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Copyright © 2008 The Iran Times Corp. All rights reserved
Founded in 1970
| Friday November 14, 2008 |
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New Law Proposed Requires Warrant for Extensive Airport Searches: In the face of increasing complaints from Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent about extended airport checks of their laptop computers when they return from abroad, two members of congress have proposed legislation that would allow the searches but only with a warrant. On October 22, an Iranian-American prayer leader was returning to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport from Iran when he was stopped and searched. That is something Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, who wears the robe of a Shia cleric, said is a common experience. But this time, Elahi said, customs officials wanted to see the contents of his laptop. "They said, 'Well, we need to check your computer,'"
Elahi told The Detroit News. "They said they had to go to an office and check it. They came back and said, 'Well, do the password.'... He took it back, and it took another 20 minutes. And then he came back and said, 'Well, you know, unfortunately, the computer died as I was looking at it.'" At issue is the tricky balance between civil liberties and national security. Elahi was confronted with what many American Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent say are increased searches and seizures of laptops at airports without warrant or warning. Elahi and his lawyer are now discussing last month's incident with federal officials before considering litigation. "The way his laptop was taken and the data removed and the computer altered, and not to have any notice of it or warning raises privacy issues," said Shereff Akeel, Elahi's attorney. Since the officials searched Elahi's computer, he has spent thousands of dollars to retrieve scholarly research, contact lists and personal e-mails from devoted followers from his computer. Responding to similar cases, Democratic Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Democratic Representative Adam Smith of Washington introduced bills last month
that would allow searches and seizures, but would require a warrant.
Officials of the Department of Homeland Security deny allegations of
increased activity and targeting of religions or ethnic groups.
Border security officials said they are well within their rights to seize laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices before travelers-even citizens-enter the country. Tajik Loses Appeal but Asks for Reconsideration on New Grounds: A former Iranian diplomat living in England has lost his appeal to the House of Lords to avoid deportation to the United States, where he
faces trial for attempting to smuggle military equipment to Iran.
Nosratollah Tajik, 54, has now filed another appeal on the grounds that he is too ill to travel. Tajik was Iran's ambassador to Jordan from 1999 to 2003. He has been caught up in a long legal battle in which Washington claims he was the U.K. link in a £1.5 million arms network spanning three continents. Tajik fought deportation originally by saying the Americans acted illegally to ensnare him in England, that they were pursuing him only because of his religion, nationality and politics, and that he could not be prosecuted in the United States for what he had done in England. The British courts rejected all those arguments. In April, Tajik appealed to the High Court, but the appeal was rejected. He then sought to appeal to the House of Lords; Tajik's appeal to the House of Lords was also rejected. On October 30, a Home Office spokeswoman confirmed the appeal to the Lords had been rejected and that British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had signed extradition papers. But she added, "We can also confirm that his representatives have requested the minister to reconsider the decision on health grounds and that issue is still under consideration." In November 2006, at the request of U.S. anti- terrorism agents, Tajik was arrested at his Country Durham home by
British police. The request came after a U.S. undercover operation
in London in which investigators from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posed as arms dealers wanting to sell night-vision goggles to Iran. Tajik was arrested before the alleged deal could be carried out and was detained in prison for a week. Tajik-who was hospitalized earlier this year-was released on bail and reported daily to a police station near his home in the northeast of England. Iranian Boy Recovers from Successful Heart Surgery in U.S.: A six-year-old Iranian boy with a life threatening heart defect has undergone successful open-heart surgery in Minnesota and is expected to make a full recovery. Ali, whose family asked that his real name not be published, suffered from a cardiac condition that affected the way his heart pumped blood. Doctors said that without surgery there was a high likelihood his life would be cut short. With the sponsorship of The Foundation For the Children of Iran, Ali and his mother flew from their home in Iran to Minnesota, where Ali underwent a successful surgery at the Children's Hospital October 20; he was released from the hospital four days later. "Ali is doing extremely well. He is recovering quickly at the home of a host, one of our many generous volunteers," Michelle Klein, the Project Director for The Foundation For the Children of Iran, told the Iran Times. The Foundation For the Children of Iran said Ali was born with a congenital heart condition and required treatment not available to him in Iran. "Our buoyant young man came through the procedure with very high marks-and high hopes-and is recovering with great speed," it said. Each year, the Foundation works to bring Iranian children with life threatening diseases to the Children's Hospital in Minnesota. In this case, donations paid for Ali and his mother to travel to the United States. Dr. David Gremmels, a pediatric cardiologist, and Dr.
David Overman, a cardiothoracic surgeon, both with The Children's Heart Clinic, performed the surgery without compensation. Klein told the Iran Times, "I like to think of these doctors as rock stars in scrubs. Without them, this story would not be possible-nor the work we do attainable."
Thanking everyone who made the operation possible, Ali's mother said, "My feelings, I want to kiss their hands. And I can't express with a word how I feel about them." Jury in UK Fails to Reach Verdict on Two Counts: The jury in the trial of an Iranian-British Army interpreter was discharged last Thursday after failing to reach verdicts on the second and third charges. Iranian-born Cpl Daniel James, 45, was convicted at the Old Bailey last week of spying for Iran by sending coded emails to the Iranian military attachˆ© in Kabul. But James continues to deny two other charges brought against him and the jury was discharged last week after deadlocking on them: one relating to a memory stick containing secret documents found in James' possession and the other a count of misconduct in public office. James has been sent back to his cell and the prosecution is trying to decide whether to re-try James on those two offenses or be satisfied with the conviction on the main charge. James, whose birth name is Esmail Mohammad Beigi Gamasai, was arrested in 2006 when he was working for General David Richards, who was then commanding the international forces in Afghanistan and will command the entire British Army next year. The prosecution under the Official Secrets Act of 1911 for the crime of giving information to an enemy was the first in 24 years. Ministry of Defense sources said there had been nothing in the security checks to indicate James was anything other than slightly odd. "He was regarded as an oddball but harmless and he had all the right clearance," one source said. James continued to have ties to Iran-where his family still lives-and he was in debt ¬£25,000 (about $39,500) and practiced black magic. James emigrated to Britain at the age of 15 when his father started a business in Brighton. He attended St Mary's College, a high school, but dropped out at the age of 16 and began working as a dealer at a casino in Brighton and later as a nightclub bouncer and head of security at Brighton's Palace Pier, where he was convicted for assault at the age of 18. In 1982, James married an English woman of Greek origin who was working as a hairdresser. James became a British
citizen four years later and the couple had a son the following year.
But the relationship began to unravel and they divorced in 1990. Iranian Woman Included in The 50 Women to Watch List: The Iranian founder of the children's cancer charity Mahak has been placed on The Wall Street Journal's annual list of The 50 Women to Watch. Saideh Ghods, 57, the founder of the Society to Support Children Suffering from Cancer, or Mahak, said when her two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer almost 20 years ago, she realized that some lower-income families in Iran had no choice but to let their cancer-stricken children die because they couldn't afford medical treatment. To make available the necessary treatment, Ghods founded Mahak. From the initial handful of volunteers, the charity has expanded into one of Iran's largest nongovernmental organizations; since its establishment in 1991, the charity has helped some 12,000 Iranian children, as well as thousands of Iraqi and Afghan refugee children, to receive treatment for their cancer. Ghods now hopes to expand her efforts by getting funding from Iranian-Americans and others in the United States; but first she must gain permission from the U.S. Treasury, since contributions to her charity from U.S.-based donors are currently prohibited by U.S. sanctions. She will need a special exemption license. In addition to Mahak, Ghods co-founded the International Society for Children with Cancer, a Los Angeles-based charity that targets children in developing countries. Ghods is also starting a nonprofit organization dedicated to Iranian women suffering from breast cancer. Ghods is widely acknowledged in Iran for her efforts to expand nongovernmental organizations beyond traditional religious-based charities. More information about Mahak can be found at: www.mahak-charity.org. |
Iran Quiets Praise for Obama:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: A few days after President Ahmadi-nejad last week sent a congratulatory letter to President-elect Barack Obama, the regime pulled back and pointed out that the problems between Tehran and Washington were "deep rooted" and "strategic," indicating that a change in the U.S. president would not necessarily result in a change in relations between the two countries. "Our problems with America are strategic," Mehdi Kalhour, Ahmadi-nejad's media advisor, told The Washington Post. He added that Tehran would be open for talks under fair circumstances and added, "But that is not when you have a bayonet pressed at your artery. " For now, Kalhour said, Obama was not welcome in Iran as a president, though he said, "He can come as a tourist." Ahmadi-nejad himself, in a seemingly contradictory tone from last week, said, "It doesn't make any difference for us who comes and who goes. It's their actions which are studied by the Iranian and world nations." Ahmadi-nejad's original letter last week split Iranian politicians, with conservatives assailing Ahmadi-nejad for opening the door to relations with the Americans and the reformers lauding him for his initiative. On Saturday, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani publicly slammed Obama, saying his remarks about Iran at a news conference were "a step in the wrong direction." But the very next day, Larijani shifted gears and backpedaled. Some analysts
believed his change of course came from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi.
On Sunday, Larijani said simply, "It is too soon to make any judgment about Obama." He said the new U.S. Administration must "make a series of strategic changes" before relations could improve. "It would be naˆØve to think that Obama will take a new course of action," Larijani said at one point. But then he caught himself and said, "I believe Obama will make some changes in foreign policy in line with his campaign pledges." Ahmadi-nejad's letter was courteous to Obama, congratulating the president-elect on "attracting the majority of the votes in the election." But it also contained a laundry list of Bush evils that Ahmadi-nejad wanted Obama to change. He wrote, "I hope you will prefer real public interest and justice to the never-ending demands of a selfish minority and seize the opportunity to serve the people so that you will be remembered with high esteem. Americans who have spiritual tendencies expect the government to use its power...to
restore its lost reputation as well as their hopes and spirit....
Other nations also expect militarism, occupation, bullying, contempt of nations and the imposition of discriminatory policies to be replaced by ones advocating justice, respect for human rights,
friendship and non-interference in other countries' internal affairs.
They also want U.S. intervention confined to within its own borders."
But Deputy Ahmad Tavakkoli, one of the senior principleist members of the Majlis, took the president to task calling the letter "indefensible." He said the letter undermined the "status" of the Islamic system. The rightwing daily Jomhuri Eslami agreed, saying any initiative that hinted at re-establishing relations with America violated the basic principles of the Islamic Republic. Ahmadi-nejad's
camp, on the other, tried to paint the letter as a sign of strength.
The daily Khorshid, edited by a former Ahmadi-nejad aide, said the letter "shattered America's erroneous view" that Ahmadi-nejad is not open to the world. But shifting Tehran's tone back towards a less welcoming one Wednesday, Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, said, "People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous."
All Iranian Banks Now Shut Out of U.S. Financial System:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: In the largest extension of sanctions in recent years, the U.S.
Treasury Department has now forbidden all Iranian banks from having any access to the U.S. financial system. Previously, the Treasury Department had denied access to the U.S. financial system to individual banks one-by-one until five banks were sanctioned. Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, announced the shift last Thursday. "We are revoking the 'U-turn' license for Iran, thus terminating the last general entry point for Iranian banks," Levey, who has been leading the financial
sanctions against Iran since he initiated them early in 2005, said.
With the new order published Monday, all Iranian banks are now sanctioned-the seven state-owned commercial banks, the four specialized government banks and the half-dozen privately-owned banks, though none of the private banks are of any size. At issue is what are called U-turn transactions. In this kind of transaction, a foreign bank makes a payment to another foreign bank through the large and diversified U.S. financial system. The payment U-turns through the U.S. financial system. Because the U.S. financial system is so large, international dollar transactions commonly go through the American structure at some point. Although Iranian banks have been barred for many years from using the U.S. financial system. But Iranian banks have been able to deal with a non-Iranian third party that would conduct the U-turn transaction on behalf of an Iranian
bank. The impact further complicates Iranian business transactions.
It will not cause business to grind to a halt. For one thing, Tehran has for more than a year pushed the country into conducting transactions in currencies other than the dollar. Those non-dollar international transactions do not go through the United States. The new Treasury rule will likely push more Iranian transactions into the euro, the pound and the yen.
Momeni Released on Bail:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: The Iranian-American women's rights activist detained in Iran last month has been released on a bail of $200,000 after her father put up the deed to the family's home. Gholam-Reza Momeni, 60, the father of Esha Momeni, 28, told The Los Angeles Times he put up the deed to his Tehran apartment to secure Esha's release. But he said Esha must still stand trial on charges of acting against national security and propagating against the system and therefore is not allowed to leave the country. Esha was scheduled to appear in an Iranian court Tuesday. Last week, Gholam-Reza reportedly came out saying he had become aware of his daughter's "illegal activities" but called on the authorities to show mercy. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Friday that Gholam-Reza said he disapproved of his daughter's "illegal activities," which he allegedly said he had only recently found out about. "Because of our anger over our daughter's illegal activities,...her mother and I did not want to visit her [in prison]." But that statement seemed suspect after Gholam-Reza posted his family's apartment to secure his daughter's release. Esha had been held in solitary confinement since October 15 before her release Monday. Two months ago, the California State University of Northridge
(CSUN) student traveled to Iran to conduct interviews with women about their lives in Iran for her master's thesis. Her father said it was her deep connection to Iran and her family-not politics-that was her main reason for traveling back to Iran. "Whenever we talked about Iran, she was tempted to come back. My daughter was not against the political order," he told the Los Angeles Times. Judiciary spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi said, "The charge against her is committing a crime against national security," a generic charge used in Iran. Esha's lawyer, Ali Dadkhah, said Iranian officials have privately told her parents that the detention was related to her involvement in the "Change for Equality" campaign launched by Iranian women activists in September 2006.
Arab Leaders Fear Possible Western Concessions to Iran:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: Several Arab leaders have voiced concern to the United States and Europe that the West will make major concessions to Iran and allow it to bully the Arabs in the future. The Arab leaders indicated they feared the West was prepared to allow the Islamic Republic to wield more power in the Middle East as a concession for giving up its nuclear ambitions. The Arab concerns were aired in a meeting Sunday that the foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco held with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Unnamed participants in the meeting, held in Sharm ash-Shaikh, Egypt, gave similar descriptions of the meeting to all three major wire services: Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France Presse. According to the AFP and Reuters, Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir said, "The nuclear file became a crisis [for the West], but for us the Iranian surge for hegemony has become an enduring crisis." The reports said the Arabs were especially concerned that Barack Obama would make major concessions to Iran on assuming the presidency. The AP said Rice responded, "The United States view is that Iran should not gain a privileged role in the region." But the AP said Solana and Kouchner also assured the Arabs that Europe was not prepared to offer Iran a power role in exchange for nuclear concessions. The AP and Reuters said the Arab foreign ministers were most concerned about Iran's influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and with the Palestinian Hamas movement. Reuters said the participant it had talked to said Solana and Kouchner both seemed surprised by the frankness and vehemence of the Arab ministers.
Solana told reporters the closed-door meeting was requested by the Arab foreign ministers on the sidelines of a conference related to Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
EU says No Place for Iran in Nabucco Pipeline:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: Andris Piebalgs, who is in charge of energy policy for the EU, says there is no way Europe will buy "even one cubic meter" of Iranian natural gas until the nuclear issue is resolved. The announcement comes after Iran largely abandoned plans to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be sold chiefly in the Far East, and instead resolved to focus on gas sales by pipeline, especially the Nabucco pipeline that will end in Austria and supply much of Europe. Piebalgs, a Latvian who is the commissioner for energy on the European Commission, said Iran can forget about Nabucco for now. In an interview with the privately-owned Azerbaijani television channel ANS, Piebalgs said, "Nuclear enrichment remains the major problem in our relations with Iran.... I regret to say that there is not yet any progress on this issue. Therefore, today my plans do not include even one cubic meter of Iranian gas." He said Europe was quite aware of Iran's vast gas reserves and he said that he knew full well that many European firms are eager to invest in Iran's gas industry. But, he said, the nuclear issue has to be resolved first. The Austrian firm OMV that leads the consortium planning to build the Nabucco pipeline is especially eager to sign on Iran. The pipeline will start with Azerbaijani gas, but
OMV says it needs Iranian gas eventually to make the project work.
Piebalgs said flatly that Iran couldn't be made a partner in Nabucco as long as the nuclear dispute remains unresolved. European planners are eager to get Nabucco started. They are very concerned about Europe's heavy reliance on Russia for gas supplies and see Iran, whose reserves are second only to Russia's, as a logical source.
Former Speaker Says Without Parties Majlis Has No Central Direction:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: Deposed Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel says the Majlis doesn't really work because the absence of political parties means the legislature is little more than 290 individuals pulling in 290 different directions. Because there is no central direction to the Majlis, Haddad-Adel said, the time and energy of the institution is drained away by routine matters and day-to-day business. In a speech November 1, Haddad-Adel, who served as speaker from 2004 until last spring, said the core problem was the absence of parties. It is standard political theory in the West that parties are necessary to give coherence, structure and direction in a legislative body.
Otherwise, the governing rule is little more than every man for himself. Parties limit individualism and harness members of a party to drive in the same direction. Haddad-Adel said the common belief in Iran holds that political parties are evil and a source of disease for the Islamic revolution. Speaking 29 years after the adoption of the Islamic constitution, Haddad-Adel said it was necessary for the country to review its position on political parties. "A Majlis is established that is made up of good individuals, but these legislators do not have any links or bonds with one another in terms of ideas, schools of thought and preferred plans and programs. They, therefore, do not act harmoniously. This is a reality that I clearly felt [as speaker]," he said. As a result, he said, the time and energy of Majlis deputies "is exhausted merely on routine and day-to-day affairs." Majlis Reconsiders Number of National Holidays:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: The Majlis is taking up legislation to drop some holidays from the crowded calendar, with deputies expecting that several will be dumped. Mohammad-Reza Mir-Tajeddini, a member of the Majlis Presiding Board, told reporters, "In comparison with other countries, the number of official holidays in our country is very high. With this legislation, the Majlis is looking to reduce that number."
He ruled out eliminating holidays that serve "as a sign of Shiite Iran," but said others "to which no particular attention is given"
should be dropped. He said the birthdays of the 12 Imams were not historically all marked in seminaries and suggested some of them could go. And, he said, Ayatollah Khomeini never declared the 15th of Khordad, the day of his first anti-Shah uprising in 1963, to be a holiday. The debate on the number of holidays was renewed after a series of closely-scheduled holidays prompted President Ahmadi-nejad to make the day in the middle an official holiday, giving everyone around the country a five-day break in June. Officially Iran has 26 holidays each year, compared to 10 in the United States. But actually Iran has 30 days of holidays each year because four extra and unofficial days are taken by most businesses at Now Ruz. This year, with the extra June 5 holiday, Iranians will have 31 days off-a full month of holidays. Many American states and businesses do not mark Presidents' Day, Columbus Day or Veterans' Day, so many Americans have only seven holidays. But at the same time, most Americans work a five- day week, while the 5 1/2-day workweek is the norm in Iran, so Americans actually get 52 additional half-days, the equivalent of 26 more days, off. In Iran, the 26 official holidays are a combination of 16 Islamic holidays (which are set by the lunar calendar and shift each year), five Persian holidays (four days of Now Ruz plus Sizdeh Bedar), four revolutionary holidays and one pre-revolution political holiday (the nationalization of oil on the last day of the Persian year).
UN Report Lauds Iran on Several Social Issues:
Iran Times- November 12, 2008: The UN secretary general issued a report on human rights in Iran last month that paints a very positive picture of Iran's efforts to reduce poverty, improve education and raise life expectancy, while continuing the usual dismal portrayal of respect for civil and political rights in the Islamic Republic. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon decided to go outside the usual human rights review that discusses torture, unfair trials, the treatment of women, and the like. He added a review of economic, social and cultural rights. The was called for last year by the General Assembly after the Human Rights Council declined to review the human rights situation in Iran. The 20-page report, submitted to the General Assembly as document A/63/459, breaks little new ground and largely repeats news reports. The report paints the usual bleak picture when it relates the government's approach to civil and political rights. But its review of economic, social and cultural rights generally paints a positive picture of the government. "Since the 1979 revolution, the government has pursued socio-economic policies centered on Islamic values, which focus very much on the
redistribution of wealth and poverty reduction," the report states.
The percentage of the population living on less than $1 a day had decreased from 0.9 percent in 1999 to 0.2 percent in 2005; the percentage living on less than $2 a day had also declined, from 7.3 percent in 1999 to 3.1 percent in 2005. Those trends have reportedly slowed during recent years [meaning since 2005, when President Ahmadi- nejad took office] owing to high inflation and increases in consumer prices, but those factors have been offset to some degree by state
support." The report cites "greatly improved results" in education.
Net enrollment in primary education steadily increased, from 85 percent in 1990 to 98 percent in 2005. In the same period, primary school dropout rates decreased from 13 percent to 6.6 percent.
Literacy rates among 15- to 24-year-old men and women also increased and progressively equalized, rising from 92.2 and 81.1 percent respectively in 1990 to 98.1 and 96.7 percent in 2005."
On health, the report says life expectancy rose from 64.8 years for men and 65.8 years for women in 1991 to 70.5 and 72.8 years respectively in 2004, while the mortality rate for children under five fell from 44 per thousand births in 1991 to 36 per thousand in 2001.
Copyright © 2008 The Iran Times Corp. All rights reserved
Founded in 1970 |
Fantasy fighters: Fantasy fighters: A week ago, the Italian naval commander in the Mideast region, Vice Admiral Mauricio Gemignani, called talk in Iran of blocking the Strait of Hormuz a mere "fantasy." He said Iran could do no such thing. Brig. Gen. Masud Jazayeri, spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, responded that he hoped there would never be any need to block the strait, but, if Iran is ever attacked, "Iran can easily close the strait." For the record, the U.S. Navy has said Iran can easily close the strait if it wishes-but cannot keep it closed for long. Who's the Muslim?: Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani (photo) says all those folks who think Barack Obama is Muslim are wrong. In fact, says Jobrani, isn't it John McCain who is the real Muslim? After all, "he's had multiple wives and he's crashed three planes. Torture fest: An Iraqi cleric who works for Muqtada as-Sadr says he has personally seen Iranian diplomats being tortured by the Americans. Ahmad ash-Sheybani was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying, "During my detention by U.S. forces, I was held in confinement along with three Iranian diplomats and witnessed their torture by the Americans." He said one diplomat, named Musa, was severely beaten and had his arm broken by U.S. troops. The face of another, named Abbas, was badly bruised after receiving a heavy blow to the eye. U.S. troops seized five Iranians in a raid on the Iranian mission in Erbil, northern Iraq, January 11, 2007. Two have since been released. Waiting hajjis: The Hajj Organization says 95,000 Iranians will soon be heading to Mecca for the annual pilgrimage. That is the maximum allowed annually by Saudi Arabia. The Hajj Organization said 1.8 million Iranians are on the waiting list for the hajj. And stay in line: The Interior Ministry has told Iranians they must not travel to Shiite religious sites in Iraq on their own. They are only allowed to tour Iraqi religious sites as part of organized pilgrim groups. Some 3,000 Iranians are allowed to enter Iraq on such pilgrimages each day under an agreement between the two countries. Battling cultural invasion: A computer game patterned after characters from the Shahnameh epic by Ferdowsi will soon go on sale in Iran in an effort to stem the cultural flow from the West. The game includes 94 characters living in nine regions. Players use weapons and unnatural powers to ward off evil characters and rise to the next level in the "Game of Heroes." That should repell the cultural invasion. Fairy tales: Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin (photo), laughs at the idea of Iran having a long range missiles. "No sensible person believes in fairy tales about an Iranian missile threat," he said, "and that thousands of kilometers from Tehran it is necessary to deploy missile interceptors on the coast of the Baltic Sea." The Russians have long pooh-poohed talk of either an Iranian nuclear weapon or long-range missile, not saying the Islamic Republic doesn't want them but arguing dismissively that Iran isn't capable of building them. The Islamic Republic just ignores these periodic Russian insults. New missile: The Pasdaran announced Monday that they test-fired a brand new missile named the Samen during a military drill in Marivan in Kurdistan. No other details were given. But since this was not fired from the big missile test range in Semnan province, the Samen is more likely a small battlefield weapon rather than a long range weapon. New submarine: Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar announced last week that Iran has developed a new "stealth micro-submarine." There was no explanation of what a "stealth micro-submarine" might be. Friendly win: Iran's national soccer squad defeated Qatar 1-0 in a friendly game Sunday meant as a warm-up for the next World Cup elimination match November 19 in Dubai. Iran's European-based players were not called up for this match, which gave Coach Ali Daei a chance to watch his younger players. The sole goal was scored by Gholam-Reza Rezai in the 74th minute. Salute: You could almost hear the music rising to a crescendo as the hardline daily Jomhuri Eslami editorialized on the 29th anniversary of the U.S. embassy seizure last week. It said this event was not just the mere seizure of a building, more significantly it was a revolution against the tyranny of America, which has now produced the multitude of anti-American actions in the region such as in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. The editorial stresses that the only possible response to American dictatorship is to use aggressive tactics just as the students who seized the embassy did in 1979. Big money: Iran's Cord Blood Bank says it will invest $2.5 billion over the next five years in stem cell research. It did not say where the money would come from. Stem cell research, like early term abortion, faces no religious problems in Iran where most clerics agree that life begins three months after conception. Saei retires: Hadi Saei (photo), a two-time Olympic gold medallist in taekwondo, announced Saturday that he is retiring from the sport. Saei won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics, a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and was the sole Iranian to win gold in any sport at the 2008 Olympics. Economists Criticize Ahmadi-nejad's Policies: In an open letter to President Ahmadi-nejad, a group of 60 Iranian economists has condemned the president's economic reform program now before the Majlis and called for its defeat. The letter also criticized other aspects of Ahmadi-nejad's economic program over the last three years. And it went beyond economics to attack his confrontational approach to foreign policy, which is driving away much needed foreign investment and complicating trade. "As a result of the imposition of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran, much of the country's trade must be conducted through middlemen, which costs the country billions of dollars," said the letter. The letter said one of the worst measures adopted by the Ahmadi-nejad Administration has been the mass conversion of petro-dollars into rials to cover budget expenditures. The economists said this merely fuels inflation; Iran's current inflation rate stands at almost 30 percent. Ahmadi-nejad fired back, rejecting the criticism and attacking the critics. He charged the economists who wrote him were trying to push American economic ideas on the Islamic Republic, ideals he said had brought about the present economic crisis facing the West. He called for a new Islamic model based on justice and human values. "Then we can offer our model to the world," Ahmadi-nejad said. "Iran is the only country that has the potential and the talent to introduce new economic models to the world." Saudi Arabia Stalls on Oil Cuts: Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria have all told refiners and traders to expect less oil beginning November 1 in compliance with OPEC's decision to cut crude exports in the face of declining oil prices, but Riyadh has yet to inform its customers of any cuts. Saudi Arabia's state oil firm, Saudi Aramco, has remained silent since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed October 24 to a 1.5 million barrel per day or five percent cut as of November 1. One anonymous company official at Indian's state- run refiner said Saudi Arabia would not cut crude supplies in November for Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL)-the third-biggest buyer of Saudi crude in India. "Saudi Arabia has sent us a general letter informing us about a cut in line with OPEC decision. They have applied no cut in November lifting for us, but a decision on supplies for December is yet to be announced," said the official. Sources at oil refineries in Europe also said they had received no word on cuts in Saudi supplies scheduled for this month, but a reduction could come in the following month. "It is hard to predict [what will happen]....
If they were going to make a cut, they should have done it by now,"
one oil buyer told Reuters. Meanwhile, Platts Survey, an oil journal, said OPEC's October production was reduced by 220,000 barrels a day, less than half the 500,000 barrels that OPEC officials told reporters
in September would be cut. Platts said Iran's output was down by
80,000 barrels a day, which appeared to be close to its share of the cuts. Tehran Stock Exchange Falls Below 10,000: The Tehran Stock Exchange's TEPIX index fell below 10,000 Tuesday for the first time this Persian year. The TEPIX has been declining like most other stock exchange indexes in recent weeks, but nowhere near the scale of the decline shown by many. Moscow's stock exchange has lost more than two-thirds of its value in the last two months. Other drops of more than one-third are quite common. The most recent peak for the TEPIX was 12,850 in mid-July. Tuesday it ended trading at 9,999, a loss of 22 percent over four months. The TEPIX, however, has never fully recovered since plummeting from its all-time high of 13,836 in December 2004. | ||||||||
