TERRORISM

Approaching intellectual dishonesty (USS Cole issue)

Dr Sadri:
I am not an academic so I write using simple language:

Faced with superior western capacity for warfare terrorist groups respond by delivering their munitions disguised behind normal daily activities. If USS Cole did not fire on an innocent looking approaching boat,was because it probably had no reason to do so, not because it could not. If this is not terrorism in your dictionary, let me inform you that it is in the western hemisphere where you are paid to teach.

Liberal western society allows me and you both to write whatever we care to. But you risk exposing yourself as an idealogue hiding behind a university post. Sometimes referred to as 5th column.

Is Jebeh Melli at Stake?

For a faction of a bankruppt and notorious ideology like Islamism, nothing is today more tactically indispenible than receiving appeasement from the secular opposition. Thus, Mr. Kazemzadeh, on behalf of Jebeh Melli(?), is welcome to suggest a pact with "moderate" Muslims like the bearded supporters of khomeini who despite their wolf crying are tightened with thousand fringes to the same "terrorist state" of the IRI. I wonder if Mr. Kazemzadeh represents JM or a complaisant flank of it or if JM has not learnt from its initial support of Islamic movements which brought these bearded Islamists in power?

Look who is talking aboutdouble-standard

It looks to me Masood Kazemzadeh is very foreign to the meaning of "terror".
So, lets talk about 1+1=2;
How dictionary defines terrorism:
1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

Obviously Masood Kazemzadeh does not think that the palestinian babies in their houses are not terrorized. Because, terrorism is only defined as state of terror that is inflicted on "myself". As long as we think this way, there will be a disconnect among world nations and we will all spiral out to a world-wide catastrophe.

I wonder if Mahmoud Sadri is pointing out the very same factor (double-standard) that Masood Kazemzadeh is pointing out.

So, think again Masood and see the double-standard in your stance.
It is unfair to point out Muslims categorically as terrorists which is in style these days. I know you remember Bosnia/Srebrenica genoside and terror. You know who did it and who went silent on those victims!

Only fairness and justice will prevail stability and long-lasting peace. Peace without justice exists only in an unstable echo-system.

response to Dr. Mahmoud Sadri

Dear Dr. Mahmoud Sadri,

Let me reiterate that I encourage your attempt at condemning terrorism. My critiques are intended to push you to think harder and make your analysis better.

Unfortunately, there is a double-standard in your positions. One the one hand you state that al Qaeda is an undisputed terrorist organization (although many of its military actions are not terrorist actions), but you state:

"am not in the business of blaming entire groups of religious and political activists as terrorists because of the specific acts of terrorism in their rank. If I were, you can be sure I would not "single out" the Hezbollah of Lebanon for such treatment. Now "that" would be applying a double standard!"

Why is it that al Qaeda is undisputed terrorist according to you, but the Lebanese Hezbollah and the fundamentalist regime ruling Iran are not???!!! Why the double standard? Why do you SINGLE OUT al Qaeda, but then refuse to apply the exact same standard to Hezbollah? WHY you do in fact single out an entire group of religious and political activists when they belong to al Qaeda, but refuse to do the same with Hezbollah????????

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Dr. M. Sadri:  If the regime in Iran has resorted to terrorist activities, according to my definition, it is not enough for Mr. Kazemzadeh to claim it and for us to take his word for it. He has to specify the time, place, target, objectives, and circumstances of such activities.

MK: the following is the first draft (not yet proof-read) from one of my forthcoming works. The copy-and-paste does not include the endnotes. If you want endnote for any sentence, please let me know and I will provide them.

The greatest victims of the fundamentalist regime’s violence have been the Iranian people.1 From the very beginning, the fundamentalists began summary trials and executions. After the coup against liberal Islamist President Dr. Bani Sadr, the fundamentalists captured all institutions and a reign of terror began. Somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 political opponents were executed between June 1981 and December 1982.2

According to Amnesty International in the Summer of 1988, Khomeini ordered the mass execution of about 5,000 political prisoners.3 For copies of Khomeini’s actual hand-written decree see.4 For one of the best documentary investigations on the mass executions see.5 About 500 of the victims of the mass executions were secular leftists who had been in jail since 1981-83 and had already been given prison terms.6 The prison officials asked the leftist political prisoners: "Are you a Muslim? Do you believe in God? Is the Holy Koran the word of God? Will you publically recant historical materialism? Do you pray and read the Holy Koran?"7 Those who gave negative answers were immediately executed. Somewhere between 3,500 and 4,500 political prisoners who were supporters of the PMOI were executed in that several-week period.8

The Iranian government death squads have assassinated large numbers of Iranian dissidents in Europe and elsewhere.9 It is estimated that the regime’s death squads have assassinated at least 60 exiled opponents of the regime.10 The fundamentalist death squads have also murdered large numbers of non-violent pro-democracy activists and writers inside Iran. On November 22, 1998, members of the Ministry of Intelligence entered the home of the leaders of the Iran Nation Party, Darush Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari-Forouhar, and knifed them to death. Between September and December 1998, four prominent writers--Pirooz Davani, Majid Sharif, Mohammad Mokhtari, and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh--were also murdered by members of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.11

In reaction to the gruesome murders of Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar, at least 15,000 protested in Tehran, an event that was unparalleled in IRI’s history. Immediately, Khatami ordered an investigation into the chain murders. The reformist wing of the regime announced that "rouge" members of the Ministry of Intelligence were involved and Saeed Imami (aka Saeed Islami), who was Deputy Minister of Intelligence, was arrested for organizing the murders. He died under mysterious circumstances; the regime announced that he committed suicide. Reformist agents in the Ministry of Intelligence had tortured him and his wife. A taped interrogation of them showed that Imami’s wife was physically abused and accused of being an agent of Israel, the United States, and being part of wife swapping with other couples among the hardline members of the Ministry.12 Some hardline leaders, such as the powerful Hojatolislam Ruhollah Hossenian (Chairman of the Center for the Publications of Imam Khomeini’s Works), have claimed that the chain murders were organized by the radical members of the reformist camp in order to put Khatami and Khamanehi in conflict and bring about an uprising leading to the overthrow of the entire regime.

All investigations of the chain murders were stopped in early 2000 due to what the court considered national security grounds. The high-ranking fundamentalists who ordered the murders remain free while the attorney for the families of the victims, Dr. Nasser Zarafshan, has been sentenced to 5 years in jail plus 50 lashes.13

According to a report by the Kurdish Democratic Party-Iran published in the U.N. Commission on Human Rights report, the fundamentalist regime killed about 40,000 Iranian Kurdish civilians and another 5,000 guerrillas of KDP-I. Moreover, hundreds of Kurdish villages were totally destroyed or emptied of their inhabitants and the regime carried out indiscriminate shelling of Kurdish villages.14

The fundamentalist regime has the unfortunate claim of committing the highest per capita executions in the world and in some years the highest number in absolute numbers. During the First reign of Terror (June 1981-December 1982) and the Second Reign of Terror (Summer 1988), the regime executed more political prisoners than all executions recorded worldwide. According to Amnesty International, in the first eight months of 1989, of the 1,600 executions recorded worldwide, 1,200 occurred in Iran.15 In other words, for this eight-month period, Iran, with 1 percent of the world population accounted for 75 percent of all executions recorded.

There is no freedom of expression in Iran, and even journalists who mildly express criticisms are harshly repressed. Reporters Without Borders states that: "...120 newspapers have been banned since 2001, more than 50 journalists have been detained and 11 are still in detention, making Iran the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East."16 RWB pointed out to the EU officials who were negotiating with the fundamentalist leaders: "This dialogue, launched in 2001, has not yet led to any decrease in repression but it allows that Iranian regime to maintain ‘good relations’ with the European countries."17

Torture is used routinely and extensively by the fundamentalist regime to punish citizens for merely expressing views.18 For example, Ahmad Batebi, a pro-democracy student, has been imprisoned since July 1999 and has been terribly tortured merely for holding the bloodied t-shirt of his friend during the pro-democracy demonstrations at Tehran University in July 1999.

Among the myriad forms of torture is the rape of young daughters of political prisoners as well as the torture of young sons in order to force confessions (and perhaps gather information). Helmut Szimkus, the German engineer who spent five years (1989-94) in Evin Prison on charges of spying for Iraq (which he later admitted to when freed) was witness to many such incidents of torture. In an interview he granted to the German magazine, Focus, Szimkus reported: "One time these guys (the torturers) raped a nine-year-old girl .... The parents had to watch ... the father shook and rattled so badly that he could no longer sign the espionage confession they put before him."19 Szimkus added, "Once they took on a boy. Do you know how an innocent child screams when he is tortured? His parents were right there in the next cell, it drove them up the wall."

A report published by the Human Rights Group of the British Parliament (House of Commons) quotes from Mr. Sarmast Akhlagh Tabandeh, a former prosecutor of the Revolutionary Guards in the city of Shiraz, as saying:

The general rule is that virgin girls have to be sexually raped prior to execution. The prison administrators write the names of the Revolutionary Guard members of the firing squad as well as the names of administrators present on pieces of paper and a lottery is held among these names.... The night before execution, a sedative drug is injected into the virgin girl and the winning Guard would rape her.... The day after the execution the prison Shariah judge sends a marriage certificate along with a box of pastries to the family of the girl.20

The fundamentalist regime has denied that its agents have engaged in terrorism, although in many Western European courts, its agents have been arrested and convicted and imprisoned for assassination of Iranian dissidents. The regime has also used its proxy, the Lebanese Hezbollah, in assassinations in Europe. One infamous case is the Mykonos assassinations in Berlin where a German court convicted officials of the fundamentalist regime for the murder of four Iranian dissidents. According to Parviz Dastmalchi, who survived the assassination attempt and is regarded as one of the foremost scholars on the event:

"In the weeks following the assassinations, several persons were arrested, among them one Iranian and four Lebanese citizens. The arrested person who was the main organizer of the terror is Kazem Darabi Kazerouni who was sentenced to life in prison and in currently in a prison in Berlin. Kazem Darabi Kazerouni is a member of VEVAK [the Ministry of Intelligence and Security of the Country] and a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. ...The liaison between Kazem Darabi Kazerouni and the VEVAK in the country [Germany] was a person in Bonn named Hassan Javadi who was a diplomat. He [Hassan Javadi] left the country in October 1989 and was replaced with Morteza Gholami. Also Kazem Darabi Kazerouni was in contact with Mr. Amani Farahani, the Consul-General in Berlin whose main duty was to gather intelligence on Iranian opposition and other related intelligence work. Mr. Darabi was a member of the Muslim Student Association in Europe, in the Berlin branch. The Muslim Student Association was one of Hezbollah organizations in Europe that the intelligence organizations of the regime hired its agents from among them. Other colleagues of Darabi in this group were Farhad Diyanat Sabet Gilani and Bahman Berenjian, both of whom were also members of VEVAK. Mr. Darabi in 1982 along with 85 members of Hezbollah of Iran and Lebanon attacked a dormitory occupied by Iranian students in West of Mainz, which resulted in the death of one person and injury of several others. Darabi was arrested then and convicted and sentenced to 8 months imprisonment and expulsion from Germany. But with the intervention of Iran’s Ambassador in Bonn, he was released.

The terror team stayed in Darabi’s house for two days and then stayed in a second house belonging to Bahman Berenjian.

... Another person who was arrested is Mr. Abbas Rayel who is Lebanese. This is the person who shot the last bullets to finish off the murder victims. In the years 1985 and 1986 in a camp belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards close to Rasht, he was given terrorist training for six months and he was a member of Lebanese Hezbollah. He was convicted in the court and sentenced to life and is currently in prison.

Another person who was arrested is Youssef Amin who was guarding the entrance door of the restaurant (the terrorist who closed the door and stood in front of the door). This person, like Abbas Rayel, is also a member of Lebanese Hezbollah and received terrorist training close to Rasht. He was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.

Two other persons were also arrested. One is Mr. Mohammad "Idris" and the other one is Mr. Ataollah Ayad, the first one a member of Lebanese Hezbollah and the other one a member of Shia Amal of Lebanon. These two were in the organizing section of the operations. There was one other person who is a member of Lebanese Hezbollah whose name is Ali Sabra who was responsible for buying a car. Sabra was able to escape Germany and go back to Lebanon and currently is one of the personal security guards of Sheikh Fazlollah, the leader of Hezbollah of Lebanon. Another person is Abu Jafar also known as Abu Heydar who was also a member of Lebanese Hezbollah, which was created in 1982 with budget and training of its cadres by the Islamic Republic. He was the driver of the get-away car of the terrorist who carried out the operations at Mykonos restaurant. After the operations, he escaped to Lebanon and then to Iran and is currently employed in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

But the most important of them all was the person who was not arrested was a person with the name Abdol-Raham Bani-Hashemi who was also know as Abu Sharif. He was the main person with machine gun who was leading the operational team. He is a highly trained terrorist who works directly under Fallahian [then Minister of Intelligence]. On August 18, 1987, he had assassinated an officer of Iranian air force pilot named Talebi in Geneva. After the assassination in Berlin, Abu Sharif goes to Iran through Turkey and was awarded a Mercedes Benz. In addition, he is given shares of several factories belonging to VEVAK and other bonyads.

... At the court it was brought out that none of the assassins knew the murder victims and did not have any personal animosities. Therefore, they were given a mission from someone or some ones. In the court proceedings, and after the witness accounts of Mr. Abol-Qassem Mesbahi, who was one of the senior officials of VEVAK and the Director of Terror Network in Western Europe, it’s become clear (he provided testimony) that these terrors both inside and outside Iran were ordered directly by Ayatollah Khomeini as long as he was alive, and after his death, a committee was established called Special Committee. This Special Committee would make decisions on who should be eliminated in the opposition inside Iran and outside Iran. The head of the committee is the Supreme Leader Ali Khamanehi and includes President, Minister of Intelligence, Foreign Minister, Head of Council of Guardians, and Head of IRGC. The decision to assassinate is made by the Special Committee and then can be carried out with the consent of the Supreme Leader. For implementation, the order is forwarded to another committee called Qasr Firooz Committee. The Qasr Firooz Committee draws up a plan for the implementation of the murders and a copy is sent to Supreme Leader for his approval and another to the President for his approval."21

The use of Lebanese assassins to kill Iranian opposition members was not new. In 1981, the regime has used Anis Naghash, a Lebanese, to assassinate Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar. The would-be assassin failed in his attempt to kill Bakhtiar, but in the process killed a French policewoman and a French bystander. Ali Akbar Velayati, the IRI’s Foreign Minister, heavily lobbied the French government, which agreed to extradite the convinced killer to Iran. The fundamentalist regime death squad, however, succeeded in their second serous attempt ten years later. On August 6, 1991, three members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ death squad killed Dr. Bakhtiar and his assistant, Mr. Soroush Katibeh in their Paris residence. One of the assassins was arrested, convicted and imprisoned in France; two other members of the assassination team, Fereydoun Boyerahmadi and Mohammad Azadi, succeeded in escaping to Iran.

Another assassin given support by IRI is David Belfield, an American who had converted to Islam. He assassinated Ali Akbar Tabatabai (a diplomat who had served under the Shah) on July 22, 1980 on the doorsteps of his Bethesda home. He escaped to Iran and has been provided with refuge, and financial rewards. He changed his name to Daoud Salahuddin. In a 1996 interview broadcast by ABC, he boasted to have assassinated Mr. Tabatabai. He is a movie actor in Iran and played in the movie "Kandahar."22

The officials of the fundamentalist regime simply lie about their terrorism against dissidents.  Despite clear evidence, the fundamentalist officials continue to deny their involvement although they have lobbied the European government to release the convicted assassins and allow them to return to Iran. And, in fact, many assassins have returned to Iran.

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With all the best wishes,

Masoud 

History of Islam is the tale of Continuous Crime!

Dear friend, your ever present worries about the reputation of Islam is in stark and strong contrast with realities. The truth is that Islam has never had a glorious or respectable past, it has not contributed to development of anything else than spreading of hatered, ignorance and dishonesty. It begaun with the very pesron of Muhammed, the polygamist, the warmonger, the pirate and even the child abuser and we have witnessed it's ugly nature in 1400 years of Islam's criminal hitory in Iran, Egypt and Bisance.

 Islam can be proud of having destroyed 3 shining civilizations, replacing them with a pathologic culture of self-denial ,constant poverty, ignorance and schizophremia. 

Before Islam, these 3 civilizations contributed Greatly to human civilization, if there has ver been short periods of resurrection in these countries, achievements and dvelopments, it has nothing to do with Islam, it has been despite to Islam.

Islam is the mastery of falsification, robbery and Crime, It has a filthy nature, it is a blend of demagogy,mythology and psychological warfare. 90 % of what you call for Islamc art, is nothingg more than Persian Art, the rest is the remnants of Egyptian and other pre-islamic art. Before Islam there were leading centers of research and science in this region, if you find individually successful scientists and artisans in this region since islam, it still has nothing to do wth Islam, it is despite to it.

Insetad of being concerned about the good reputation (??) of Islam, you should be concerned about people, humanity, freedom, science, art, and future of these people, you should ave the gut and honesty to identify the disease (ISLAM), and prscribe the solution (Eradication of this disease).

It has passed 1400 years since then, every time these civilizations have tried to resurrect, they have effectively been fought down by a new Ayatollah, by the New Islam, by the True Islam, only to enslave the soul and spirits of these nations. Every time Islam has demonstarted it's true anti-human nature, people like you have prepared for the true and civilized Islam, just in order to make the true opposition impossible,

Islam is beyond reforms, it has nothing in common with culture and civilization of success and progress, it is against freedom, and individuality, and must be eradicated by any mens and atany price.

We will not let the so called opposition, to borrow the mantle of Islam just inorder to get the popularity and majority support, then leting this religion of ignorance and crime to nestle in the minds and hearts of the future generation, preparing for new islamic resurrections. Either IRI should stay or the whole package of Islam, in power or opposition, must disappear, there is no third way, there is no easy or middle way, and we are there to make you and the recociliatory opposition sure about that.

In your articles you are prescribig a so called universal justice and shared welfare, you like many other hippies and addicted liberals of different subcultures ask for negotiations between the so called moderate Islamists and the secular developed world, to share their values and wealth with Islamists, it is both naive, and smells eroticism en solo, also,masturbation.

There is no moderate Islam, there has never been any moderate , progressive Islam, and in th ight of that, you must wake up to realities and understand that as long as we are chained to the block rock of Islam, there will be no freedom, and therefore no development.
This country needs a total revolution, or better to say, a counter-revolution , not just against the Islamic Republic, but against the very existance of Islam as a cultural, political, economical and traditional Institute, both in power and in OPPOSITION!

The Sword

looks like the hamas fighters are the equivalent of japanese summurai worriors except that intead of having them all slaughtered to the last person at the hand of Emperor Mahmood with the help of westerners they are being finished along with their famlies in apartment by the Israelie's troops...

Where is mamood and his modernized weaponay and machine gun,,,,and where is the open battlefield facing hamas summurai?

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Thank you

Well written and actually, what you demonstrate is scientific neutrality, and is filled with common sense compared to the wing of IRI haters that blame their own divorce on the regime.

Would you define any time Iran has engaged in official terrorist activity, in your opinion? Take for example the bombing of the jewish center in Argentina. Ive read a little, I don't know what to make of it, it sounds like a cheap accusation.

Iran also do support Islamic Jihad and Hamas with funding, these groups have carried and will carry out suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians alone. Is this not Iran's involvement in terrorism?