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Weather Guide
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Tehran
High: 33 - Low: 25
Ahvaz
Bushehr
Ilam
Khorramabad
Tabriz
Zanjan
Abu Dhabi
Bern
Kabul
Muscat
Sanaa
Seoul
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Identification
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Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Chief Editor:
Amir Ali Abolfath
Editorial Dept. Tel: 88755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 88761869
Subscription Dept. Tel: 88329002-4
Advertising Dept. Tel: 88500616-7
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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Sanctions Unhelpful
MPs IssueCommunique
A communiquŽ issued by 201 MPs voiced support for policies set by the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) regarding the nuclear deadlock.
The MPs noted that Group 5+1 should realize that imposition of fresh sanctions against Iran will compel lawmakers to adopt decisions such as cessation of the implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to uphold the rights of the Iranian nation, Fars News Agency reported.
“Nuclear technology is the inalienable right of the nation and no power in the world could violate this permanent right. The brave children and young scientists of Iran, despite all scientific pressures and restrictions, succeeded in acquiring peaceful nuclear technology in light of their God-given talent and intelligence. This is while the US and other western countries, against an acceptable logic and within the framework of their political interests, want to violate the important right of Iranians,“ it said.
The communiquŽ noted that oil and gas reserves will deplete one day and there is no option other than finding an alternative source of energy, but the powers bullying Iran will not find an opportunity to implement their oppressive policies against the nation.
The MPs also recalled that everybody knows nuclear technology is intertwined with other fields such as medicine, agriculture and geology, and that no country should be deprived of accessing peaceful nuclear technology.
Nuclear technology has transcended political preferences in the Islamic state and transformed into a national will, the communiquŽ said.
Meanwhile, senior official said grounds are prepared for intensive talks with Group 5+1.
Addressing a Majlis formal session on Tuesday, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the latest visit to Tehran of the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and the positive tendency of some of the European members of Group 5+1, including Germany, were the main reasons for the current preparations.
He urged the government to speed up the process of national economic development passed by Majlis, which envisages the generation of 20,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear energy, IRNA reported.
Stressing that the Iranian nation is peace loving and justice-seeking, Boroujerdi said Iranians are against any form of war-mongering or oppressive policies being exercised by the US and Israel.
Such policies, he added, had no use for the world, as it leads to massacre, crisis and insecurity.
Boroujerdi further said the Iranian nation would never be afraid of any threat.
Also on Tuesday, the commission’s rapporteur, Kazem Jalali, said Iran will soon announce its position on the Group 5+1’s package of incentives.
“There are many common points in the two packages of the G5+1 and Iran,“ Jalali told reporters on the sidelines of a Majlis session.
Two packages of proposals were exchanged between Iran and the group during the last few months.
The group’s package of incentives was presented to Iran earlier in June during a visit to Tehran by the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and Iran presented its package of proposals to resolve major international challenges to western countries in May. “In future talks, the two sides could focus on the common points of the two packages,“ he said, adding that Tehran is still scrutinizing the G5+1 package of incentives.
Asked about the time of the next round of talks between Iran and the EU, Jalali said details concerning the resumption of talks would be announced after Iran declared its position on the G5+1 package.
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Dastardly Act
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On July 3, 1988, an Iranian commercial plane en route to Dubai from Bandar Abbas was hit by two missiles fired from the US Navy warship USS Vincennes, which claimed the lives of all on board 290 passengers, including 66 children, and crew.
Photo by Mehdi Khoshnevis
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Ex-Agent: CIA Ignored Nuclear Facts
A former CIA agent filed a motion accusing superiors of deliberately ignoring the realities of the US’ NIE on Iran’s nuclear activities.
Once a secret agent, barred by the CIA from revealing his true name, he said he attempted to warn the agency about its wrong intelligence on Iraq’s weapons.
Now the Central Intelligence Agency is repeating the same mistake on Iran.
The former CIA operative filed a motion in a federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time, The Washington Post reported.
The former operative alleged in a 2004 lawsuit that the CIA fired him after he repeatedly clashed with senior management over his attempts to file reports that challenged then-conventional wisdom about weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
Key details of his claim have not been made public because they describe events the CIA deems secret, the paper added.
The consensus view on Iran’s nuclear program shifted dramatically last December with the release of a landmark intelligence report that concluded that Iran halted work on nuclear weapons’ design in 2003. The publication of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran undermined the CIA’s rationale for censoring the former officer’s lawsuit, said his attorney, Roy Krieger.
“On five occasions, he was ordered to either falsify his reporting on WMD in the Near East, or not to file his reports at all,“ Krieger said in an interview.
In court documents and in statements by his attorney, the former officer contends that his 22-year CIA career collapsed after he questioned CIA doctrine about the nuclear programs of Iraq and Iran. As a native of the Middle East and a fluent speaker of both Persian and Arabic, he had been assigned undercover work in the Persian Gulf region, where he claimed to have successfully recruited an informant with access to sensitive information about Iran’s nuclear program, Krieger said.
The informant provided secret evidence that Tehran had halted its research into designing and building a nuclear weapon. Yet, when the operative sought to file reports on the findings, his attempts were “thwarted by CIA employees,“ according to court papers.
Later he was told to “remove himself from any further handling“ of the informant, the documents say.
In the months after the conflict, the operative became the target of two internal investigations, one of them alleging an improper sexual relationship with a female informant, and the other alleging financial improprieties. Krieger said his client cooperated with investigators in both cases and the allegations of wrongdoing were never substantiated. Krieger contends in court documents that the investigations were a “pretext to discredit“ his allegations.
Krieger maintains that his client is being further punished by the agency’s decision prohibiting him from fully regaining his identity. “He is not even allowed to attend court hearings about his own case,“ Krieger said.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on the specifics of the case but flatly rejected the allegation that the agency had suppressed reports. “It would be wrong to suggest that agency managers direct their officers to falsify the intelligence they collect or to suppress it for political reasons,“ he said. “That’s not our policy. That’s not what we’re about.“
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Turks Oppose AKP Ban
The majority of Turks say they would not favor banning the ruling party and think that any such decision would trigger unrest in the country, according to an opinion poll.
Turkey’s Constitutional Court will begin hearing evidence this week in a case which calls for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to be outlawed for violating the principle of secularism enshrined in the constitution, AP reported.
The poll, published in the “Milliyet“ newspaper on Monday, found that 53.3 percent of those surveyed opposed a ban on the AKP with 34.3 percent in favor.
It also showed that the AKP is still the most popular party in the country despite the court proceedings. Asked to indicate which party they would vote for if elections were held today, 43.4 percent listed the AKP, while the main pro-secular force in parliament, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), received backing from just 18.1 percent.
The AKP won the last elections in July 2007 with 47 percent of the vote and the next poll would not normally be due until 2011.
The country’s chief prosecutor has said that the AKP plans to replace the secular system with a religious regime. Should the constitutional court heed the prosecutor’s demand, it will be the first time that it has outlawed a governing party.
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Israel Closes More Gaza Crossings
Israel kept closed on Tuesday three Gaza border crossings for commercial goods in retaliation for a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory in violation of a truce, a military spokesman said.
“The Sufa, Karni and Nahal Oz crossing points will remain closed Tuesday until a further order in reaction to a rocket fired on Monday evening,“ said Israeli military spokesman, Peter Lerner, AFP reported.
“We’ll review the situation at the end of the day and then take a decision,“ he added.
A rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip late on Monday landed in a field in southern Israel and did not cause any casualties or damage, according to police sources.
Several rockets and mortar rounds have been fired from Gaza since the truce between Israel and Hamas went into effect on June 19.
Under the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire agreement, Gaza militants were to halt rocket and mortar fire and Israeli troops to end military strikes against the impoverished territory. Israel is also supposed to gradually lift its blockade of the territory.
Israel allowed the Sufa terminal to reopen on Sunday after closing it on Wednesday due to rocket fire from Islamic Jihad militants. The Karni Crossing, the largest goods transit point, was kept mostly closed on Sunday.
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Remembering Flight 655
By Armin Hedayati
In the tumultuous three-decade history of the Islamic Republic’s ties with the United States, no day is as dark and dismal as July 3, 1988. On that day, the government of America committed one of the most heinous crimes against humanity.
Twenty years ago to the day an Iranian commercial plane en route to Dubai from Bandar Abbas was hit by two missiles fired from the US Navy warship USS Vincennes. The dastardly act cut short 290 innocent lives (all the passengers, crew and 66 children), as the huge aircraft exploded in midair and plunged into the Persian Gulf.
Many independent sources believe the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the sophisticated AEGIS cruiser inside Iranian territorial waters was a flagrant case of state terrorism plotted at the highest levels in the Ronald Reagan’s White House.
Universally accepted international law holds that hijacking or shooting commercial aircraft is an act of terrorism. In November 2003, the International Court of Justice concluded that the US Navy’s reckless action had been unlawful. Match this ruling with what the then regime in Washington claimed to be “a justifiable defensive action!?
What was more shocking to world public opinion was that Reagan went out of his way to support William Rogers, commander of the infamous warship. He lauded his ’courage’ and later awarded him a medal of honor for bravery. It is for the free peoples and respectable leaders of the world to ascertain how such a crude and criminal act of a military man who killed 290 innocent people be deserving of honor from the president of that country.
Another outrageous factor is that the unprovoked attack by the superpower took place in support of another war criminal--Iraq’s deposed ruler Saddam Hussein. In the final years of the Iraq-imposed war (1980-88), it was becoming clear that Saddam’s Iraq had been vanquished despite strong western and Arab backing for Baghdad.
The big powers, including the US, the USSR, Germany, France and the UK, inundated Iraq with financial, military, economic and political support to abort the downfall of their Baath Party chief and topple the newly-established Islamic state.
Over and above the generous but eventually dangerous help extended to the Iraqi dictator for his long list of war crimes, America actually entered into the bloody conflict in 1986. In the following two years and before hostilities ended in 1988, the US military attacked several of our oil installations, ports and economic centers in the Persian Gulf. The last such unforgivable crime was the shooting down of Flight 655.
It must be added that Reagan and his cult did issue some half-hearted notes of regret over the tragic incident. However, to this day, the US government, so much in love with rule of law, freedom and human rights across frontiers, has neither admitted any wrongdoing nor apologized for downing the Iranian plane.
To add insult to injury, the men on the Vincennes were all praised and awarded commendation medals for “heroic achievements“.
A month after the attack, vice president George Bush (who later became president), and father of the incumbent war president Bush Jr. said, “I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don’t care what the facts are.“
Democrats and despots come and go. One day a country is an enemy, tomorrow it may not be so because alliances and allegiances are not and should not be permanent fixtures of nations and states. Similarly, wounds may heel over time, but the pain remains embedded in the soul.
Iranians will neither forgive nor forget this horrible American crime. History and posterity will see to it that our coming generations read clearly the writing on the wall when it comes to dealing with America and its ruthless rulers.
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