Iran: The "Die Zeit" Article on Opposition and Change

The Latest from Iran (27 September): Is There a Compromise Brewing?
The Latest from Iran (26 September): The False Flag of the Nuke Issue

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For days, there has been a buzz about an article in the German newspaper Die Zeit. Most of it is a summary profile of the opposition in Iran, but deep in the article, there is the claim of "preparations for a new government", including "a group of five to eight clerics" on fixed terms to replace the Supreme Leader and President Ahmadinejad's resignation in favour of Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf. The translation is by Paleene on the Anonymous Iran site:


The Green is not fading out

Protest of the mothers and planning for the Day X: How the Iranian opposition organizes and continues to fight.

BY CHARLOTTE WIEDEMANN

In a live broadcast on Iranian state television a mullah gives spiritual advice. An in-caller is talking about her marital problems, then she suddenly says: "Coincidentally, my husband has the same name as our newly elected president, Mir Hussein Mousavi," The moderator silences, the program is interrupted.

On money you will nowadays often find a green victory sign or the words "Down with the dictatorship”. Or a thumbnail portrait of Neda, the best known dead from the unrest in the days after the election in June. The print works give a professional impression, instructions circulate on the internet.

A football match in Isfahan, many spectators wearing green. The television cameras are trying to avoid these images. However, Green is the colour of the football club in Isfahan; now the club is requested to find a different colour.

The movement for democracy is visible in Iran, despite of all repression, torture and show trials. It is not strong enough to stop the Ahmadinejad government. But it is strong enough to keep the country in tension. Because meetings are banned, official occasions are subverted, eg. last Friday: During the anti‐Israel Quds rallies tens of thousands held their fingers up forming the V‐sign, demanded the release of imprisoned reformers. On this day, an experience from June repeated and changed the psychology of society: It is possible to take to the streets and defy prohibitions. It is dangerous but possible.
Another hidden source of energy is feeding the green movement; it has conciliated generations in families, bridging the gap between the old, who revolted 30 years ago, and the young, suffering from the outcomes today. Thus, sons started talking with their fathers again.

Every Saturday afternoon, the mothers of the killed protestors gather silently in Tehran's Laleh Park, all dressed in black . Other women surround them in silent solidarity. On a list of 72 dead, who are known by name, there are also workers, shoe salesmen, small employees. How the battle lines harden can be observed by the violation of previously existing taboos. Mohammad Khatami, the ex‐president, was pushed to the ground last Friday, his black turban torn down. In the first place, the usually moderate Khatami had accused the regime of "fascist" methods.

There is almost no way back after such actions and words. The events in Iran roll forward with a tenacious implacability. But where to? And can anyone control this process?

The young look forward to the great turning point, the elders are afraid of the chaos

The young, the students whose creativity influenced the aesthetics of the movement, still burn for the hope of something great to happen, a radical change ‐ in the system as in their lives. More prudent Iranians fear the power vacuum of a regime falling apart rapidly.

The 68‐year‐old Mir Hussein Mousavi, a candidate in June, remains the figurehead for all sides; but it is the width of the movement which makes him virtually incapable of acting. Coming from the system himself, the former prime minister wants to win as many of Ahmadinejad's conservative opponents as possible. For the moderates within the nomenklatura, Mousavi offers a great advantage, an insider explaine: "You know, he might take away their power, but not their lives.” But at the same time Mousavi has to appear unyielding, if he doesn’t want to lose the support of the young, and of the modern middle classes.

On the street outside his home, the regime has installed surveillance cameras. When Mousavi leaves home, a double cordon accompanies him: his own people and a troop of the Revolutionary Guard. The danger of being arrested is become greater for the leading group, so earlier plans for founding a party or a mass organization were discarded. The movement for democracy is to expand as a "network" which can’t be banned.

“Everyone appreciating the Iranian and Islamic identity of the country as a value and the constitution as the fundament for action is welcome "said Alireza Beheshti, a close adviser Mousavi. “The framework of the Islamic Republic should remain, but with corrections”, can be heard in Mousavi’s vicinity. Especially the civil rights under the constitution should show to advantage, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

In his statements "to the people of Iran”, which Mousavi only can send out on the internet, he calls for: a reform of the electoral law, press freedom, the licensing of private radio and television stations, a law prohibiting the military to intervene in economics and politics, the release of political prisoners and the penalisation of atrocities in the prisons. In Tehran, it is said that along with this minimum catalogue subject-specific sections have begun "with the preparations for a new government". Members of the current administration as well as Iranians living abroad are said to be involved in these groups.

Replacing the powerful revolutionary leader, a group of five to eight clerics should directly be elected by the people for a limited period of time. They should represent a religious pluralism equivalent to the freedom of choice in Shiite everyday life, where believers are free to choose the teachings of a scholar they want to follow. In future, nobody should be allowed to rely on divine authority. Mousavi: "Nobody has the right to say: How I look at the Islam is the one and only valid way."

This will be no quick go. Sustained pressure and a progressive wearing down of Ahmadinejad’s regime could force him to resign over the medium term, that is the hope. Mousavi does not insist in replacing him. To gain time for the elucidation of the population, an intermediate solution might be necessary. This could look like this: Ahmadinejad resigns in favour of the Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. The moderate, popular conservative had recognized the width of the People's Movement in June, when he estimated the demonstrators to be in the three millions.

Mousavi seems to be aware of being severly influenced by three decades of Islamic Republic, so not to be able to represent Iran's future. As a strict Muslim, he constantly would struggle inwardly to meet the youth’s demand of a liberalized lifestyle. Iranians drinking alcohol should have a place in the movement ‐ but Mousavi does not want to sit down at a table where the wine is drunk.

Mehdi Karroubi, the second reform candidate, is acting much more aggressive. In recent weeks, the fine-boned clergyman was the real challenger of the regime. He published that men and women were raped in detention ‐ which has deeply shaken many Iranians, even the more simple, religious people in Ahmadinejad's clientele. Karroubi wouldn’t make a leader who is appealing the masses, but he has made the cracks in the system visible.

Mousavi is resembling the figure of the king in chess: small moves, in case of danger retreat, always covered by his men. It is not cowardice. His fellow campaigners assume the movement to slide into the underground, to radicalize and to narrow dangerously, if Mussawi is detained. He sees himself as someone who can open an unbloody way to change. But then the people have to decide which system they want to live in.

For the first time since the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Iranian opposition abroad has found a common language with the forces of change within the country. This opens up options that were unthinkable only recently. In the case Mousavi and Karroubi are arrested, the leadership of the Green movement would automatically be taken over abroad. Soon a statement will be released in Tehran, saying a five‐member committee in the diaspora ‐ the names are not disclosed ‐ is authorized to replace the leadership in case needed. The symbolic gesture says a lot in a country where the fear of foreign agents is almost obsessive. And Mousavi signals the regime: Look out! If you arrested me, you obstruct the peaceful path to change.

In the diaspora, former bitter enemies have reconciled. The monarchists are relegated to irrelevance, while the advocates of a secular republic criticize Mousavi only mutedly as for the time being. Several prominent heads of the reformers are currently in the West, among them the former Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani in London, the film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf in Paris, and reform theologian Mohsen Kadivar in the US.

Kadivar, currently teaching at Duke University, appealed to "the Iranian bourgeoisie" to provide funds for a new, independent national television. "The cost of a green medium have to be borne by Iranian investors." The Iranian women are requested to donate their jewels as a patriotic gesture. Free, uncensored and genuine Iranian Radio and satellite television: That's what currently is worked for in four countries. In Amsterdam, Mehdi Jami as a former head of the Farsi-speaking Radio Zamaneh has a lot of experience with bloggers in Iran. Now he wants to establish citizen journalism as a new generation of broadcasting, giving the young Iranians, who constantly provide their clandestine videos on YouTube, a national platform.

Thus, networking, making various voices audible and being virtual, is the strength of the green movement ‐ and its weakness. It lacks a clearly audible voice, which eg comments on the resuming nuclear negotiations between Iran and the international community, beginning 1 Oct. Suspicion about Ahmadinejad buying legitimacy abroad which he is denied at home is rampant even among those who want the dialogue, basically. In Mousavi’s vicinity they say that "what ever is agreed now has no validity until it has been reviewed by a legitimate, new government of Iran." Mousavi does not want to seek confrontation in this highly sensitive issue.

Iran: Montazeri Letter to Islamic Clerics (14 September)

The Latest from Iran (15 September): Momentum Builds
Iran Analysis: Checking the Scorecard of Opposition

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Yesterday Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the one-time successor to Ayatollah Khomeini, wrote marjas (senior Shia clerics), Islamic scholars, and seminaries about the deviation from Islam of the recent behavior of the Iranian authorities. Hours later the regime arrested his three grandsons.

Translation and notes by Khordaad 88:

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, and the Merciful,
‏
According to the Prophet of God: “When a Bid’ah [1]occurs in my Ummah, the scholars’ knowledge will be known” (Al-Kaffi, Volume 1, Page 54).

Honorable Marjas and scholars of Qom, Najaf, Holy Mashad, Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz and all other corners of the Islamic world:
‏
With regards,

Concerning the abuses that we are witnessing every day and the illicit behavior that has been justified in the name of religion and Islamic jurisprudence: I herby find myself religiously responsible to solemnly remind you of the following, based on the danger that I feel and the gravity of [the verse] “remind them, [because] reminders will benefit the Faithful”.

1- We all know that our Revolution was one based on religious and moral values. Our goal in bearing the hardship of all those tragedies, struggles, exiles, imprisonments and tortures, was not to change the people in power and the formalities in some specific areas. Rather, the goal was to [establish] a government that was faithful to ethical beliefs and to clear, religious edicts on all levels.

On the basis of that authority, faith, noble acts, justice and freedom from dictatorship and oppression were to turn into realities. In addition, the rights of different groups of people were supposed to be protected and abuse and oppression likewise eradicated. Consequently, our people were to feel comfortable, safe and proud in the eyes of other nations, like a true model of justice, dignity, decency and human values. The goal was not to simply change names and slogans while the same oppressions, deviations and abuses practiced by the previous regime continued in another form, under the labels of theocratic government and the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists [2].

Everyone knows that I am a defender of theocratic government and one of the founding fathers of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, although not in its current form. Rather, the difference lies in the fact that people choose the jurist and supervise his work. I have made a great deal of effort to ensure the realization of this facet both scholarly and in practice. However, I now feel ashamed before the attentive people of Iran because of the tyranny conducted under this very same banner. I find myself responsible before God and subject to His reproach for the spilled blood of our dear martyrs, for the abuses carried out on innocent people. Many individuals with prominent roles in the revolution have asked me via letter, e-mail, or in person: Is this the theocratic government that you were promising the people and, as its executive, is this the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists? The same one that we observe today? Because what we see now is the government of a military guardianship, not the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists.

2- The honorable Marjas and learned scholars know well that in the course of history, they themselves sheltered and protected people from abusive and oppressive governments. They were honored to stand against oppression and to defend the religious and civil rights of their people. On this path they tolerated great injury and deprivation. May God grant them the best of Islam.

Regretfully, after the victory of the Revolution, this bright past came under serious scrutiny because of the government’s deceitfulness. Although the clergy may not have had a role in this, their negligence in “Forbidding Evil”[3] aligned them with that dangerous shift as well. The threat became more serious as the concept of morality changed and the theory that the “end justifies the means”became fortified. Ultimately, the Revolution deviated from its path and its initial goals. I must regretfully assert that the spiritual and popular base of the clergy, the Marjas and, consequently, Islam and Sharia (traditionally promoted by and associated with the clergy), has been so severely damaged that it is unclear when and how it can be repaired.

The association of religion with scholars and religious experts – which is logical and accepted by Muslims – signifies that any damage to the clergy will inevitably impact Islam as a whole.

Under these circumstances, the honorable Marjas and the Shi’ite clerics will have greater responsibilities. Besides partaking in their usual duties, which include availability and expertise, they must see to the added task of defending the dignity of the religion and cleansing from it the illicit acts performed by the government in its name. Because these religiously illegitimate acts that have been done under the banner of religion and Sharia’ and are also against the ideals of the Revolution, are a clear example of “Bid’ah”. Bid’ah does not strictly refer to the legitimization and introduction of irreligious laws. It may also point to any illegitimate act executed in the name of religion and Sharia.

In verses 9 -71 of the Quran, we read the following: “Believers, whether men or women, must [act as] friends to one another; they should command decency and forbid wickedness.”[4]
Based on the local plural of the mired “alef and lam” in the “Al-Mo’menoon and Al-Mo’menat” [5], all male and female believers have a responsibility [6] toward each other in the scope of “commanding decency and forbidding wickedness.” Thus, religious scholars have even greater responsibility and should not be silent. We see in the will of our master, the Commander of the Faithful [7]: “Abandoning the command to decency and allowing wickedness will definitely result in the rule of evil men; then you will pray but your prayers will not be answered”[8] (Nahj-Al-Balaghah, letter number 47).

3- Considering what I have said so far, let me remind you [of the following]:
Those incidents and atrocities that occurred after the presidential election, seen and heeded by the honourable Marjas and respectable scholars, should sound the alarm for them and for the clergy. Here, actions such as the violation of human rights, oppression, and so on – all illegalities in the name of religion were committed with the confirmation of a small group of subservient clerics in favour of the government. What followed was a peaceful objection to the government involving numerous classes of people who were critical of recent events. They acted within their legal and religious rights, based on the 27th article of the constitution. Instead of wisely and positively acknowledging the voice of a people seeking justice and the restoration of their violated rights, the authorities labeled the multi-million strong masses as insurgents, anarchists, and foreign agents. They then proceeded with a clampdown of the utmost violence, beating defenseless men and women, detaining many, and creating some martyrs on the streets and others in their horrifying prisons.

Relying on their military and security forces, and by drawing firearms on defenseless people the government have martyred and imprisoned them. It is very ironic that at the end of the day, the government labeled the people as [armed] combatants. It is the government that created this crisis in the first place and put the establishment in danger but then it labels people as insurgents and those who established the system as anti-establishment.

While proceeding with the clampdown on people, the government detained some of the politicians, political activists and gifted individuals of the country each of whom had years of invaluable service in the Islamic Republic. Based on pre-determined plans, and against rule of religion and law, [the ruling authorities in the government] started plotting against these individuals by forcing false confessions and displaying them on theatrical, unlawful, and religiously illegitimate trials. As a result, the entire world ridiculed the legal system of Islam. Instead of severely punishing those who caused all those atrocities, they [the authorities] only talk about their punishments; just like they did with those in charge of serial murders [of elites and politicians outside the country] They detain other ex-public servants and pressure the two respectable presidential candidates, Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Hojatoleslam Karoubi. They close down their headquarters and newspapers, and detained their colleagues and respectable coworkers[9]. They make false accusations to some of the honest and hardworking people in government dependent media. They even use the holy medium of Friday Prayers to spread lies. The ultimate consequence of such trends is an even greater destruction of the nation’s belief in its clerics, in the Shi’ite faith and in our dear Islam.

it is in this situation that our Muslims nation has certain expectations from the honorable Marjas and respectable scholars and this humble person. With the duty that holy guidelines of Islam put on the shoulders of religious scholars, and in light of historical and traditional responsibilities of clergies and Marjas, people are justified in their expectations. People are asking: if these oppressions, violations of rights and Bid’ah is against Islam, why aren’t the respectable Marjas and Scholars of religion who are guardians of religion and Islam and its guidelines voice their concerns against all the alternations[3] in Islam? Why don’t they who are protectors of people’s rights, and rules of Islam including the rule “command decency and forbid wickedness”, declare their abrupt disapproval against all the Bid’ah to religion? Are all of these oppressions, violations to rights, and atrocities less than ‘Moavie’s soldiers’ taking anklets from the feet of the Jewish woman? A move about which Imam Ali (may peace be upon him) announced: “if a Muslim male dies from the pain, he’s died a justified death”. Certainly, the honorable Marjas and respectable scholars are sad and worried in their hearts in regards to all the sins committed in the name of religion, and some of them have acted upon it too, but Is that enough considering the articles in the respectful hadith[10] necessitating declaration of disapproval?

4- The honorable and respected Marjas understand the power and influence of their words; they are well aware that the government needs their approval. This is why the authorities – at least for now – recognize and promote them, though very ostensibly so. The Marjas are also aware that the government takes advantage of their silence to its own benefit. So, is it advantageous to preserve silence on all the important issues such as dignity and respect for religion, concern for the rights of enormous classes of people, and the survival of religious beliefs among our youth? Is it worth upholding the silence when people could interpret, God forbid, the fact that the Marjas approve of and encourage all the aforementioned foulness?

To conclude, let me remind you that I have not yet lost the hope of reform. It seems to me that the great Marjas can implement a solution. A solution to help the Islamic Republic escape this crisis of legitimacy can be devised with their help and guidance, with the consultation of two respected presidential candidates as well as thoughtful, centrist, expert, candid and religious representatives from the establishment. Finally, let me also remind those in power to permanently – not temporarily – put aside their policies of exaggeration and false promise; to stop calling some friends and others enemies. They must not merely value people with hollow words; they must recognize them as the main owners of government.They must respect people’s votes and have their policies espouse this opinion. They must put Islam and the republic alongside true justice. It is not a disgrace to admit one’s mistakes; but to defy justice certainly is.

23 of Ramadhan-Al-Mobarak of 1430
1388/6/22
September/13/2009

Hossein Ali Montazeri-Holy Qom

[1] Deviation of the Islamic laws, or Bid’ah (بدعت): “An innovation in the religion, in imitation of the Sharia (prescribed Law), by which nearness to God is sought, [but] not […] supported by any authentic proof – neither in its foundations, nor in the manner in which it is performed.” [see (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bid‘ah#cite_note-3)

[2] ولايت فقي

[3] نهی عن المنکر : “Forbidding Evil” is an Islamic principle that orders followers to prohibit evil, usually by reminding others of what is reprehensible.

[4] والمومنون والمومنات بعضهم‏ ‏اولياء بعض ، يأمرون بالمعروف و ينهون عن المنكر : Translation of the Holy Quran, Surah 9- verse 71, by T.B.Irving

[5] alef and lam are the first two letters in the Arabic words المومنونand المومنات. They function as “the” in English.

[6] ولايت

[7] Ali ibn Abi-Talib, the first Imam of the Shi’ites and fourth Caliph

[8] “لا تتركوا الامر بالمعروف‏ ‏والنهى عن المنكر فيولى عليكم شراركم ثم تدعون فلا‏ ‏يستجاب لكم ” Nahj-Al-Balaghah, letter number 47

[9] Reference to the recent detainment of Morteza Alviri, Alireza Beheshti and others.

[10] Hadith (الحديث al-ḥadīth, pl. aḥadīth; lit. “Narrative”) are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

UPDATED Iran: Complete Text of Karroubi Letter to The Iranian People (14 September)

Iran: English Translation of Judiciary Report on Karroubi Allegations
The Latest from Iran (14 September): Countdown to Friday

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UPDATE 15 September: We're now posting the translation provided by Evan Siegel on his site "Iran Rises". The original summary translation by an Iranian activist via Twitter follows below that:

23 Shahrivar 1388/September 14, 2009

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

To the Noble and History-Making Nation of Iran.

As you know, Your Servant during the days following the elections stormy events have passed these last three months for this country and this system. Letters of admonition and information were written one after the other to the officials in the hope that there would be an opening and lest rights be trampled and there be oppression and the suffering and sighs of the oppressed would seize our skirts and not release them. For as we know from religion’s counsel and history’s experience, “The realm survives in unbelief but does not survive in oppression.” [In Arabic.]

Three months have passed for our country, but what three months! In our ninth presidential elections we slept for an hour and woke up, it was as if we had fallen into the sleep of those of the Seven Sleepers2 everything was changed. But in the recent presidential elections, as I have said before, staying awake until dawn would not have done any good, since the ugliness had passe from stealing by night to the point of highway robbery. But this was not the beginning of the matter. I could never have foreseen the day that in the Islamic Republic the people’s calm and peaceful demonstrations would be answered as they were. The people’s questions and confusion about the fate of the votes they had cast were answered, but not with proof and logic, but with bullets and batons and clubs and beating. I saw everything which was far from the expected, scenes which re-awoke memories of my youth. As time passed and events unfolded, though, other news came, of torture and astonishing deeds from within nameless detention centers, news which increased the astonishment of myself and every other observer. People came and reported or presented documents and offered witness about what they had undergone during their days in prison.

My God, what did Mehdi Karoubi see and hear? Amazing! If only I was not alive and had not seen the day that in the Islamic Republic, a citizen would come to me and complain that every variety of appalling and unnatural act would be done in unknown buildings and by less known people: Stripping people and making them face each other and subjecting them to vile insults and urinating in their faces and releasing boys and girls with their hands and eyes bound into the wilderness. It was not long after that reports also arrived of the rape of girls and boys in the detention sites. I said to myself, “Where indeed have we arrived three years after the revolution and two months after the Imam’s death?”

It was natural that our zeal would be aroused. I wrote that reports of rape and torture and the practice of unnatural acts were arriving and I ask you, without my prejudging the matter, to investigate and learn if these disasters have occurred or not. This letter was published. But the reply was a hue and cry and insults and threats rained down on me. Friday preachers used their Friday prayer tribunes to say whatever they could against me and attribute things to me in a coordinated effort originating from the administration’s orders. As this happened, my doubts became more grave. I said to myself, “If such disasters had not occurred, they would have said so. But such unnatural attacks from the tribunes, large and small, of Friday prayers and such unnatural insults from some of the press show that some fire had landed on a number of people’s crops. I saw myself as duty-bound to stand up and not abandon the field.

Read rest of translation....

The summary translation of "PersianBanoo" (14 September)

As you know, I as your servant have written several letters to the authorities about the post-election events. I could have never predicted that in the Islamic Republic, they would answer people's peaceful demonstrations with batons and bullets. I witnessed the unthinkable on the streets and alleyways. I saw scenes that reminded me of my younger years.

As time passed, I heard the news of torture in the prisons and unthinkable acts in unnamed and unknown detention centres and unknown buildings and by unknown people. Detainees were treated with shameful and indecent acts, from making prisoners sit naked across each other, urinating on their faces, to releasing young girls and boys handcufffed in outskirts of the city. As though these were not enough, I started hearing reports of rapes. Three decades after the Revolution and two decades after Imam [Khomeini]'s passing, what have we become?

So I wrote a letter to the authorities asking for an investigation into these matters. Their answer was bombarding me with slanders and threats. The Friday Prayer Imams, by order, across the country slandered me. I told myself, if such atrocities had not happened they should just deny them, but instead from Friday Prayer tribunes and their media they attacked me, so I decided to stand firm.

For example I told them about a person who had been raped. Judicial authorities arranged a meeting. They interrogated this person in two sessions. After the second session, this person told me, "These people are after something else."

The prosecutor had asked this person to go to the medical examiner's office. I told him to do it. They continued interrogating this person and told him he should have remained silent for his own and his family's sake and he should have not allowed some politician to use him. A few days later this young man came to me and said they have gone to his parents and neighbours questioning them. He said his parents didn't know about the rape and his father has been crying since. The boy left and I didn't hear from him anymore.

Last Tuesday his father came to visit me saying he is worried for his son. He said, "We are good Muslims, why are they doing this to us?" He said, "They have talked to all our neighbors and shopkeepers around us." He said that they ring his doorbell constantly and then disappear. He said he has seen a big guy on a motorcycle filming his house.

What they did to this witness became a lesson for me not to introduce any more witnesses to the prosecution.

The second case I brought to their attention with documents was a young girl who had been arrested during a demonstration. She says they played with and touched her breasts in the car on the way to the detention centre. At the centre the interrogators had asked her to remove her pants. She refused. While she was on the floor, the pants were removed. As she was screaming for help, the higher-rank officer came in to enquire. The agents said to him, "This girl has taken her own pants off and is trying to dishonor us."

The third case was a young person who was a member of a legal political party The parents contacted me. They already had a CD made & had the medical examiner's report. This person did not claim he was raped. He said he had passed out during the hard beating he received and does not know what they did to him. He had swelling and redness of the rectum area. The medical examiner confirmed the redness and swelling of the rectum area and suggested the Justice Department should do further investigation on this matter. This person spent five days in detention and was beaten badly. This person was told they were moving him to Evin [Prison], but released him handcuffed and blindfolded outside the city limits.

I had documents for these three cases that I presented to the judicial panel. I verbally informed them of two others. The first was Taraneh Mousavi. I told them her family would not talk to me and asked them to do further investigation to find the truth. The witness to Taraneh's case has also said her family would not talk to him/her. We witnessed the interview of the fake parents of the fake Taraneh on TV. They had told the fake family not to be concerned with anything and they will take care of everything

Apparently Mehdi Karroubi's crime was that he had revealed Taraneh's case, which is similar to the chain murders case. This caused the closing of my newspaper Etemade Melli.

I told them Taraneh's case as I had heard it. Taraneh and friends were arrested in front of Qoba mosque [probably on 28 June]. The girls decided to pass phone numbers to each other so whoever was released earlier could inform families. During the transfers between places, one girl realized Taraneh was not among them. This girl, after her release, contacted Taraneh's family and the authorities to inform them that Taraneh was missing. Apparently Taraneh's mother was quite scared and told this girl not to contact her anymore. I asked the three-member panel to investigate this case and find the truth behind all of this.

[Then Karroubi goes thru a lot of discussion of Saeedeh Pouraghai, saying he realized she was not the daughter of a martyr and explains his conversations with Saeedeh's stepsister. He also talks about finding out that this girl has been a runaway. He than talked about giving all information on Saeedeh and asks the panel to investigate further.

He then talks of an incident about a girl that had been arrested during a demonstration. The girl told him she and another girl had been raped in a van on the way to the detention centre. The girl asked Karoubi not to reveal her identity for if her parents find out she will commit suicide.

Karroubi also talks about the case of a nurse with similar stories whose information and picture he did not release. He says the nurse had been raped and she still had bruises on her body.

Karroubi than talks about how well the meeting went with the three-member panel and how they parted happily....]

The very next day, instead of investigating all of these matters I brought to their attention, they arrested [Alireza] Beheshti and [Morteza] Alviri, seized documents from my office and the Etemade Melli party office.

Now that I am quickly preparing this report, I know they just tried to close the mater somehow and fast. They claim I had no evidence and my charges were baseless. The three-member panel has asked the Justice Department to file charges against me. Do they not know that at the end people will do their own judgement and will decide who is telling the truth?

The Latest from Iran (14 September): Countdown to Friday

NEW Iran: The Rafsanjani Statement on Qods Day
Latest Iran Video: The Allegations of Detainee Abuse
Iran: The Protest Goes On
Iran: English Translation of Judiciary Report on Karroubi Allegations
Iran: The Soroush Letter to the Supreme Leader
The Latest from Iran (13 September): Lull — Storm?

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2110 GMT: On the day after Grand Ayatollah Montazeri denounced Iran's "military state", his three grandsons --- Mohammad Mehdi, Mohammad Ali Montazeri, and Mohammad Sadegh --- have been arrested.

2045 GMT: Over to You. What do you think Hashemi Rafsanjani is intending for Qods Day? We've posted a translation of his statement today, including his reference to "an absolutely illegitimate, fraudulent, and usurping Government".

1910 GMT: Got It in One. Our prediction at 1450 GMT: "the Speaker of the Parliament asked Karroubi to please refrain from taking to the streets this Friday on Qods Day, promising in return a genuine Parliamentary review of the claims of detainee abuse."

From Rouydad News: "Larijani asked Karoubi to keep quiet for a while. Karoubi said I will die but I won't keep quiet."

1830 GMT: Did Rafsanjani Just Bless the (Green) Cause? Our sharp readers will have noted our caution in the previous entry. While Hashemi Rafsanjani had asked Iranians to march on Friday, he had referred to the cause of Palestine.

The Internet is buzzing, however, with the reading that the former President has now signalled that he is with the opposition. The key sentence? The Iranian version of "It is always darkest just before dawn".

1738 GMT: The website of the Supreme Leader has denied the claim that Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a talk with Ayatollah Khamenei, threatened to resign all his positions if Mehdi Karroubi was arrested.

1735 GMT: Report that Majid Nayeri of the Mojahedin-Enghelab party was released Sunday night after 89 days in prison.

1730 GMT: Hashemi Rafsanjani has issued a statement calling on people to march on Qods Day, ostensibly for the "Palestinian cause".

1450 GMT: More on the Ali Larijani-Karroubi meeting (1100 GMT). Reports indicate the discussion lasted two hours and both sides agreed not to reveal details.

For what it's worth, I'm speculating that the Speaker of the Parliament asked Karroubi to please refrain from taking to the streets this Friday on Qods Day, promising in return a genuine Parliamentary review of the claims of detainee abuse.

1410 GMT: Mehdi, Mir Hossein, Hashemi, We'll Take All of You On. Fars News is featuring three articles on today's Tehran trials. Two are the detailed recitations of Karroubi and Mousavi computer-whizzes trying to take out the system with a "velvet coup". The other, however, deserves a moment's attention: Hashemi Rafsanjani's son, Mehdi Hashemi, is the accused culprit trying to ensure a Mousavi "victory".

1345 GMT: Khomeini --- He Once Led the System, Right? Because his family sure are giving the regime a rough time. There's the lawsuit against Kayhan newspaper (1305 GMT), yesterday's warm reception for the freed Alireza Behesti, and now the pictures are out of an equally effusive greeting for the released activist Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour.

1335 GMT: The Clerical Challenge. From this morning's analysis: "If Karroubi remains a presence and if senior clerics continue their challenge to the legitimacy of the Presidency, then the wave [of resistance] will come ashore again and again."

We've featured Karroubi already (1315 GMT). Now for the senior clerics via a letter from Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, claiming that the Islamic Republic is no longer a system led by religious tenets but a "military state".

1325 GMT: Parleman News reports that General Mohammad Moghaddam, head of the Veterans’ Section of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s election campaign, was released on Friday night. Moghaddam had been arrested on Tuesday as part of the crackdown on Mousavi and Karroubi staff investigating charges of detainee abuse.

1315 GMT: Karroubi's "Bring It On". More news to add to our morning analysis "The Protest Goes On". Mehdi Karroubi has offered a pointed response to the three-member judiciary panel that has rejected his evidence on abuse of detainees and the threat to arrest him. He has written to the Iranian people, describing the post-election events that led him to protest through his letter, initially sent to Hashemi Rafsanjani. An Iranian activist has a running summary in English on Twitter.

1305 GMT: Back after a break to an avalanche of news. The Financial Times of London reports that the Imam Khomeini Institute, run by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's grandson Hassan, has filed a complaint against Kayhan newspaper over an editorial that alleged that the Khomeini household was infiltrated by “riotous agents”.

1110 GMT: Meanwhile, the Engagement is On; the Nuke Deadline is Off. The European Union's Javier Solana and Saeed Jalili, the Secretary of Iran's National Security Council, have decided after a morning phone call, to meet on 1 October, well after President Ahmadinejad's forthcoming in NewYork City.

An EA correspondent: "The venue of the Solana-Jalili meeting is not clear, but it appears that United Nations General Assembly meeting, as well as Obama's informal September deadline, can now be classified as irrelevant in the nuclear battle between Iran and the West."

1100 GMT: What is Ali Larijani Saying to Mehdi Karroubi? The Speaker of the Parliament is meeting this afternoon with Karroubi at the Parliament building; Qodratollah Alikhani, the secretary-general of Karroubi's Etemade Melli party, is also in attendance.

The meeting was requested by Larijani. So a question, from an EA correspondent, "Has he been ordered by the Supreme Leader to instill some 'reason' into Karroubi?

0940 GMT: Oops. Much credit to The New York Times for persisting in coverage of the internal Iran situation when others have walked away (CNNWatch: six days and counting since their website had a story). Unfortunately, this morning's article by Nazila Fathi on the release of chief Mousavi advisor Alireza Beheshti goes astray: "[He] has been released in what appears to be a sign of retreat by the hard-core conservative authorities running Iran."

Retreat? I would love to concur but, pre-Qods Day and amidst a new trial, the threats against Mehdi Karroubi, and arrests of other activists, this is more a re-drawing of battle lines (see our separate analysis).

0930 GMT: Prediction Fulfilled (Within Two Hours). From our morning analysis: "The regime can now offer token concessions on investigations — a few officials reprimanded for Kahrizak prison, a prominent prisoner released on bail — while maintaining control of the process." Well, this just in from Press TV:

The Iranian judiciary panel looking into post-election events says its work is not over, despite having rejected claims that prisoners were sexually abused. "The three-member panel is still active. Its first report was about claims made by [Mehdi] Karroubi," Iran's Chief Prosecutor Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said during a Sunday night televised interview.

“However, the panel is still investigating other issues such the [attack on Tehran] University dormitories and the events that took place in Kahrizak [prison],” added the prosecutor, who is one of the three panel members.

0825 GMT: New Media and Old Journalists. A happy coincidence to replace my unhappiness with the recent column by Roger Cohen mis-understanding New Media and reducing the Iranian people to helpless bystanders. Mahasti Afshar has a must-read corrective, "Twitter is Now All I Have", in The Huffington Post.

0815 GMT: Reuters, drawing on the Iranian Republic News Agency account, has noted the trial. There are six defendants today, including activist Abdollah Momeni. Fars continues to offer the fullest account, now aiming at the "IT staff of Mir Hossein Mousavi".

0705 GMT: The 5th Tehran trial has begun, and here are the buzzwords, courtesy of Fars News: "velvet coup", "psychological warfare", and "cyber-space pathology".

The prosecution's rhetoric is familiar and, to be honest, a bit tiresome. This, however, raises an eyebrow on the Iran Government's perception of the power of social media (are you reading, Roger Cohen?): "25 million Iranian users use the network site Facebook and have been able to contact 200 million people in cyberspace". Some Iranian media had used these networks for "agitation" of "incorrect actions".

0655 GMT: The story this morning is likely to be the 5th Tehran trial of post-election detainees. The symbolism is clear, after last week's high-profile attacks on Mousavi and Karroubi campaigns and attempts to quash any investigation of the abuse of detainees: We're in Charge Here.

Yet, for all the drama of its move, the Government --- at least in my view --- has not succeeding in quashing the Green opposition. We've posted a special analysis, "The Protest Goes On".

The Government's confrontation with the opposition still has some carrot on the stick. One piece of news from yesterday that we wanted to confirm: the human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been released on $500,000 bail.

Iran: Mehdi Karroubi's Letter to Sadegh Larijani on Detainees

The Latest from Iran (11 September): Prayers and Politics


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Translation by Pedestrian:

To Mr. Larijani,

The honorable head of the judiciary,

Greetings,

As you know, after the controversial presidential election and its painful, alarming aftermath, I wrote many letters to the officials to share with them certain points, critiques and objections and to give the necessary warnings. The last of these letters was addressed to you. You have just recently accepted responsibility [of the judiciary] and are chief justice. And now I will share with you the details of my meetings with your representatives and some of the marginal events that took place which led to my personal office and party being sealed. I do this as a religious and patriotic obligation. So that future generations do not say that Karoubi was frightened off by pressure and arrests. Even if you do not know, others do know that in the my past, pressure and threats and limitations not only did not deter me, but made me even more determined in the path I had chosen to follow.

Mr. Larijani,

I don’t know how updated you may be of our sessions with the committee you had appointed [from the judiciary]. To inform you and the people, I must tell you that we had two meetings with the honorable Mr. Khalfi, Mohseni Ejeie, and Raeesi, and these meetings went well and a glimpse of the evidence [we had] from the regrettable, unforgivable incidents that had occurred were presented. In the first meeting, information about three people was given, along with a CD and the necessary documents which were all evidence of torture and rape that had been inflicted on boys and girls in identified and unidentified detention centers. In addition to these three documents, we personally hinted at what had happened to two girls, Taraneh Mousavi (the real one) and Saeedeh Pouraghayi. The second meeting was this Monday and lasted for three hours and in this meeting too, in addition to our many debates, I put forth one of my other documents on one condition: that nothing would happen to this individual or the family just because of [our] demand for justice.

[We did not want anything to happen to the family] - things that did happen to another individual who I had introduced in another document, during the time of the previous prosecutor of Tehran [Mortazavi] and that family was forced to endure pressure and pain. Thus, this time I gave my evidence and I warned that the neglect of the previous prosecutor must not be repeated, we must not have wrongdoers enter this scenario, people who are not after justice, but would rather threaten and dishonor the person [evidence] that I had put forth. People who will sell off the honor of the judicial system, and that too in an Islamic society, for the price of keeping the culprits safe.

I should also add that in these meetings that took place to look into the allegations of torture and improper behavior in prisons and the events after the election, they repeatedly asked me: do you think it is beneficial to go on collecting information about rape and torture and the killing of people, is it not possible that these documents will get in the hands of the wrong person? And I replied that I keep these documents in a safe place, and if we reach a conclusion I will destroy them. And I reaffirmed that documents which reveal rape and torture are nothing to be proud of for me to want to keep , or to put on a wall. These are documents that will help us achieve justice and get back the rights of the oppressed and once that is achieved, they will be destroyed and the vile smell and hideous face of evil will be destroyed with them.

[I also said] know this, that if in my investigations I conclude that any of these allegations are false, I will step forward and right this wrong. In this regard, my further investigations had proven the falsity of some of the previous statements I had made about Saeedeh Pouraghayi, which I corrected.

In any case, these two meetings were over, and in the end, I pointed to another new painful case I had just heard and I added that I am in the process of following up this new case and I will present my documents once I am done. I was also asked to look further into the hidden aspects of the Taraneh Mousavi case, and to help the judiciary shed more light on this issue. At the end of the second meeting I gave a suggestion- which was met with the approval of the committee - that we should put an end to this process of taking and bringing documents and that you [the judiciary] can now start investigating the truth with the documents that have already been presented. Because those documents were enough to reveal the truth and to identify the guilty parties.

Mr. Larijani,

I gave this suggestion and left, and our meeting with the committee came to a good end. But the day after, the tides turned. On the orders of Tehran’s prosecutor, a group attacked my office. They searched the office and in doing so, they did not limit themselves to the office documents, but searched and confiscated my personal letters and writings, my bills and private papers. In the end, they sealed my office, and even confiscated the charity supplies I gather there every year. They arrested Mr. Davari, the editor of the Etemad Melli website. They had not finished shutting down my office when they did the same to the office of the Etemad Melli party, of which I am the executive. They unlawfully confiscated the documents of a party that is registered under the laws of the Islamic Republic and finally sealed the office of the party as well. These actions did not suffice and they arrested Dr. Alireza Beheshti, the son of the late Ayatollah Beheshti and Mr. Morteza Alviri, that devoted revolutionary who was once a member of parliament and the mayor of Tehran, and the ambassador of the Islamic Republic in Europen countries.

The Office of the Publication of Ayatollah Beheshti’s Books, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic, was also sealed. I am left wondering: did these events occur on Tuesday as a result of my meeting on Monday? I am left baffled not by what they have done to Karoubi, but that they think that Karoubi, the son of Ahmad, is going to leave the field and choose to remain silent? Now I know why some friends and advisers insisted that I give all the evidence for rape and torture as it had been retold to me by the victims, on a CD and to keep a copy in a safe place. Because the machine of terror is still at work and who knows, some of the witnesses may now take back their claims out of fear.

Because the Islamic Republic has reached a place where the house of Mehdi Karoubi too is no longer a safe place. Because any horrible, indecent act is possible in the Islamic Republic and nothing is far from the imagination.

Mr. Larijani,

I still insist on the original letter I wrote to the head of the expediency council, and after the terror of recent events, I am more determined than ever. When I see that the head of a military organization - the documents are all available - writes a letter to the ministry of health and orders it forbidden to give copies of medical records to those who have been inured in recent events, and prevents the hospitals from giving the victims their records, I am more determined to find out what reasons exist for such threats and fear? According to the oath doctors take, they are obliged to treat anyone who comes to them, even if the injured is a long, lost enemy of their father. And you, as the chief justice, should judge this: how can a doctor feel safe about attending to his medical obligations when such a letter is written by such a high ranking military official?

If an innocent victim dies in such circumstance, how can you hear the pleas of his/her family as chief justice [under such conditions]? If someone has been raped, how can they obtain the necessary documents from medical experts and give them to you in such an atmospheres of terror? Before, we argued why military personnell were entering the spheres of politics and economics. We now see that politics and economics were not enough to satisfy their hunger, and they have now entered the field of medicine as well.

Mr. Larijani,

I assume that you claim to represent justice and I am certain that you are well aware of your responsibility to defend the victim and to punish the oppressor. Thus, in response to your religious and legal obligations, and for the sake of the public, I ask of you to demand that the documents that have been released be investigated. And in this path, I ask that you prevent this atmosphere of terror. And that you do not allow armed and paramilitary forces to contemplate an intervention into law, as they have done politics and medicine. [That you stop] them from conquering another mountain after they did the presidential election and creating an even worse situation. I also recommend that in this environment where thanks to the ex-prosecutor, the free press has been silenced, you do not allow some to take paper to pen claiming to do so for Islam, when in reality, they are doing it against Islam. And [for them] to enter an even more safe haven where they can spread their vulgarity and to blast any hopes for justice. And to terrorize and ridicule revolutionaries. Do not let counterfeit documents take reign, to a point where national TV can broadcast another sham scenario like that of Taraneh Mousavi, and create new ambiguity and chaos, to throw such deep stones in the well that even one hundred fair minded people can not attempt to bring them out.

Mr. Larijani,

You formed a committee to investigate the regretful events and the wrongdoing that occurred after the election and Mr. Khalafi, who was your representative, claimed on your part that you have said that these claims must all be thoroughly investigated. But my question is this: after such terror, fear and threats, is it even possible to attend to the terror and atrocity that occurred after the election? You are left to answer this question but know that Mehdi Karoubi still insists on reclaiming the rights of the oppressed. Such old, overused tactics may work to silence some, but they will not work on Mehdi Karoubi and he will forcefully take a stand, and he will not allow a group of nouveau riche to sell off a country and the legacy of an Imam which was attained after a democratic revolution and the blood of many martyrs.

With hopes of your success in the judiciary,

Mehdi Karroubi