FDI Newswire No. 43 - April 17, 1997

"The cancerous tumor of liberalism is spreading in some corners of our country," railed Revolutionary Guards commander, Major General Mohsen Reza'i, "and yet no serious and decisive action has been taken to combat it."

Reza'i's unprecedented speech only four days before the second round of the Majlis elections was seen as a scarcely-veiled attack on President Rafsanjani and his partisans, who have been accused of illegally using government funds to support their electoral campaigns. "If liberals were not [so active] in our country, Iran's construction would be much more advanced," Reza'i said.

Speaking before an assembly of anti-riot force commanders in Tehran, Reza'i said: "The faith of the Revolution will be determined by the cultural and political combat of the Hezbollahis with the "Liberal elements."

The term "Hezbollah," or Partisan of God, was first used by Ayatollah Khomeini at the start of the Islamic Revolution to identify his supporters. [Sobh, 4/16/96]

A radical Islamist weekly has called for a "serious fight" to eliminate what it calls one of the most efficient weapons of World Arrogance in its plot against Third World and Islamic countries: Barbie dolls.

"The cultural assault of World Arrogance [i.e., the USA] has now gone a step further by aiming at the minds of our innocent children. The Barbie dolls on sale in our toy stores, with their soft, flexible, and devastatingly beautiful half-nude bodies, and their natural appearance, have negative impact on our children. Barbies are the symbol of the Western woman, and cause a kind of indifference and rejection toward the Islamic Hejab (veil) in the subconscious of our children. Yes," Sobh continued, "this is Western cultural penetration, and cultural assault... [These] dolls are the symbol of Satanic Culture, and fill the lives of our children with [Satanic Massages] forever."

Sobh called for a serious measures to actively counter such "serious threat," emphasizing that in such cases only "action" counts.

Sobh remarked that the recent influx of Barbie dolls into Iran were made in China [Sobh, 4/16/96]

A controversial Gaithersburg, Maryland Farsi-language weekly suspended publication in April, after a prolonged trip to Tehran by its owner.

Iran Khabar publisher Hossein Sarfaraz traveled to Iran to raise money for his paper, but was allegedly detained by the authorities and forbidden to leave the country. Mr. Sarfaraz has traveled repeatedly to Iran in the past without any difficulty. According to a former business associate who says he helped raise the money to start publication of Iran Khabar two years ago, Mr. Sarfaraz entertained close relations with the office of President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and New York "branch" of the Bonyad-e Mostazafan. The former associate said the money to start Iran Khabar was donated by Rafsanjani's office, although Mr. Sarfaraz has denied this.

Iran Khabar boasted of maintaining an office in Tehran, and frequently reproduced news articles that had appeared almost simultaneously in the state-controlled Tehran press. One hallmark of the paper was its criticism of Iranian exile groups of all political colors, from the Mujahidin to the monarchists. The effort by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and a Paris-based exile, Dr. Manoucher Gandji, to promote unity among the different opposition groups was singled out by the paper for particularly virulent abuse.

Some Iran watchers in Washington, however, said they were "unconvinced" that the Iranian authorities had actually imprisoned Mr. Sarfaraz. "This smacks to me of a very skilled disinformation campaign," said one well-respected authority on Iranian affairs. [The Iran Brief, 5/6/96]

A Tehran man's 23rd birthday party ended tragically on April 11, when Law Enforcement Forces [LEF] stormed his family's apartment in north Tehran, the Foundation for Democracy in Iran has learned from family members and sources in Tehran. Eyewitnesses saw LEF officers threw Alireza Farzaneh-Far from the balcony of the 18th floor apartment, after breaking up the co-ed party and accusing the celebrants of "anti-Islamic" behavior. [The objectionable behavior included allowing young men and women to mix socially, even at a private house; listening to Western music, drinking, dancing, and alleged drug use.] Several of those present say they were insulted and beaten before taken into custody.

The eye witnesses said LEF officers dragged Farzaneh-Far to the balcony when he protested the intrusion. The next thing they knew, he had fallen to the ground 18 floors below and died instantly.

The official media did not report the event, but the news traveled by word of mouth throughout the capitol, prompting the head of the Tehran LEF, General Abolfathi, to issue a public denial that his forces had killed the victim. Abolfathi said the man was drunk and under the influence of drugs, and was killed while trying to escape from Law Enforcement Forces [Salam, 4/14]. But relatives of Farzaneh-Far and eye-witnesses hotly contested Abolfathi's denial.

Reuters reported from Tehran that about 1000 mourners gathered for a memorial ceremony for the victim on April 20.

A government-supported propaganda agency is preparing a film on the life of British novelist Salman Rushdie, to be called "Adam's Destruction." According to the radical Tehran daily Salam, "a colossal amount of money" has already been spent on the film over the past two years, without a single scene having been shot. The film is being produced by the Center for Islamic Art and Thought (Hoz-e Andisheh Va Honar Islami), which says they believe the film will be ready this year. According to Salam, a second (and competing?) film on Rushdie is also being planned by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which has commissioned the writer Said Hadj Miri to do the treatment. [Salam, 4/14/96]

European foreign ministers announced on April 22 that the EU would maintain its "critical dialogue" with Tehran, despite Iran's continued support for terrorism. The "troika" of EU foreign ministers was publicly rebuffed by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati during their 20 hour stay in Tehran on April 2-3. "There is a fundamental difference between a people struggling to secure its rights and to end the occupation of its lands and those who have made terror their profession," Velayati told Tehran Radio, referring to the Hamas bombers.

Hamas was not the only case on the Iranians' minds. In an editorial published just after the talks, the radical Jomhouri-Eslami daily ( close to Khamene'i ), commented that "the death Fatwa against Salman Rushdie is definitive and can not be changed,[...] Now that we defined our positions clearly, it is the European governments' turn to clarify their ambiguous position towards Islamic World." [Jomhouri-e Eslami 4/6/96; Tehran Radio 4/3]

Prosecutor General Ayatollah Morteza Moghtada'i told a gathering of Islamic Revolutionary Court judges in Tehran that "World Arrogance" (the codeword for the United States) was "trying to harm the Islamic Republic through [drug] addiction and cultural assault."

At the same meeting, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Judiciary Branch, claimed that "drug distribution [in Iran] is politically motivated," and that "drug pushers should be regarded as the enemies of the Islamic Republic."

Yazdi's remarks were repeated by Parliament speaker Nateq-Nouri, who said drug smugglers were "trying to weaken our regime by bringing in cocaine from Canada, Germany, the U.S., and the Netherlands, to addict our younger generation." Nouri called for the creation of "special labor camps" for young addicts, so society could benefit from their time behind bars.

Minister of Information and Security, Ali Fallahian, claimed that "The objective of the drug trafficking bands is to weaken the country politically through distribution of drugs." Fallahian asked for the creation of "special townships for drug addicts," in order to curb spread of drugs.

"Fifty per cent of the prison population in Iran are drug addicts or drug dealers," an official from the headquarters of the government's Counter-Narcotics office said, "while another 25% have been imprisoned on drug-related charges." [Iran 4/11/96, Iran News 4/13/96]

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene'i, speaking to government officials organizing the 70,000 Iranian pilgrims scheduled to make this year's Hajj, said that pilgrimage was " meaningless" without political demonstrations against "World Arrogance, Zionism, and infidels."

The Saudi authorities have banned such demonstrations, and the Kingdom's highest-ranking Sunni Muslim cleric, Abdul Aziz bin Baz, called them a "baseless innovation" by Ayatollah Khomeini.

For four years after the bloody riots during 1987 Hajj, Iran was banned from the annual pilgrimage. Iran has held smaller demonstrations during the past two hajj seasons, which have been closed to non-Iranian participants by the Saudi security forces.

Tehran sought to hold large-scale political demonstrations this year called "Disavowal of Infidels," but according to Tehran Radio (4/23) canceled its plans.

Hojj. Mohammad Mohammadi-Reyshahri, former minister of Intelligence, was put in charge of this year's hajj and was quoted as telling the pilgrims before their departure that "Nowhere is there a better place for crying death to America than in the house of God." Now, Reyshahri says Tehran called off the demonstration because the Saudis had "encircled the headquarters of the Iranian pilgrims with army tanks and troops."

In a rare editorial evoking Iran's "uncertain future," the unofficial voice of the Rafsanjani faction expressed "alarm that the global situation of the Islamic Republic in the world has never been so critical."

"Trying to maintain the Islamic regime and the revolution have become an absolute necessity, at a time when different factions of international capitalism are savagely trying to wipe out our regime," Hamshahri said

U.S. sanctions and "political tricks" from countries in Europe and the Middle East were "clear evidence of the dangers threatening our country."

"Apart from Cuba, our country is the most targeted by serious and practical threats and menaces from the mightiest political and military power of the world," the paper went on. {Hamshahri, 4/4/96]

Students who are members of the Basij ("Mobilization") forces in Teheran are being called up. In the coming weeks, they are to get their military ID cards and uniforms, and will be declared "operational," the Education Ministry announced. The Ministry said it would be spending 110 Million Rials ($370,000) this year to buy new uniforms for Tehran's "Students' Basij."

The Basij, or "mobilization forces," were created during the Iran-Iraq war as a means of supplying large numbers of fresh troops to the battlefront. They normally received little or no military training; and during some campaigns, children as young as 12 were sent to the front in their ranks.

Since the end of the war, the Basij have been used as an ideological police and anti-riot force whenever it was needed. The Basij forces are officially under the control of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, and have branches in schools and factories throughout Iran. [Kayhan 4/8/96]

"Turkey has not only become a dump for American and NATO nuclear waste, but a storehouse for US nuclear arms," the Tehran daily Jomhouri-e Eslami reported, quoting an obscure Turkish newspaper, "Asham".

The report, accompanied by a detailed map, claimed that U.S. forces in Turkey maintained nuclear weapons depots at Luleburgaz (near Turkey's border with Greece), Kosekoy (along the Marmara Sea ), and Incirlic, the well-known NATO Air Force base used by F117A Stealth fighters during Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. The paper also quoted unnamed diplomatic sources in Ankara as alleging that the U.S. had buried nuclear waste in Turkey without the knowledge of the Turkish authorities.

The article also alleged that Turkish agricultural products such as tea and comestible nuts had been contaminated by radioactivity, and that the U.S. embassy in Ankara has secretly put pressure on the Turkish media to prevent reports on the subject.

Jomhouri-e Eslami is generally considered to be the mouthpiece of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i, who was initially granted the license for the publication at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution.

The Iranian government is known to have set up publications overseas to serve as the original source for disinformation stories, in a tactic that was perfected by the KGB during the Cold War. [Jomhouri-e Eslami Daily, 4/11/96]

At the same time President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin were meeting in Moscow to discuss nuclear security and nonproliferation, Russia's Interfax News Agency reported from Moscow that the Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) is negotiating with Iran to educate 700 Iranian nuclear experts in Russia.

According to Interfax report, the Iranian experts will work at several unidentified nuclear installations in Iran, in addition to operating the nuclear power reactor at Bushehr. [Interfax 4/19]

The military training and cooperation agreement signed earlier this month between Israel and Turkey poses "a serious threat on our Western borders," the radical daily Salam said. The pact comes at an extremely sensitive time, Salam said, since "Zionist regimes authorities repeatedly talk about attacking sensitive Iranian targets, including the Bushehr and Neka reactors."

The Salam editorial was the first time a regime-sanctioned media has publicly referred to the Neka site, near the Caspian Sea. Iranian opposition groups have alleged that Russian and Iranian nuclear experts were evaluating the Neka and the neighboring town of Gorgan, as potential sites for new nuclear power reactors.

The Israeli-Turkish alliance should cause Iran to establish "a joint committee with Syria and Iraq" to combat Israel. [Salam, 4/14/96]

Turkish newspapers reported that 8 Iranian diplomats and officials have been identified for their role in the killing of a Turkish journalist and for other terrorist activities in Turkey, including the assassination of two Iranian exiles in 1992. The Iranian suspects were identified as: Mir Kazem Zaaferanchi (a former Iranian diplomat in Turkey, now back in Tehran), Mehdi Semsar, Ali Ashraf, Hamid Reza Shad-Karami, Ahmad Haghighi, Majid Shaker, Mohsen Kargar Zad, Reza Bahrouz manesh. Four have been declared Persona Non Grata by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [Kayhan 4/21]

Following the expulsion of four Iranian diplomats from Turkey, Tehran's semi-official press published detailed accounts, emanating from the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS), alleging that Iran had arrested four Turkish diplomats allegedly running "spy networks" in Tehran and in western Iran (Tabriz, Orumieh).

The MOIS Director General for West Azarbaijan claimed that those caught were "Mainly Turkish subjects, arrested after extensive counter-intelligence efforts," and that they had confessed to espionage activities on behalf of the Turkish intelligence agency, MIT.

He accused members of these "networks" of plotting against the Islamic Republic and "spreading moral corruption."

"Some Turkish intelligence officials, benefiting from diplomatic cover at the Turkish Embassy and Consulates in Iran were the coordinators of these groups," the unnamed official told reporters. The four Turkish diplomats, who were subsequently recalled by Ankara from Tehran, were identified in the Iranian press (along with the photos) as Ardal Kuzuoghlu and Hussein Hakan Kadagal, political attaches at the Orumieh consulate, Kalil Almaz, a political attache at the Tehran embassy, and Ghadri Jan, a political attache in Tabriz.

Only three weeks after her landslide election to the Iranian parliament, Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has already begun to represent Iran in international fora, traveling to Kuala Lumpour (Malaysia) to take part in an international women's conference.

Pro-regime dailies in Tehran gave prominent play to the President's daughter's excursion into foreign affairs, and to her subsequent meeting in Tehran with a senior South African Foreign Ministry official, Mrs. Mazi Buko.

Some observers believe that the propaganda campaign in favor of the President's daughter could be indirectly aimed at weakening Rafansjani's political rival, Parliament speaker Nateq- Nouri.[Ettelaat 4/4/96, Kayhan 4/9/96]

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FDI's Weekly Newswire

FDI WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO 2

April 25, 1996

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