Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society, from the Elections to Abuses to a "Documentary" (Arseh Sevom)

Press TV's "documentary" on the Revolutionary Guards' Eye of the Fox operation arresting "agents" of BBC Persian

See also Iran Opinion: The Hunger Strike of Mehdi Khazali

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Last week's review spoke of hints by the Revolutionary Guards, via their site Gerdab, of revelations concerning BBC Persian.

With the release of the transparent propaganda film by the Islamic Republic's Press TV, “The Eye of the Fox" (see top of entry), the promise of new allegations is fulfilled. Press TV shows “shocking” photos of Iranian journalists receiving training from the BBC in Turkey. They blame the BBC Persian for the unrest following the 2009 elections, accusing the organization of espionage. The "documentary" broadcasts confessions, and shows the arrest of an Iranian female journalist in what appeared to be her home.

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The Latest from Iran (25 February): A Far-from-Simple Election

A man sweeps up discarded flyers for the Parliamentary campaign

See also Iran Snapshot: Expecting an Unhappy New Year in Tehran
Iran Analysis: Elections and Power --- This is More Than The Supreme Leader's Show
Iran Document & Snap Analysis: The IAEA Report on Tehran's Nuclear Programme
The Latest from Iran (24 February): Here a Deviant Current, There a Deviant Current

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1735 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Voice of America has posted video of Amir Mansour Khosravi, the man at the centre of the $2.6 billion bank fraud, detailing bribes of 600 billion Toman (then about $500 million) to officials from Transport, Industry, & other Ministries, as well as banks.

1725 GMT: Elections Watch. Digarban notes conservative and principlist bloggers who are calling for an election boycott next Friday, including Ahmad Najmi from Qom, Mohammad Saleh Meftah of "Tribune of the Disenfranchised", and Hesameddin Motahari of "Ketab-e Esha".

The pro- Ahmadinejad "Armanshahr" (Utopia) and "Khat-khati" (Criss-cross Lines) blogs also doubt that the Parliamentary vote will have any value for people.

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The Latest from Iran (20 January): Grim Times in Shiraz

1935 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. Deputy Minister of Industry Mohammad Ali Zeyghami has assured that Iran's warehouses are full of goods, people should not worry, and imports are backed by Central Bank currency.

1925 GMT: Friday Prayer with a Twist. Lots of Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari's Friday Prayer in Tabriz was the standard rhetoric, for example, the President's South American tour and Occupy Wall Street weakening the US, but he had a twist for the crowd: he harshly attacked the Central Bank for the currency turmoil.

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The Latest from Iran (3 December): A Regime Feeling Remorse?

Men and women wait at a Tehran airport for the Iranian diplomats expelled from Britain --- the personnel were taken away before the crowd could welcome them

See also Iran Music Special: The Basij Militia Rap for Occupy Wall Street
Iran 1st-Hand Special: Basij Student's Account of the Attack on the British Embassy
The Latest from Iran (2 December): After the Embassy, It's Back to the Economy

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2025 GMT: Economy Watch. The Tehran Stock Exchange has been removed from the World Federation of Exchanges.

1935 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Gholamreza Asadollahi, the head of Parliament's Article 90 Commission has repeated his claim that the Ministries of Trade, Transport, and Economy, as well as the Privatisation Organisation and Customs are involved in the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

Asadollahi said the Aria Group, at the centre of the fraud, was the import agent for subsidised goods 4 the Ministry of Trade ministry and was involved in an illegal permit for the Shiraz-Bandar Abbas railway with the Ministry of Transport.

Asadollahi also said Aria received illegal permits for privatisation of the National Steel Company, Luristan Automotive, and Railway Services.

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The Latest from Iran (6 October): Go On, Fear Our Navy....

2000 GMT: The Green Voice of Freedom website reports that it has been under sustained attack for two days and has been blocked in Iran.

1950 GMT: Deviant Current Watch. Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, has told a seminary in Qom that clerics must oppose the "current" that wants to deviate elections from the concept set by the Supreme Leader.

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Iran Snapshot: Revolutionary Guards v. Press TV (Azarmehr)

"Press TV...has a well equipped office in London, with several English reporters and analysts in its employment, including the former UK MP, George Galloway, who is receiving a huge salary, should have counter acted similarly and covered the UK protests more extensively as well as provided ideological leadership to the protesters.  Had Press TV done this,  not only it would have avenged the British government's role during the 2009 seditions but it would have also provided a pro-active offensive attack in the Soft War against Britain."

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The Latest from Iran (10 August): Lawyers in Prison, Lawyers in Exile

Abdolfattah Soltani (see 0545 GMT)1930 GMT: Currency Watch. Aftab reports that the price of gold coins continues to rise --- now from 474,000 to 482,000 tomans (about $450 to $460) as Iranians put their faith in them amidst economic tensions. Meanwhile, the differential between the "free" and official rates for the US dollar continues to widen --- the Central Bank has set the rate at 1055 tomans to the dollar but the exchange rate on the street is 1200:1.

1735 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. More on the arrest of Parvin Mokhtare, the mother of journalist Kouhyar Goudarzi, as her son was being put in prison again --- while she was having a bath, the house was raided by security agents who climbed over walls to get into the property.

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Iran Video: Taking Apart The Regime's Documentary on the "US Spy Network"

The significance of the programme's immediate claims --- amidst interviews with someone detained long before the spring but also those claiming to have been innocent dupes of recruiters, amidst disappearing websites but also established companies and trade associations --- is not clear.

What is clear, however, is the intent. A couple of individual cases of Iranians pursuing job opportunities is used to explain the arrests in May, even though the mystery remains --- note that none of the 30 suspects is actually named in the documentary. And, perhaps more importantly, it is magnified into a massive, omni-present US operation, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars.

As the programme moves into reconstruction of what could happen to an Iranian if he/she falls for the CIA's ruse and then puts a specific (unfounded) warning to students: "$3 million" has been devoted by the Americans to recruit them, the message takes shape: whatever the internal issues in Iran, it is the Americans who are always the primary threat.

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Iran Media Shocker: "US Military Helped Killed Princess Diana"

Never let it be said that the investigative reporters of Press TV, the Iranian regime's English-language outlet, are failing to do their job:

The US military may have played a role in the 1997 death of Princess Diana as she was campaigning for a worldwide ban on landmines.

Press TV broke this story --- presumably after months of dedicated research --- by discovering that a man named Noel Botham, has written a book, The Murder of Princess Diana. Botham has also penned "[Princess] Margaret, the Untold Story" --- presumably she was murdered --- and The Bumper Book of Useless Information. And he was the long-time European Editor of the National Enquirer, the US tabloid famous for stories like "Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot".

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Iran Video Special: What Happens When Press TV Works With Far-Right Englishmen? ("Muslamic Ray Guns")

For months, the Iranian state media has been pushing the theme of turmoil in Britain, with a "people's revolution" challenging the Government.

Last month, Press TV tried to highlight this with a documentary explaining, "There is a sense of incoherent anger. People are angry, but they can't explain why," and featuring an interview with a member of the English efense League. What follows is 98 seconds of unintentional comedy, with the theme of British break-down giving way to a ramble --- see if you can follow it --- about "Iraqi law" and "Muslamic ray guns".