Iran-News

French police swoop on Iran opposition group

2003-06-17T20:36:00.000+04:30

by www.swissinfo.org

By Laure Bretton

PARIS (Reuters) - French police have launched a major swoop on a left-wing Iranian exile group based in the
Paris region, rounding up 167 sympathisers for questioning over possible links to terrorism and seizing $1.3 million
(770,000 pounds) in funds.

The Interior Ministry said around 1,300 police and national security officers descended on homes and office of
the People's Mujahideen from 6 a.m. (5 a.m. British time) on Tuesday in a raid ordered by leading anti-terrorist
investigating judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

Television pictures showed masked riot police equipped with automatic rifles as they stormed houses, with
helicopters circling overhead. Soon afterwards, some were seen carrying boxes of files and paperwork from the
raided premises.

Among those detained was Miryam Rajavi, wife of Mujahideen founder Massoud Rajavi and head of the exile
umbrella group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), police said. Nine people were released immediately,
while the rest were detained.

Police said they had also seized $1.3 million in $100 bills from the Mujahideen, the main armed opposition to
Tehran's Islamic leadership, along with computers and communications equipment.

The Mujahideen joined the 1979 Islamic revolution but later broke from the ruling clerics. Based in Iraq since the
early 1980s, their fighters clashed with U.S. forces in the recent Iraq war but reached a truce with them last month.

The European Union put the group -- also known by its Farsi name Mujahideen-e-Khalq -- on its list of banned
"terrorist" organisations in May 2002 but did not include the NCRI. The United States and Britain also classify the
Mujahideen as terrorists.

LINKED TO EU PLANS?

The NCRI, a coalition of moderate or left-wing opponents of Islamic rule of which the Mujahideen is the military
arm, has offices in Washington and many European countries, and presents itself as a potential replacement for
Islamic rule in Iran.

Diplomats said Paris may have moved against the Mujahideen -- something Tehran has long demanded -- to
bring Iran into a wider search for peace in the Middle East, where Washington accuses it of supporting Lebanon's
Hizbollah against Israel.

The United States has no official ties with Iran and has branded it part of an "axis of evil," while the European
Union promotes trade with Tehran as a way of achieving more influence.

The NCRI promptly denounced the arrests and called for the immediate release of all detainees.

"We condemn this raid which is in our view illegal and morally and politically unjustifiable," London-based NCRI
official Ali Safavi told Reuters by telephone. "This action is part of a dirty deal (by the EU) with the terrorists who rule
Tehran," he said.

Paris-based NCRI officials could not be reached for comment.

Tuesday's police operation targeted 13 of the rebel group's bases in Val d'Oise and in Yvelines, to the north and
west of Paris, and was expected to last for much of the day.

PARIS PLANNING FOR IRAN ATTACKS?

Bruguiere, who started tracking terrorists two decades ago, ordered the raid on the grounds of "possible
conspiracy to plan or finance acts of terrorism," an interior ministry source said.

This concerned "attacks committed in Iran and claimed by this organisation" that may have been planned in
France, the source said.

The main NCRI centre, at Auvers-sur-Oise north of Paris, is a complex of four villas surrounded by a high wall
topped with barbed wire and protected by police guards and video cameras.

Miryam Rajavi, who the NCRI says would become Iran's president if the Mujahideen ever toppled the Tehran
leadership, was living there at the house of her brother-in-law Saleh Rajavi, a naturalised French citizen who was
also detained.

Reuters

Powell Encourages Iran Protests, U.S. Not Fomenting

2003-06-17T20:35:00.001+04:30

by www.reuters.com

By Arshad Mohammad

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell encouraged Iranians on Tuesday to demonstrate for their rights and dismissed Tehran criticism that Washington was interfering in its internal affairs.

"Our policy is to encourage people to demonstrate for their views," Powell said when asked about Iranian charges that the United States was fomenting the protests.

He was speaking to reporters on a flight to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Demonstrations in Tehran against Iran's clerical rulers appeared to die down on their seventh night on Tuesday with uniformed police reining in Islamic militants who attacked protesters with clubs and chains on previous nights.

"We are not out there inside Iran fomenting them but if people wish to demonstrate peacefully and demonstrate for their right for a better life that seems to us to be a proper thing to do," Powell said.

Iran has blamed the United States for stirring up the unrest and on Monday said it had sent an official protest to Washington for what it called blatant interference in its internal affairs.

Powell dismissed such charges.

"Iran, as usual, is... just trying to deflect its problems onto others," he said.

The United States has applauded the protests as a fight for freedom by the Iranian people.

Iran is also under worldwide pressure for it to permit stricter U.N. checks of its nuclear program. The Iranian unrest was first sparked by small student protests against proposed university privatizations, but gained momentum when thousands of ordinary people flocked to the campus after calls by U.S.-based Iranian exile satellite channels.

In previous years traditionally politicized students had been largely left to go it alone and the frequent calls for action by the exile television stations had been mostly ignored.

Protesters vented most of their anger at conservative clerics who control the key reins of power in Iran, but they also condemned moderate President Mohammad Khatami, accusing him of failing to deliver promised reforms after six years in office.

Iran's students win support

2003-06-17T20:35:00.000+04:30

by www.fresnobee.com

Teachers, writers join dissent; leaders reject nuclear inspections.
Bee News Services

TEHRAN, Iran -- More than 250 university teachers and writers added their voices to students' bold demands for democratic reforms in Iran, telling supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei he must answer to the people and abandon the idea that he is God's unchallenged representative on Earth.
The reformists' statement, published Monday in the newspaper Yas-e-nou, was an encouraging sign for the students who demonstrated for about a week and even called for Khamenei's death before their protests were broken up by police and hard-line government backers.

Many Iranians are believed to be frustrated with the rule of Muslim clerics, but the cost of speaking out can be high, including prison sentences. Most Iranians looked on as protesters clashed with police and pro-clergy militants last week. Without support from other segments of society, the students have little hope of success.

Those who signed the statement did so even though the protests were put down by violence and politicians who have made similar calls have been arrested in the past. The signatories included two aides to reformist President Mohammad Khatami: Saeed Pourazizi, an official in the president's office, and Saeed Hajjarian, who is widely regarded as the architect of Khatami's reform program.

The Bush administration endorsed the demonstrators.

Separately, Iran rejected Monday mounting calls from the West for international inspectors to make spot checks of its nuclear facilities.

Iranian leaders said they would agree to such inspections only if sanctions that prevent it from acquiring nuclear technology were lifted.

But they left the door open for discussion.

"Iran cannot act against its public opinion and national interests as long as it is not clear whether those countries that possess nuclear technology will abide by their commitments in transferring the expertise" to Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.

French Raid Possible Iranian Terrorists

2003-06-17T20:34:00.000+04:30

by www.ajc.com

By ELAINE GANLEY
Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP)--Masked and heavily armed French police raided the offices Tuesday of an Iranian opposition group accused of links to terrorism, detaining 165 people and seizing $1.3 million, the government said.

The interior minister said the raids were motivated by evidence that France was becoming a major operations center for the group, whose Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces.

On orders of France's leading anti-terrorism judge, about 1,300 police poured into the streets and knocked down doors of offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq in a vast sweep of sites north and west of Paris.

Police also seized computer material and sophisticated transmission systems, an investigator said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Mujahedeen Khalq has been allowed to operate openly in France for about 20 years. Judicial officials said the raids, on offices housing the group's political arm, had been planned for a month.

The action came as pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran have become emboldened and as Europeans urge Iran to open its nuclear sites to international inspections. Tehran had complained that Western nations were allowing the Mujahedeen to operate freely while, at the same time, accusing Iran of links to Middle East terrorist organizations.

The Mujahedeen's Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces in May under a surrender agreement after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The well-armed National Liberation Army of Iran had used neighboring Iraq to mount operations against Iran in an effort to topple the Islamic Republic.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France had become an increasingly important base for the Mujahedeen, particularly after their setback in Iraq.

The organization ``recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq,'' he told lawmakers. ``We cannot accept that.''

The group, also called the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union in May 2002. The United States also labels it a terror group.

Among those detained were Maryam Rajavi, wife of Mujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi, who is based in Iraq, and Saleh Rajavi, Massoud's brother, judicial officials said.

The raids were carried out on the orders of French anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere for ``criminal association aimed at preparing terrorism acts and for financing a terrorist enterprise,'' the Interior Ministry said.

The group's Paris offices ``are considered organizational, logistical and operational bases of questionable financing,'' a ministry statement said.

The money--in $100 bills--was found stashed in a villa in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris, where the group kept its headquarters, police said. The sweep included buildings in the Yvelines region west of Paris.

Of 165 people rounded up, 159 were kept for questioning, police said.

The Mujahedeen denounced the action.

``The individuals arrested in the unjustifiable raids this morning were all in France legally and had not conducted any illegal activity whatsoever,'' Mujahedeen spokesman Ali Safavi said by telephone from London.

``They have churned out these lies to justify this act which is only to the satisfaction of the terrorist regime that rules Iran,'' he said.

French judicial officials opened an investigation into possible terrorist links by the group in 2001. However, the prosecutors office only added ``financing a terrorist enterprise'' to the dossier last week, according to judicial officials. It was not immediately clear what prompted the addition.

It was the first time since the EU named the group a terrorist organization that French authorities moved to detain members.

Safavi, the group's spokesman, claimed French police had been protecting it for 22 years ``because the Mujahedeen are the No. 1 terrorist target of the Iranian regime.''

The Mujahedeen have been based in France since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The group initially supported the revolution but fell out with the government, advocating a secular state. It now has offices in several Western cities.

Group leader Rajavi was expelled from France to Iraq in 1986 as the French government was trying to improve relations with Iran and help win freedom for nine French hostages in Lebanon. He then set up the army in Iraq.

Iran's Mosharekat Party worried about Abdi's conditions in prison

2003-06-17T20:33:00.001+04:30

by www.payvand.com

Iran's leading Mosharekat (Participation) Party on Monday expressed deep worries over the conditions of its prominent member, imprisoned journalist Abbas Abdi, IRNA reported from Tehran.
The party in a communique issued on the matter asked the judiciary officials to pave the ground as soon as possible for Abdi's meeting with his lawyer and family members.

In the communique a copy of which was faxed to IRNA on Monday night, alluding to the documents referred to at Abdi's court hearing, it is noted, "Proof has been provided regarding being forged of the confidential documents in question, which makes closer attention paid to the matter necessary."

Mosharekat Party has stressed in the communique that rumors on Abdi's disagreement with the presence of his lawyer at the hearing in which "Part D" of the the accusations brought up against him were surveyed are quite baseless and erroneous."

It adds, "Despite Mr. Abdi's request, the time he needed to acquire the necessary documents and proof to defend himself was neither granted to him, nor to his lawyer."

The Mosharekat Party's communique concludes arguing, "Now that the preliminary and appeals courts have issued their decrees, the continuation of imprisonment of Abbas Abdi makes absolutely no sense."

It adds, "Abdi is not only a well known political activist, but a renowned cultural, scientific and journalist personality, who should not be imprisoned under the current circumstances."

Tehran calm Monday evening, rallies reported in other Iranian cities

2003-06-17T20:33:00.000+04:30

by ww.payvand.com

After six nights of student unrest in the Iranian capital, Tehran was almost calm Monday evening after police were stationed in Tehran University's dorm to keep order, IRNA reported.

However, several sporadic demonstrations were reported in other cities where small numbers of students staged short rallies to protest the Saturday early morning raid of a university dorm in Tehran by plainclothes vigilantes, the so-called "Ansar-E Hezbollah".

IRNA offices in Mashhad, Karaj, Kerman, Isfahan, Tabriz, Kermanshah, and Hamedan have reported small rallies in protest against the attacks by Ansar-E Hezbollah against students in Tehran.

Some of the rallies later turned into an opportunity for thugs to misuse student protests and try to create disorder by chanting slogans against the government.

The police later in the night dispersed the thugs and restored order in the cities.

A brief meeting by students at Tehran University's dorm to protest alleged privatization of universities turned into an angry rally last Tuesday that was followed by several days of late evening demonstrations.

The police have been heavily stationed at the dorm over the past week. No clash between the police and students has been reported yet.

The police have tried to keep the Ansar-E Hezbollah away from the students to stop a confrontation and prevent the recurrence of the group's violent raid into the dorm in 1999 that left one killed and several others badly wounded thus sparking three days of unrest in Tehran.

However, the Ansar-E Hezbollah, lead by Saeed Asgar, who carried out a failed assassination attempt on Saeed Hajjarian, a member of the former Tehran City Council in 2000, stormed into the dorm of Tehran's Alameh Tabatabaei University early Saturday morning, beat up some 80 students and destroyed their properties.

The police later Sunday announced that it had arrested Asgar and several of his fringe members, and vowed to prevent any effort to create insecurity in Iran.

Meanwhile, Deputy Interior Minister for Political and Security Affairs Ali Asghar Ahmadi said on Monday that 250 people were arrested in the recent unrest in Tehran stressing that 35 percent of those arrested were "counter revolutionaries and hooligans".

Ahmadi further added that "all those arrested, except for that 35 percent, have been freed."

Shahroudi says demands of students must be met appropriately
Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said in Tehran on Monday it was natural for students to stage rallies to ask for their demands to be met, adding that those demands, if deemed logical, must be responded to in an appropriate manner, IRNA reported.

Shahroudi was referring to recent angry rallies by students of Tehran University which lasted for several days in protest against privatization of universities.

He told a session of high-ranking Judiciary officials that it was common for students throughout the world to put forward certain demands, but said the recent rallies had been abused by certain individuals who were not students.

The Judiciary chief described as critical the prevailing conditions of Iran and the Middle East, and urged the police to prevent any incident which might be used as a pretext against Iran by the enemies.

"The officials of the country will stand steadfast against any issue that might jeopardize the interests of the Islamic Republic," Shahroudi said.

"The more the US steps up its pressures against Iran, the stronger will be the solidarity and unity of the Iranian nation."

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Judiciary chief said the remarks by US leaders in support of unrest in other countries was a sign of 'blatant interference' in their internal affairs.

Iran Official says 35% of protest detainees counter-revolutionaries, hooligans

2003-06-17T20:32:00.000+04:30

by www.payvand.com

An Interior Ministry official said in Tehran on Monday that over 250 people were arrested in the recent unrests in Tehran of whom 35 percent were counter revolutionaries and hooligans, IRNA reported.

The Deputy Interior Minister for Political and Security Affairs li Asghar Ahmadi added "all those arrested, with the exception of about 35 percent who are counter-revolutionaries and hooligans, have been freed."

He said these people have been handed to judicial officials and will be interrogated to determine their possible offenses.

Ahmadi said that the police had cracked-down on counter-revolutionaries as well as plaincloth vigilantes groups.

"Some of the latter and their ring leader Saeed Asgar have also been detained."Ahmadi said.

He added that the activities by the vigilantes have been significantly reduced in the past two nights adding "Asgar should be put on trial."

He further said no one supports these wayward vigilantes, "although they may on occasions introduce themselves as part of the Basij (Volunteer) Forces or Islamic Revolution Guards Corp.

On Saturday, a student association, affiliated to volunteer Basij militia, warned 'vigilantes' against attacking students and their residences and said such raids could lead to playing to the hands of enemies.

The Collegiate Basij Association of Tarbiat-e Modarres University said in a statement that the attacks were orchestrated by 'a handful of unidentified individuals' following student riots in protest against possible privatization of universities.

"Such illegal actions are pursued along the lines of riots and ultimately benefit the enemies of the establishment," it said.

The Iranian capital has witnessed a wave of protests since Tuesday following a peaceful gathering of students in protest to proposed privatization of universities.

Officials have been quick to condemn the unrest and speculate that foreign hands were involved to incite the protests.

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari has vowed that relevant institutions would deal with 'hooliganism and illegal gatherings'.

Reporters authorized to meet Iran protest detainees

2003-06-17T20:30:00.001+04:30

by www.payvand.com

Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutors' Offices announced in Tehran on Monday that reporters are now authorized to meet those arrested in the recent unrests in Tehran, IRNA reported.
The prosecutor's office public relations department said in a fax, a copy of which was sent to IRNA, that the courts have authorized reporters to meet and take pictures of the detainees.

It also called the detainees as "hooligans" and "opportunists" warning that the police will strongly confront those who aim to disturb the public peace.

It said among those arrested in Tehran are "corrupt street women" and accused the US as being behind the recent disturbances in the country.

Meanwhile, the head of a key journalists association has written separate letters to Iran's interior minister and police chief, in which he has complained of alleged harassment of journalists by vigilantes during recent on-campus unrest.

Rajab-Ali Mazrouie, the head of the Iranian Journalists Guilds Association, has called for "respecting the prestige and dignity of journalists and guaranteeing their freedom of activity at the time of various events".

"In the course of student protests over the past few days, several journalists have been beaten up by plain-clothes elements as well as unfortunately by police," he said in part of his letters, released Saturday.

"Article 5 of the Press Law recognizes gathering and publishing domestic and foreign news as a legal right, but unfortunately this important right is ignored during some events," Mazrouie, who also represents Tehran in parliament, said.

"The damage resulting from such illegal actions leads to ignoring people's right of being kept informed of the society's events and deprives state officials from the views of informed observers," he added.

US Congressman Bob Ney Voices Support for Iranian Students' Demonstrations for Democracy

2003-06-17T20:30:00.000+04:30

by www.payvand.com

WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Rep. Bob Ney (OH-18) today expressed his sympathy and solidarity with the student demonstrators in Iran who, for six consecutive nights, have protested against the lack of freedom and democracy in the mullah-controlled nation. Scores of students have been beaten and arrested in Tehran by armed supporters of Iran's conservative leadership. Ney, who speaks Persian, taught English in Iran in the late 1970's, before the Shah of Iran was ousted in the 1979 revolution. He stays in close contact with Iranian-Americans in the U.S. and follows the events in Iran closely.
"I lived in Iran in 1978 when demonstrations against the Shah were widespread and common. Yet here we are, more than twenty years later, and the Iranian people's desire for democracy and freedom remains unfilled and unmet by an oppressive regime that forbids the most basic human rights for its people," Ney said today. "I firmly believe that democracy and freedom are human rights. No matter what culture you're from, or what country you reside in, you have these rights. The Iranian people deserve these rights."

"Today, America stands with the Iranian people's aspirations to exercise their rights to free elections, self-determination, good governance, democracy and freedom. I am appalled by the crackdown on these student demonstrators, but at the same time, their voices are growing louder by the day and they are being heard around the world. The indomitable desire of a people to be free cannot be muzzled forever, and I am confident that the Iranian people will soon reach their goals of freedom and democracy," Ney concluded.

French Raid Possible Iranian Terrorists

2003-06-17T20:29:00.000+04:30

by www.abcnews.go.com

The Associated Press

Masked and heavily armed French police raided the offices Tuesday of an Iranian opposition group accused of links to terrorism, detaining 165 people and seizing $1.3 million, the government said.

The interior minister said the raids were motivated by evidence that France was becoming a major operations center for the group, whose Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces.

On orders of France's leading anti-terrorism judge, about 1,300 police poured into the streets and knocked down doors of offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq in a vast sweep of sites north and west of Paris.

Police also seized computer material and sophisticated transmission systems, an investigator said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Mujahedeen Khalq has been allowed to operate openly in France for about 20 years. Judicial officials said the raids, on offices housing the group's political arm, had been planned for a month.

The action came as pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran have become emboldened and as Europeans urge Iran to open its nuclear sites to international inspections. Tehran had complained that Western nations were allowing the Mujahedeen to operate freely while, at the same time, accusing Iran of links to Middle East terrorist organizations.

The Mujahedeen's Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces in May under a surrender agreement after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The well-armed National Liberation Army of Iran had used neighboring Iraq to mount operations against Iran in an effort to topple the Islamic Republic.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France had become an increasingly important base for the Mujahedeen, particularly after their setback in Iraq.

The organization "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq," he told lawmakers. "We cannot accept that."

The group, also called the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union in May 2002. The United States also labels it a terror group.

Among those detained were Maryam Rajavi, wife of Mujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi, who is based in Iraq, and Saleh Rajavi, Massoud's brother, judicial officials said.

The raids were carried out on the orders of French anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere for "criminal association aimed at preparing terrorism acts and for financing a terrorist enterprise," the Interior Ministry said.

The group's Paris offices "are considered organizational, logistical and operational bases of questionable financing," a ministry statement said.

The money in $100 bills was found stashed in a villa in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris, where the group kept its headquarters, police said. The sweep included buildings in the Yvelines region west of Paris.

Of 165 people rounded up, 159 were kept for questioning, police said.

The Mujahedeen denounced the action.

"The individuals arrested in the unjustifiable raids this morning were all in France legally and had not conducted any illegal activity whatsoever," Mujahedeen spokesman Ali Safavi said by telephone from London.

"They have churned out these lies to justify this act which is only to the satisfaction of the terrorist regime that rules Iran," he said.

French judicial officials opened an investigation into possible terrorist links by the group in 2001. However, the prosecutors office only added "financing a terrorist enterprise" to the dossier last week, according to judicial officials. It was not immediately clear what prompted the addition.

It was the first time since the EU named the group a terrorist organization that French authorities moved to detain members.

Safavi, the group's spokesman, claimed French police had been protecting it for 22 years "because the Mujahedeen are the No. 1 terrorist target of the Iranian regime."

The Mujahedeen have been based in France since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The group initially supported the revolution but fell out with the government, advocating a secular state. It now has offices in several Western cities.

Group leader Rajavi was expelled from France to Iraq in 1986 as the French government was trying to improve relations with Iran and help win freedom for nine French hostages in Lebanon. He then set up the army in Iraq.

SIMITIS-KHATAMI TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION

2003-06-17T20:26:00.000+04:30

by www.mpa.gr

Iranian President Khatami had a telephone communication with Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis to assure him that his country has no nuclear weapons neither intends to have any in the future.

According to Greek government spokesman Christos Protopapas, Mr. Khatami said to Mr. Simitis that Iran is interested only in the production of electricity for development purposes.

The Greek Prime Minister, under his authority as the European Council President, stressed the need for Iran to maintain transparency in its policy, cooperate with the UN and sign the additional protocol for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Vast police sweep to detain members of Iran's People's Mujahedeen in France

2003-06-17T20:21:00.000+04:30

by www.sfgate.com

ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

(06-17) 08:39 PDT PARIS (AP) --

Masked and heavily armed French police raided the offices Tuesday of an Iranian opposition group accused of links to terrorism, detaining 165 people and seizing $1.3 million, the government said.

The interior minister said the raids were motivated by evidence that France was becoming a major operations center for the group, whose Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces.

On orders of France's leading anti-terrorism judge, about 1,300 police poured into the streets and knocked down doors of offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq in a vast sweep of sites north and west of Paris.

Police also seized computer material and sophisticated transmission systems, an investigator said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Mujahedeen Khalq has been allowed to operate openly in France for about 20 years. Judicial officials said the raids, on offices housing the group's political arm, had been planned for a month.

The action came as pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran have become emboldened and as Europeans urge Iran to open its nuclear sites to international inspections. Tehran had complained that Western nations were allowing the Mujahedeen to operate freely while, at the same time, accusing Iran of links to Middle East terrorist organizations.

The Mujahedeen's Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces in May under a surrender agreement after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The well-armed National Liberation Army of Iran had used neighboring Iraq to mount operations against Iran in an effort to topple the Islamic Republic.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France had become an increasingly important base for the Mujahedeen, particularly after their setback in Iraq.

The organization "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq," he told lawmakers. "We cannot accept that."

The group, also called the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union in May 2002. The United States also labels it a terror group.

Among those detained were Maryam Rajavi, wife of Mujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi, who is based in Iraq, and Saleh Rajavi, Massoud's brother, judicial officials said.

The raids were carried out on the orders of French anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere for "criminal association aimed at preparing terrorism acts and for financing a terrorist enterprise," the Interior Ministry said.

The group's Paris offices "are considered organizational, logistical and operational bases of questionable financing," a ministry statement said.

The money -- in $100 bills -- was found stashed in a villa in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris, where the group kept its headquarters, police said. The sweep included buildings in the Yvelines region west of Paris.

Of 165 people rounded up, 159 were kept for questioning, police said.

The Mujahedeen denounced the action.

"The individuals arrested in the unjustifiable raids this morning were all in France legally and had not conducted any illegal activity whatsoever," Mujahedeen spokesman Ali Safavi said by telephone from London.

"They have churned out these lies to justify this act which is only to the satisfaction of the terrorist regime that rules Iran," he said.

French judicial officials opened an investigation into possible terrorist links by the group in 2001. However, the prosecutors office only added "financing a terrorist enterprise" to the dossier last week, according to judicial officials. It was not immediately clear what prompted the addition.

It was the first time since the EU named the group a terrorist organization that French authorities moved to detain members.

Safavi, the group's spokesman, claimed French police had been protecting it for 22 years "because the Mujahedeen are the No. 1 terrorist target of the Iranian regime."

The Mujahedeen have been based in France since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The group initially supported the revolution but fell out with the government, advocating a secular state. It now has offices in several Western cities.

Group leader Rajavi was expelled from France to Iraq in 1986 as the French government was trying to improve relations with Iran and help win freedom for nine French hostages in Lebanon. He then set up the army in Iraq.

Iranians Raided in French Anti-Terrorist Operation

2003-06-17T20:19:00.000+04:30

by www.bloomberg.com

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of French police swooped on members of the People's Mujahedeen, an Iranian opposition group, during anti-terrorist raids in the Paris suburbs today, the Interior Ministry said.

The French operation followed six nights of protests against the Iranian government in the capital, Tehran, where Agence France- Presse reported more than 250 people were arrested.

France's top anti-terrorist investigator, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, ordered the raids as part of inquiries into a ``criminal conspiracy with the intent to prepare acts of terrorism'' and ``financing of a terrorist enterprise,'' ministry spokesman Gerard Laurent said in a telephone interview in Paris.

The U.S., which includes the People's Mujahedeen on its list of banned terrorist organizations, says the group received military support from the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. U.S.-led forces attacked Mujahedeen bases inside Iraq after invading the country in March. The U.S. accuses Iran of backing terrorism and developing nuclear weapons and included it in an ``axis of evil.''

Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, in today's edition of Germany's Der Tagesspiegel, says ``there's a good chance for a peaceful regime change'' in the Islamic republic.

About 1,300 police officers searched for Mujahedeen members in 13 locations in the northwestern suburbs of Paris at dawn in an operation that will continue all day, Laurent said.

A total of 159 people were detained, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said in parliament. They include Maryam Radjavi, the wife of the group's leader, and his brother, Saleh Radjavi, Laurent said. There was no indication the French raids are related to the Iranian protests.

Political Headquarters

The Marxist People's Mujahedeen, or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, set up their European political headquarters in the French town of Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris, in the 1980s. Among places raided today was a complex of buildings near the town, Laurent said. Auvers is famous as the place where the impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh spent the last three months of his life before committing suicide in July 1890.

Since the fall of Hussein in Iraq, the group has wanted to turn France into ``its rearguard base,'' Sarkozy said in parliament. Police today took away computer records that will be studied, he said. Laurent said $1.3 million were confiscated in $100 notes as well as 150,000 euros ($177,345). Sarkozy said the European Union had put the Mujahedeen on its list of terrorist groups in May 2002.

Cross-Border Attacks

The Mujahedeen formed the opposition National Liberation Army in 1987 with more than 10,000 fighters who carried out cross- border attacks inside Iran. The group took part in the 1979 revolution that brought the fall of the Shah of Iran. It later fell out with the Islamic regime that followed and went into opposition.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry welcomed the French move against the group as ``a positive step,'' AFP reported, citing Iran's IRNA news service. Iran expects ``France to treat these people as dangerous terrorists,'' ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a statement carried by IRNA.

A Mujahedeen spokesman said allegations against the group in France were ``absolutely preposterous,'' AFP reported.

``Wherever they are, they are absolutely not involved in illegal activities in their host country,'' spokesman Ali Safavi, who's based in London, told AFP. Safavi said the French government acted against the Mujahedeen ``to curry favor with the fundamentalist regime in Iran,'' AFP reported.

Last Updated: June 17, 2003 11:21 EDT

Salute to the troops

2003-06-17T20:17:00.000+04:30

by www.nydailynews.com

Who they were
The runup
Three weeks of war
Casualties of war

When it was time, they went to the war.

They had no choice in the matter, of course, since they were volunteer soldiers and sailors of the United States of America. In matters of war, they had no say about the policy. They were simply ordered to carry it out. And so they did.

They were told by their commander-in-chief what the American people were told and what the rest of the world was told. Saddam Hussein, the brutal dictator of Iraq, had large stocks of weapons of mass destruction. They were told that chemical and biological weapons were already in Saddam’s hands, while nuclear weapons were in an advanced stage of development. They were told that there was a firm link between Saddam and the terrorists of Al Qaeda who had struck America on Sept. 11, 2001. They were told that Saddam’s Iraq was a clear and present danger to its neighbors and to the U.S.

For more than three months, UN arms inspectors had been looking for these horrific weapons without success. Now American and British soldiers would have to go find them and destroy them. Force would replace diplomacy. They would also get rid of Saddam Hussein for good.

In the months leading up to the war, as many thousands of American forces gathered in Kuwait and other countries in the region, about 65% of the American people firmly believed the premises. They believed Iraq was working with Al Qaeda. They believed in the existence of weapons of mass destruction. The war planners had done a brilliant job of preparing the domestic battlefield. All that remained was to pick a date.

For the soldiers, the quarrels and failures of diplomacy must have looked like a remote sideshow. In the end, the objections of France, Germany, Russia and other states would not matter to them. The endless technical debates in the United Nations would not matter. War was in the air, and the military would have to fight it.

They would fight it because that’s what soldiers do. The young men and women had volunteered to be professionals in the armed forces. They had been superbly trained. They all knew the roles they’d have to play. It didn’t matter whether they worked in the highly technical part of modern warfare, parked at computers far from the battlefield, or if they were foot soldiers in the infantry. They were part of the most powerful military machine in the history of the world, and if war came, they would fight it.

Who they were

They were young because soldiers are always young. The average soldier was in his or her early 20s. Almost none had experienced combat, and those who had were lifers now in their early 30s, most of them veterans of the first Persian Gulf War in 1991.

A superb Newsweek demographic breakdown showed in April that 81.1% of officers and 61.3% of the enlisted men were Caucasian. African-Americans made up 20% of enlisted soldiers on active duty, Latinos 9%, Asians 4%. These generally reflected the demographics of the larger American society. Education clearly established the differences between officers and enlisted ranks: 94.7% of officers were college graduates, compared with 3.5% of the enlisted personnel, but 99.1% of enlisted soldiers were high school graduates (probably the highest percentage in any American war). About 15% were women, with the Air Force employing the largest percentage (18%) and the Marine Corps the lowest (about 7%).

Most active-duty soldiers were single, without children (42%). But 38% were married with children and 14% were married without children. It could not have been easy for any of them to balance the roles of young parents with the overriding role of the warrior. Those tears we all saw when the surviving soldiers came home were as ancient as the moment in “The Odyssey” when the warrior Odysseus finally gets back to Penelope, his much-loved wife. The last act of every war is getting home. When I was a boy in 1945-46, I saw such scenes on the streets of my Brooklyn neighborhood, and once on the docks of the North River. We thought we’d never see such scenes again. Now they have become a ritual for every American generation.

Statistics, of course, can’t ever tell us anything about the human beings who went to the war. The television coverage, including the often extraordinary “real-time” bulletins from embedded reporters, seemed oddly antiseptic. There was, to begin with, very little blood.

We never saw soldiers after they’d been wounded or killed. We never saw much of the Iraqi soldiers the Americans had killed. Nor did we hear any of the glorious obscenity that soldiers adapt as a kind of emotional armor against the bloodier obscenities of war itself. The grinding nitty-gritty truth about this war must wait for the appearance of novels, memoirs, poetry written by the combatants or the correspondents who were there but could not say everything. That was true in other wars; it’s still true about this one.

The daily Centcom briefings from Doha in Qatar were usually abstracts of war, not war itself. As the briefers clerked the war, we didn’t ever get to see many soldiers up close, one at a time, people with dense private lives, simple ambitions, confused emotions. From the battlefields, we were given names. We heard conversations with soldiers. We saw their valor. We never got to know them.

We do know the soldiers came from all over the country, many from small towns, many from the South, with its long military traditions. An examination of the lists of American dead shows some of the hometowns: Layton, Utah, and Troy, Ala., Cedar Key, Fla., and Temperance, Mich., Dresden, Tenn., and Hinesville, Ga., Barnwell, and Centerville, Md., Comfort, Tex., and Boiling Springs, S.C. The geography of their roots is typical, not unusual.

They must have been drawn, one way or another, by the possibility of moving out into the great wide world. Or by a simple testosterone-charged sense of adventure. Or a chance to live a life with some larger meaning, escaping the isolation of the self, becoming part of a team, part of a nation. After Sept. 11, patriotism must have urged some of them into the services. Others were surely drawn by the opportunity to learn skills that would give them solid careers after discharge. A handful might have had darker motivations, for the armed forces of any nation also draw the rare psychopath, attracted by the prospect of killing strangers. Both Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and accused D.C. sniper John Muhammad served in the first Gulf War.

Almost certainly, the immediate goal was not money. An Army private with one year’s service is paid $15,480 a year. If the soldier goes into combat, there’s an additional $150 a month in the envelope. In a time when 9 million Americans are jobless, this is better than unemployment checks, but certainly not a way to get rich, or even into the middle class. If a soldier is killed, his or her heirs get $250,000 in life insurance, plus a $60,000 “death gratuity,” a kind of ultimate tip for services rendered. Dependent spouses of those killed receive $948 a month, and each child $247. These salaries and benefits make the current American armed forces the best-paid in our history. But they hold no attraction to many younger Americans who have a wider range of career options.

There are always much simpler motives for entering the armed forces. We should never forget that these are essentially kids, unshaped, immature, naïve about life. If they love someone who does not love them back, one option is to join the Army and leave town. Across all human history, one human experience has almost always helped the young to grow up faster than any other: war.

The runup

The American armies took their time before going to war. After long, often bitter debate at the UN, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441 on Nov. 8, which stated that Saddam faced “serious consequences” if he did not rid himself of weapons of mass destruction.

The word “war” was not used, but that’s what the Americans and their British ally meant by serious consequences. The Bush administration began preparations for war. By Jan. 18, the U.S. had 85,000 troops on the ground in the Persian Gulf.

To be sure, there was already some fighting taking place in Iraq. For years, the Americans and British had been routinely bombing the country. The southern no-fly zone took a constant pounding, with the Americans destroying radar installations and anti-aircraft positions almost faster than they were built. For many pilots, this was a form of target practice. But if there was to be a true war — one leading to the destruction of the enemy forces and the toppling of the enemy leadership — then soldiers would have to go in on the ground, crossing the southern no-fly zone. In the end, Iraq would have to be taken with infantry.

While Hans Blix and his inspectors searched in vain for weapons of mass destruction (in the late stages using American intelligence about possible locations), the American forces kept coming to the borders of Iraq. A low-key veteran of Vietnam, Gen. Tommy Franks, was the commander of what would be called Operation Iraqi Freedom (Jay Leno said they rejected Operation Iraqi Liberation because the initials were OIL). On Jan. 14, President Bush said, “I’m sick and tired of games and deceptions.” By the time that Secretary of State Powell delivered his “smoking gun” speech at the UN on Feb. 5, making the case for military action, there were about 125,000 U.S. troops in the gulf. A week later, the number was 150,000.

There was some dim hope that the buildup was part of a gigantic bluff, a show of force intended to intimidate Saddam into resigning. Such a resignation, followed by swift departure, would thus ward off a war that would harm thousands of Saddam’s people and many American and British soldiers, while infuriating the Muslim world and much of Europe. The show of massive force would replace old-fashioned 19th century gunboat diplomacy with 21st century gunship diplomacy. That hope was encouraged on March 1, when Iraq started destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles, meeting a deadline set by Blix and the UN inspectors. In the view of the Bush administration, this was too little and too late. If the Blix team could not find the weapons of mass destruction, then soldiers would. This show of force was no bluff.

On that same day (March 1), the American war strategy was disrupted when the Turkish parliament failed to approve a resolution that would have allowed 60,000 American troops to open a northern front from Turkey. The Americans basically wanted that front to protect Iraq’s northern oil fields, but after sustained private bargaining (most of it about money), Turkey denied access to the allied forces. In Washington, there was much annoyance (and some rage) over the decision by Turkey, which is a democracy. But nothing much changed. The troops bound for Turkey were diverted to other places. There were now 200,000 troops in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. was going to war.

To help save British Prime Minister Tony Blair from a revolt within his own Labor Party, the Americans agreed to go back to the UN for a second resolution. They got nowhere, because of the opposition of France, Germany and Russia and a lack of support from such traditional allies as Canada and Mexico. On March 16, the Americans urged Blix to remove his weapons inspectors from Iraq, and Blix ended his assignment.

Finally, on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, the second UN resolution was withdrawn, and Bush gave Saddam an ultimatum: Leave Iraq within 48 hours or else.

The next day, Saddam sent word that he wasn’t leaving. On March 19, at 9:33 p.m. Eastern Time (5:33 a.m. on March 20 in Iraq) the war began.

From ships in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Americans launched 40 Tomahawk missiles at “leadership targets” in Baghdad, while F-117A stealth bombers dropped at least two bunker-buster bombs on palaces and government buildings where Saddam might have been hiding.

This was not the widely predicted campaign of shock and awe, where more than 6,000 targets would be hit. This was the curtain raiser, involving surgical strikes at the Iraq leadership. The intention was to decapitate the regime. It might be years before the world learns how these attacks were experienced on the ground. But it appeared that Saddam survived.

Three weeks of war

There was never any doubt about who would win the war. The most powerful nation in history could not lose to a 25th-rate nation whose armed forces were half what they were in 1991, poorly paid and fed, few of them strongly motivated. State terror does not often create good soldiers. In addition, Iraq had never recovered from the wide destruction caused by the 1991 war; UN sanctions had taken a terrible toll on civilians, too. As noted, Iraqi air defenses were pathetic (the Iraqi Air Force did not fly a single sortie) so the Americans and British ruled the skies. A few Iraqi missiles were flung toward Kuwait in the early days of the conflict, but most were intercepted by Patriot missiles. Unlike 1991, there was no Iraqi attack on Israel.

And yet it was understandable, as American and British soldiers moved north from Kuwait over the sand berm into Iraq, for each of them to feel a sense of dread. The fear was driven by the possible use of those weapons of mass destruction. Most soldiers, and their commanders, believed that if Saddam did have chemical weapons — sarin, tabun, mustard gas — he would almost surely use them. This prospect (as the literature of World War I tells us) is as unsettling psychologically as it is physically. A rifleman can shoot at an enemy soldier with a sense that survival is possible. It’s futile to shoot at gas.

In those early days, the foot soldiers — closely observed by the embedded reporters — were constantly changing into the clumsy man-in-the-moon suits that were part of their gear. The chemo suits were clumsy, and they were hot for men and women already carrying 50-pound packs. Soldiers and correspondents whipped on masks, made muffled jokes, waited for the all-clear to sound and moved on. Within a week, those images were gone. It became clear that if the Iraqis did have chemical weapons, they were not going to use them.

It also became clear that not all Iraqi forces would cut and run. The British faced determined Iraqi fighters in Basra, and there was even fiercer resistance around Nassiriya. Other Iraqis would fight hard in Najaf, the holy city where Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini had spent 13 formative years. There were some ferocious firefights. But the Americans were racing so hard for Baghdad that they were forced to pause March 22-23 to allow supply lines to catch up. They were killing many Iraqis, particularly from the air, where heavy aerial bombardments were turning Iraqi soldiers into casualties.

But the Americans were suffering casualties too. On March 23, in the confusion, fear, even panic of war, an Army maintenance company from the 3rd Infantry Division took a wrong turn near the Euphrates River not far from Nassiriya. At least four were killed and buried in shallow graves, the rest captured, including 19-year-old Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

She eventually would become a symbol of the war, but her rescue (on April 1) continues to be a source of debate and argument. There was also much outrage over the showing of five captured American soldiers on Al Jazeera TV, all clearly scared.

Meanwhile, great blinding sandstorms began sweeping across the battlefield, stalling the American advance about 100 miles from Baghdad. The local fighting turned fiercer, with Americans suffering some of their heaviest casualties of the war, while killing hundreds of Iraqi soldiers. On March 29, the first suicide bomber struck, killing four American soldiers by blowing up a taxi at a checkpoint, a portent of what might be coming. Still, the forward momentum seemed unstoppable.

On April 3, American tanks reached the outskirts of Baghdad. They captured the Saddam Hussein International Airport and prepared to enter the heart of the capital city of 5 million citizens, many of whom were filling the roads as refugees. Around the airport and its suburbs, Iraqi soldiers fought back with mortar and rifle fire but succeeded only in dying.

At the same time, more than 700 American sorties were pulverizing the remaining Republican Guard units, supposedly the elite of Saddam’s soldiers. And on April 6, coming from two directions, the Americans entered the heart of Baghdad in force. Fears of house-to-house fighting evaporated as relieved Iraqi soldiers melted into the crowds. American soldiers began to secure the Oil Ministry and posed for photographs in presidential palaces.

On TV, the young soldiers looked older now, after only three weeks of combat, ferocious weather and the grinding dirtiness that comes with every war. They had been (as soldiers say) blooded. It was not possible to see them clearly in much of the TV coverage, but in still photographs you could study the change. They had acquired the kind of sorrow that you see in all soldiers. It’s the abiding sorrow that you can find in the eyes of Gen. Tommy Franks or in photographs of commanders from Dwight Eisenhower to Vo Nguyen Giap. They had been soldiers, and had sent young soldiers to fight and die. There is no more terrible duty.

On April 7, acting on a tip from a CIA source, a fierce attack was launched on a restaurant in the Al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad where Saddam and a few cohorts were believed to be meeting. The restaurant was turned into a 30-foot-deep crater by Tomahawk missiles and four 2,000-pound bunker-busters dropped from a B-1 bomber. When the smoke settled, at least 13 Iraqis were dead, but there was no proof that Saddam was among them. All over the city, Iraqis and American soldiers were assaulting his image in posters, paintings and monuments, the wretched legacy of so many tyrannies. They just could not find the tyrant.

An April 9, Baghdad fell. That day, the giant statue of Saddam was pulled from its pedestal, with Marine Cpl. Edward Chin of Brooklyn looping the decisive chain around the tyrant’s bronze neck. Among the witnesses were many photographers and a smaller crowd of Iraqis. Elsewhere in the city, thousands of Iraqis were too busy looting to cheer their own liberation. But the war was over in Baghdad. Or so it seemed.

Casualties of war

The young soldiers would see terrible things, as the buried crimes of Saddam’s regime began to emerge from the Iraqi earth. First dozens, then hundreds, then possibly thousands of human remains were found buried in mass graves. Some skulls had been perforated by bullets. Some arms were detached from bodies, as if hammered by back hoes and bulldozers. The skulls were frozen in ghastly grins as if they had received one final confirmation of the sickness of the Baathist regime.

In a way, the shreds of clothing were even more chilling. All flesh had rotted away, providing a brief harvest for worms. But there, clinging to a rib cage, was a bright blue shirt. There was a pair of scuffed shoes. Cheap polyester trousers were bunched around smashed femurs. The clothes told us that these were human beings who had once walked the streets of Iraqi cities and had the bad luck to run up against evil.

For many soldiers (and correspondents), the remains of the slaughtered probably justified the mission. So did the torture chambers in the dank cellars of remote buildings. So did the sickening gangster kitsch of the presidential palaces, in such demented contrast to the places where so many Iraqis were taken to die. The young soldiers had never seen anything like this in Layton, Utah, or Troy, Ala., or Dresden, Tenn.

Very few people have ever seen such evidence of human cruelty anywhere, outside of the regimes of Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. They are scenes that can leave marks for a lifetime.

We might never know what other marks the brief war put on the men and women who did the hardest fighting. It did not last long enough to develop its own culture, its version of Willie and Joe cartoons, its special jokes, unseen valor, unexpected gallantry. We don’t even know what music they heard. But many were wounded without bleeding. I still remember a photograph from the early days of the fighting. It showed a U.S. medic, about 30, somewhat overweight, wearing glasses, forlornly comforting an Iraqi girl of 8 or 9, a child who had lost her entire family. His simple human grief was impossible to disguise. He, too, was a kind of casualty.

We do know that the war essentially ended April 19, one month after it started. The military victory was overwhelming, as it was certain to be. But on the ground, among the foot soldiers, the war had been a daily struggle for survival. The soldiers did what they were trained to do: kill strangers, while avoiding being killed themselves. This is never a normal human activity. They did, as the cliché goes, what they had to do, and for many of them, their luck stopped running forever.

And so we know that 97 Americans were killed in combat. Another 74 were killed in accidents. Two were killed by friendly fire, and two were fragged by an American soldier who is waiting trial on murder charges.

There were 11 deaths among soldiers from New York State, among them four from New York City. The total for the tristate area was 15. The British lost 36. As I write, Americans are still dying in Iraq, victims of ambush or terror. If the occupation lasts for years (as some predict), there will be many other American deaths in Iraq. Just by being there, the young soldiers are at risk. Few can have many illusions about the glory of war. Few soldiers do.

“I am tired and sick of war,” said William Tecumseh Sherman, who had marched through the South and burned Atlanta in the worst war in American history. “Its glory is all moonshine. ...”

We may never know how many American soldiers faltered in the midst of fierce fighting, but some surely did, as soldiers have done in all wars. We surely will never know how many ate their fear and moved forward. Those are experiences that soldiers carry with them for the rest of their lives. In my limited experience in the company of soldiers, there is very little fear in the midst of actual combat.

Fighting soldiers are too busy for fear. The fear builds before a firefight. It comes sweeping back when the fight is over, in moments of isolation, in jangled dreams. For many, it never goes away.

But soldiers carry with them very special memories. Life will never again be lived as intensely as it is lived in a combat zone. The most mundane events can seem charged with value and meaning: lighting a cigarette, peeing in the dark, making someone laugh with a joke. A few even become what were called in Vietnam “war lovers.” They are happy at war. In war, they can leave behind PTA meetings and the struggle with crab grass and traffic tickets and parking spots. In war, they can share the rough camaraderie of the determined group, in which the stakes are literally matters of life and death. There is nothing else like it anywhere.

“War is dangerous,” wrote Karl von Clausewitz, the great 19th century Prussian theoretician of war. “So dangerous that no one who has not taken part in it can conceive of what it was like.”

Because of that terrible danger, most soldiers develop a kind of respect, too, for the soldiers they are killing. In Vietnam, fresh American soldiers often called their Viet Cong opponents Charlie. By the end of their tours, they called that enemy soldier Mr. Charles.

This was a mark of respect for the tenacity of the enemy as soldiers, but also a small recognition of common humanity. If soldiers stay long enough at a war, if they rifle the pockets of the dead enemy and find pictures of their wives and lovers and children, if they discover scented letters, they recognize the enemy dead as versions of themselves. That adds to the sorrow in their eyes, and the many confusions of memory.

A.J. Liebling of The New Yorker was hardly a war lover, but during World War II he did brilliant reporting from North Africa, Great Britain, the North Atlantic and his beloved France. In a collection of those war pieces published years later, he wrote in his introduction: “I know that it is socially acceptable to write about war as an unmitigated horror, but subjectively at least, it was not true, and you can feel its pull on men’s memories at the maudlin reunions of war divisions. They mourn for their dead, but also for war.”

The soldiers who fought (and are still fighting) in Iraq are too young for reunions. Their war was too small for grand monuments, a small war fit only for private tombstones. Now it seems certain that the survivors won’t have victory parades either, at least not soon, because the Geneva conventions state that a declaration of victory must lead to the release of enemy prisoners. The American commanders are not yet ready for such an event. In what might turn out to be an American parenthesis in Iraq’s long, sad history, the young soldiers are still in harm’s way.

But even as the debate rages over the necessity of the war, and the chaos of the occupation, those soldiers must be honored. They were — and are — more than arrows on a televised chart. They were — and are — more than numbers on a list of casualties. They were — and are — our own people, young and valiant, doing a nasty job in a bad time. We must salute them.

Originally published on June 17, 2003

Iran´s nuclear programme: the haggling begins

2003-06-17T20:14:00.000+04:30

by Geert Groot Koerkamp, 17 June 2003

by www.rnw.nl

International manoeuvring around Iran's nuclear programme continued on Tuesday with Tehran demanding Western nuclear secrets in exchange for stricter controls. The haggling got underway as Iran responded to earlier criticism from the International Atomic Energy Agency, accusing Iran of failing "to report certain nuclear material and activities."

Both the European Union and Russia have pressed the Islamic nation to give UN inspectors unrestricted access to its nuclear facilities, to exclude any possibility of a secret weapons programme. Russia, with big interests in Iran, has more than others to lose if it comes to a confrontation with the West.

There should be no hasty conclusions about Iranian nuclear weapons, warned deputy Russian Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov following a report by the IAEA saying that Iran had failed to fully inform the agency about its nuclear programme. Mr Fedotov argued that Iran, indeed, may not have complied fully with the demands of the agency, but neither had other countries. And this does not necessarily mean Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, as alleged by the US.

Big stakes
Later, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged Iran to accept stricter UN inspections in order to prove that Washington's allegations are wrong. The Russians have a big stake in Iran's nuclear programme. They have repeated time and again that Russian technology and know-how sold to the Iranians cannot be used for development of a nuclear bomb. In spite of mounting US pressure, Moscow has so far refused to back down from its support for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf.

An estimated 20,000 Russian specialists have been involved in the project since construction began in the mid-1990s. The plant is scheduled to begin operations next year, as soon as Iran gets the necessary fuel from Russia.

At the recent G8 summit in France, Russian president Vladimir Putin was said to have suggested that his country would postpone the delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran, until that country signed a protocol with the IAEA allowing stricter UN inspections. Mr Putin's statement was later denied by Russia's Foreign and Atomic Energy ministries. Russia, they said, would go ahead with fuel supplies to Iran anyway, with or without an agreement on inspections. The only precondition was that Iran return spent nuclear fuel to Russia, a demand with which Tehran eagerly agreed.

Precious influence
For Russia, cooperation with Iran in the nuclear field has great economic and political significance. At a time when the nuclear industry in Russia is going through a slump, the lucrative contracts involved with the construction of the Bushehr plant are more than welcome. Moreover, Iran is the last country outside the former Soviet Union where Moscow still retains some of its former influence. Should Russia leave Iran, it would mean leaving the Middle East entirely.

US Ambassador to Azerbaijan: US Will Not Resolve Iran Conflict by Force

2003-06-17T20:10:00.000+04:30

by www.rosbaltnews.com

BAKU, June 17. Washington intends to resolve its problems with Iran by diplomatic means according to US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ross Wilson. As Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo reports, he said the US would consult all its allies including Azerbaijan before making any decisions about Iran. However, he stressed that the US does not plan to deploy any troops in Azerbaijan.

Commenting on the student riots in Iran, Mr Wilson said the US is calling on the Iranian government to respect human rights and release the arrested students. Talking about the anti-government uprisings in Iran in general, the ambassador said 'they reflect a desire for freedom and democracy.'

2003-06-17T20:05:00.000+04:30

Tabriz, Khojand to broaden ties in tourism

by www.irna.ir

Tabriz, East Azarbaijan prov, June 17, IRNA -- A lawmaker from Tabriz,
Oskui and Azarshahr, Ali-Asghar Sherdoust here on Tuesday said that
Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov's visit to Tabriz will pave the way
for expansion of cultural and touristic cooperation between the city
and the Tajik cities of Dushanbe and Khojand.
He told IRNA that during his visit, the Tajik president declared
his country's readiness to participate in the reconstruction of the
mausoleums of Kamaleddin Behzad and Kamal Masoud Khojandi.
According to him, President Rakhmonov said that a direct flight
between Tabriz and Khojand will soon be launched and added that once
the new air route is established and regular tours are launched,
grounds will be created for further broadening of cooperation between
the two states.
"The existing touristic potentials as well as cultural and
historical commonalties between Tabriz and Khojand will contribute to
the expansion of economic collaboration between East Azarbaijan
province and the Tajik city of Khojand," he added.
President Rakhmonov heading a politico-economic delegation arrived
in Tehran on Monday on a three-day visit to take part in a tripartite
summit to be attended by the presidents of Iran, Tajikistan and
Afghanistan.
The president and his accompanying delegation toured a number of
historic and touristic centers in Tabriz.
Sheikh Kamaleddin Khojandi, a prominent 14th century poet and
mystic was born in Khojand, Tajikistan. On his way back home from Haj
pilgrimage, he stopped in Tabriz and never left the city. He passed
away in 793 AH and his mausoleum is located in Valiankui district,
Abresani Ave.
The mausoleum of Kamal Khojandi stands in a cellar next to that of
the renowned 15th century Iranian miniaturist, Kamaleddin Behzad.
Behzad who was born in the city of Herat and was trained in the
painting school of Master Mirak Heravi is of international fame.
He died in th city of Tabriz in 942 AH and was buried next to
Kamal Khojandi.
MP/AH/AR
End

2003-06-17T20:01:00.000+04:30

Vast Terror Sweep in Paris Against Iran's People's Mujahedeen

by www.foxnews.com

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

PARIS — Masked and heavily armed French police raided the offices Tuesday of an Iranian opposition group accused of links to terrorism, detaining 165 people and seizing $1.3 million, the government said.

On the orders of France's leading anti-terrorism judge, about 1,300 police poured into the streets and knocked down doors of offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq (search) in a vast sweep of sites north and west of Paris.

Police also seized computer material and sophisticated transmission systems, an investigator said on condition of anonymity.

Officials would not say why they were cracking down now on the Mujahedeen Khalq, which has been allowed to operate openly in France for about 20 years. Judicial officials said the raids, on offices housing the group's political arm, had been planned for a month.

But the action came as pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran have become emboldened and as Europeans urge Iran to open its nuclear sites to international inspections.

Tehran had complained that Western nations were allowing the Mujahedeen to operate freely while, at the same time, accusing Iran of links to terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

The Mujahedeen's Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces in May under a surrender agreement after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The well-armed National Liberation Army of Iran (search) had used neighboring Iraq to mount operations against Iran in an effort to topple the Islamic Republic.

The group, also called the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (search), was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union in May 2002. The United States also labels it a terror group.

Among those detained were Maryam Rajavi, wife of Mujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi (search), who is based in Iraq, and Saleh Rajavi, Massoud's brother, judicial officials said.

The raids were carried out on the orders of French anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere for "criminal association aimed at preparing terrorism acts and for financing a terrorist enterprise," the Interior Ministry said.

The group's offices in Paris "are considered organizational, logistical and operational bases of questionable financing," the ministry statement said.

The money — in $100 bills — was found stashed in a villa in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris, where the group kept its headquarters, police said. The sweep included buildings in the Yvelines region west of Paris.

Of 165 people rounded up, 158 were kept for questioning, police said.

The Mujahedeen denounced the action.

"The individuals arrested in the unjustifiable raids this morning were all in France legally and had not conducted any illegal activity whatsoever," Mujahedeen spokesman Ali Safavi said by telephone from London.

"They have churned out these lies to justify this act which is only to the satisfaction of the terrorist regime that rules Iran," he said.

French judicial officials opened an investigation into possible terrorist links by the group in 2001. However, the prosecutors office only added "financing a terrorist enterprise" to the dossier last week, according to judicial officials. It was not immediately clear what prompted the addition.

It was the first time since the EU named the group a terrorist organization that French authorities moved to detain members.

Safavi, the group's spokesman, claimed French police had been protecting the group for 22 years "because the Mujahedeen are the No. 1 terrorist target of the Iranian regime."

The Mujahedeen have been based in France since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power.

The group initially supported the revolution but fell out with the government over its advocacy of a secular regime. It now has offices in several Western cities.

Group leader Rajavi was expelled from France to Iraq in 1986 as the French government was trying to improve relations with Iran and help win freedom for nine French hostages in Lebanon. He then set up the army in Iraq.

2003-06-17T19:59:00.000+04:30

Iranian Oil for Indeni
June 17, 2003
Posted to the web June 17, 2003

by www.allafrica.com

GOVERNMENT has clinched a deal with an Iranian company for an initial one-year contract for the supply of crude oil to Ndola's Indeni Petroleum Refinery.

Energy Minister George Mpombo said in Lusaka yesterday that a technical team from Iranian Oil Company (IOC) was expected in the country in a few days to thrash out details of the deal.

"The details of the contract will be agreed on by Indeni and IOC. These will include the duration of the contract, quantity of oil and the amounts of money involved," Mr Mpombo said.

The minister who led a delegation to Iran said Government only went to Iran to pave way for Indeni which Government prefered to be the sole importer of crude oil into Zambia.

"Governnment wants Indeni to be the sole supplier of crude oil and even as of now the company has ordered 80,000 metric tonnes of crude oil," he said.

Mr Mpombo said Indeni currently had stocks of crude to last three months after the oil from the Iranian deal should have started flowing into Zambia.

Government was concerned about underhand methods being employed by Trans Saharan Trading (TST) which was threatening to obtain an injunction against TAZAMA to block it from sending the 80,000 tonnes of oil to Indeni.

"TST is claiming to have a further order of 450,000 metric tonnes but as far as we are concerned the agreement expired on May 14 with TAZAMA and we consider this a political hallucination.

"Government considers this behaviour by TST as a moral war and we will fight to protect the sovereignty of our nation. At the moment we are monitoring the situation and all is under control," he said.

Mr Mpombo said Government would be very transparent in its dealings concerning the procurement of crude oil and had adopted a policy which would not involve politicians in the process.

He said a lot of countries were getting oil from Iran and it was the policy of the Iranian Government to deal with big Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) but it had decided to give Indeni the contract because of Zambia's good will.

2003-06-17T19:55:00.000+04:30

Iran defiant over nukes
From The Times' Anthony Browne
June 18, 2003

by www.TheAustralians.news.com.au

IRAN has rejected unprecedented pressure from the United Nations, the US, Russia and the European Union to agree to a stricter regime of nuclear inspections in the face of mounting international concern that the country is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran said yesterday it would agree to a new inspection regime only in return for more nuclear technology, an offer Western diplomats called unacceptable.

International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohamed ElBaradei called on Iran to accept tighter inspections. Dr ElBaradei made the call in Vienna after presenting a report to the UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors that outlined how Tehran had covered up the development of its nuclear program.

The report claimed Iran had not declared certain imported nuclear material, the facilities where it was being processed or the way in which it had been processed.

Under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has to allow pre-arranged inspections to verify that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

Dr ElBaradei on Monday called on Tehran to sign an additional protocol agreeing to unannounced inspections at a wider range of facilities.

In addition, EU ministers meeting in Luxembourg demanded Iran "urgently and unconditionally" co-operate with a tougher IAEA inspection regime and said its continued failure to do so could jeopardise economic co-operation.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged Iran to agree to the inspections to remove any doubt its nuclear program was not strictly for peaceful purposes. Russia has assisted Iran's nuclear program despite repeated US protests.

A senior Iranian delegate at the IAEA board meeting complained that Washington was putting undue pressure on the UN agency for political reasons. "If the board comes up with a reasonable format in a reasonable language which could encourage our country, then it will be conducive to a final settlement of the issue," the delegate said.

Tehran insisted it would make concessions only if the West gave it peaceful nuclear technology. It insists it needs a nuclear program to provide energy as oil supplies dwindle.

A Western diplomat in Vienna ruled out such a deal. "No state entering into discussions with the IAEA on signing the additional protocol has done so on the basis of a bargaining arrangement. This is about meeting your responsibilities, not haggling," he said.

The US's hard line reflects mounting concern that the NPT is unravelling. The treaty was established to stop the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the original declared nuclear powers of the US, China, Russia, Britain and France but it has failed to prevent countries such as India and Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons.

North Korea also is believed to have a reasonably advanced nuclear weapons program.

If Tehran refuses to agree to a new inspections regime it could eventually be formally declared by the IAEA to be in violation of the NPT.

It could then be referred to the UN Security Council, which could take a range of measures, including imposing economic sanctions.

2003-06-17T19:41:00.000+04:30

French Raid Possible Iranian Terrorists
By ELAINE GANLEY
Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP)--Masked and heavily armed French police raided the offices Tuesday of an Iranian opposition group accused of links to terrorism, detaining 165 people and seizing $1.3 million, the government said.

On the orders of France's leading anti-terrorism judge, about 1,300 police poured into the streets and knocked down doors of offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq in a vast sweep of sites north and west of Paris.

Police also seized computer material and sophisticated transmission systems, an investigator said on condition of anonymity.

Officials would not say why they were cracking down now on the Mujahedeen Khalq, which has been allowed to operate openly in France for about 20 years. Judicial officials said the raids, on offices housing the group's political arm, had been planned for a month.

But the action came as pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran have become emboldened and as Europeans urge Iran to open its nuclear sites to international inspections. Tehran had complained that Western nations were allowing the Mujahedeen to operate freely while, at the same time, accusing Iran of links to terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

The Mujahedeen's Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by U.S. forces in May under a surrender agreement after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The well-armed National Liberation Army of Iran had used neighboring Iraq to mount operations against Iran in an effort to topple the Islamic Republic.

The group, also called the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union in May 2002. The United States also labels it a terror group.

Among those detained were Maryam Rajavi, wife of Mujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi, who is based in Iraq, and Saleh Rajavi, Massoud's brother, judicial officials said.

The raids were carried out on the orders of French anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere for ``criminal association aimed at preparing terrorism acts and for financing a terrorist enterprise,'' the Interior Ministry said.

The group's offices in Paris ``are considered organizational, logistical and operational bases of questionable financing,'' the ministry statement said.

The money--in $100 bills--was found stashed in a villa in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris, where the group kept its headquarters, police said. The sweep included buildings in the Yvelines region west of Paris.

Of 165 people rounded up, 158 were kept for questioning, police said.

The Mujahedeen denounced the action.

``The individuals arrested in the unjustifiable raids this morning were all in France legally and had not conducted any illegal activity whatsoever,'' Mujahedeen spokesman Ali Safavi said by telephone from London.

``They have churned out these lies to justify this act which is only to the satisfaction of the terrorist regime that rules Iran,'' he said.

French judicial officials opened an investigation into possible terrorist links by the group in 2001. However, the prosecutors office only added ``financing a terrorist enterprise'' to the dossier last week, according to judicial officials. It was not immediately clear what prompted the addition.

It was the first time since the EU named the group a terrorist organization that French authorities moved to detain members.

Safavi, the group's spokesman, claimed French police had been protecting the group for 22 years ``because the Mujahedeen are the No. 1 terrorist target of the Iranian regime.''

The Mujahedeen have been based in France since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The group initially supported the revolution but fell out with the government over its advocacy of a secular regime. It now has offices in several Western cities.

Group leader Rajavi was expelled from France to Iraq in 1986 as the French government was trying to improve relations with Iran and help win freedom for nine French hostages in Lebanon. He then set up the army in Iraq.