The Latest from Iran (11 April): Checking In

Pictured: Reformist leader Feizollah Arab Sorkhi (pictured) has returned to Evin Prison after his temporary release for Iranian New Year.

1700 GMT: Abuse Watch. A Street Journalist posts Bahareh Maghami's account of her rape in prison.

Iran: A List of 107 Killed in Post-Election Violence
Iran: The Green Movement in Transition (Rafat)
The Latest from Iran (10 April): Look Over There!

1630 GMT: The Inflation Game --- Pick a Number. The Iranian Government's attempt to ease economic worries by declaring a halving of inflation to 10.8% is coming under more pressure. Amidst evidence of Parliament's scepticism (see morning update), the International Monetary Fund has announced that Iran's 2009-2010 inflation rate was 30%.


1620 GMT: Selling State Industries. The great redistribution of state firms continues: reports claim 45% of the Damavand power plant has been given to the controversial "charitable trust" Bonyade Shahid.

1415 GMT: Corruption. MP Elyas Naderan, who is leading the allegations of corruption against First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, is not letting up despite Government pressure on him. He has declared in an interview that Rahimi's deeds are graver than those of Ali Kordan, the Minister of Interior forced to resign over false claims of a doctorate from Oxford University, and of businessman Shahram Jazayeri.

1145 GMT: Press Resurrection. The "moderate" daily newspaper Shargh has reappeared after a three-year ban.

1110 GMT: More Money Questions. Iran Green Voice, drawing from Iranian Labor News Agency, is claiming that Iran's audit commission is enquiring about 631 possible errors in the 2007-2008 budget, with millions of dollars of oil money missing from the Treasury.

Khabar Online and DayPress raises further questions about "aberrations" in the 2008-2009 budget and oil revenues.

1050 GMT: The Post-Election Dead. We have posted, from Muhammad Sahimi of Tehran Bureau, a list of 107 people killed in post-election violence.
1045 GMT: Nuke-Nuke-Nuke. I think this pattern is pretty well set: the US Nuclear Posture Review will be the script for most Iranian political threatre this week. The Supreme Leader has now taken over the lead role, telling senior members of the military:

[Obama] has implicitly threatened Iranians with nuclear weapons. These comments are very strange and the world should not ignore them because in the 21st century... the head of a state is threatening a nuclear attack. The US president's statements are disgraceful. Such comments harm US and they mean that the US government is wicked and unreliable.

1005 GMT: Nuclear Postures. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has strongly criticised Washington's position on Iran's nuclear programe. Attacking the Nuclear Posture Review, released this week by the Obama Administration, Larijani told the Majlis:

The US has announced it will not use nuclear weapons except in extraordinary situations. It has also pledged not to use atomic bombs against NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] members, apart from Iran and North Korea. And they call this a "new" nuclear arms strategy. Just take a look at how many contradictory issues are embedded in this policy. The term "extraordinary situation" can always be used to justify a US nuclear attack.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "We will officially present our complaints to the United Nations about these kinds of threats," with a declaration signed by 255 of 290 members of the Majlis.

1000 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Rah-e-Sabz carries a statement from Ayatollah Dastgheib, who says that the ruling authorities slander and arrest even as they pretend to be pious. Thus, Dastgheib argues, the principle of velayat-e-faqih (ultimate clerical authority) is violated.

0935 GMT: The Subsidy Battle. The dispute between Parliament and President on economic plans continues to dominate political news.

An interesting twist as the Government has asked the Majlis not to publish inflation data. Given that the Central Bank of Iran declared earlier this month that the inflation rate had halved to 10.8%, why would the Government be so shy? Could it be that the official rate is not telling the entire story?

High-profile critic Government Elyas Naderan, who is also the central figure claiming corruption by First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, has debated another Vice President, Mohammad Reza Mirtajoddini, at Imam Sadegh University.

 MP Mohammad Hossein Farhangi has said that the Government should not ask for amendments in the legislation approved by the Parliament.

0845 GMT: Shutting Down Politics. Parleman News claims that reformist visitors to Mir Hossein Moussavi have been threatened that they could be banned in the next elections.

0840 GMT: Closing the Press. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi announced that the appeal to lift the ban on the reformist publication Etemaad has been declined.

0830 GMT: What Next for Greens? Amidst signs of the reconsideration of the opposition strategy and tactics, Ali Mazrouee asks, "What is the nature of the Green Movement?"

0815 GMT: Economy Watch. Iranian Labor News Agency reports that workers of the Hamid China factory, due for closure, are rallying today to protest that they have not been paid wages and benefits for almost two years.

750 GMT: Thanks to Arshama for passing on yesterday's updates as I was in transit --- Saturday's LiveBlog has now been updated. Now to today.....

It may be a different day, but it's still the old, reliable diversions. Minister of Defense Ahmad Vahidi, now a daily source for cheap quotes on how Iran will face down and vanquish any Western aggression, has declared that Tehran has begun mass-producing a new medium-range anti-aircraft missile. Mersad "can destroy modern planes in low and medium altitudes".

Far more interesting spin comes on the Qom front.  Reformist cleric and journalist Mohammad Javad Akbarin, claims several top clerics refused to meet President Ahmadinejad. Akbarin asserted that only one top cleric agreed to meet Ahmadinejad, and he "spent most of the meeting criticizing Ahmadinejad".

A formal photographs at the time of the visit showed Ahmadinejad with several clerics, although, as EA's Mr Verde analysed, there was no confirmation of a Presidential meeting with a Grand Ayatollah, only with three senior clerics who are his fervent supporters.

Comments

[Cyrus]

kiterunner,

Neither American people nor the American government hate the Iranian people. Americans do not think the way Muslim radicals think. They love all human beings regardless. over a million Iranians made America their home and enjoy all the freedom that exist in America equally to anyone else in America. They gave more refuge to the Iranians who escaped the brutal Islamic Republic than anyone else.

Did you know that America provided the highest amount of humanitarian aid after the Bam earthquake and all other natural disasters in Iran that could had saved the lives of thousands of people, but the Islamic Republic seized all the aid and didn't let the earthquake victims receive them?? Did you know that in the past 7 days alone, 17 people have been executed by the Islamic Republic? While the IR spends billions of dollars to help the terrorists all over the world, do you know how many children die every day for lack of medical needs??

Also did you know that most (SO CALLED) airplane accidents in Iran weren't accident and they were shot down by the regime itself to get rid of their crime victims (in one case most of the senior IRGC commanders who knew too much about the IR's dirty secrets) . Most passengers of the flights within Iran are the members of the Iranian regime and Iran has enough Boeing airplanes for its international flights.

Almost all the ones who chant death to Israel & America get paid to do it. They have to show up to rallies, follow the codes by chanting, so they can keep their government jobs or get bonuses. Usually most of the death to America chanters are members of the Basij and IRGC and only a minority may be some uneducated and uncivilized people who fell for the government propaganda.

That's why we want to overthrow the Islamic Republic, because it's barbaric and misrepresents all the rest of us Iranians as barbaric. In case of any military strike against Iran, I'd only blame the Iranian government.

[Kiterunner]

Megan,
In each comment u say many things that I don’t have time n fluency in English to answer u! if u r familiar with Iranian culture so u will probably understand Persian. if moderator permits me n u agree with me I will answer u in Persian if not I try to answer them slowly n steadily. For now:

1st, you say why I was silent during the debate that I myself started. When i posted my last comment here on 11 April n came back on 12 April I got surprised. There were more than 40 comments after mine! So It took some hours for me to read n understand them all. Afterwards I told I will answer questions n now I am here to answer.
I know being silent during a debate that I started is not nice n polite.
I ask every one to excuse me but I hand no chance to answer them.
2nd: u say my Persian blog seems like codes to u. there r two possibilities. Either your computer doesn’t support Persian so consult a computer technician or not only your Persian is poor but u do not know Persian at all!
3rd, u asked how I can blog in iran. First tell me do u know how many blogs exist in Persian? I think far more than 100 thousand.
And your answer: I do not write very dangerous things in my blog or anywhere else. and I do not want to. My blog is more a cultural social one with a few followers. But if u know Persian n read all of my blog posts u see that I like Musavi n the green movement.
I think Scout has read my blog n he knows Persian. you can ask him or someone familiar with Persian.
btw i am a man.

Moderator,
Am I permitted to write my comment in Persian here?

all,
i read the comments n answer as soon as possible.

[Arshama]

Megan,

Re #24

Thank you so much for speaking out boldly, what I did not dare to do till now, especially in the last paragraph.
I believe the main problem we have in Iran is a "culture" of irresponsability, because it has been taught to the sheep (bozghaleh), eh, the people, that there is always a heardsman (chupan, i.e. vali), who will take over the responsability for what is happening in the country, while in reality no one is responsible at all!
This is going on for over 30 years, and many have adapted to this easy mode of living without being responsible for what is happening around them. A society with many "Mr. Be man che" (Who cares), as the journalist Babak Dad nicely put it before escaping from Iran.
But obviously not all Iranians reacted like this, and there were also many who suffered from this indifference, which started to undermine the whole society long ago, and is now threatening its very foundations. The uproar after the rigged elections (not the first example of rigging, by the way) was the first sign that this suffering has spread to the core or to a majority, which felt that it IS responsible in fact.
Otherwise there have been many protests before, the student's protests in 1999, the bus driver's protests (Osanlou), the teacher's protests, and the women's protests -- although most of them remained rather isolated because of this devastating "culture" of "Who cares?".
After 30 years of ordered incapacitation (Entmündigung) Iranians have realised that they are only deceiving themselves, if they continue like this. Changing such negative but comfortable patterns will certainly take its time, but fortunately it has started after the rigged elections and will slowly spread throughout the society.

To return to your comment, Megan: whenever a majority realises that it has been fed with convenient lies about its glorious "Imam" and IRI, and that returning to the truth is only to its own benefit, then we will see this regime crumble down much faster than expected.

I always believed in the capability of my compatriots to take over the responsibility for their own life and for society, and I will continue to do so...

ma bishomarim

Arshama

[Barry]

Arshama

Well said. Iran is an old and venerable society. All Iranians that I have ever met have been intelligent, culturally sophisticated, nice people. And what has happened in Iran over the past 30 years is a tragedy.

But the situation in Iran is not unique . There have been MANY countries/nations/cultures in the world that have been taken over by bad ideologies - from militaristic ideologies such as what happened to Japan pre-WW2 to nationalistic racist ideologies like Nazi Germany and Italy. When these ideologies thrive in these places, opportunistic criminals take advantage. And innocents (like Kiterunner) are hurt. I am sure that there would have been many innocents amongst the supporters of Nazism who all died together in the bombing firestorm at Dresden, as I am also sure that innocents died alongside militaristic Japanese Regime supporters in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

There is no doubt that western powers have interfered with small countries past history - especially in the Middle East. But unfortunately when large elephants fight in the jungle, small animals get trampled. Much of what has happened came about from way back to the time nearly 100 years ago when the Turkish Muslim Ottoman Empire collapsed - and the attempts by the remaining elephants of that time to redraw their own Empire boundaries and create new smaller countries.

Sigh! Kiterunner - one day I hope that you and your family will be able to fly high in the very latest modern aircraft (just like I can) - but I have to ask you, what are you personally (and your friends and family) actively doing to bring this about??

Barry

[Rev. Magdalen]

I, for one, as an American, believe my government ought to send over some free airplanes as a goodwill gesture. Killing innocent people was never the intent of the sanctions. No doubt nobody thought it would get to this level of extreme airplane disrepair, they probably thought the IRI would collapse before it got to this point, but whatever the past reasons, I believe kiterunner is right and we ought to send them some planes.

[pessimist]

There were lots of good points made, and thanks to Arshama to explain about the responsibility aspect.

I always thought that nations that went from monarchs to another oppressive sytem couldn't apply democracy easily. I'm thinking about the ex-soviet union. In Russia and some other ex soviet countries, they have chosen a strong father figure who uses controversial methods to keep 'order'.

In China, it's the same. For real democracy to work it is based on individual responsibility, that begins at the local level and up to chosing presidents and prime ministers. When people in responsible positions misbehave, they are exposed by the press and citizens groups. But when you don't have freedom of expression and total democracy, the corruption and illegal repression is rampant and impossible to stop. The dictator or father figure's job is to tell everyone that everything is fine and all their woes are caused by 'enemies'. Or, in the case of religious or Islamic systems, where the people are kept by superstition, they are told it's the wrath of god.

How many people thought that it was god who caused the Asian tsunami, or the Haitian earthquake ? I heard them saying it was their bad karma or their sinful ways.

How can anyone really believe that Islam is compatible with democracy ? When islam is far more than a religion, but a whole social and political system ? There can't be any responsibility when people believe it's god's will if things go right or wrong. Even the green leaders talk about god or Allah when talking of the future. This itself takes responsibility out of people's hands.

So if in Iran, they simply gave up the King for another spiritual father figure, they didn't really progress in that way. And to change the regime, I would say that they need to be told that religion should not be part of the state, and for that, the leaders have to believe it themselves, or otherwise find other leaders.

[Catherine]

Hi Cyrus,
RE your post 25: "...most (SO CALLED) airplane accidents in Iran weren’t accident and they were shot down by the regime itself to get rid of their crime victims (in one case most of the senior IRGC commanders who knew too much about the IR’s dirty secrets) . Most passengers of the flights within Iran are the members of the Iranian regime ..."

Not to change the subject altogether ;-), but I'd be interested to see what evidence backs up those rather sweeping accusations (remember the supposedly Hezbollah minister of immigration in Venezuela?). I'm open to anything factual you can present. Here's what I've found just on many of the crashes themselves:

Timeline: Air crashes involving Iran 1980-2004
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/02/10/iran.crash.timeline.reut/

More recently:
In December 2005, 108 people were killed when a Lockheed C-130 transport plane crashed into the base of a high-rise housing block outside the Iranian capital.

Twenty-nine people were killed in September 2006 when an aircraft came off the runway after landing in the eastern city of Mashhad and burst into flames.

In November that year, a military plane crashed on takeoff at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, killing all 39 people on board.

In July 2009, a Russian-built Tupolev Caspian Airlines jet carrying 168 people from Tehran to Yerevan crashed into a field near Qazvin, killing all those on board.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/200971592136703617.html

[Arshama]

Catherine,

Re #31

Another incident occurred yesterday at Tabriz airport: the left tire of a Fokker 100 of Kish Air took fire during the landing. If true, the Tabriz news report is shocking, because the crew had exchanged the tire before and made a "trial" flight with all passengers on board!
All passenger mobile phones were confiscated by security forces and their videos deleted, but they did not know that these clips can easily be restored with recovery software: http://tabriznews.ir/fa/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=605&Itemid=1

I think this incident gives a convincing explanation for other plane accidents in Iran: sloppiness and irresponsability of the staff.

Arshama

[Catherine]

Arshama,
Is there supposed to be a video on the Tabriznews page you link to?
And I agree with the fact that there's more than just the effects of sanctions behind these crashes. So does Press TV!

"Why is it that aircraft that operate fairly safely in other parts of the world, develop a nasty habit of falling out of the sky once they enter Iranian service?

Instead of knee-jerk reactions to the tragic series of accidents, and begging the US for new Boeing aircraft (as Iran Air has humiliatingly and futilely done in the past), Iranian authorities should look at the true reasons behind the unacceptably high rate of air crashes.

This is primarily the responsibility of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, which is in charge of overseeing flight safety in the country.

They should look at a plethora of reasons, including the standards of the service and maintenance of the aircraft, competence of flight crews, air traffic controls (in one case, a Tu-154 collided with a fighter aircraft near Tehran), quality of management of the airlines and their financial strengths.

Without a comprehensive look at these factors, and overhauling them wherever necessary, Iran's air safety will likely continue to remain below par, no matter what make of aircraft is in use."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=102290&sectionid=3510304

[Kiterunner]

Barry,

I've told here what I’m doing to improve my country before: trying hard to get known n perform better. I want a democracy as a result of logic, dialogue n peacefully as far as possible. I’m doing my best.

Megan,

I do not think Obama wants to attack Iran. However his speech considered as a threat by the state n media saying that he has such plan.

Btw once u said I have designed open ended questions, Wh-questions, n it is suspicious.
Well lady I have many questions about your culture n your opinions so I ask my questions. Do u know another better way that does not make u hesitate?! As I said before my intention is getting known to other’s points of view. Do u suggest a better idea instead of asking questions? If so share it with me plz

[Kiterunner]

M.Ali
I think holding a referendum in Iran can be a very positive action specially now