News from Iran – Week 13 – 2012

Week 13

News of the Prisoners

A-Transfers

• Peyman Aref, student activist, transferred to Modarres hospital on day 4 of his hunger strike, handcuffed and shackled; refuses to stay in this condition and asks to be returned to Evin. He breaks hunger strike.
• Political prisoner Mohammad Ali Velayati on day 8 of hunger strike was taken to Evin clinic.

B- Arrests/Incarcerations

• Aydin Khajei arrested in Tabriz to serve his 6 months sentence.
• Political prisoner Hamzeh Karami is back in Evin after one week out on furlough.
• Sharif University student Ali Akbar Mohammadzadeh back in Evin after Norooz furlough.
• Arrest of Ghasem Nazeri activist from Fars province.
• National/Religious activist Masoud Pedram is back in Evin after 6 days out on furlough for Norooz.
• Ali Asghar Seijani, Director of documentary called 'The Reappearance is Nigh', arrested -again.

C-Liberations

• Bahai poet and writer Natolli Derakshan free on bail 
• Journalist Mehdi Mahmoudian have been released on furlough.
• Journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi has been released on furlough.

D-Other News

• To mark the 999 days of imprisonment of journalist Masoud Basatani, 83 journalists published a letter in his honor.
• Intel agents attempted arrest of newly released Behrooz Javidtehrani in a raid of his home Saturday failed. He wasn't home.
• Mousavi and wife still under house arrest were allowed to have a visit lasting three hours with their daughters in the presence of security forces.
• Telephone is cut with Evin 350.

News of injustice in Iran

• Appeals Court has sentenced Kurdish cultural activist Edris Aag to 1 year.
• Jafar Azarnoush has been sentenced to 8 months by court in Mahabad on charges of collaboration with a banned political group.
• Appeals Court has sentenced Kurdish cultural activist Edris Borna to 1 year
• Gholamreza Hosseini sentenced to nine years for having contact with foreign governments.
• Court of Appeals in West Azarbaijan has reduced sentence of cultural activist Jalal Naseri from 5 to 4 years.
• Appeals Court has sentenced Kurdish cultural activist Naser Naseri to 1 year
• Student activist Nima Pouryaghoub already sentenced to six years has been sentenced to 91 additional days for insulting Aytollah Sistani.
• Court of Appeals in West Azarbaijan has reduced sentence of cultural activist Ghasem Rahimi from 8 to 4 years.

University  - Culture

• Cyber defence will be added to the curriculum of some of universities.
• 650 Websites Blocked in the Final Days of the Year.
• Following hardliners' protests; Hozeh Honari's cinemas stop the screening of films "Guidance Patrol" and "private".
• Film "Chroniques d'un Iran interdit" of Manon Loizeau wins Grand prix du Festival international du grand reportage d'actualité et du documentaire de société (Figra) 2012 in Le Touquet and the Audience Award.
• Bulldozers demolished some part of Yazd's historical context during norouz holidays.
• Iran suspends accreditation for Reuters in Tehran.

Protests

• Haft-Tappeh sugarcan factory workers go on strike for 3 days.

Economy in Iran

• In Iran 18% of all workers have two jobs, the share of labour from GNP is 25%.
• Exchange rate for 1 US Dollar : 1920 Toman ; 1 Euro : 2560 Toman.
• Iran remains one of China’s top three sources of oil.

Iran  abroad

• 17 persons sanctioned by EU Mousa Khalil Elahi, Ali Farhadi, Reza Jafari, Toraj Kazemi, Sadeq Larijani, Ali Mirhejazi, Saeed Mortazevi, Malek Ajdar Rahimi, Gholamhossein Ramazani, Mohammad Ali Ramin, Ghodomani Razavi, Bahman Reshte Ahmadi, Ali Rezvanmanesh, Mohammad Sadeghi,Ali Saeedi, Reza Taqipour, Ezzatollah Zarghami.
• All Turkish banks but one have stopped processing payments for Iranian customers.  
• Ahmadinejad met with his Tajik counterpart in Dushanbe.
• Iran and Iraq close their joint border crossing for security reasons ahead of the Arab League summit in Baghdad.
• Three mass graves found in MKO Camp Ashraf with more then 50 bodies.
• Iran supports agreement between Kofi Anan and Damas.
• Brazil, Russia, India, and China leaders say dialogue is only solution for Syria and Iran.
• Immigration offices are prohibited activities in Iran.

Politics in Iran

• Government, anticipating second phase adds 28,000 tomans (~$22) to monthly subsidies overnight but to 10% fewer households. Majlis calls the addition to the subsidies illegal, apparent violation of laws.
• Iran building a strategic stockpile of grain in anticipation of harsher sanctions or even military conflict.
• Premier Erdogan was received at the airport by Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi (and not by Ahmadinejad).
• Ahmadinejad met with Syrian President’s special envoy.
• Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Akbar Qarehbaghi member of the Assembly of Experts, passed away at 75 years old.
• Hasan Dana’ifar, Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, will attend the Arab League summit meeting in Iraq.

Miscellaneous

• Past National team goalkeeper is banned from exiting country and is given 54 lashes for old complaint.
• Ship with Brazilian sugar for Iran Is hijacked.

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Des Nouvelles d'Iran - Semaine 13-2012

Nouvelles des Prisonniers

A- Transferts

• Peyman Aref, militant étudiant, transféré à l’hôpital Modarres au 4ème jour de grève de la faim menotté et les pieds entravés ; il refuse de rester à l’hôpital dans ses conditions et demande à retourner à Evine. Il arrête sa grève de la faim.
• Le prisonnier politique Mohammad Ali Velayati transféré au dispensaire d’Evine au 8ème  jour de sa grève de la faim.

B- Arrestations/Incarcérations

• Aydin Khadjei arrêté à Tabriz pour purger ses 6 mois de prison.
• Le prisonnier politique Hamzeh Karami de retour à Evine après une semaine de permission.
• L’étudiant de l’université Sharif Ali Akbar Mohammadzadeh de retour à Evine après sa permission de Norouz.
• Ghassem Nazeri, militant de la province du Fars arrêté.
• Le militant national/religieux Massoud Pedram de retour à Evine après 6 jours de liberté provisoire pour Norouz.
• Ali Asghar Seijani, metteur en scène du documentaire 'La Réapparition est proche', de nouveau arrêté. 

C-Libérations 

• Le poète et écrivain bahaï Natolli Derakshan libéré sous caution.
• Le journaliste Mehdi Mahmoudian libéré sous caution.
• Le journaliste Ahmad Zeidabadi libéré sous caution.

D-Autres Nouvelles 

• Pour marquer les 999 jours d’incarcération du journalisteMassoud Bastani, 83 journalistes ont publié une lettre en son honneur.
• Des agents du renseignement ont tenté d’arrêter Behrouz Djavidtehrani en attaquant son domicile samedi; il n’était pas chez lui; il avait été libéré il y a trois mois.
• Moussavi et son épouse, toujours assignés à domicile, ont eu droit à une visite de 3 heures de leurs filles en présence d’agents de sécurité.
• Le téléphone est coupé au bloc 350 d’Evine. 

Nouvelles de l’injustice en Iran

• Le militant culturel kurde Edris Ak condamné en appel à un an de prison.
• Djafar Azarnoush a été condamné à 8 mois par le tribunal de Mahabad pour collaboration avec un groupe politique interdit.
• Le militant culturel kurde Edris Borna condamné en appel à un an de prison.
• Gholamreza Hosseini condamné à neuf ans de prison pour contacts avec des gouvernements étrangers.
• La cour d’appel d’Azerbaïdjan occidental a réduit la peine du militant culturel Djalal Nasseri de 8 à 4 ans.
• Le militant culturel kurde Nasser Nasseri condamné en appel à un an de prison.
• Le militant étudiant Nima Pouryaghoub déjà condamné à six ans condamné à 91 jours supplémentaires pour insultes à l’Aytollah Sistani.
• La cour d’appel d’Azerbaïdjan occidental a réduit la peine du militant culturel Ghassem Rahimi de 8 à 4 ans.
• Hamid Ahmadi, arrêté à 15 ans, condamné à mort.

L’université  - La culture

• La cyberdéfense sera ajoutée au programme de certaines universités.
• 650 sites Web bloqués dans les derniers jours de l’année.
• Suite aux protestations des durs du régime, le conseil artistique du cinéma arrête la diffusion des films « Patrouille Morale » et  «Privé ».
• Le film  « Chroniques d'un Iran interdit  »  de Manon Loizeau a remporté le Grand prix du Festival international du grand reportage d'actualité et du documentaire de société (Figra) 2012 du Touquet ainsi que le Prix du Public.
• Les bulldozers ont démoli une partie historique de Yazd pendant les vacances de norouz .
• L’Iran suspend l’accréditation de Reuters à Téhéran.
• Le poète,  blogger et membre de HRANA Reza Akvaniandétenu 4 heures à l’aéroport, passeport confisqué et interdit de sortie du territoire.

Les manifestations

• Les ouvriers de l’usine sucrière Haft-Tapeh en grève pendant trois jours.

L’économie de l’Iran

• En Iran 18% de tous les travailleurs occupant deux emplois, la part du travail dans le PIB est de 25%.
• Taux de change : 1 US Dollar : 1920 Toman ; 1 Euro : 2560 Toman.
• L’Iran reste l’une des trois principales sources d’approvisionnement en pétrole pour la Chine.
• Les importations japonaises de pétrole iranien chutent de 32.7% en février.
• Pour promouvoir le tourisme, l’Iran cherche à abolir les visas avec 60 pays.
• La Turquie va réduire ses importations de pétrole iranien d’environ 10% déclare le ministre de l’énergie.

L’Iran à l’étranger

• 17 personnes sanctionnées par l’union européenne Reza Djafari, Moussa Khalil Elahi, Ali Farhadi, Toraj Kazemi, Sadegh Laridjani, Ali Mirhedjazi, Saïd Mortazevi, Malek Adjdar Rahimi, Gholamhossein Ramazani, Mohammad Ali Ramin, Ghodomani Razavi, Bahman Reshte Ahmadi, Ali Rezvanmanesh, Mohammad Sadeghi, Ali Saïdi, Reza Taghipour, Ezzatollah Zarghami.
• Toutes les banques turques sauf une ont arrêté d’effectuer des paiements pour leurs clients iraniens.
• Ahmadinejad rencontre son homologue tadjik  à Doshanbe.
• L’Iran et l’Irak ferment leurs points frontières communs pour raison de sécurité à la veille du sommet de la ligue arabe à Bagdad.
• Trois fosses communes contenant plus de 50 corps découvertes au camp Ashraf de l’OMPI.
• L’Iran soutient l'accord entre Kofi Annan et Damas.
• Les dirigeants du Brésil, de la Russie, d’Inde et de Chine disent que le dialogue est la seule solution pour la Syrie et l’Iran.
• Les bureaux d’immigration  interdits d’opérer en Iran.
• Contrairement à ce qui avait été rapporté, les ingénieurs iraniens sont toujours détenus en Iran.

 La politique en Iran

• Le gouvernement, anticipant la deuxième phase des subventions, ajoute 28.000 tomans par mois (environ $22) mais à 10% de foyers de moins. Le parlement déclare cette augmentation illégale. 
• L’Iran monte un stock de céréales pour résister à des sanctions plus dures ou même à une frappe militaire.
• Le Premier ministre Erdogan reçu à l’aéroport par le ministre des affaires étrangères Ali-Akbar Salehi (et non par Ahmadinejad).
• Ahmadinejad rencontre l’envoyé spécial du président syrien.
• L’Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Akbar Qarehbaghi membre de l’assemblée des Experts, décède à l’âge de 75 ans.
• Hassan Dana’ifar, ambassadeur d’Iran en Irak, assitera au sommet de la ligue arabe en Irak.

Nouvelles en vrac 

• L’ancien gardien de but de l’équipe nationale interdit de sortie du territoire et frappé de 54 coups de fouet pour une ancienne accusation.
• Un cargo chargé de sucre brésilien à destination de l’Iran détourné.

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Iran Feature: Muffling the Drumbeats of War? Israel, Azerbaijan, and the US

We have been following the news and analysis heralding a military attack on Iran over its nuclear programme, and more recently, we have noted the media coverage --- following an Obama Administration "red line" against a strike --- hitting back at any launch of conflict.

Now an episode which brings both sides of the political and propaganda struggle together. 

On Wednesday, journalist Mark Perry posted the dramatic revelation, "Israel's Secret Staging Ground":

Four senior diplomats and military intelligence officers say that the United States has concluded that Israel has recently been granted access to airbases on Iran's northern border. To do what, exactly, is not clear. "The Israelis have bought an airfield," a senior administration official told me in early February, "and the airfield is called Azerbaijan."

It was immediately clear, however, that the news had not been fed to Perry to encourage the Israelis. Rather...

...senior U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Israel's military expansion into Azerbaijan complicates U.S. efforts to dampen Israeli-Iranian tensions, according to the sources. Military planners, I was told, must now plan not only for a war scenario that includes the Persian Gulf -- but one that could include the Caucasus. The burgeoning Israel-Azerbaijan relationship has also become a flashpoint in both countries' relationship with Turkey, a regional heavyweight that fears the economic and political fallout of a war with Iran. Turkey's most senior government officials have raised their concerns with their U.S. counterparts, as well as with the Azeris.

Perry adds the context of Israel's recent $1.6 billion sale of drones and missile-defense systems to Baku and rising Azeri-Iranian tensions, including Azerbaijan's arrest of 22 people on charges of spying for Tehran. He then returns to the military prospects:

The Azeri military has four abandoned, Soviet-era airfields that would potentially be available to the Israelis, as well as four airbases for their own aircraft....The U.S. intelligence and diplomatic officials told me they believe that Israel has gained access to these airbases through a series of quiet political and military understandings. "I doubt that there's actually anything in writing," added a senior retired American diplomat who spent his career in the region. "But I don't think there's any doubt -- if Israeli jets want to land in Azerbaijan after an attack, they'd probably be allowed to do so. Israel is deeply embedded in Azerbaijan, and has been for the last two decades."

Most of the media who picked up Perry's article missed the story behind the story, namely the motives of US officials in spilling the secret. Credit, however, to Brad Knickerboxer of the Christian Science Monitor, who was on target: "Did US Just Torpedo Israeli Deal for a Base in Azerbaijan?"

from EA WorldView: EA Iran

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The Latest from Iran (31 March): All Quiet on the Tehran Front...Almost

0530 GMT: After the flutter around the two-day visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iranian politics has fallen back into a lull this morning. Press TV has only one Iran update in the last 13 hours. State news outlet IRNA prefers to look at the Land Day protests across the world in support of Palestinian calls for t erritory and rights, while Fars chooses the speech of Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah --- parallelling this week's statement of the Supreme Leader --- on the Syrian crisis.

Amidst the quiet, whether from a lack of events or an agreement to let tensions lie, there is one innovative ripple. Alef, the website linked to MP Ahmad Tavakoli, uses a supposed historical review to slap at the Government. Its article on the "Global Value of Iran's Money from 300 Years Ago to Today" closes with its intended message:  amidst "the most rapid fall in the national currency", the Central Bank "has the duty to preserve the value of money".

The Iranian Rial is now 19000:1 vs. the US dollar on the open market, a fall of almost 50% from its value last September.

from EA WorldView: EA Iran

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Iran Video Special: How Regime Used "Ninjas" to Shut Down Press in Tehran

All the Regime Needed: Britain's ITN uses footage to portray Iran's "women ninja assassins"

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Twenty-four hours ago, when we posted "Iran Breaking: Female Ninjas to Sue Reuters for Defamation", we did not as a serious investigation but as a follow-up poking fun at Iranian media using an over-blown story for propaganda against "Western" media.

Little did we know that, by the end of the day, the light-hearted would have turned so serious. Far from being just another episode in the "female ninja" PR saga, yesterday's presentation by State media was the set-up to shut down most of the non-Iranian journalists still working in Tehran. Iranian authorities withdrew accreditation from the Reuters bureau, taking the press cards of its 11 staff.

First, the background --- this was the Press TV video, broadcast on 29 January and posted on-line four days later, that presented the women pursuing Ninjutsu:

Yesterday we explained how the Press TV footage, shown in yesterday's entry, was repackaged within day by sensationalist newspapers, such as Britain's Daily Mail: "Meet Iran's Female Ninja Assassins: 3,000 Women Training to Defend the Muslim State".  

At that point Reuters had not even entered the story. But in mid-February, it tried to seize upon the visual possibilities with video and a slideshow (Photo: Caren Firouz):

Reuters' description of the photograph is far from sensational, "Currently about 3000 to 3500 women train in Ninjutsu in independently run clubs throughout Iran working under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports' Martial Arts Federation." The video, posted on 16 February, takes the same line in its narration. However, a headline writer for that video went much, much farther, "Thousands of Female Ninjas Train as Iran’s Assassins".

Combined with the over-the-top presentation in Western newspapers a week earlier, this offered a potent cocktail for media exploitation. For example, the voice-over by Britain's ITN on 18 February (video at top of entry) has nothing on martial arts for fitness and everything on women assassins "trained to defend the Islamic Republic to the death".

Reuters tried to pull back its headline after a complaint by Iranian authorities, replacing it on 26 February with "Three Thousand Women Ninjas Train in Iran", but the damage was done. Press TV broadcast an item the next day, "Iran Ninjas Athletes, Not Assassins", profiling the grave offence taken by the women and warning of action against Reuters.

And so it has come to pass.Reuters maintained its bureau as most foreign journalists were detained, intimidated, shut in their hotels and offices, or forced to flee after the disputed June 2009 Presidential election. Even when its correspondents could not go on the streets for first-hand observation, the bureau could present the view of local witnesses.

That is now in jeopardy with the withdrawal of accreditation. And I cannot help feeling that this is a significant victory for a regime trying to shield Iran --- its economic tensions, its political in-fighting, and the persistence of dissent and a call for rights long after the events of 2009 --- from public scrutiny.

from EA WorldView: EA Iran

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The Latest from Iran (30 March): After Turkey's Prime Minister Went Home....

0630 GMT: Iranian media are still featuring the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this morning. The two dominant themes are Erdoğan's meeting with the Supreme Leader on Thursday, with the headline of the Islamic Republic's determination to stand by the Syrian regime, and the Turkish Prime Minister's appearance on State TV last night, with his support of Iran's right to nuclear technology.

Beyond this political staging, we offer an analysis, "Syria and Ahmadinejad --- Sifting Reality from Propaganda over the Erdoğan Visit".

from EA WorldView: EA Iran

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