Iran Document: Interview with Detained Filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad

Just before he returned to prison, summoned for writing his sixth letter to the Supreme Leader, journalist and filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad published an interview on his website. Translated by Pedestrian:

Mr. Nourizad, are you being sent to prison once more for your most recent letter to the leader?

I believe so. That is, I see no other reason. I believe that I’m being sent to prison for humbly writing this letter. In this letter, I put myself before the judgement of God, and I put him [the Leader], who I like very much, before the judgement of God. And I revealed to him the questions we must both answer. So I do believe I am being called to prison for this letter.

In the call they made to your home, what did they state as the reason, and when did they say you should be there?

I will go tonight. It seems as though these friends have missed me and I must go soon.

You have written six sympathetic, criticizing letters to the leader. What kind of a reaction did these letters invoke from your friends in the principalist factions? Are they too facing the same doubts towards the leader?

Yes, many have faced the same doubts. I am but a known repersentative of this group. I have become known for these questions I ask, but there are many others in cultural, economic, military and basij circles, even those in clerical or religious circles, and when they come to see me, they tell me that I am putting their views forward as well. But they say that they do not have the space to put forth their views, or are worried of the repercussions. I am not the only one who thinks this way. This is an all-encompassing phenomenon.

This is a crack in the wall which has appeared in many places, and will continue to expand. In the thirty or so years since the revolution,  there is a big population that has heard of the ideals we never achieved and has seen that we have actually sinked further and further. We have lost opportunities because of mismanagement and lack of wisdom. We have lost our national riches and resources, and I am certainly not the only one who is worried about this. Rather, many of my ilk think the same way.

I have written six letters to Mr. Khamenei, and have stated that the sixth letter is the last one. I hope that this letter is read, and with my attempts to depict judgement day, some of these calls, most notably the call to free prisoners, are heard.

You mentioned that this is your last letter. Are you disappointed in the prospects of this letter being read?

In the end of the letter, I mention that I hope the leader will read it and free political prisoners and act towards reconciling with each and every one of our people. This last letter is written to depict my hopes. I end it on a very hopeful note.

How did interrogators treat you, a child of the revolution and of the system, and who has fought in the war? How did they speak to you? Can you talk about the physical nature of the violence inflicted on you in prison?

I am not important. If only one person is harmed, that’s like all Iranians, and even all of humanity, has been hurt. I have been subject to physical abuse when I should not have been. But I know many good, loving, honest men who have been subject to torture, have been tormented and abused. Their families have been threatened. All of this comes at a time when we expect patience and wisdom more than anything else. We expect lawful, rightful action.

When you are met with beatings and abuse, when they forcefully put your head into a toilet bowl, and when they swear using the most vile language, this is completely against any ethical or religious teaching we have ever known. I am distraught with what is happening to our children in prison, and I loudly declare that in solitary confinement our youth and our men are under torture, and are subject to beatings and abuse and their wives and children are being threatened using the most vicious language. This is the very sad reality that we seem to be living in.

How do you see the future? Where is this Green Movement headed? From your last letter, it seems you believe in fate and the end of tyrants?

I see a very bright future. The growth and maturity our people have experienced in the past year is one that takes a whole decade to achieve. And the vicious face we came to see on the other side can take ten to fifteen years to reveal itself. This can only mean brightness and hope.

We are seeing harm, but no victory comes without  a price. We do not want to undo everything we have done. Every revolution in every country means a step back for that country. We want change. We say we want ugliness to be replaced with beauty, insecurity to give its place to safety, disrespect to give way to respect, and lawlessness to be replaced with the rule of law. It is only a truth that we utter. And to want this change is a holy tradition. We have learned this from the prophets. When your clothes are stained and dirty and you attempt to wash them, no one criticizes you because you have acted rightly.

So we too are attempting to clean this dirt. We want to rid our country of this dirt and pollution and replace it with purity. I see a very bright future. I didn’t write this letter in hopelessness, I didn’t leave it to fate. Those questions I present are not only issues we will face on judgement day, but whether we want or not, complexities we will have to face in this world. The questions I put forth are not questions for the afterlife, but this life. Either way, we all have questions before us which we should be ready to answer.

You met with the family of Mr Tajzadeh [former Deputy Minister of Interior, now detained] the day before. Would you have signed that letter [of seven reformists who have taken legal action against Commander Moshfegh for statements about military intervention against the opposition before and after the election] if you were invited to do so? And like those seven reformists, do you believe in the [military] coup d’etat?

That letter is a letter which expresses the views of millions of people. If an action is righteous, we will support it, no matter who it comes from. This is a long held tradition which even our religion advocates. When an unknown person is treated unjustly, no matter what the religion of that person, when his rights are trampled and when he is subject to injustice, people must stand by him, so he does not feel that he is alone.

It’s not only me, we are all standing with any move that aims for justice. Sometimes you say a word, but it is really a word that all of society feels, or you write a letter on behalf of all people. I believe Mr. Tajzadeh is innocent. But, there is a plan to force him to confess to certain things, and there is plan to force him and his colleagues to say certain things, and so he is subject to torture in solitary confinement. If you really think about the beatings he’s injured in solitary confinement, four days straight, your body will shiver. Who does this and with what mentality? So no matter what the religion of a person may be, no matter how little known or far away they may be, if they have been forced to endure injustice, all of humanity will stand by him.

Considering the fatal blow on religon that the establishment has caused, what do you think our relationship will be towards religon in the future?

We must plead with people, so that they do not consider religon the reason behind our horrible acts which have contributed to a terrifying depiction of religion. People have a right to turn against religion when they are so hurt with our actions. People have a right not to believe in God and the prophet, not to fast and not to pray. Because we have lied to people using this very prophet, this very prayer. We have tormented them using these tools, we have tyrannically trampled their rights.

We have to plead with people so they know that if someone acts in the name of religion, that has nothing to do with the essence of religion. The essence of religion is a call to peace, calm, reason, wisdom and goodness. The call of all holy religions was a call to righteousness, reason and purity and if a group of people were impure and propagated this impurity in the name of religion, we must separate them. The actions of the past few years must not make people turn away from a religion that has come to humanity with open arms. And if such a thing were to happen, I completely understand why a wounded, hurt and traumatized people would turn away from religion....

The Latest from Iran (18 August): A Letter and A Call for Bombing

2055 GMT: Sports Section. Football star Ali Karimi, who was released by his club Steel Azin this week, apparently for drinking water during training and thus breaking the daylight fast of Ramadan, was in the stadium tonight for Steel Azin's match with Kerman Copper. He was applauded by the crowd.

2035 GMT: Speech Round-Up (Opposition Edition). Rah-e-Sabz has more on Mir Hossein Mousavi's latest statement that 30 years of the Islamic Republic are being challenged to "save the cobwebs of tyrants". And the website summarises Mehdi Karroubi's on-line chat with readers: he will participate in a Qods Day rally in September, for which planning is under way. He said that the current Government is not religious nor a republic, and the Iranian people will have decide about a a religious or secular government in the future.

The Facebook page supporting Mousavi has an English translation of his statement.

NEW Iran Document: Nourizad’s Last Letter to Supreme Leader “The 10 Grievances”
NEW Iran Feature: Sanctions, Iranians, and YouTube’s “Life in a Day” (Esfandiary)
UPDATED Iran Special: Have Fars (& Revolutionary Guard) Faked a Reformist “Confession” on Election?
Iran Video: “His Excellency” Ahmadinejad Interviewed by George Galloway (15 August)
UPDATED Iran Analysis: What Has Green Movement Achieved? (Sahimi)
The Latest from Iran (17 August): The Green Movement, Ahmadinejad, and a “Confession”

2030 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The Revolutionary Court has confiscated the house belonging to the parents of student activist Abed Tavanche.

2025 GMT: Speech Round-Up (Khamenei Edition). The Supreme Leader's focus --- despite all the tensions within the Iranian system, including the challenges to the President --- was beyond Tehran today. It was all about the US and Iran's nuclear programme: "What they say, our president and others are saying, that we will negotiate -- yes we will, but not with America because America is not negotiating honestly and like a normal negotiator. Put away the threats and put away the sanctions."

So the line is drawn: unless Washington pulls back both unilateral and United Nations sanctions (or gives private assurances to Tehran that they will be withdrawn if progress is made on an uranium enrichment deal), there will be no post-Ramadan negotiations: "On one hand they threaten us and impose sanctions and show an iron hand, and on the other hand they want us at the negotiating table. We do not consider this as negotiations. Experience has shown that when they cannot answer logic, they bully... we will not budge under pressures and we will respond to these pressures in our own way."

2005 GMT: Controlling the Net. Global Voices Advocacy documents the Iranian regime's crackdown on bloggers and social media.

2000 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, a postgraduate student at Oxford University, has been released from detention after 60 days in solitary confinement.

1910 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Almost as soon as his latest letter to the Supreme Leader --- published in EA today --- appeared, journalist and filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad has been summoned back to Evin Prison.

Nourizad was on temporary leave from his 3 1/2-year sentence for the letters to Ayatollah Khamenei and the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani.

Women's rights activist Mahboubeh Karami has been released on $50,000 bail.

1805 GMT: Khamenei Speaks. The Supreme Leader is currently setting out Iran's foreign policy in a speech. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic News Agency has summarised his line --- denouncing the "stupidity" of the "military threat" to Iran --- in a meeting earlier today with the heads of Iran's three branches of Government.

More later....

1745 GMT: US-Iran Front. Has the Supreme Leader just thrown cold water on discussions over Tehran's uranium enrichment? This just in from his office's Twitter feed: "Iran's Leader emphasized that negotiation with USA under threat and pressure is not possible. We won't negotiate with anybody in this way."

1735 GMT: Nokia Siemens and Iran. An interesting twist on the claim, highlighted in a lawsuit by detained journalist Isa Saharkhiz (see 0830 GMT), that Nokia Siemens sold and provided to Iran "surveillance technology and equipment for monitoring of wireless networks and the internet".

Fars News claims that the malicious Stuxnet worm has been introduced onto Iranian computer systems via Siemens software.

1715 GMT: Parliament v. President. MP Heshmatollah Fallahatpisheh, a member of the Majlis National Security Commission, has linked the 1953 coup --- whose anniversary is tomorrow --- to today's events. Fallahatpisheh claims Iran's main problem is mismanagement and that the overthrow of the Mossadegh Government almost 60 years ago "shows that the biggest harms were inflicted upon the country when Parliament was weak". The Majlis, he asserted, must be at the head of affairs.

From the reformist side, Nasrullah Torabi has stated, "A sand fog of sedition and flattering prevents the truth from being revealed," and maintained, "Patience and victory are old friends."

But Ahmadinejad's camp has struck back. MP Hamidreza Taraghi of the Motalefeh party has criticised "some conservatives want to pass over the President and many senior officials". And the President's spokesman Ali Akbar Javanfekr declared, "During the 9th Presidential elections [of 2005], people didn't vote for conservatives, but for Ahmadinejad." (An EA correspondent asks, "But what about the 10th elections of 2009?")

1710 GMT: Women's Rights and the Green Movement. A challenge to leading activist Zahra Rahnavard from a blogger, who claims that Rahnavard has distorted "feminism" by saying that hijab can be imposed by the system like traffic laws, but women should accept it "with love" and not by force.

1705 GMT: Economy Watch. Deutsche Welle follows up the latest news from Iranian media on unemployment by noting that the jobless rate has doubled since President Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.

1635 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Daneshjoo News claims that intelligence officials are behind the transfer of student activist Majid Tavakoli from Evin Prison, where he was seen as the leader of the "riot" of the 17 hunger strikers, to Rajai Shahr Prison.

1620 GMT: Breaking (and Significant?) News. Fars News is reporting that the heads of the three branches of Government --- President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani --- have met with the Supreme Leader. And it appears that Hashemi Rafsanjani, as head of the Expediency Council, was also there.

No details of the discussion are posted.

1505 GMT: Opposition Remarks. Green Correspondents features comments by Mehdi Karroubi in an on-line conversation with readers, and Kalemeh carries a statement by Mir Hossein Mousavi --- with a clear eye on the furour surrounding Ahmadinejad top aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai --- on Iran and Islam.

1445 GMT: War Chatter. The US talking-shop on a possible Israel attack on Tehran continues, though --- apart from the Bomb Iran editorial in The Washington Times (see 0700 GMT) --- the fever seems to have lessened today.

Gary Sick makes an incisive intervention on the Command Central set up at The Atlantic magazine --- "[This] is so transparently pushing the 'threat' of an Israeli attack in order to get the US to do something utterly foolish, that I have a very hard time even writing about it" --- before handing over to Joshua Pollack's commentary, "Some Straight Talk About Iran".

1300 GMT: Iran's Ramadan Music Ban. For days, we have been following the story that an Islamic prayer called "Rabbana,” sung by musical legend Mohammad Reza Shajarian and traditionally aired on Iranian state television and radio during the holy month, has yet to be broadcast during Ramadan.

This year, another version of the prayer, sung by a different singer, is reportedly being aired, leading to speculation that Shajarian has been "blacked out" because of his post-election criticism of the Government.

Now a twist: an Iranian state television official in charge of religious programming, Parviz Farsijani, said Shajarian's version has not been banned and that it could be aired in the coming days. However, Fars News is devoting its headling story to a lengthy denunciation of Shajarian's views on politics and religion and his association with the "Great Satan".

1255 GMT: Economy Watch. The Iranian Labor News Agency reports that unemployment of workers aged 15 to 29 has reached 26.1%.

1245 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Switzerland has imposed new economic restrictions against Iran.

1225 GMT: Parliament v. President. Key member of Parliament Ali Motahari says that the initiative by some conservative MPs to summon the President to the Majlis, to answer questions on his refusal to implement laws and on other subjects, is proceeding.

At least 1/4 of the Parliament --- 73 members --- have to join the initiative for Ahmadinejad to be compelled to appear.

According to MP Vali Esmaili, a protest letter against Presdiential chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, written by the reformist Mohajedin of Islamic Revolution party and signed by 183 MPs, will be sent to Ahmadinejad's office tomorrow. The letter was written and circulated after a discussion between 20 MPs and the President failed to find a resolution.

1220 GMT: The University Crisis. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, after a meeting with the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has said --- contrary to reports in outlets like Fars News --- the status of Islamic Azad University has not been decided and must be resolved by the Supreme Leader.

Control of the University system, which has 1.2 million students, is between disputed between Rafsanjani, the Parliament, and President Ahmadinejad.

1214 GMT: The Hunger Strike. Kayvan Samimi, Abdollah Momeni, and Bahman Ahmadi Amoui --- three of the 17 political prisoners who were on hunger strike --- have been moved out of solitary confinement. Thirteen other detainees (one was recently released) were put back into the ward for political prisoners a few days ago.

1210 GMT: Tough Talk This Week. The head of the operations department of Iran’s armed forces, Ali Shadmani, says Tehran has three contingency plans to confront “any possible aggression”, “undoubtedly” bringing an enemy to its knees: 1) closing the Strait of Hormuz and controlling it; 2) dealing with US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; 3) "Israel is the U.S.A.'s backyard. Therefore, we will destroy the peace at that backyard."

1205 GMT: Bank Squeeze? Rah-e-Sabz offers an overview of what it claims is a crisis in Iran's banking sector.

1155 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Rah-e-Sabz reports that the latest session in the trial of journalist Emad Baghi was held yesterday.

0920 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Press TV, from Iranian Students News Agency, reports on an address by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani to academics and students at Tehran University on Tuesday: “People, parties and statesmen should be prudent in maintaining unity against foreign meddling and mischief so as to disappoint enemies in fulfilling their vicious objectives....Unity and trust prevents the arrogant powers from taking advantage of their psychological warfare and safeguards the Islamic Republic ensuring the future of the country."

0830 GMT: Lawsuit. Radio Zamaneh has further information on the lawsuit filed in a US federal court by detained journalist Isa Saharkhiz and his son Mehdi against Nokia Siemens and its subsidiaries for the “sale and provision of surveillance technology and equipment for monitoring of wireless networks and the internet to Iran”.

0730 GMT: "Blogfather" on Trial. The sister of Hossein Derakhshan, journalist and one of the first prominent Iranian bloggers, writes that the third session of his trial was held in late July.

Derakhshan was arrested in November 2008 after he returned to Iran from Canada, where he had been living for eight years.

Some Iranian media have stoked up pressure for a heavy sentence on Derakhshan by claiming he is part of a UK intelligence network. An article in Mashreq, quoted by outlets such as the Revolutionary Guard-linked Javan, claims that the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London trains British diplomats and intelligence operatives, with funding from UK intelligence agencies. The report alleges 13 "escaped" Iranian journalists have applied for scholarships to take courses in the SOAS Centre for Media Studies --- Derakhshan is listed as one of the alumni of the programme.

0715 GMT: Iran MediaWatch. Asia newspaper has been banned and Sepidar and Parastou have lost their licences to publish.

0700 GMT: We begin this morning with two features. We have posted the "sixth and last" letter from Mohammad Nourizad, the journalist and filmmaker detained and now sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, to the Supreme Leader. And we have a story by Negar Esfandiary on Iranians, YouTube, and US sanctions.

Meanwhile....

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran

The statement of John Bolton, former Assistant Secretary of State and Ambassador to the UN, about the start-up of Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor (see yesterday's updates) may have been wildly inaccurate --- it has nothing to do with any pursuit of a military nuclear programme --- but his call for an Israeli airstrike on Iran by 21 August has had an effect.

This morning, the editors of The Washington Times pronounce, "Bombs Away in Three Days: It's Time to Strike Iran's Nuclear Program", concluding, "The time has come to demonstrate resolve in face of an imminent threat from Iran. The Free World depends on Israeli power."

Iran Document: Nourizad's Last Letter to Supreme Leader "The 10 Grievances"

Since the disputed 2009 election, journalist and filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad has written a series of letters to the Supreme Leader. One of those letters, asking Ayatollah Khamenei to apologise for the suppression of post-election protest, contributed to Nourizad's arrest in November 2009; however, he continued to write the Supreme Leader from prison. In April 2010, he was sentenced to 3 1/2 years for the open letters to Khamenei and to the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani.



This week the "sixth and last" letter from Nourizad, who is currently free on bail while his sentence is appealed, to Khamenei appeared. (Note that the filmmaker does not address the Supreme Leader as "Ayatollah" but as "Seyed", a lower religious title.) Translation by Persian2English:

Death shall inevitably arrive and swallow you and I. We, the lost and the unknown, will soon be obliterated from memory, but you have played a role in making part of the history of this land and it will be talked about for a long time. Despite all that we do not have and all that you have, a common destiny joins us, and that [destiny] is dying and rotting and will be held accountable on Judgment Day.

They will have us and you stand on Judgement Day so that those who were happy and those who were discontent may voice their grievances. Not many people will know us, but you will have many content friends and discontent complainants.

Your friends and followers will talk about your virtues: Oh God, we witnessed that Seyed Ali Khamenei was a courageous, brave, and influential orator. He would always call us to piety. He gathered no worldly possessions and single-handedly clashed with the U.S.A. and Israel. He led our country through labyrinths of sedition, and on every occasion, warned us against the enemies who are in ambush . During his long leadership, although our country was struggling in deep-rooted poverty and corruption, we accomplished stem-cell research, Shahab missiles, uranium enrichment, the launch of Omid Satellite, and even gained victory of Hezbollah over Israel in the 33-day war.

Dear leader,

….Aside from your friends and followers who are mostly those who are profiting from your leadership, there will be those who will voice their grievances. Out of friendship, and since I wish you a good future, I will repeat some of these grievances….Perhaps your friends who have closed their eyes and who serve in the judicial and security system will be enraged at the questions that I have posed here and will do to me what they have done to hundreds of innocent people.

On Judgment Day, your complainants will carry grievances from you to God and say:

1) Oh God, Seyed Ali Khamenei, aside from the virtues that he should have had and did have and the good deeds he had to perform and did perform, he beat on the drums of schism from the beginning of his leadership. He raised the flag of ”those who belong to the inner circle of the regime” and “those who do not belong to the inner circle”, and thus society was led down the path of division and fission…Oh God, why did those who selected and vetted on his behalf deny our civil and social dignity and respect?

2) Oh God…during the years of his leadership, some groups of people faced imprisonment and torture for the smallest protest and the slightest criticism of senior officials who imposed on them. These groups of people were subjected to great psychological and social harms.

3) During his rule, the law and observing the rule of law by officials was looked down upon and belittled….An unknown miserable person would be sent to prison for owing $1000, while the leader’s favourite President, the Vice President, some of the ministers, and his government officials were involved in multi-million dollar embezzlements and extortions. They would compete in a marathon of demagoguery and mock the people and the law. This very law has become the carpet on which the coward deputies of parliament walk. It is slaughtered by the scared and corrupt judges. It was skinned and devoured by a group of Ministry of Intelligence agents. And the the law was finally pillaged and looted out of its content by the Revolutionary Guards who pretended to be acting within its frame, but instead painted it and portrayed it as they wished.

4) ….During his reign, addiction, unemployment, and consumerism became the main parts of society. The country’s reputation on the world stage was damaged and deteriorated….

5) During the time of Seyed Ali Khamenei, hypocrisy, flattery, deception, and the lack of accountability on people and officials became the common trend and (anti) culture. The officials constantly lied and took the wrong path, and the people, by looking at them, learned and followed suit. In a place where an unbalanced person such as the president tells lies, takes away the people’s money, and burns opportunities, why would the people not do the same?

6) The experts and the elite had no choice but to take refuge in foreign lands because those who held no merit and did not deserve were at the helm. They took refuge because the rule of law was not observed…puerile management based on oil money indicated that shallow words were not the drive for the non-petroleum based economy…the country was run by those who had no expertise and knowledge. Consequently, the wealth and resources of the nation were wasted.

7) In the time of Seyed Ali Khamenei, especially in the last years of his life, people, who according to the law are entitled to criticize, protest, and launch strikes, were never given the chance to express their demands. The slightest attempt to dissent and protest was deemed as an act of hostility, espionage, and an attempt to overthrow the regime…all the protesters were subjected to torture, prison, and solitary confinement. And in ludicrous verdicts, they would receive predetermined sentences of imprisonment and execution.

8) Oh Lord, did you see how Khamenei, next to his virtues, introduced and institutionalized a concept called “seeking the approval and piety of candidates by the council of religious jurisprudence”…lest an independent and free thinker deputy be elected to the Parliament and protest against the leader’s mistakes?...This resulted in the leader to be wrapped in a halo of sanctity and made Seyyed Ali inaccessible to the people….The absolute power he built for himself does not allow anyone or any movement to engage in benevolent pathology of leadership, and as a result, corruption infiltrated the pillars of society….The country, year after year, descended into the trash of contemptible tribal ties….

9) ….State television and radio resorted to the most violent lies…and other media turned into a pump which would suck sewage instead of clean water from the well….

10) Oh God, Seyed Ali entered the arena in defense of a dim-wit like Ahmadinejad and damaged the image of an impartial leader….Khamenei shut down the roads to any change so that he could continue to control the power.

Our dear leader,

I wish you would leave a good name after your death and right the wrongs…so that tomorrow people could say: “Khamenei was a wise and enlightened leader…Although toward the end of his rule, he lost control and some harms were done…he, like Nelson Mandela, gave up key posts and paved the way for the rule of law."

If you ask where you can start, I shall answer: with one noble order from you, all the innocent prisoners can return to the arms of their loved ones….

The Latest from Iran (16 August): Complaints

2000 GMT: Supreme Leader's Film Corner (Hijab Special). So here was the question put to Ayatollah Khamenei and other senior clerics, "If a film which is to be shown on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting has been made outside Iran and features women without hijab, what is the ruling?"

The Supreme Leader's response? "One may look at the face, neck, head, and hands of non-Muslim women."

1730 GMT: International Affairs Expert Rahimi Update. The office of first Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who has provided some illumination with his recent entry into international affairs commentary (e.g., Australians are cattlemen and South Koreans should be slapped), has issued a clarification.

Rahimi, his staff explained was misquoted because of a "wrong translation" in his comments on "England": he meant to say that not all but only some British politicians are idiots.

1720 GMT: Surveillance and a Lawsuit. Detained journalist Isa Saharkhiz and his son Mehdi have filed a lawsuit in US Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia against Nokia Siemens Networks and its parent companies Siemens AG and Nokia Inc., alleging human rights violations committed by the Iranian government through the aid of spying centres provided by Nokia Siemens Networks.

NEW Iran Document: Mohammad Khatami on Religion, the Islamic Revolution, and the Republic (15 August)
NEW Iran’s Battle Within: Ahmadinejad Appeals to Supreme Leader (Rafiee)
Iran Feature: Two Faces of Modernity (Vahdat)
Iran Latest (15 August): Revolutionary Guards’ “Election Tape”

1715 GMT: Parliament v. President (cont.). MP Ali Motahari, who has been amongst the leader of the challenge to President Ahmadinejad and his inner circle, has welcomed Sunday's meeting between Ahmadinejad and the heads of Parliament and the judiciary (see 0520 GMT), but he has complained that the Government is blocking files against some high-ranking officials, which might provide information on claims of corruption.

Motahari also coyly noted that some MPs accused him of "insults" against Ahmadinejad, when he only said, "The fact that the President does not recognize the law on metro allocations [Parliament had authorised $2 million for the Tehran metro but Ahmadinejad has refused to accept] opens the way to dictatorship." Motahari added, "I don't know how those handful of MPs who regularly humiliate the Majlis will answer to the people whom they are meant to represent."

1705 GMT: Rahnavard "Some in Iran Government Worse than Saddam". Appearing with her husband Mir Hossein Mousavi in a meeting with veterans of the Iran-Iraq War, Zahra Rahnavard
commented, "Unfortunately I should ask that, while you were in Iraqi prisons, did you even think that when you were freed from Saddam's prison, you would face the imprisonment of hundreds and even thousands of freedom seekers in your own country?"

This university professor referred to the complaint filed by seven senior reformist figures, all detained after the 2009 election, against military officials over last year's alleged manipulation of the vote:

Would you ever imagine that these seven freedom seekers, who I call them the seven warriors, would be imprisoned because they filed a complaint against the actions of the coup agents, while they could have filed their complaint in a just court and received a response with convincing reasons? But the government throws them in jail and does not know that this is the voice of the people, seeking justice and asking [where their votes went], that is raised by these seven brave ones in a form of a complaint. In any case, a part of the ruling power curses at Saddam, while they have treated the people worse than him.

1650 GMT: Parliament v. Ahmadinejad. Looks like the President's letter to the Supreme Letter (see separate entry) might be needed to stave off an appearance before Parliament.

Reformist MP Mohammad Reza Khabaz claims that there are now three independent but simultaneous moves by conservative factions to question Ahmadinejad: “The first move by the principlist members, which succeeded, came from the faction’s clergymen in the form of a collective warning to the President signed by 16 clerical members of the Parliament."

Khabbaz said a pro-government MP was also preparing the draft of a “critical” letter to Ahmadinejad regarding the behaviour of his aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai. He claimed that the letter would ask Ahmadinejad about the reason behind his silence with respect to Mashai’s comments over Iran and Islam and his support for the controversial Chief of Staff. “I asked this MP who had been a staunch supporter of the government until two weeks ago, why was he in such a hurry to gather signatures for such a letter and he replied to me that ‘we want to do our duty and to prevent an even more radical by the parliament’. But this conservative MP only gave the letter to [his fellow] Principalist MPs to sign and did not allow the reformist MPs to join,” said Khabbaz.

Khabaz said that in a third move, the Majlis members were planning to sign a motion on calling for Ahmadinejad to be questioned over “the government’s recent acts against the law and its neglect of the parliament’s passed bills, as well as recent remarks made by Mashaei”. He described the three parallel moves against the coup government as “unprecedented” and said that conservative members in the Majlis were competing against one another in “warning and questioning” Ahmadinejad.

When asked about the number of signatories on the critical letter as well as the number of signatories to the motion to question Ahmadinejad, Khabaz said, “I am not aware of the number of signatures but there is great interest for this act and the MPs are still in the process of gathering signatures.”

A total of 74 MPs need to support the motion in order for the president to be questioned in parliament.

1640 GMT: Rumour of Day. Yet another video has been posted --- we have seen several in recent weeks --- of an alleged queue of Iranians for petrol/gasoline. This footage is supposedly from Karaj, Iran's fifth-largest city and just west of Tehran:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_C5kKBFykU[/youtube]

1635 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh reports that leading student activist Majid Tavakoli, one of the 17 detainees who recently went on hunger strike --- has been transferred from Evin Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison.

(English translation via Negar Irani)

1615 GMT: Nuclear Tough Talk. I return from vacation to find the non-Iranian media preoccupied with yet another round of sound and fury from Tehran. From Agence France Presse (quickly followed by Associated Press):

Iran is to start building its third uranium enrichment plant in early 2011, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a new law Monday binding Tehran to pursue the controversial work of refining uranium to 20 percent.

The law, Safeguarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's Peaceful Nuclear Achievements, had been passed by lawmakers last month and it also stipulates that Tehran limit its cooperation with the UN's nuclear watchdog, state news agency IRNA reported.

Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi told state television that the search for sites for 10 new uranium enrichment facilities "is in its final stages. The construction of one of these will begin by the end of the (current Iranian) year (to March 2011) or the start of next year, inshallah (God willing)."

Never mind that the Iranian Government has been chest-thumping about "10 new facilities" for almost a year. (Last September, the President was promising 20.) A simple re-statement is enough to start flutters in the "West".

AFP notes the response from the French Foreign Ministry: "We expect Iran to comply with its international obligations. This announcement only worsens the international community's serious concerns about Iran's nuclear programme."

1140 GMT: Nourizad’s "Last Letter" to the Supreme Leader. Mohammad Nourizad, the journalist and documentary maker, who was recently released on bail, has written his sixth and, he claims, last letter to Ayatollah Khamenei (see separate EA entries for earlier Nourizad letters).

The letter, posted on Nourizad's website, declares:

Oh Lord, in the time of Seyed Ali [Khamenei] as the Supreme Leader, the law and abiding the law by officials became insignificant and worthless. The favourite ones used the law as a ladder to climb up in power and gain opportunities. A miserable poor man is thrown into government’s prison over a million toman ($1000) unpaid debt, but the President, his Vice President, as well as some of their ministers and government managers who have taken billions in embezzlement and fraud, in a marathon of deceiving the people, brag about their shirt buttons close to their throats (a sign of being religious among the revolutionary officials) and laugh at the law and the people.

At the end of the letter, Nourizad urges the Supreme Leader, as he is getting to the end of the journey of life, to order the release of innocent political prisoners: this way he may make peace with the people and will not leave a bad name for himself in history.

1125 GMT: The Hunger Strike. Kalemeh reports that families of the 16 political prisoners who recently ended a hunger strike have again been denied visit permits, despite the reported promise of the Tehran Prosecutor General that contact would be restored. The website also claims the prisoners are being held incommunicado in solitary confinement in Ward 240.

0835 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Nima Bahador Behbahani has been released on bail. Aged 17 when he was arrested on Ashura (27 December), far from the protests, he was judged as an adult rather than a minor.

0820 GMT: Execution Watch (cont.). One hundred cities have now joined the campaign against stoning.

The interview by French philospher Bernard-Henri Levy of human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei (see earlier entry) has been posted in English on The Huffington Post.

Mostafaei says of his client Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death --- initially by stoning --- for adultery, "She is a symbol. She is the symbol of all Iranian women who are victims of the family, the society, of their discriminatory laws."

0810 GMT: Parliament v. President. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have written the Supreme Letter (see separate entry), but that has not settled matters. "Hardline" MP Assadollah Badamchian has daid the President has no authorisation to declare that a ratified law is not in force. Badamchian said Parliament must tell Ahmadinejad that laws endorsed by the Expediency Council, headed by Hashemi Rafsanjani, are legal.

0735 GMT: Execution (Sakineh) Watch. An international group of prominent writers, singers, actors, and activists have issued an appeal for the commutation of the death sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condemned for adultery.

French philosopher Bernard Henri Lévy has interviewed Ashtiani's lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, now in forced exile in Norway.

Feresteh Ghazi, interviewing an attorney involved in the cases, writes that four other women face stoning or other means of execution.

0645 GMT: The Music of Protest, the Protest of Music. Aria Fani writes about artists such as Shahin Najafi to note, "Honoring and emulating (the) tradition of protest verse, a new generation of Iranian singers and rap artists are confronting sociopolitical taboos head on and keeping lit the flame of resistance against a corrupt, totalitarian regime. Their music not only echoes their own defiance, it also voices their generation's demands."

0630 GMT: Shutting Down the Mayor? According to Kalemeh and several bloggers, Iranian authorities filtered “Khabargozarieh Shahr” (City News Agency), a website linked to Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.

0625 GMT: We have posted the English translation of former President Mohammad Khatami's remarks on Sunday about religion, the Islamic Revolution, and the Republic.

0535 GMT: Who is Mesbah's Target? Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has proclaimed that "not every unity is good and not every difference is bad". He said that "some who insist on wrong interpretations of Shia don't want to discuss differences, but are devils causing division".

Once upon a time, Mesbah Yazdi, seen by many as the spiritual mentor of the President, would have directed his criticisms at the opposition. Now, given his recent comments on Ahmadinejad's advisors and even the President, the target is not so clear.

0520 GMT: Reconcilation? No. The leaders of the Iran Government's three branches --- President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani --- met Sunday.

There is little in the account of Mehr News beyond the cryptic but telling comment of Ali Larijani that there is no room for “odd interpretation” of law.

Khabar Online says the meeting lasted 2 1/2 hours. but there was "absolute silence" on the outcome.

0500 GMT: We open today with tales of two very different complaints. In a separate entry, we post Bahram Rafiee's report that President Ahmadinejad has written to the Supreme Leader about his escalating dispute with the Parliament.

Rafiee also writes for Rooz Online about a serious complaint against the Government and Ahmadinejad in Friday's open letter by the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front to the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani.

The letter builds on the news that seven political prisoners, all senior memers of the IIPF and the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution party, had filed complaints against “lawbreaking military officers during the tenth presidential election”, citing a leaked audio of a senior Revolutionary Guard commander setting out steps against the opposition before and after the election.

The IIPF wrote Larijani:

The widespread distribution of taped statements from Commander Moshfegh, a senior figure at the Sarallah base, removed the curtain from the electoral coup in the tenth presidential election and proved the truth of the green movement leaders’ claim that the election was engineered. This individual, who speaks frankly, ignorantly and with a drunkenness from power, about organizing the coup, clearly admits to actions that cannot be referred to as anything other than a coup in any school of political thought....

Now that it has been uncovered that the person who was introduced as the President reached that post through a coup (and not just fraud), lacking any kind of legal or Islamic legitimacy, it is your duty to forward the matter to the supreme court for investigation.