At least 200 killed in Tehran alone

- in the wake of the post election unrest

Times online has done some excellent reporting on human rights violations in Iran in the wake of the post election unrest. On September 18, the paper revelaed that they had been given access to several documents suggesting that the killings, rape and torture stories that have leaked out of Iran since June, is part of a systematic program ordered by the highest authorities and aimed at breaking the opposition.

Excerpts from the article:

'Torture, murder and rape' — Iran’s way of breaking the opposition

Times online. September 18, 2009

[…] The Times has been given access to 500 pages of documents […] They suggest that security forces have engaged in systematic killing and torture to try to break the opposition.

“The use of rape and torture was similar across prisons in Tehran and the provinces. It is difficult not to conclude that the highest authorities planned and ordered these actions. Local authorities would not dare take such actions without word from above,” wrote one investigator, in a coded reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.

Mehdi Karoubi, 72, a defeated presidential candidate, said: “These crimes are a source of shame for the Islamic republic.”

Western non-governmental organisations said the documents corroborated what they were hearing from Iran […]

“We are repeatedly receiving credible reports of harsh beatings, sleep deprivation and alleged torture to extract false confessions in Iranian jails,” said Steve Crawshaw, UN director of Human Rights Watch. “Iran has fallen off the front pages but this doesn’t mean the situation is improving. On the contrary, we very much fear it is getting worse.”

The documents suggest that at least 200 demonstrators were killed in Tehran, with 56 others still unaccounted for, and that 173 were killed in other cities. These are several times higher than the official figures. Just over half of the 200 were killed on the streets. […]

The rest of Tehran’s 200 known victims died in custody […] In three quarters of the cases, the victims’ families were told nothing about their whereabouts and were denied permission to hold proper funerals. The opposition claims that dozens were buried in unmarked graves in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. […]

The documents also suggest that a chain of unofficial, makeshift prisons has been set up across Iran where rape and torture are common practice. In Tehran alone, 37 young men and women claim to have been raped by their jailers. Doctors’ reports say that two males, aged 17 and 22, died as a result of severe internal bleeding after being raped.

Many of the male rape victims also spoke of beatings, being subjected to forms of sexual humiliation including riding naked colleagues, and living in their underwear and in filthy conditions. Some testified that prisoners were subjected to torture including beatings, electrocution and having their toenails torn out. […]

Female rape victims were mostly held for days, not weeks, like the men. Some said that their jailers claimed to have “religious sanction” to violate them as they were “morally dirty”.

Almost all, male and female, testified that they were ordered to say nothing of their ordeal or they would face more of the same.

The documents detail other systematic abuses: violent raids on student dormitories, attacks on the homes of suspected opposition sympathisers and the widespread intimidation of medics. They cite instances of security forces storming hospitals and ordering doctors not to treat injured demonstrators, not to record deaths by gunshot and to suppress medical reports indicating rape or torture. […]

[Karroubi]: “There are no few stories about the rape of girls and boys in prison. I say to myself three decades after the revolution and two decades after the death of the Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] — what place have we reached?”

Read full story here

No Rape and Sexual Assualts in Islamic Republic

- Karroubi has accepted that he fabricated the evidence

Saeeda Pour-Aghaie is still alive, she just ran away from home.

Regime’s own special committee has investigated the story about Saeeda Pour-Aghaie, and concluded that Karroubi was not telling the truth. Karroubi has, after friendly conversation about this case with the committee, accepted that he had made up the whole story to promote his own political agenda.

From the English translation of the report by Iranian Leftists, September 13

“Further investigations about this woman revealed that:

Her father was not a martyr […] and also Ms. S. P. was not the only child of the family […].

This girl had had problems with her mother, and since 2007, she had run away from home 6 times, […] a few times she had been arrested by the police, along with another boy and girl, she was imprisoned and then sent back to her mother, […]

Her mother knows nothing about the claims of Mr. Karoubi and Mr. Mousavi, and what their sites have stated, and she says that she doesn’t know whether her daughter has run away like last times, or if she has been arrested.

The known fact so far is that Ms. S. P. is missing, […] and the claims made by Mr. Karoubi and his connections are not at all true.

[…] [Saeeda’s mother:] When we held the memorial in Gholhak Mosque, I was surprised when the speaker announced that Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi was there, and then they informed me that Mr. Mousavi wanted to come to my house and sympathize, but I refused. From one day before the memorial to a few days after the memorial, some people who claimed to be representatives of Mr. Mousavi, called my house and talked about matters that I did not know of, and I denied.

[…] After gaining this information, we set a meeting with Mr. Karoubi at 2:00 pm on September 7, 2009 in the office of the attorney general, to further discuss the results of our inspections.

At the beginning of the meeting, before talking about the results, we asked Mr. Karoubi: “During this time, have you found any new information about your previously-stated claims?”

Mr. Karoubi answered: “it seems that Ms. S. P. was not the daughter of a martyr and this assumption was a mistake. A woman contacted me, along with another person, and she told me that she was the sister of Ms. S. P. and that their father was not a martyr, but he had passed a few years back. She wanted information on how her sister had died. I (Karoubi) told her that I did not have information on the details of her death, and I had only heard about it. She asked me to give her the address of her house, and I asked: “How can you not know where you own sister lives?” she answered: “We had serious problems with our father’s wife and I never went to their house and I don’t know where they live.”

I (Karoubi) contacted my people and told them about this woman, and how she claimed that their father was not a martyr, and my connections told me that she was right.

We asked Mr. Karoubi: “Who was responsible for investigating her case?”

Mr. Karoubi answered: “Mr. Maghiseh said that her father was not a martyr, and he said that apparently the girl is still alive and she had called home.”

We had a long, friendly conversation about this case and the details of the inspections, and Mr. Karoubi accepted that his claims about Ms. S. P. were completely wrong and were only created for political advantages.”

Full story

Raped and beaten

for daring to question President Ahmadinejad’s election

From Times online, September 11

Times online has published several accounts of rape and torture in Iran prisons since the election protests and the following arrests began in mid June.

In this editorial Martin Fletcher and a special correspondent in Tehran tells the story of Ardeshir (not his real name), a young engineering student, who […] “was locked up, beaten and raped multiple times for daring to protest against President Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.”

A psychologist said that the young man “has extreme feelings of self-hatred resulting from a sense that he will never be clean again, and from shame over the repeated rapes.”

“A hospital report confirms he suffered anal damage.” […]

Ardeshir “was no political activist but took to the streets on June 20 to protest at the election. He and his friends were attacked by Basij, the Islamic volunteer militia, and separated.

As the violence increased [he] headed to a metro station but was seized by plain-clothed police and thrown into a windowless van containing 14 other bruised and bloodied demonstrators.

They were driven to an apartment building 90 minutes away that was clearly an unofficial detention centre. Ardeshir believes that 60 to 70 detainees were held there.

The new arrivals were ordered to strip to their underwear and stand in lines. Two Basiji “rubbed our genital areas with their batons, calling us ‘scum’ and saying ‘Ah, yes, the balls of the foot soldiers of the heretic Mousavi’,” Ardeshir recalled. “They then promised that we would confess to trying to overthrow the divine regime.”

The next day two Basiji took a 17-year-old schoolboy from the cell that Ardeshir was in. “Ten minutes later we heard him screaming and crying. It then went suddenly silent,” Ardeshir said.

“A couple of minutes later two Basiji grabbed me ... I felt faint and wanted to cry when faced with a scene I had never before in my life imagined ... The boy, completely naked, was seemingly unconscious on the mat, his face in a pile of vomit and with blood around his rectum.

“A Basiji called Mahmoud said, ‘Take a good look. That will happen to you if you resist, you faggot lover of Mousavi’.

“The Basiji then said: ‘Now you.’ “They threw me on my back on the ground. Mahmoud then urinated on my face, saying that this would teach me not to oppose the divine wishes of the Great Leader of the Revolution. ‘We have been sent to re-educate you, you spoilt Western piece of shit,’ he said.

“They took off my underwear and made me go around on all fours. Then Mahmoud said it was time for my punishment. I was still on all fours when he began to rape me. As he penetrated me I cried out and felt as if I would throw up. He told me that if I didn’t stop screaming he would stick his baton up me.

“When he was done, another Basiji came up and raped me. At this point I felt that I was not me. I seemed to have shut down and separated from my body. All I could think of was when it was going to end, and why these people who claim to be the most religious in our society can do such things?”

Every other day Basiji would choose detainees from the cell to rape. “The third time they dragged me from the cell, I momentarily escaped their grip and ran to a corner. I screamed, ‘You say you are Muslim. How can you rape and humiliate us in this way?’. They laughed and said they had religious sanction from the Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] to do so because we had gone against his word.

“Three guys then dragged me from the corner. I was shoved against the wall, face first. Two guys spread my legs and once again I was raped by them. I just cried and prayed for God to take my life. After the third man finished Mahmoud said, ‘This is for insubordination. I warned you. I then felt a large object shoved up my rectum. I think I lost consciousness because the next thing I knew I was back in the cell. […]

“They also liked to take several of us out at the same time and forced us to ride each other, doggy-style, whilst naked. They laughed and took pictures with their mobile phones. They would watch this for ten minutes and then proceed to rape.” […]

After being beaten and raped again by two Basiji Ardeshir finally signed the “confession” which said that opposition leaders and the foreign media had encouraged him to engage in anti-regime activities, and was released.

“He’s a broken boy,” his father told The Times. “I just pray that we can put him back together, although I know he will never be the same gregarious, optimistic, sensitive boy we brought up. How could this so-called Islamic regime do this?”

Iran Panel: Rape Charges Are False

Quotes from an article by Nazila Fathi

- in New York Times, September 12, 2009:

“An Iranian judicial committee rejected accusations put forward by the opposition that its supporters had been raped at detention centers, calling them baseless, and ruled that documents presented as evidence of rapes and other abuse were fabricated, Fars news agency reported Saturday.” […]

“The rape accusations have been especially embarrassing for the country’s religious leadership, which only reluctantly admitted that there had been some other “violations” at one detention center. That admission came after many former prisoners came forward to say they had been tortured, and after conservatives, whose loyalty the government needs, joined a chorus of criticism against the treatment of detainees.” […]

“The judicial committee’s ruling came just one day after Ayatollah Khamenei issued a warning to opposition leaders, saying the government would not tolerate “lies and rumors,” and would give a “harsh response” to those who challenged its principles.” […]

Full story

Saeeda Pour-Aghaie

- raped and killed in detention

Green Brief #63, August 30:

21. Saeeda Pour-Aghaie, a young girl, was raped and killed in detention. Confirmed reports say Saeeda was arrested by Basijis, from her home, for chanting Allaho Akbar from her rooftop. She was taken into detention, raped and then killed. Her body was burnt, except for her legs from her knees downwards, with a strong acid, to hide the evidence of her brutal ordeal.

Twenty days after her initial arrest, her mother was taken to the morgue and her body was identified. Her mother was not allowed to take her body for burial. She was later buried in the 302 section of Beheshte Zahra, in secret, without her family's knowledge.

Her family has been put under extreme pressure, to say the cause of Saeeda's death, was the result of complications arising from a kidney infection.

A picture of Saeeda and a full report in Farsi: http://www.mowjcamp.com/article/id/24124

22. At least two reliable sources, claim they have received reports, that unmarked graves in Beheshte Zahra's 302 section, are the graves of women, who have been raped and then killed, after being arrested for protesting. This could not be confirmed by other sources at this time.

Read more about Saeeda Pour-Aghaie on homylafayette’s blog

Torture and rape is nothing new

- it has been going on for 30 years.

In this video - from VOA (August 2009) - also posted on iReport, Mina Entezari talks about the legacy of torture and rape in Iranian prisons. English subtitles. Translation of interview on iReport.

Mina Entezari’s blog.

For more on political prisoners and prison torture during the 1980s, watch the documentary "Blindfolded Witnesses".

Also read this article in The New York Times News Blog The Lede, quoting from an English translation of an essay by the feminist lawyer and journalist Shadi Sadr:

"Published reports are available about these types of torture committed against women political prisoners after the 1979 Revolution. The most systematic type of reported rape has been the rape of virgin girls who were sentenced to death by execution because of political reasons. They were raped on the night before execution. These reports have been substantiated by frequent statements from the relatives of women political prisoners. On the day after the execution, authorities returned their daughter’s dead body to them along with a sum considered to be the alimony. Reports state that in order to lose their virginity, girls were forced to enter into a temporary marriage with men who were in charge of their prison. Otherwise it was feared that the executed prisoner would go to heaven because she was a virgin! [...]

[I]t is known beyond a shadow of a doubt, that during the 1980s, the rape of women political prisoners was prevalent."

And Mojtaba Samienejad’s (@madyar) blogpost Memories of Prison and Raped Prisoners also quoted in The Lede.

A state-sanctioned murder

Zahra Kazemi (born 1949)

- was an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer.

She was arrested on June 23, 2003, when taking photographs of the demostrations in Tehran, and died on July 11, 2003, in custody of Iranian officials.

Two days later IRNA news agency reported that she had suffered a stroke while she was being interrogated and died in hospital.

On July 16, 2003, Iran’s vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi conceeded that Kazemi died of a fractured skull as a result of being hit in the head.

Shahram Azam, a former military staff physician, had examined Kazemi’s body and found obvious signs of torture:

• skull fracture
• broken nose
• crushed toe
• missing fingernails
• broken fingers
• signs of brutal rape
• marks from flogging
• deep scratches on her neck
• severe abdominal bruisings

Why was Kahrizak prison closed?

via @persianbanoo, August 26

The next 10 tweets are a report on why Kahrizak prison was closed.

• Despite reports that Kahrizak was closed after revelation of Mohsen Rohalamin’s torture and murder
• Other factors may have been involved in closing Kahrizak prison
• Dr. Rohalamin, Mohsen's father, a prominent physician and an insider with high level connections
• After Mohsen's death, Dr. Rohalamin's high level friends started investigating Kahrizak
• In the meantime an un-named journalist had been detained and released from Kahrizak
• This journalist's accounts of Kahrizak may have played an important role in closing this center
• Aftr a high level Government official intervention this journalist was released from Kahrizak after 2 weeks
• In a meeting with this Official, when the journalist was asked to sit down, he replied he can not
• He told the Official, while in Kahrizak he had been repeatedly raped with a baton
• The Official became very disturbed. Two days later the order for closing Kahrizak was issued

Crimes Against Humanity

Rape and sexual abuse committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran:

VOA interview with Babak Daad

Babak Daad on torture and rape in Iranian prisons (farsi)

For an English translation visit the blog For a democratic secular Iran. The blogger, Azarmehr, gives this short introduction to the interview:

"Babak Daad, is an Iranian journalist and blogger who is now on the run and in hiding. Here is what he says in his shocking interview about what is going on in Iran's prisons and how the lackeys of the coup d'etat are ordered to break down the youth of Iran."

English translation and reader comments in Azarmehr’s blogpost Fath-ol-mobin, Codename for Rape Operations in Iran's Prisons

Breaking Down the Youth of Iran

Fath-ol-mobin, Codename for Rape Operations in Iran's Prisons
From the blog For a democratic secular Iran

From a shocking interview with Babak Daad about what is going on in Iran's prisons and how the lackeys of the coup d'etat are ordered to break down the youth of Iran:

"I saw an 18 year old boy, whose father described him as a piece of flesh with no soul […]

What they were doing at Kahrizak, was they would choose the spirited detainees who were resisting them and by raping them they wanted to break them from pursuing justice and freedom, they wanted to break them so bad that these youngsters would become depressed and even hate themselves. […]

A young 18 year old boy purely because he took part in the peaceful silent march on 15th June and wore a green wrist band is attacked, arrested and suffers two weeks of ongoing sexual rape in Kahrizak and is then taken to another prison where he is allowed to slightly recover before he is handed back to his father, I am sorry I have to mention these things but its no longer appropriate to remain silent, he suffers severe rectal and colon laceration, his infection was so bad that they couldn't keep him any longer, this 18 year old was also forced to witness other detainees being raped, he could hear a law enforcement officer, [whom we can identify and hopefully one day bring him to trial] shout 'take these lot and make them pregnant, so they know whats what' […]"

Read full blog post

Babak Daad on Rape Inside Iran's Prisons

From the blog Keeping the Change:

Babak Daad is a journalist who went underground shortly after the June 12 elections and currently remains in hiding inside the country.

This piece, written partly in the voice of an anonymous (though likely real) rape victim and partly from the author's own perspective, is a mixing of multiple realities. [...] It is ... a beautifully written and lyrical piece, providing the personal, yet socially critical perspective on the rape allegations that we did not know we were missing until Mr. Dad brought it to our attention.

"You're 18 years old. Three months ago "you loved Iran and the freedom of its people" and you were ready to give your life so that your country could be "Green." You were unawares that after several weeks of imprisonment and torture, you would become embarrassed of yourself, embarrassed of the people, and even embarrassed of God. You are disgusted! You crawl around in the corner of the house because you are unable even to sit. Your interrogator said to you: "I'll take care of you so that you wont be able to walk for a long time, let alone go to a protest, you fancy-pants kid! You won't even be able to sit. I'll fix you so that you'll have to crawl like a crab." This man wanted to make you a member of the "organization of the apathetic!" Their goal was to make you, you who are young and full of rage, isolated and so abused that you will no longer care about or for anything. [...]"

Read the whole text here.

Karroubi’s letter to Rafsanjani on abuse of detainees

- written July 31, 2009 (but released 10 days later)

Translation at enduringamerica.com, posted August 10:

Excerpts:

[…] Some have been illegally and inappropriately arrested. Others have been subject to beatings. Some have been injured and murdered. People’s residences as well as dormitories have been raided and turned into a bloodbath. Even women have been subject to savage and horrendous abuses on the street. These events should be investigated. But certain other horrific acts have been committed that if not for accounts from different sources in recent days, I or yourself would have had a hard time believing them.

Severe and brutal beatings have been reported such that after 40 days the victims are still not in stable condition.

Detainees have been subject to humiliating badmouthing, and cursing. This also occurred for people who attended your Friday prayer. This sort of behavior is not acceptable in our religious and Islamic culture as all parties and groups have stressed. This shows that people who have been hired to commit these acts are not familiar with the most basic principle of our religion. […]

But I have heard something else that even still, thinking of it makes me shiver. I have not been able to sleep the last two days since I heard this. […]

[…] something horrific has happened in the prisons. If only one case is true, it is a catastrophe for the Islamic Republic of Iran which has turned the bright, shining history of Shia clerics into an atrocious, shameful fate and has outdone many dictatorial regimes, including that of the tyrannical Shah. […]

[…] right now, in society, this issue is being widely discussed by people who were arrested and by different media and websites. It is unclear what future generations will think of these events when they continuously become exaggerated. They will hold the Islamic Republic and clerical ranks also responsible. […]

Mr. Hashemi, this is what I have been informed about:

Some of the detainees have reported that certain individuals have so severely raped some of the girls in custody that the attacks have caused excruciating damage and injury to their reproductive organs. At the same time, they report that others have raped the young boys so violently that upon their release, they have had to endure great physical and mental pain and have been lying in a corner of their homes since. […]

Complete text of the letter

Voice of America - August 13 2009

The following is a translation of Newstalk on Voice of America, Persian, August 13, by "@homylafayette" on Twitter.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Wednesday's episodes of Newstalk are very popular in Iran (midnight to 1AM). Wednesday's popularity is because of the two regular guests: Alireza Nourizadeh and Mohsen Sazegara. Nourizadeh is the director of the Center for Arab & Iranian Studies in London. Sazegara, a founder of the Revolutionary Guards, became a regime opponent and runs the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Topic of Aug 13 VOA Newstalk: Karroubi's letter, torture and rape in Iranian prisons.

Part I:

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Larijani said that after broad investigations, there was no proof of rape or torture. He then asked for proof.

Alireza Nourizadeh:

This is a country where they smash Mohsen Rouholamini's mouth, his body is subjected to torture. Then Health Minister Lankarani says that Rouholamini died of meningitis. They turn everything on its head.

Let me give a little background to this matter. That great cleric Ayatollah Montazeri, when he was steps away from becoming Supreme Leader (in 1989) sacrificed his position by telling the truth and writing a letter to Ayatollah Khomeini. In the letter (sent just before Khomeini's death when thousands were executed in a few months), he spoke of rape. In those days, a few clerics who knew nothing of religion -- among them Jannati (current Guardian Council head) issued fatwas saying that because some jailed women were virgins, they would go to heaven despite their crimes... So, in order to prevent the girls from going to heaven and to torture them until their last moments the revolutionary guards would temporarily marry these girls and rape them before executing them. When parents would come to get loved ones' bodies in the morning, the officials would throw some cash on the table, and they would say, We took 1,000 toumans from your daughter's dowry for the bullet here's the remaining 200 or 150 toumans. Imagine what those parents were feeling.

This process was stopped because of the din raised by Ayatollah Montazeri. Later, when the late Zahra Kazemi was tortured (Canadian-Iranian photographer killed in custody in 2003) we obtained evidence that Jafar Nemati, deputy to Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and a couple of interrogators, in the presence of Prosecutor Mortazavi himself, raped Kazemi with a bottle. The French committed this atrocity on two occasions in Algeria and they subsequently apologized repeatedly.

Today, in the Supreme Leader's Kahrizak prison, they have raped the youngsters with such brutality that Karroubi had to speak out. They are then hospitalized under aliases. I spoke to one of the doctors and he spoke of deep internal tears, in vaginas and rectums. And imagine that all this is happening in the regime of Imam Zaman's (Shiite Messiah) surrogate. Just this is sufficient to pass a guilty verdict on this regime. How can a human being accept that such atrocities are committed on loved ones just because they wear a green ribbon?These loved ones were simply saying, Mr. Mousavi, take our vote back.

Now look at what they're trying to do with Taraneh Mousavi. (allegedly raped, then body dumped and burned) They've made some fake TV report saying such a person doesn't exist, then that she is in Canada. The proof exists that they arrested this lady, raped her, then burned her body. All this to say, there have been many such instances in the regime's history. In this current matter, a Karroubi associate has said that they have hard evidence of at least 39 cases...photos, written statements, recordings... God knows how many have died under this torture. They first said that 20 had died. Mousavi has produced 69 names. The number is even higher.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Mr. Sazegara, what's your analysis? You were one of the early revolutionaries. Did you think it would come to this?

Mohsen Sazegara:

Not at all. In the 1980s we sometimes heard stories like this, never with such scope. I personally didn't believe those stories, or I didn't want to believe them. Until I left Iran. I even sent an open letter to Ahmadinejad in 2005, saying I had met eyewitnesses outside of Iran. Mr. Allamehzadeh has documented these cases on film. My heart goes out to the people of Kurdistan province. Whatever the regime did in other parts of Iran, it committed five time those crimes in Kurdistan. We must not forget the victims of the 1980s.

The things happening in Iran now are legally crimes against humanity. Karroubi's letter is not the only indictment. Look at Mr. Babak Dad's blog and the eyewitness account there. There are dozens of other eyewitness accounts. I have received e-mails as well at makhmalbafsazegara@gmail.com. Mohsen Makhmalbaf and I set up that e-mail address to compile the cases of victims. All this material is being put together outside Iran in preparation for an international tribunal.

Mr. Mousavi said that the 69 names given to the Majlis are but the ones they have managed to find thus far. All indications show that there are at least 150 dead so far.

But why are they resorting to such crimes against humanity, religion, morals...? Because this team of coup plotters has a limited number of security forces. They thought that by committing these crimes, they could create fear and make the people stay at home. The interesting thing is that the opposite has happened. It's true that people were shocked by the violence, but they pulled themselves together. The violence has fed their hatred. The people's hatred of the regime generated by these atrocities has rarely, or never, been seen in Iran. The Iranian nation has been through much over the centuries. These acts have even whitewashed the Mongol invasion! The people of Iran have endured these crimes and have calmly remained on the stage. The people are not afraid and they are wisely channeling their hatred through new tactics. Just today, they came to Bazaar. The wave cannot be stopped.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Mr. Nourizadeh, this issue has resonated in the Arab and Muslim world. What have been the effects? Is the fact that many Arab states have yet to congratulate Ahmadinejad related?

Alireza Nourizadeh:

Let me tell you a story. Rima Maktabi is a young and able journalist in Al-Arabiya TV. When she interviewed me today, she could barely voice her question. She asked, Has this really happened? When I explained the regime's past, the young girls who had been raped by their executioners I could hear a tremor in Rima Maktabi's voice. I could see the fear in this young Lebanese woman as she imagined what would happen if people like Hasan Nasrallah (Hezbollah head, Iran ally) ever come to power in Lebanon.

This issue appeared today in dozens of Arab newspapers, perhaps with a tinge of embarrassment and bitterness. In a country which calls itself Islamic, whose leader believes he is the surrogate of Imam Zaman, crimes have occurred which are even worse than those of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. They do this to their own people! Neda's case was very damaging for them and they spewed some laughable rubbish about how it had been orchestrated. Ahmadinejad, by saying some gibberish about the Holocaust and destroying Israel, may have appealed to some uneducated individuals in the Arab world. Those masses may have applauded Ahmadinejad out of their own ignorance and poverty. The Deputy Tourism Minister recounted how a laborer in Syria had told him he had named his son 'Nejad'. But these current events, and the broad satellite TV coverage in the Arab world have revealed the true face of the Iranian regime and Ahmadinejad to the Arab masses.

Karroubi is not some stranger to this regime. When I or Mr. Sazegara say something, they say these are regime opponents. But Karroubi was close to Khomeini. He spent 8 years in prison. Khomeini named him to run the Martyrs Foundation. Karroubi was a two-term Majlis Speaker, one-term Deputy Speaker, four-term Majlis representative. Such a person is saying, Mr. Rafsanjani if you don't investigate this matter, I'll publish the letter.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Why was the letter sent to Rafsanjani and not Khamenei?

Alireza Nourizadeh:

Because he's implying this Supreme Leader is defunct and the head of the Assembly of Experts must act. Rafsanjani who can't even preach at Friday Prayer, naturally can't respond to such a letter. Instead, Majlis Speaker Larijani responds in a baseless manner.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Rafsanjani's office said he wouldn't preach to avoid unrest.

Mohsen Sazegara:

There's still time for Rafsanjani to change his mind. They've told him, if you don't come this time, you'll never preach...

We've gone through four phases over the past two months: First they tried the old technique of showing strength. They could only come up with 40,000 to the protesters' millions. 2nd phase - Khamenei threatened the protesters which led to Bloody Saturday, when some 80 people were killed. 3rd phase - When people showed no fear, they started the atrocities. I doubt they've closed Kahrizak by the way. 4th phase - The people have not surrendered to the atrocities and are engaging in civil disobedience.

The regime is trying to wage a battle of attrition, but it is the people who are tiring out the government. The people are entering the stage in whatever legal space they can. For example, Friday Prayers. Also soccer games. The last few games have been played without spectators. The people have announced they will attend Friday Prayers once a month. They've made posters in cities throughout Iran to call people to prayer this Friday Aug 14.

Part II:

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Mr. Sazegara, you saw in the news that the West has been accused of intererence. Is there any merit to these charges?

Mohsen Sazegara:

This is par for the course. For 30 years, the regime has accused any critics of being foreign agents. The Intelligence Ministry officials who were recently purged said that no foreign countries were involved. This is not specific to this regime. Stalin used to do it too. But the important point is that the age of doing whatever you want within your borders is over. This is the age of globalization, the age of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is the age of hundreds of international organizations and media outlets. The world sympathizes with the plight of Iranians. Khamenei can't just do whatever he wants. Khamenei can't arrest, torture and kill, then expect the world to stay silent.

When people with dual nationalities are arrested and then people object, the regime says, They entered with their Iranian passports! As if you can do what you want with Iranians. But the world takes these people to task. Look at Omar Al-Bashir (Sudan). Or the Serbs who were tried. Its not just about these show trials. All the crimes of the regime are being documented. They must answer for them.

I'm sorry for people like Larijani (Majlis Speaker) whose brother is about to head another branch (judiciary). To think that he has become such a tool. He used to be math student at Sharif U in the old days. Larijani should have had enough brains to not become a tool of a committee of coup plotters with Mojtaba (Khamenei's son) at its head. This group includes Taeb (Basij head), Aziz Jafari (aka IRGC head). You have such a team with a group of murderers under them--

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Has this information been published anywhere?

Mohsen Sazegara:

No, I've compiled this through many sources. One of my old Revolutionary Guards friends called me the other day. I've known him for a long time and he was a hero of the [Iran-Iraq] war. This friend swore to me that none of the people in his circle was involved with or aware of what was going on. He said, We're not even privy to these developments.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

What did he mean by 'we'?

Mohsen Sazegara:

The good guys in the Revolutionary Guards, the veterans who fought for their country.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

At the same time, the head of the Revolutionary Guards is saying, Our task is not over yet.

Mohsen Sazegara:

These friends I speak of have been sidelined.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

Instead of calling you, why don't they react?

Mohsen Sazegara:

They've all been tempted to write a letter and sign it, but they'd be executed. They have to make preparations. Spread their net wider or go into hiding. The key positions are not held by the old veterans anymore. 50% of the Revolutionary Guards have good records of service to their country and haven't committed crimes. They no longer hold key posts. They may have been 'retired' or they may be instructors... These people are saying, Not only were we not involved in these crimes, but we weren't even informed. A small circle of coup plotters and their Russian cohorts have brought this government to power.

I just wanted to return to the topic of the Arab and Muslim world. The Arab and Muslim world is saying, Attacking prayer goers, raping prisoners, this is not Islam, this is Shiism. When I heard this, I thought, The senior Shiite clerics must engage in Tabarri and not associate with this regime. I can't defend religion, I have no official capacity. But these senior clerics do and must. They must say this so-called Islamic government has nothing to do with Islam.

Host Hamshid Chalangi:

Mr. Nourizadeh, we receive many letters asking why dissident Revolutionary Guards don't rise up. Mr. sazegara says it's because they are afraid. The senior clerics may also be afraid.

Alireza Nourizadeh:

The situation of the senior clerics is different from that of the Revolutionary Guards. The senior clerics are afraid of losing their source of income. They make billions. When senior clerics start owning rubber plants or selling sugar, they worry about their business. Also, this regime has a lot evidence against these clerics and their families. When Ayatollah Golpayegani wanted to organize a funeral wake for Ayatollah Shariatmadari (dissident ayatollah) the regime told him that if he held the wake - this was in Khomeini's time - his grandson would be executed.

From its inception, this Republic of the Supreme Leader has been about fear. Of those who remain, people like Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, I'm amazed at how they remain silent! When Ayatollah Behjat died, he left behind 140 billion toumans. Khamenei ordered that the money be taken because Behjat had wanted the money to be buried with him so Imam Zaman could use it in the Coming. Khamenei said that he was Imam Zaman's surrogate and the money was taken away. When Fazel Lankarani died, he left 96 billion toumans. Such sums are unprecedented in the history of Shiism.

How can Ayatollah Sistani (considered most senior Shiite cleric. Living in Iraq.) remain silent? Is the blood of young Iranians less red than that of Saudi Shiites or Bahraini Shiites? These youngsters are getting raped and these gentlemen say nothing?! What's going on here? In the time of the Shah and his father, these clerics would cry out at the drop of a hat! Do you remember the clamor the clerics made when Iran adopted daylight saving time? How the clerics said, The Shah's trying to ban prayers! Why aren't the senior clerics saying anything now? Either the senior clerics are mired in corruption or they're terrified. This shows that the danger clerics faced during the Shah's time was nothing compared to now in the age of Imam Zaman's surrogate.

As for the Revolutionary Guards, I agree with Mr. Sazegara. If a military man reneges on his oath, his fate is set. Gone are the days when you could put a flower in a soldier's gun barrel and he would embrace you. But keep in mind that the regime didn't bring the Revolutionary Guards into the fray. The security forces in the streets have been made up of NOPO (Nirouyeh Vijeyeh Peiroveh Velayat, special forces) and other vigilante forces alongside the police.

The regime's divided the Tehran military sector into two parts one under General Araghi, the other under General Fazli (veteran). They've been afraid to use Fazli's forces. The Revolutionary Guards who fought for their country are not willing to open fire on the people.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

The Revolutionary Guards chief has said, Our task is not over, we will crush the velvet revolution. If officers in the Revolutionary Guards are against this, why have we not seen any signs?

Alireza Nourizadeh:

We see signs of what is going on in the Guards. They've sent four or five long letters to Khamenei. A week ago, I posted a letter from one officer under his real name on my site. We see numerous requests for leave. Many are asking for early retirement. This shows that that the Guard which swore to defend the Supreme Leader's turban has lost its faith now that it sees that the turban in question is the cause of rapes.

Rest assured, this same blustery Jafari (IRGC head) that you see now will act in the same way as Saddam's generals when push comes to shove. Just look at how some prominent names are taking their distance. Hossein Alai was a founder of the Revolutionary Guards, led the first IRGC navy. Look at what Alai had to say about Mohsen Rouholamini's death (son of prominent conservative, killed in prison).

Host Jamshid Chalangi:

How will the West react if the current situation continues?

Mohsen Sazegara:

A few days ago, I and a few others met with a team of international lawyers to freeze stolen Iranian assets. In the US government, one group wants to support the Green movement, even if it means cutting relations with the regime. Another group, which I disagree with, says that the US must engage with the regime despite everything and that Ahmadinejad's weakness may even allow the US to gain extra concessions.

The issue has not been resolved yet.The demonstrations in Iran have had a strong effect on Western policy. I have never seen such sympathy for the Iranian people.

Alireza Nourizadeh:

When I was in Washington, I met a few figures and discussed US policy. Before this unrest, Dennis Ross's Iran negotiation team had already been chosen. But the Green movement changed everything. Even Obama's position shifted as the days went by. Now Holbrooke and Ross are waiting to see how things unfold as we approach September. The Iranian regime is eager to create a bombshell and give concessions to the US during Ahmadinejad's visit to New York in September. In any case, I don't think Ahmadinejad will have the good fortune to complete his term in good health.

End of translation of VOA Newstalk Aug 12.

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