TEHRAN (AFP) — Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside the home of Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Thursday, chanting slogans accusing her of supporting US and Israeli “crimes,” she told AFP.

Around “150 demonstrators gathered outside my building and chanted slogans opposed to me,” Ebadi said.

They chanted “America and Israel commit crimes, Ebadi supports them,” said the lawyer and human rights activist.

The protesters dispersed 30 minutes later as police deployed but before leaving they scribbled graffiti on the facade of the building and tore down the sign of her office which is housed in the same building, she said.

Ebadi described the incident as an “attack” but said “it has nothing to do with what is happening in Gaza because we published two days ago a statement condemning what is going on and supporting the Palestinians.”

Tehran has been gripped by almost daily protests since Israel launched last week a deadly onslaught against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in retaliation from rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.

Last week Iranian police raided the private office of Ebadi, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2003.

On December 21 they raided and shut down the office of her Human Rights Defenders Centre, signalling a toughening crackdown on rights groups in the Islamic republic.

Iranian authorities said the rights group office was shut down because the centre did not have an interior ministry permit to operate.

Prosecution of those responsible for torture is not optional – it is required by our obligations under the Geneva Conventions .

So we’ve joined forces with buhdydharma and the Docudharma community to petition Obama’s AG nominee, Eric Holder, to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

Holder replied after receiving a few hundred emails: ” Enough folks. I hear you .” That’s a start, but we’ve asked for a formal statement. And we’re collecting additional signatures to deliver when Holder goes before the Senate for confirmation hearings in January.

Please sign and spread the word!
http://democrats.com/special-prosecutor-for-bush-war-crimes

NASTARAN KHERAD will share In the House of My Bibi: Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran, her memoir of life in Ayatollah Khomeini’s theocracy. 5:30pm. Follett’s Intellectual Property, 2402 Guadalupe, Austin, Texas

This is a powerful memoir of a girlhood spent during the upheaval of the Iranian Revolution. From early childhood, Nastaran chronicles vivid recollections of her imprisonment at age 18 on trumped-up political charges. During her brutal incarceration in the women’s cell block of Adelabad Prison in the city of Shiraz, in southern Iran, she was tortured and made to live in harsh over-crowded conditions. Many of the people imprisoned at Adelabad were innocent victims of tyranny, and this included Nastaran’s brother, Mohammed, 24 years old, who was on death row for his political views and his belief in a free and just society. The Ayatollah Khomeini’s secret police executed tens of thousands of young university students and schoolchildren in a sweeping attempt to destroy all signs of modernization and to sever all ties with the West. Nastaran’s narrative is a compelling glimpse into this nightmare world.

Nastaran grew up in Shiraz, a beautiful garden city, under the protection of Bibi, her maternal grandmother. Bibi mesmerized her granddaughter with countless stories, traditional prayers, and simple yet profound wisdom gleaned from a harsh life. At first it was just Nastaran and Bibi in the house, but when Nastaran turned 6 years old, her mother and brothers came to live with them, turning Bibi’s simple home into a microcosm of the clash of cultures that was Iran in the 1970s. Nastaran was torn between the traditional upbringing of a girl her age, and the call of the modern world. She established a special bond with Mohammed, her agate-eyed older brother, who introduced her to the world of ideas, literature, and art. It is the love and nurturing of Bibi and Mohammed that guide Nastaran through her tangled and tumultuous adolescence. This is a dramatic story of struggle and survival, and readers will gain a deeper understanding of a country and its people about which many in the West know very little.

Category: Memoir/Near East Studies
Format: Paperback, 300pp, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN: 978-0-89733-567-6
Price: $18.95

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi

Ostad Zolfoonon (In Persian)

Omid Kordestani of Google (in Persian)

Mortgage Backed Securities are like boxes of chocolates. Criminals on Wall Street stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds. Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poor rated these boxes AAA Investment Grade chocolates. These boxes were then sold all over the world to investors. Eventually somebody bites into a turd and discovers the crime. Suddenly nobody trusts American chocolates anymore worldwide.

Hank Paulson now wants the American taxpayers to buy up and hold all these boxes of turd-infested chocolates for $700 billion dollars until the market for turds returns to normal. Meanwhile, Hank’s buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the good chocolates are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted.

Mama always said: “Sniff the chocolates first Forrest”.

[Thom]: You were prosecuted by the Bush Administration for what Ellen [Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News.] has characterized to me as, you know, one possibly serious crime, one largely irrelevant crime. But mostly something that probably, a number of things that probably many members of congress could be gone after, and she seems to be of the opinion that your prosecution was a political prosecution because you were pushing back on Iran. You want to, can you speak to that, please?

[Ney]: But at the end of the day, you know, I brought a lot of things on myself, let me say it right out front, at the end of the day. And I did some things that were wrong. But I also believe that part of this was fueled in the sense of the Iran issue. It’s been no secret that when I went to prison I gave permission for a secret meeting I’d had with Mr. Guldimann [Tim Guldimann, then Swiss Ambassador in Tehran] who came from Switzerland. He presented a document that was absolutely incredible, where Iran would have recognized Israel and a whole host of other things, would have let our inspectors on their ground; and I sent that to the White House.

I’ll stand by that today; the White House denies it, but Colin Powell’s former assistant admits that that came over to the State Department and the White House wanted no part of it. And I believe that every step of the way, and I think it came more from Cheney’s people, but every step of the way that I attempted to deal with Iran, it got pretty harsh back. And so I think part of this, I made the bullets, I gave them the bullets, but I think some of the force was also involved with, you know, Iran and people that would rather see those countries not communicate, no matter who is head of Iran.

[Thom]: So Iran came to you because you speak Farsi and you are the Iran expert in the House of Representatives.

[Ney]: Ambassador Guldimann, who was ambassador from Switzerland to Iran, he came to me.

[Thom]: Right. Their representative. In other words, they approached you through their legal representative.

[Ney]: And I had participated in the meeting in Stockholm.

[Thom]: And they said that they would recognize Israel and that they would allow UN inspectors into their nuclear sites, and you passed that information along to the White House, it fell down the rabbit hole and immediately you were being prosecuted.

[Ney]: It fell down the rabbit hole, there was a lot of kickback. I know that Guldimann had terrible problems after that, I think with, mainly through Rumsfeld’s people and Cheney’s people. That’s what happened after that agreement.

[Thom]: It so sounds like the Don Siegelman story and the Paul Minor story, and if you’re not familiar with those two stories, I encourage you to do a little Googling. I think that we have political prisoners in the United States now.

[Ney]: Well, I know that the harshness of the administration, and again, I take culpability, I did some wrong things, but when you get in their path, I think they’ve taken bloodsport to a new level in this administration.

[Thom]: “They’ve taken blood sport to a new level’. What a quote! Congressman Bob Ney, thank you for coming on our program and sharing candidly with us your story.”

            [Ney]: Thank you.

rooz – Nader Irani

In an unprecedented measure, the Iranian judiciary froze a joint bank account that had been opened by three of the country’s most prominent movie directors and actors with the purpose of collecting money to pay the “Diye” (i.e. blood money) set for a man currently on the death row. The three revered personalities are Ezzatollah Entezami, Parviz Parastooyi, and Kiyumars PoorAhmad who have been active to prevent the execution of a death sentence on Behnood Shojayi, who is on the death row.

(Behnood) Shojaee was sentenced to death by an Iranian court for having killed his playmate, when both were still juveniles. To complicate matters, his family has been unable to meet the Diye, which if collected and handed over to the victim’s next of kin, could open the door for the latter’s consent not to execute the death penalty over the accused. The initiative of the three film actors has been widely welcomed by the public, and young Iranian journalists who have expressed public gestures of support. This public enthusiasm and response to collect money for the Diye has been so wide that the victim’s relatives agreed to provide the necessary consent before the Diye amount had been collected; a move that can prevent the execution of Shojayi.

Under these circumstances, it was surprising that the names of the three well-known and liked Iranian artists made news when they were summoned by a court whose prosecutor had pretty harsh words for the good Samaritans. “By opening a joint account, these individuals wanted to impress upon people to sympathize with the convicted criminal, whose punishment remains the Ghesas” (loosely translated to mean ‘eye-for-an-eye punishment’ as prescribed in Islam), the prosecutor announced.

Shamloo, the prosecutor of the first bench of Tehran’s criminal court added, “A newspaper published a news report about the sympathy of journalists and cinema actors for a convicted criminal by opening a joint bank account, an act that is illegal and which is why the court issued a freeze on the bank account.”

Iran’s official state news agency, ISNA, reported that in addition to freezing the bank account, the prosecutor had summoned the three cinema stars to learn of the “basis on which they had opened the account.”

Following the publication of this news, Jame Jam Online website reported that Tehran’s deputy prosecutor, judge Fakhreddin Jaafarzadeh announced that the bank account had been frozen because it was not clear who was its owner.” At the same time, he denied reports that three actors had been summoned to the court, but in remarks that seemed to substantiate the summons said, “If an artist were to be summoned to court, it would be for information purposes, and not as suspects.”

But perhaps most surprising were his comments that appeared to be threatening the artists, even though he made some positive remarks about them by saying that artists enjoy greater respect than the accusations that have been flouted against them.” He added that, “Even if it is established that a group of artists are the owners of this bank account, they shall be investigated and it shall be assumed that they are not aware of the special laws that were passed in 1997 by the State Expediency Council which have strengthened the punishments against corruption, embezzlement, and misappropriation and which carry punishments ranging from one to seven years of prison.”

Li-On, Israel

ISRAEL will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months — and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country’s nuclear program. Because if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war — either through a subsequent pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike or a nuclear exchange shortly after Iran gets the bomb.

It is in the interest of neither Iran nor the United States (nor, for that matter, the rest of the world) that Iran be savaged by a nuclear strike, or that both Israel and Iran suffer such a fate. We know what would ensue: a traumatic destabilization of the Middle East with resounding political and military consequences around the globe, serious injury to the West’s oil supply and radioactive pollution of the earth’s atmosphere and water.

But should Israel’s conventional assault fail to significantly harm or stall the Iranian program, a ratcheting up of the Iranian-Israeli conflict to a nuclear level will most likely follow. Every intelligence agency in the world believes the Iranian program is geared toward making weapons, not to the peaceful applications of nuclear power. And, despite the current talk of additional economic sanctions, everyone knows that such measures have so far led nowhere and are unlikely to be applied with sufficient scope to cause Iran real pain, given Russia’s and China’s continued recalcitrance and Western Europe’s (and America’s) ambivalence in behavior, if not in rhetoric. Western intelligence agencies agree that Iran will reach the “point of no return” in acquiring the capacity to produce nuclear weapons in one to four years.

Which leaves the world with only one option if it wishes to halt Iran’s march toward nuclear weaponry: the military option, meaning an aerial assault by either the United States or Israel. Clearly, America has the conventional military capacity to do the job, which would involve a protracted air assault against Iran’s air defenses followed by strikes on the nuclear sites themselves. But, as a result of the Iraq imbroglio, and what is rapidly turning into the Afghan imbroglio, the American public has little enthusiasm for wars in the Islamic lands. This curtails the White House’s ability to begin yet another major military campaign in pursuit of a goal that is not seen as a vital national interest by many Americans.

Which leaves only Israel — the country threatened almost daily with destruction by Iran’s leaders. Thus the recent reports about Israeli plans and preparations to attack Iran (the period from Nov. 5 to Jan. 19 seems the best bet, as it gives the West half a year to try the diplomatic route but ensures that Israel will have support from a lame-duck White House).

The problem is that Israel’s military capacities are far smaller than America’s and, given the distances involved, the fact that the Iranian sites are widely dispersed and underground, and Israel’s inadequate intelligence, it is unlikely that the Israeli conventional forces, even if allowed the use of Jordanian and Iraqi airspace (and perhaps, pending American approval, even Iraqi air strips) can destroy or perhaps significantly delay the Iranian nuclear project.

Nonetheless, Israel, believing that its very existence is at stake — and this is a feeling shared by most Israelis across the political spectrum — will certainly make the effort. Israel’s leaders, from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert down, have all explicitly stated that an Iranian bomb means Israel’s destruction; Iran will not be allowed to get the bomb.

The best outcome will be that an Israeli conventional strike, whether failed or not — and, given the Tehran regime’s totalitarian grip, it may not be immediately clear how much damage the Israeli assault has caused — would persuade the Iranians to halt their nuclear program, or at least persuade the Western powers to significantly increase the diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran.

But the more likely result is that the international community will continue to do nothing effective and that Iran will speed up its efforts to produce the bomb that can destroy Israel. The Iranians will also likely retaliate by attacking Israel’s cities with ballistic missiles (possibly topped with chemical or biological warheads); by prodding its local clients, Hezbollah and Hamas, to unleash their own armories against Israel; and by activating international Muslim terrorist networks against Israeli and Jewish — and possibly American — targets worldwide (though the Iranians may at the last moment be wary of provoking American military involvement).

Such a situation would confront Israeli leaders with two agonizing, dismal choices. One is to allow the Iranians to acquire the bomb and hope for the best — meaning a nuclear standoff, with the prospect of mutual assured destruction preventing the Iranians from actually using the weapon. The other would be to use the Iranian counterstrikes as an excuse to escalate and use the only means available that will actually destroy the Iranian nuclear project: Israel’s own nuclear arsenal.

Given the fundamentalist, self-sacrificial mindset of the mullahs who run Iran, Israel knows that deterrence may not work as well as it did with the comparatively rational men who ran the Kremlin and White House during the cold war. They are likely to use any bomb they build, both because of ideology and because of fear of Israeli nuclear pre-emption. Thus an Israeli nuclear strike to prevent the Iranians from taking the final steps toward getting the bomb is probable. The alternative is letting Tehran have its bomb. In either case, a Middle Eastern nuclear holocaust would be in the cards.

Iran’s leaders would do well to rethink their gamble and suspend their nuclear program. Bar this, the best they could hope for is that Israel’s conventional air assault will destroy their nuclear facilities. To be sure, this would mean thousands of Iranian casualties and international humiliation. But the alternative is an Iran turned into a nuclear wasteland. Some Iranians may believe that this is a worthwhile gamble if the prospect is Israel’s demise. But most Iranians probably don’t.

Benny Morris, a professor of Middle Eastern history at Ben-Gurion University, is the author, most recently, of “1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War.”

Unusual picture of Rafsanjani out of his clerical robe

  “Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread skepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran , the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran ’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.

“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official said.

The Jerusalem Post of July 13, 2008 reported:

“On Friday, sources in the Iraqi Defense Ministry told a local news network that IAF war planes were practicing in Iraqi airspace were landing on US airbases in the country as a preparation for a potential strike on Iran .”

Once again the most powerful forces of US corporate power – the military-industrial-petroleum complex -are using Israel as their proxy to threaten war on surrounding countries in the region.  Israel is armed, financed, and politically and diplomatically supported by Washington . It can not act on its own or without explicit permission from Washington .  U.S. tax dollars finance Israel wars against surrounding nations, and Israeli repression of the Palestinians, to keep the area “safe” for U.S. oil companies.

This is why it is vital to link the struggle against the war in Iraq and a potential war against Iran with the struggle of the Palestinian people for the right to return.

At the same time Washington is giving the Israeli military a go-ahead to bomb Iran , the U.S. Congress is moving ahead to escalate tensions in the region and possibly provoke an incident that would justify U.S. military action.  House Resolution 362 and Senate Resolution 580 both require that the President begin blockade of Iran . 

The House Resolution “demands” that the President impose “stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran .”  Enforcing this would require a U.S. Naval blockade of the Straits of Hormuz, which is an act of war according to international law.  Approximately one-fourth of the world’s oil, including that from Iran , Iraq , Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , Qatar and Bahrain , pass through the Straits of Hormuz, which is 21 miles across at its narrowest point (the shipping channel is less than 2 miles wide).

These two resolutions have received widespread bipartisan support from members of both Houses, and are expected to pass without debate or vote.  A staffer in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office said that once the Resolution hits the floor, it will “pass like a hot knife through butter.”   Some have speculated that the bill will be put on the floor under suspension — meaning that it will pass without even a vote.

Both resolutions accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons, despite the fact that Washington ’s National Intelligence Estimate report last December that made it clear that every major U.S. intelligence agency believes that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. 

Nor do the resolutions refer to the real nuclear threat in the region – the U.S. , which is the only country that has used nuclear weapons and currently has a massive nuclear-armed naval armada in the region.  It also does not mention the apartheid settler state of Israel , which is thought to have more than 200 nuclear weapons.

At the same time, two leading Senators announced on Tuesday, July 15, that they had reached a bipartisan agreement to expand economic sanctions targeting Iran .  Sens. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., called Iran “a threat to U.S. interests.”  Dodd, a former candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, said, “This bipartisan bill strengthens economic sanctions against Iran , and authorizes divestment from companies that do business with Iran ‘s key oil sector.” 

Meanwhile, the U.S. is involved in “covert operations” – acts of terrorism – inside Iran .  In the July 7 New Yorker, Seymour Hersh revealed that Congress has approved $400 million to fund covert operations in Iran .  These operations include: providing support to armed groups opposed to the Iranian government, kidnapping members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and taking them across the border to Iraq for interrogation, the manipulation of Iran ’s currency, and other acts intended to destabilize the regime.  Hersh reports that these types of operations have been ongoing at least since last year, but the recent Congressional appropriation signals a significant expansion of these actions.

It is clear that the Bush Administration is determined to push forward with its agenda of endless war to control the oil reserves of the Middle East . It is equally clear that members of Congress – both Democrats and Republicans – are collaborating with the Administration, just as they collaborated in authorizing and funding the invasion and occupation of Iraq . 

It is imperative that progressive activists and organizations, particularly in the U.S. , mobilize to stop another brutal war, and to demand an end to the illegal sanctions and covert operations targeting Iran . 

Stop War on Iran , an international grassroots campaign, issued an Emergency Call to for protests, marches, and other actions on the weekend of August 2.  Response to the call has been enthusiastic, and local organizers are planning events in more than 50 cities, including Los Angeles, Tucson , San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Jersey City, Albuquerque, Buffalo, New York City , Charlotte , Raleigh/Durham, Cleveland , Oklahoma City, Philadelphia , Houston, Salt Lake City , Virginia Beach, Washington DC , and more – an updated list is available at www.StopWarOnIran.org.

Now is the time to take to the streets, because only a massive grassroots mobilization can stop another bloody and illegal war.  

In the next few days and weeks, we need to do everything we can to take to the streets to Stop a War on Iran.  We have a real opportunity to help build a massive grassroots movement to oppose the warmongers in Washington.

Also, please sign the online petition at http://stopwaroniran.org/petition.shtml and help us spread the word.  Signing the petition will send messages to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Board of Directors of Halliburton, and the media.

In the next few days, we will be preparing placards and banners, printing leaflets and educational materials, and holding organizing meetings to prepare for the August 2 protests.  Please consider making a donation at http://stopwaroniran.org/donate.shtml to help us with the enormous expenses of mobilizing a national response to Bush’s war threats.