilmaz too has written on the issue at KurdishMedia.com that the US administration waited to see how much dirty was Turkish-Iraqi relations. Saddam was speedily executed in order to be able to cover up the rest of the unfolding events.

The Last mistake was executing Saddam in a revenge taking attitude by the Shia political power which USA bowed to accept, another damage done to the interests of US to control the next step of the Iraq's recreation project, making the ISG's Report null and void. I can think of it as never been written. After so-called much paid attention to "New Diplomatic Offensive", " National Reconciliation", etc. How Kurdish people can accept the “National Reconciliation" principles where every thing done and said shows the other directions.

Saddam's execution is left some Kurdish and Iraqi History in dark, where it supposed to bring an End to that part of the History.

The KRG and Kurdish leadership lost their weight in the power deals to protect Kurdish strategic and security interests' in Federal Iraq, if it may or may not be on that path the New Iraq to be Federal Republic of Iraq).

The Trial of Genocide, Anfal and others' still continuing just like a Hollywood move where the main actor gets killed, boring and tasteless.

NCRI - Four prisoners were hanged in the southeastern cities of Zahedan and Saravan and in the southern port city of Bandar-Abbas in the past three days.

Two young men, identified as Yousef B. and Poar-Deal B., were hanged in Zahedan, the state-run news agency ISNA reported on December 26.

Yesterday, a young man, identified as Amanollah, was hanged in Saravan in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, the state-controlled dailyJomhuori-Islami reported.

On the same day, a man, identified only as H.A, was hanged in Bandar-Abbas, the state-run news agency ISNA reported.

The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations to condemn arbitrary executions by the Iranian regime.

A man was hanged in public in the south-eastern town of Saravan, a semi-official daily reported on Saturday.

The man, identified only by his first name Amanollah, was accused of armed robbery, the hard-line Jomhouri Islami wrote.

Amanollah was hanged in public on Thursday.

He was sentenced to death by a court in the nearby city of Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province.

On Monday, Iranian authorities executed two men identified as Youssef H. and Pordel B. in Zahedan.

Sistan-va-Baluchistan has been a hotbed of anti-government activities since 2005.

In recent months, Iranian authorities have stepped up executions in the restive province in what many Baluchis believe is a response to a spate of attacks by dissidents on government and security officials.

Source:iranfocus

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 30 – A senior official in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan has acknowledged the existence of a staggeringly-high number of illiterate people in the province.

Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in East Azerbaijan, announced that there existed close to half a million illiterate people in the province.

“The existence of 470,000 illiterates in the province is extremely shameful”, Shabestari told a group of educational officials. His remarks were reported on Thursday by the government-run news agency Fars.

London (KurdishMedia.com) 30 December 2006: Saddam Hussein was executed on Saturday for killing 148 Shiia individuals in the town of Dujail, not for conducting genocide of Kurdish people.

Does this show the weakness of the Kurdistan’s political leadership and their inability to assert the Kurdish interest in Iraq, in the region and in the international arena? Does this prove that Kurds in Iraq are irrelevant? Does this stipulate on the findings of the recent Iraqi Study Group Report that totally ignored Kurds and Kurdistan and indirectly recommended the elimination of Kurdistan political entity?

Is this another defeat for the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Kurdistani Parliamentary bloc in Baghdad? Is this another compromise by Kurdistan’s political leadership? Is this another milestone in slowly but surly making Kurds irrelevant in Iraq?

Do you think the the Iraqi agenda is run by Shiia and Kurds are irrelevant?

What do you think? Have your say now!

Read on

PARIS (AFP) - The United States has joined its arch-foe Iran in hailing the justice of Saddam Hussein's execution, but European powers opposed the use of capital punishment even though they condemned the former dictator's crimes in Iraq.

US President George W. Bush said Saddam had received the kind of justice he denied his victims.

Some key US allies expressed discomfort at the execution. And Russia, which opposed the March 20, 2003 invasion to oust the dictator, and the Vatican expressed regret at the hanging which some Muslim leaders said would exacerbate the violence in Iraq.

Bush was asleep at his Texas ranch when the hanging of Saddam was carried out in Baghdad after he had been found guilty of crimes against humanity, the White House said Saturday.

He called the execution "an important milestone" on the road to building an Iraqi democracy though he warned in a statement it would not end the deadly violence there.

The US president said Saddam "was executed after receiving a fair trial -- the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."

"Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule," said Bush, calling the trial "a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression."

Bush acknowledged that the execution came "at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops."

"Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself," he said.

Iran, the influential neighbour of Iraq and arch-foe of the US administration, also welcomed the execution.

"With regards to Saddam's execution, the Iraqi people are the victorious ones, as they were victorious when Saddam fell," said Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi, in remarks reported by the IRNA news agency.

Saddam Hussein was reviled in Iran for a 1980 attack that sparked an eight-year war that cost around one million lives on both sides.

Israel, a strong US ally and enemy of Saddam, also hailed the hanging. "Justice has been done," a high-ranking Israeli official told AFP.

"We are talking about a man who sparked fire and bloodshed in the Middle East time and again, and who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people," said the official on condition of anonymity.

Britain, the main US ally in Iraq, said Saddam Hussein had been "held to account" but reiterated its opposition to the use of the death penalty, as did Australia, another key supporter of the US invasion.

"I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people," said British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.

"He has now been held to account. The British government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or anywhere else. We advocate an end to the death penalty worldwide, regardless of the individual or the crime."

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said: "No matter what one might think about the death penalty, and the government of Iraq is aware of the Australian government's position on capital punishment, we must also respect the right of sovereign states to pass judgement relating to crimes committed against their people, within their jurisdictions."

Downer added in a statement: "He has been brought to justice, following a process of fair trial and appeal, something he denied to countless thousands of victims of his regime."

But there was also condemnation of the execution.

Russia's foreign ministry expressed regret, saying that international calls for clemency had been ignored.

"Unfortunately, the many appeals from representatives of various countries and international organisations for Iraq's authorities to hold back from capital punishment were not heard," a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Russian lawmakers warned the execution could worsen the violence.

India, which had warm ties with the Saddam regime, also condemned the execution. "We had already expressed the hope the execution would not be carried out. We are disappointed that it has been," said foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee in a statement.

The ruling Hamas movement in the Palestinian territories called the execution of Saddam a "political assassination".

"Saddam Hussein was a prisoner of war," a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, told AFP. The "hanging ... is a political assassination that violates all international laws that are supposed to protect prisoners of war."

Libya declared three days of national mourning after the execution, with official media also calling Saddam a "prisoner of war".

Malaysia, a leading Muslim nation, warned the execution of Saddam could trigger more bloodshed.

"A lot of people, the international community generally, are not in favour of the hanging and question the due process that took place," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, whose country is current chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, told AFP.

Outside of Britain, European reaction, led by the European Union (EU), focused on opposing the death penalty.

"The EU condemns the crimes committed by Saddam and also the death penalty," Cristina Gallach, a spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, told AFP.

France, a high profile opponent of the Iraq invasion at the United Nations, called on Iraqis to end their divisions.

"France calls upon all Iraqis to look towards the future and work towards reconciliation and national unity. Now more than ever, the objective should be a return to full sovereignty and stability in Iraq," the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

But France along with Germany also highlighted Europe's opposition to capital punishment.

German junior foreign minister Gernot Erler said that his country "understood" the feelings of the victims of Saddam's brutal regime but remained opposed to capital punishment.

Among other major powers, Japan said it respected Iraq's decision to carry out the execution.

"Japan hopes Iraq will turn into a stable country and will continue supporting the country together with the international community," Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

The Vatican saw the hanging as "tragic news", Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi said.

"There is a risk that it feeds the spirit of vengeance and plants the seeds for fresh violence," he said.

Kurdish-language satellite televisions Saturday broadcast the Iraqi Kurds' jubilation over the execution of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn Saturday for crimes against humanity -- an end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled in 2003.

The channels extended their congratulations on Saddam's death in live interviews with the Kurds in Iraq.

The Television stations showed footage of Saddam being led to the gallows and a noose being placed around his neck.

The noose was put around his neck by two hooded hangmen but the footage did not show the actual moment of the hanging or pictures of his body.

The crawl on their live programs reported the celebration among Iraqi Kurds for the execution of Saddam.

Source:IRNA

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity at dawn on Saturday, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion four years ago.

"It was very quick. He died right away," one of the official Iraqi witnesses told Reuters, saying the ousted president's face was uncovered, he appeared calm and said a brief prayer as Iraqi guards walked him to the gallows and put the noose round him.

"We heard his neck snap," Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told Reuters after the indoor execution at a Justice Ministry facility in northern Baghdad.

State television promised to air footage of the hanging in an apparent move to convince Iraqis their former leader is dead.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who branded Saddam a tyrant and a threat to global security even though alleged nuclear and other weapons were not found after the 2003 invasion, hailed the execution as a "milestone" on Iraq's path to democracy.

The deaths of four troops pushed the American death toll to just four short of the emotive 3,000 mark. Bush already faces mounting public dismay at the war as Iraq slides towards all-out civil war between Saddam's fellow Sunnis and majority Shi'ites.

Despite fears of a backlash from Sunni insurgents, initial reactions were fairly muted as Iraqis woke to begin a week of religious holidays for Eid al-Adha. Unlike at previous times of tension, no curfew was imposed on Baghdad after the execution.

Read on

By Sherko Raouf

KIRKUK, Iraq, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Zanah Hadi, a 50-year-old Kurdish labourer, cannnot wait to see Saddam Hussein hang but like many in Iraq he fears the former president's execution could spark more violence.

"Every Kurd in Kirkuk and beyond is longing to see Saddam hanging on the rope from the gallows," he said on Friday evening as the hanging was reported to be just hours away.

"If Saddam is executed, I will fire 70 shots in the air and I will dance until I drop," he said.

He was closely following conflicting reports on Iraqi media on Friday as officials met to finalise the details of the hanging that some fear could deepen sectarian tensions already threatening to pitch Iraq into civil war.

An appeals court upheld Saddam's death penalty on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and Iraqi officials said he might be hanged before the Eid al-Adha holiday that starts on Saturday, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

"I'm afraid this Eid may be a bloody Eid," Hadi said.

Saddam received the death penalty for his part in the killing of 148 Shi'ites in the early 1980s.

He was still on trial for genocide in a second case but his execution would mean those charges are dropped. He will also never be tried on other charges, including a chemical gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja that killed 5,000 people in 1988.

"It would have been much better for the execution to have taken place in Halabja, not in Baghdad," said Barham Khorsheed, 40, a Kurdish taxi driver in Sulaimaniya.

Norzan Yaseen, a 32-year-old teacher from the Turkmen community in Kirkuk, said Saddam's hanging would make no difference and she urged the government to concentrate on bringing security and basic services.

"The Iraqi government has brought nothing but calamities to the Iraqi poeple in the last three years," she said.

Ahmed Qasim, a 27-year-old farmer, said Saddam's trial had been a "political show orchestrated by the United States".

"During Saddam Hussein's time there was no violence or killings or terrorism or evictions," he said. "Now after the fall of Saddam, things have got worse. Executing Saddam Hussein will incite the Sunni Arabs' anger and may lead to a civil war."

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein may be hanged within hours, senior Iraqi officials said on Friday, although the start of a week-long Muslim holiday might yet delay it.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and key officials met through the evening to try to settle the details, official sources said. Maliki has said he wants the ousted president put to death before the end of the year but, with Iraq on the brink of civil war, some Sunni and Kurdish leaders would prefer delay.

A senior Iraqi source told Reuters key legal issues were resolved and he could go to the gallows shortly. Among those meeting Maliki were the justice minister, who is responsible for executions, and the national security adviser, who may have to deal with any violent reaction from Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs.

Maliki said earlier in the day there could be "no review or delay" in carrying out the sentence after the appeals court this week upheld a verdict delivered on November 5.

The State Department denied comments from Saddam's chief defense lawyer and Iraqi state television that U.S. forces had already handed the former president over for execution.

But whatever the case, formal custody may not be very significant since U.S. troops seem likely to remain on hand to the end as Washington is concerned the process goes smoothly.

One senior Iraqi government official told Reuters that U.S. troops would hand Saddam over only "when he climbs the gallows." Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport but the place of execution has been kept secret.

The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents.

A leading parliamentarian from Maliki's Shi'ite majority, Bahaa al-Araji, said the prime minister was waiting only for a ruling from Sunni and Shi'ite clerics on whether the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, meant the execution should be postponed for the week.

"MAY BE HANGED TONIGHT"

After a day of conflicting signals, during which the Justice Ministry had said it could legally do nothing for a month, the senior source said debate over whether a presidential decree was needed to override that was over: "That is resolved so it seems it's possible he may be hanged tonight," the source said.

But a source in the team that successfully prosecuted Saddam for crimes against humanity said prosecutors, who should have a representative at any execution, had not been invited to attend.

If there is a quick hanging, Maliki, whose authority has been in question as the country slides toward all-out sectarian civil war, would seem to have forced through a decision popular with Shi'ites in the face of resistance from Sunnis and from Kurds keen to see Saddam convicted of genocide against them.

An execution at the start of Eid could be highly symbolic. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son and many Shi'ites could regard Saddam's death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, resentful of new Shi'ite power.

Saddam was found guilty over the killing, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail after militants from Maliki's Dawa party tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq's war with Shi'ite Iran.

Defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters Saddam had been handed to the Iraqi authorities and that attorneys had been told they could not visit their client. Earlier said he had been told to arrange to collect Saddam's personal effects -- a move another defense lawyer said indicated he could die on Saturday.

Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits and ready to die a "martyr." A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.

Saddam's conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. With U.S. public support for the war slumping as the number of American dead approaches 3,000, Washington is likely to welcome the death of Saddam.

International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

Rights groups, along with the United Nations and many of the United States' Western allies, oppose capital punishment and have voiced unease over the decision to put Saddam to death.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Dubai and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)

Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan

Sanandaj- Aso Saleh is the chief editor of the news publications Dang and Chia. He has been sentenced to six months in prison to be served over the next three years for the news he published on the 19th of Khordad (Iranian calendar) in Dang newspaper regarding the government.

Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan

Gharwa- Kurooshi Ranjbar and his brother, Zahid Ranjbar, were sentenced in Court Office 2 in Sanandaj to one year in prison for political activities. The brothers have been jailed since the beginning of this past summer.

The Islamic regime executed 6 people, on Saturday, December 24th, in Evin prison; on Sunday 3 others in the south eastern city of Zahedan (province of Sistan-Baluchestan) were also executed. All those executed were charged with “combating against god”.

Another 6 individuals who were publicly executed in the south western city of Ahvaz were charged with "action against the country’s security".

On Tuesday, December 26th, the regime-run news agency ISNA reported that 2 other individuals were executed in small towns in the province of Sistan-Baluchestan. The charges against these 2 individuals, Youssef H. and Pardel B. were also “combating against god” and “armed offenses”.

During this same period the Islamic regime has issued the execution sentence for 13 others in the cities of Tehran and Zahedan.

This brings the total number of people executed to more than 25, within a week.

Source:IranPressNews

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Islamic regime official confesses to 100 illegal detention centers in Iran

Iranian justice minister dies in car crash

Iran: Before it's Too Late

The founders of the union of unemployed and laid-off Iranian workers reported that more than 150 of the laid-off workers from the Kurdistan textile companies gathered to protest the negligence of the factory management, in front of the labor office in Sanandadj (province of Kurdistan). The elimination of unemployment insurance was one of the issues that prompted the protest. The workers who mostly have between 10 to 20 years of work experience were receiving a small amount of unemployment insurance which they were barely able to live on; now this small amount too has been eliminated and the workers and their families are faced with sever financial problems and despite numerous protests the company management has failed to respond or resolve any of the workers’ problems.

After negotiations with the workers, the Islamic leadership of the labor office announced that it was prepared to offer 100 of the workers a loan from the Mehr’eh Reza treasury. This suggestion was met with strong protests from the workers who announced that they are not interested in work loans, rather suitable employment. The workers then gave the officials 10 days to comply with their demands and if during this time their issues are not resolved they will go to Tehran to organize a massive rally in front of the ministry of labor.

It is worth mentioning that last month, more than 700 workers from various Kurdistan textile companies, such as Shahou and Par’ress spinning factories, as well as workers from the university of Medical Sciences and the department of the road works gathered in front of the office of the governor of Kurdistan but they were threatened and forced to disband by the Islamic regime’s security and disciplinary forces.

Source:iranpressnews

NCRI - Subsequent to ousting of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from Tehran's Polytechnic by students while chanting “Death to dictator” as well as burning his pictures before his eyes, the mullahs’ security apparatus have created a reign of terror and fear against the students present at the scene by producing false evidence against them.

A website related to the suppressive organs of the regime named “Students’ Bassij Information Provider” posted names and particulars of six students calling them “hooligans.” The site published a text along with the students' photographs which called them “A student grouplet with roots going all the way back to those hypocrites (a name used by the regime for the Mojahedin) who were executed in 1981.”

Separately, the regime’s Majlis (parliament) deputy speaker, Mohammad-Reza Bahonar described the student activists at the Polytechnic “individuals who are after alcoholic drinks and suffer from sexual problems.” He added, “Who ever behaves improperly [referring to the students' protest] must also pay the price.”

Such clear threats, by leaders of the regime against student activists at the Polytechnic for the way they treated Ahmadinejad, is an indication of how they will be treated in the days to come.

The Iranian Resistance condemns the inhuman and anti-student measures by the mullahs’ regime and calls on all international human rights organizations as well as student unions and associations to support the uprising students in Iran.

Independent

Stephen Foley in New York

Dozens of banks have stopped or scaled back their businesses with Iran and other "rogue states" after informal pressure from the US government aimed at sidestepping the need for international sanctions.

The Goldman Sachs banker-turned-Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, has been making presentations on Wall Street that might normally be expected more in the halls of the United Nations, setting out the links between financial institutions operating in rogue states and organised crime or terrorism.

The presentations have been remarkably successful at snipping the ties between rogue nations and the global financial markets, and are expected to be stepped up next year as the US confronts Iran over its nuclear programme and its alleged financing of terrorist groups.

"We are trying use the private sector's natural inclinations to want to avoid bad conduct and make sure their reputations are clean," said Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey.

"We want to figure out how to work with the private sector so they amplify what we want to have happen."

Some two dozen financial institutions have voluntarily cut back or cut off dealings with North Korea this year, since the US blacklisted Banco Delta Asia of Macao for - the Treasury says - helping North Korean officials collect surreptitious multimillion dollar cash deposits.

A similar action against the Tehran-based Bank Saderat, accused of helping finance terror groups, was taken in September 2006 and is also featuring in the Treasury's Wall Street offensive.

By highlighting these actions directly to bankers, the Treasury has made some foreign banks understand an implicit threat: that their access to the US market might be threatened if they do business with parties deemed undesirable by the US government.

The Treasury believes it has found a shortcut to achieving the sort of financial sanctions that might take months or years to agree at the UN.

By Patrick Cockburn

Saddam Hussein is to be hanged within 30 days after the Iraqi court of appeals upheld the sentence of death against him for crimes against humanity passed last month.

The execution is likely to be carried out in secret; the time and place will be announced later.

The hanging of the former Iraqi leader could provoke a furious reaction from some members of the Sunni community to which he belongs. Shia and Kurds in Iraq largely approve of the death sentence being carried out.

"It is up to the authorities to carry out the sentence," said the head of Iraqi High Tribunal, Aref Abdul-Razzaq al-Shahin. "As far as we are concerned this is what the law says, so the executive authority has an obligation to carry out the ruling within 30 days." No further appeal is allowed. The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, earlier said he expected Saddam to be executed before the end of 2006.

After a long and rancorous trial, Saddam Hussein was found guilty on 5 November of crimes against humanity over the killing of 148 Shia Muslims from the village of Dijail, north of Baghdad after a failed assassination attempt against the Iraqi president in 1982. The appeal court upheld death sentences against Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and the former judge Awad al-Bander. It added that the former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, previously sentenced to life imprisonment, should also be executed.

Saddam's chief defence counsel, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said: "If they dare implement the sentence it will be a catastrophe for the region and will only deepen the sectarian infighting." But many Sunni say they are too absorbed in trying to stay alive themselves to worry about the fate of Saddam, even if they sympathise with him.

Insurgents are extending their control over Sunni districts in Baghdad and other cities because of fear of sectarian cleansing by Shia militias. In parts of west Baghdad they are organising young men to defend their districts 24-hours-a-day on a shift basis. But Islamic insurgents have little liking for Saddam as a secular autocrat. In Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, gunmen openly paraded the streets in recent days distributing leaflets calling for an Islamic Sunni republic.

There has so far been little retaliation in Basra to the Christmas Day British assault on Jamiat police station which was later blown up. Local officials had voiced their anger at the raid, which Mohammed al-Abadi, head of the city's council, described as "illegal" and British forces were accused of failing to notify Basra authorities of their plan.

The operation led to the freeing of 127 prisoners held in a single room. A British spokesman said many had signs of torture such as crushed hands and feet or had cigarette or electrical burns. They were handed over to another police unit. The early morning assault by 800 British soldiers backed by five tanks and 40 armoured vehicles was not resisted by members of the serious crime unit. They were blamed by the British forces for the ambush in October of a minibus in which 17 employees of a police academy were travelling. All were killed. A year earlier the same police station was stormed by British forces after two British soldiers were detained there.

As in the past, British spokesmen were swift to talk of a "rogue police station" and "a rogue police unit" as if the rest of the Basra police were smoothly co-operating with the British forces. In reality the police units in Basra give their loyalty to rival militias, competing tribes and criminal gangs.

While the US and Britain have demanded that Mr Maliki remove the militias from the centre of power, they are in fact hoping he will break his links with one militia, the anti-US Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr.

The US has close links with the Badr Organisation, the well-organised Shia militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution Iraq, which has carried out many sectarian killings against Sunni but has not so far fought the US forces. The Kurds also maintain powerful militia forces.

The US and Britain have tried since the Shia triumphed in the two general elections in 2005 to divide their parties. But this could provoke an inter-Shia civil war. The necessity of blowing up one of the main police stations in Basra shows how close southern Iraq is to a collapse into anarchy.

belfast telegraph

Human rights activists in Iran reported that the ministry of intelligence and security (MOIS) officials prohibited the Christmas mass ceremonies in the Church in the northern city of Rasht.

Following the extensive arrest of Christians in cities across Iran by MOIS officials religious ceremonies are prohibited via pressure and threats. Due to the threats and pressure, after the arrest of the leaders of their church in recent weeks, the parishioners of the church have been unable to hold mass.

Three years ago, the church in Rasht was also stormed by MOIS agents during a religious ceremony; the agents then confiscated all of the church’s belongings, never to return them. The parishioners once again refurnished their church and due to the continued threats by MOIS, they changed the days of their worship and mass from Sundays to Tuesdays.

The church leaders remain in MOIS custody. Between Wednesday, December 13th to Tuesday, December 19th the church leaders were taken 3 times from prison to the Rasht revolutionary court where they were illegally tried. Their families are extremely concerned about the status of their loved ones. MOIS agents prevented their families from seeing them in front of courthouse.

iranpressnews

Iran Press News: Amir Kabir university newsletter reports: Attacks on female students has tangibly increased. This treatment is not only limited to female students who are politically active; this