Iran : «La purge se poursuit dans les universités»
LE TEMPS: Six mois après les manifestations post-électorales qui ont divisé le pays, Amnesty International publie un rapport sur la situation des droits humains, la pire qu’ait connue la République islamique depuis vingt ans

Alors que la planète célèbre ce jeudi la Journée des droits de l’homme, Amnesty International dénonce, dans un rapport, les violations commises en Iran ces six derniers mois. En cause, l’élection présidentielle de juin dernier, qui a reconduit au pouvoir l’ultraconservateur Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, et a aussitôt été contestée par l’opposition et une partie de la population. Des manifestations monstres ont été organisées dans les rues de Téhéran, pour dénoncer les fraudes et réclamer la tenue d’un nouveau scrutin. Les autorités ont alors confié aux bassidji (miliciens islamistes volontaires) et aux pasdaran (les «gardiens de la révolution») le soin de mâter la rébellion. Quelque 4000 personnes ont été arrêtées, 36 officiellement tuées, 200 environ croupissent encore en prison. Le point avec Manon Schick, porte-parole de la section suisse d’Amnesty International. >>> Caroline Stevan | Jeudi 10 Décembre 2009

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Revealed to Have Jewish Past
THE TELEGRAPH: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from the Jewish for "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior.

Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: "This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him.

"Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith.

"By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections. He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society."

A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that "jian" ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.

"He has changed his name for religious reasons, or at least his parents had," said the Iranian-born Jew living in London. "Sabourjian is well known Jewish name in Iran." >>> Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat | Saturday, October 03, 2009

Britain Walks Out of Iran's Ahmadinejad's Anti-Semitic Speech at UN
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain walked out of a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran at the United Nations on Wednesday night in protest at anti-Semitic remarks.

The speech came as the international community raised the pressure on Iran to acknowledge its nuclear programme ahead of key talks next week.

South American delegations also marched from the grand hall at UN headquarters when the controversial leader denounced what he said was a global Jewish conspiracy, amid a long rant against capitalism and Western hypocrisy.

He denounced a "small minority dominating much of the world through a complicated network", and went on to call Iran a "glorious, democratic nation".

The United States, Canada and Israel decided earlier to boycott the speech before the annual UN General Assembly, after Mr Ahmadinejad repeated his denial of the Holocaust in a speech in Iran on Monday. He has also regularly called on Jews to leave Israel. >>> Alex Spillius in New York | Thursday, September 24, 2009

Courage in Iran
TIMES ONLINE – Leading Article: President Ahmadinejad must be greeted by protests when he attends the UN next week. We must show the courageous people of Iran that they do not protest alone

The thousands of Iranians who took to the streets yesterday to protest against the fraudulent re-election of President Ahmadinejad and the growing repression throughout Iran showed extraordinary courage. The police, the Basij militias and the Revolutionary Guards have been given a free hand by the Government and by Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, the Supreme Leader, to crack down on anyone daring to stand up to the new dictatorship. The result has been appalling.

Hundreds of people have been seized on the streets, thrown into prison and subjected to brutal and arbitrary torture. Students, women, even random passers-by have been beaten, had their limbs broken and their nails pulled out. Most disgustingly, protesters, especially the young men, have been repeatedly raped — a cynical and deliberate humiliation that undercuts Iran’s claims to champion public morality and Muslim values.

It was especially brave of the demonstrators to take to the streets yesterday, a major political occasion for the Government when it flaunts its anti-Israeli credentials by commemorating Quds (Jerusalem) Day. Mr Ahmadinejad set the tone with a gratuitously provocative and mendacious denial of the Holocaust, calling it a pretext for the occupation of Arab land and asserting that Israel was created on “false and mythical claims”. His ravings are hardly surprising and are wholly in keeping with previous attempts to provoke the West and curry support among Islamist extremists. The protesters were all the more courageous therefore in undercutting this chicanery by publicly mocking the regime’s support for militants in Gaza and Lebanon and insisting that “our life is for Iran”. They must have known the likely terrible cost of their courage. >>> | Saturday, September 19, 2009

Iran Snubs Barack Obama's Nuclear Talks
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran has dealt a blow to one of President Barack Obama's most ambitious diplomatic initiatives by dismissing demands to put its nuclear programme at the heart of direct talks with the United States.

Less than 48 hours after Washington and its allies reluctantly accepted an offer of face-to-face negotiations from Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, insisted that the topic of greatest interest to the West would not be on the table.

"From the Iranian nation's viewpoint, the nuclear case is closed," he told Britain's ambassador to Tehran, Simon Gass. "Having peaceful nuclear technology is Iran's lawful and definite right and Iranians will not negotiate with anyone over their undeniable rights."

In a rambling five-page document presented to western diplomats last week, Iran proposed negotiations on a wide array of economic and regional security issues but made no mention of its nuclear activities.

After responding with initial coolness, the United States defied expectations by taking up the offer to negotiate directly for the first time since Mr Obama came to power. The US president had promised during his election campaign to hold unconditional talks with Iran. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Sunday, September 13, 2009

Venezuela will Iran 20.000 Barrel Benzin pro Tag liefern
DIE PRESSE: Trotz reicher Erdölvorkommen mangelt es dem Iran an Raffinerien. Ab Oktober will Venezuela mit Benzin aushelfen. Damit könnte das Ajatollah-Regime drohende Sanktionen wegen seines Atomprogramms umgehen.

Venezuela will dem Iran künftig 20.000 Barrel Benzin täglich liefern. Das kündigte der venezolanische Staatschef Hugo Chavez am Sonntag bei einem Besuch im Iran an. Die Lieferungen im Wert von insgesamt 800 Millionen Dollar (560 Millionen Euro) würden im Oktober beginnen, sagte Chavez in der Stadt Mashhad im Nordosten des Landes lokalen Medien zufolge. Die Erlöse werde Venezuela nutzen, um im Gegenzug vom Iran Ausrüstung und Technologie zu kaufen. Über welche Dauer die Lieferungen erfolgen sollten, sagte Chavez nicht. Zu wenige Raffinerien im Iran >>> Ag. | Montag, 07. September 2009

Moyen-Orient: Ahmadinejad, un peu plus seul
leJDD.fr: En Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rencontre des difficultés pour obtenir la confiance de son cabinet. Plusieurs noms pourraient être retoqués par le Parlement.

Après la rue, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doit affronter le Parlement (le Majlis). Le président de la République islamique, dont la réélection le 12 juin dernier avait jeté une partie de la population dans la rue, a choisi les 21 membres de son cabinet. Mais comme le veut le système iranien, chacun des ministres doit désormais être approuvé par le Parlement. Pour Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, c'est ici que les choses se compliquent. Ici aussi où ressurgissent les tensions à la tête de la République islamique, voire au sein même du clergé chiite. Censée être une formalité – les conservateurs dominent le Majlis - la nomination du cabinet s'éternise. Le Parlement examine mercredi, pour la quatrième journée consécutive, sa composition, notamment les candidats proposés pour les postes sensibles de l'Intérieur et du Pétrole. Le vote de confiance pourrait toutefois intervenir dans la soirée ou jeudi matin. Mais certains candidats pourraient toutefois passé à la trappe. Pour diverses raisons.

Des élus ultraconservateurs voient notamment d'un mauvais œil le choix de trois femmes, une première depuis la révolution islamique de 1979. Et ce, bien que celles-ci ne soient pas connues pour leur ouverture. "L'islam respecte la femme. Mais cela ne veut pas dire qu'on doit leur laisser des positions sociales importantes", a ainsi estimé l'ayatollah Ahmad Khatami. Autre choix contesté, celui de Kamran Daneshjou pour le portefeuille du ministère des Sciences, de la Recherche et des Technologies. Vice-ministre de l'Intérieur sous "Ahmadinejad I", il était en charge de l'organisation de la présidentielle du 12 juin. Or, plusieurs élus estiment que choisir cet homme - alors que le résultat de l'élection est toujours controversé et que l'opposition n'a pas renoncé à se faire entendre - ne participe pas à l'apaisement. D'autres, la frange la plus "libérale" des conservateurs, dénoncent le choix de Heydar Moslehi pour le ministère des Renseignements, soulignant son "passé douteux". L'homme est l'ancien représentant du Guide suprême auprès des bassidjis, le bras armé des Gardiens de la révolution. Ahmadinejad lâché par le Guide? >>> Marianne Enault, leJDD.fr | Mercredi 02 Septembre 2009

People & Power - Iran: Inside the Protests – July 10, 2009

Ahmadinejad to Nominate Three Women for Cabinet Jobs
THE GUARDIAN: Iranian president's move could result in country's first female ministers for more than 30 years

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said today he would nominate three women to join his new cabinet.

The nominations could lead to the appointment of the first female ministers in Iran for more than 30 years.

They appear to be an attempt by Ahmadinejad to win the support of Iranian women as he fends off opposition claims that his re-election to the presidency in June was fraudulent.

However, the appointments seem unlikely to appease reformists because two of the three women are fellow hardliners.

Speaking on state television, Ahmadinejad said he would nominate Marzieh Vahid Dastgerdi, a 50-year-old gynaecologist, as health minister and Fatemeh Ajorlu, a 43-year-old MP, as minister of welfare and social security.

He did not name the third woman, but said he would nominate at least one more female minister to his cabinet. >>> Associated Press | Sunday, August 16, 2009

Iran Inmates 'Tortured to Death'
BBC: Iran's defeated opposition presidential candidate has said that some protesters held after last month's disputed poll were tortured to death in prison.

The claim by Mehdi Karroubi comes days after he said a number of prisoners, both male and female, had been raped. Officials deny the rape claims, but admit that abuses have taken place.

The BBC's Jon Leyne says the opposition uses the issue to maintain political pressure without directly questioning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's poll victory.

On Thursday, Mr Karroubi alleged that a number of detainees had been tortured to death.

"Some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans in [post-election] protests," his website said.

Mr Karroubi also called for the formation of an independent committee to review his evidence in "a calm atmosphere".

On Sunday, the defeated presidential candidate claimed that some opposition protesters were raped in detention.

The claim was supported by a number of human rights groups but quickly dismissed as "totally baseless" by the speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani.

"Based on parliament's investigations, detainees have not been raped or sexually abused in Iran's Kahrizak and Evin prisons," said. >>> | Thursday, August 13, 2009

Ahmadinejad Sworn in for 2nd Term as Iran’s President
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran addressed the parliament after being sworn into a second term as president. Photo: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: BEIRUT, Lebanon — With his adversaries shunning the ceremony and security forces on the streets, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn into office for a second term Wednesday, almost two months after elections that divided the nation and sparked Iran’s deepest crisis since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago.

Protests erupted outside the parliament building as he was inaugurated, with several people arrested and police using pepper spray to disperse demonstrators, according to news reports. Severe reporting restrictions in Iran hindered efforts to gauge the scale of the demonstration.

The official IRNA news agency said there was no “disturbance of the peace” on major streets and traffic circles in the Iranian capital during the inauguration, The Associated Press reported, quoting witnesses as saying at least 10 people were detained by police.

Witnesses said the detainees included protesters in black T-shirts in a show of grief over Mr. Ahmadinejad’s inauguration, The A.P. said. The state-run broadcaster Press TV said more than 5,000 members of the security and police forces had gathered around the parliament building while officers with sniffer dogs patrolled the area.

In a relatively low-key speech, news reports said, Mr. Ahmadinejad attacked foreign detractors, appealed for national unity, pledged a “stronger” foreign policy with “more effective new plans” and said he would “spare no effort to safeguard the frontiers of Iran.”

Speaking from a podium bedecked with yellow flowers, he did not directly allude to the huge street protests that have riven Iranian society since opposition leaders accused the authorities of rigging the June 12 election in which Mr. Ahmadinejad was awarded an overwhelming victory. His election was formally endorsed earlier this week by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ahmadinejad urged national unity, saying: "We should join hands as we move forward to fulfill our goals,” The A.P. reported. He said his government would “resist any violation of law and interference.”

“We will not remain silent, we will not tolerate disrespect, interference and insults,” he said. >>> By ROBERT F. WORTH and ALAN COWELL | Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Rebel Boycott as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Endorses Ahmadinejad Re-election
TIMES ONLINE: Iran’s supreme leader has formally endorsed President Ahmadinejad for a second term amid a boycott by leading opposition figures.

State television broadcast images of the ceremony today with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei giving the President his seal of approval.

The country’s opposition leaders and moderates boycotted the gathering in protest over the election they claim was fraudulent.

State media reported that the former presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami as well as the defeated pro-reform candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi did not attend.

On Wednesday the President will take the oath of office before Iran’s parliament. Seven weeks after the election, however, the regime is still battling to crush the resistance of millions of Iranians who believe that the poll was rigged.

A new wave of protests linked is gathering over the “show trial” of more than 100 opposition figures detained in the crackdown that followed the ballot.

On Saturday, in an apparent effort to deter further protests, Iran put scores of opponents on trial in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, accusing them of conspiring with foreign powers to stage a revolution. Yesterday it added ten more defendants. >>> Martin Fletcher | Monday, August 03, 2009

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Rounds on Conservatives in Bitter Feud
TIMES ONLINE: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s discredited President, spoke out against critics among his own hardline colleagues today as his authority was further eroded by bitter feuding.

The day after violent protests returned to the streets of Tehran, the President was forced to defend himself not from the pro-reformist opposition but against his former allies.

Conservatives have cast doubt on Mr Ahmadinejad’s loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after a dispute over his vice presidential appointment two weeks ago.

He responded robustly today during a speech in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, which was broadcast on state television.

“Some in recent days have portrayed the relationship between the leader and the administration as in doubt. They tried to imply distance and rift,” he said.

“What they do not understand is that the relationship between us and the Supreme Leader goes beyond politics and administration. It is based on kindness, on ideology, it is like that of a father and son.”

He claimed the attempts by “ill-wishers” would yield no results, adding “this path will be shut in the face of devils”. >>> Nico Hines | Friday, July 31, 2009

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Faces Hardline Revolt in Iran
THE TELEGRAPH: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was facing a revolt by furious Iranian hardliners on Monday after he sacked a key conservative minister in an act of revenge.

The Iranian leader found himself at the centre of bitter infighting within the Iranian establishment when he dismissed his intelligence minister after his choice for vice-president was overruled by the country's Supreme Leader.

The backlash intensified when another minister offered his resignation in protest at Mr Ahmadinejad's move at the weekend.

The tit-for-tat exchange between feuding elites threatened his already embattled grasp on power after his disputed election victory in the presidential election last month which provoked street protests and allegations of mass fraud at the ballot box. >>> Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Monday, July 27, 2009

Iran's Supreme Leader Orders Sacking of Vice-President
THE TELEGRAPH: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caved into pressure from hardline clerics and the country's supreme leader Friday and allowed the resignation of his top deputy after a week-long standoff.

For days, the president had resisted pressure from hardliners, including a direct order from the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to dismiss his choice for the key post of first vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who last year angered conservatives when he made friendly comments toward Israel.

The final blow, however, appeared to be the public reading on state television of the order issued earlier by Khamenei to dismiss Mashai because he is "contrary to the interest of you and the government".

The issue created a rare rift between Ahmadinejad and the hardliners that form the bedrock of his support and comes at a particular [sic] sensitive time as he is battling opposition reformists who accuse him of winning the June 12 presidential elections through fraud.

"After the announcement of the exalted supreme leader's order, Mashai doesn't consider himself first vice president," IRNA quoted presidential aide Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi as saying late Friday.

The resignation capped a day of renewed pressure that featured conservative student street demonstrations and Friday sermons railing against Mashai's appointment. >>> | Friday, July 24, 2009

Ahmadinejad’s Deputy Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie Forced Out by Hardliners
TIMES ONLINE: Hardliners have forced out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s deputy, despite his being a member of the President’s family.

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie’s departure comes just four days after he was appointed. Mr Mashaie, whose daughter is married to President Ahmadinejad’s son, had outraged clerics and politicians after saying that the Islamic Republic was a “friend of the Israeli people”.

Mr Mashaie’s resignation was announced by Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language television station. Last week another vice-president, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, who headed Iran’s nuclear programme, also resigned. Mr Mashaie also attracted conservatives’ disapproval after allegedly watching unveiled women dancing at a tourism exhibition in Turkey two years ago.

The resignation came amid reports that a British Embassy employee would be released on bail after three weeks in jail on charges of inciting unrest after last month’s disputed election.

Hossein Rassam, chief analyst at the embassy in Tehran, was the last of nine embassy staff accused of involvement in opposition rallies.

The President had shown a “twisted face to clerics and elites” by appointing Mr Mashaie, said Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hardline Ahmadinejad ally. “Ahmadinejad should not challenge conservatives with such decisions. I request the President to replace him before more criticisms are made,” he said.

The President’s choice of first vice-president does not need Parliament’s approval but his new cabinet ministers will.

Mr Ahmadinejad would have struggled to get his ministerial choices past parliament. Mr Mashaie’s departure could make that task easier. >>> Michael Purcell in Iran | Sunday, July 19, 2009

Anatomy of an Iranian Revolution Delayed
THE JAPAN TIMES ONLINE: YPSILANTI, Mich. — The ongoing conflict between Iran's rulers and the Iranian public is the result of a head-on collision between two contradictory forces. In recent years, public attitudes in Iran have become more liberal. At the same time, power has shifted from conservative pragmatism toward a much more militant fundamentalism. The call by the most important group of Iran's clerics for the election results to be thrown out is but the latest sign of the fight back of both the reformist and pragmatic conservative factions.

Thirty years after the Islamic revolution, Iranians are growing demonstrably less religious and more liberal. Two face-to-face surveys of more than 2,500 Iranian adults, conducted in 2000 and 2005, clearly show the trend. The percentage of those who "strongly agree" that democracy is the best form of government increased from 20 percent to 31 percent.

Similarly, on a number of questions concerning gender equality — including political leadership, equal access to higher education, and wifely obedience — the numbers continued a downward trend. Those who considered love as the basis for marriage increased from 49 percent to 69 percent, while those who depended on parental approval fell from 41 percent to 24 percent. In 2005, a much higher percentage than in 2000 defined themselves as "Iranian, above all" rather than "Muslim, above all."

This trend is not hard to understand. The imposition of a monolithic religious discourse on society has made liberal values attractive to Iranians. But, while this was reflected in reformist trends in the country's wider political life, a movement toward militant fundamentalism took shape within the regime's power structure. Reform-minded politicians were partly to blame for this change. Far from opposing absolutist power as an impediment to religious democracy, they tried to persuade the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the value of reform.

But Khamenei had no interest in reform, as he made plain in dismantling the reform movement. The presidency of Mohammad Khatami, an avowed reformer, who served eight years, beginning in 1997, convinced the supreme leader that his authority would be assured only if the presidency was held by a subservient fundamentalist such as the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In this, Khamenei was following the lead of the late shah, who kept Amir Abbas Hoveyda, a loyal retainer, as prime minister from 1965 until the shah was overthrown in 1979.

The problem with the supreme leader's calculation, however, is that Ahmadinejad is a loose cannon. His populist rhetoric and religious fundamentalism have alienated a large section of conservative-pragmatist clerics and their supporters. >>> Mansoor Moaddel*, © 2009 Project Syndicate | Wednesday, July 15, 2009

*Mansoor Moaddel, a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University, has conducted numerous opinion surveys in the Middle East.

As Iran Calms, a Struggle for Political Power Intensifies
Clerics during prayers in June. Many religious leaders have not spoken out in support of Iran’s president or supreme leader. Photo: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: CAIRO — The streets of Iran have been largely silenced, but a power struggle grinds on behind the scenes, this time over the very nature of the state itself. It is a battle that transcends the immediate conflict over the presidential election, one that began 30 years ago as the Islamic Revolution established a new form of government that sought to blend theocracy and a measure of democracy.

From the beginning, both have vied for an upper hand, and today both are tarnished. In postelection Iran, there is growing unease among many of the nation’s political and clerical elite that the very system of governance they rely on for power and privilege has been stripped of its religious and electoral legitimacy, creating a virtual dictatorship enforced by an emboldened security apparatus, analysts said.

Among the Iranian president’s allies are those who question whether the nation needs elected institutions at all.
Most telling, and arguably most damning, is that many influential religious leaders have not spoken out in support of the beleaguered president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Indeed, even among those who traditionally have supported the government, many have remained quiet or even offered faint but unmistakable criticisms.

According to Iranian news reports, only two of the most senior clerics have congratulated Mr. Ahmadinejad on his re-election, which amounts to a public rebuke in a state based on religion. A conservative prayer leader in the holy city of Qum, Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini, referred to demonstrators as “people” instead of rioters, and a hard-line cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, called for national reconciliation.

Some of Iran’s most influential grand ayatollahs, clerics at the very top of the Shiite faith’s hierarchy who have become identified with the reformists, have condemned the results as a fraud and the government’s handling of the protests as brutal. On Saturday, an influential Qum-based clerical association called the new government illegitimate. >>> Michael Slackman | Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Iran's British Stooges Are Staring Right at You
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Zahra, an Iranian woman studying at an English university, is in a state of terror. Her husband, an activist in the cause of the defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, was arrested a fortnight ago, and has not been seen since. Zahra, whose eyes are lined in green, the colour of the country’s reformist opposition, told the BBC: “Why should he be in jail? What was wrong with what we did in Tehran? It was the basic right of all Iranians to take part in the election.” She went on: “They don’t let my husband call me . . . this is torture.”

It is torture for Zahra because she has a good idea of what is happening to her husband. The Iranian state media have been broadcasting a series of “confessions” by demonstrators against the alleged rigging of the presidential vote in favour of the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They all tend to say the same thing: “I admit that I demonstrated under the influence of the BBC, the Voice of America and other foreign media.”

Their identities are not discernible, because their faces have been obscured. The reason for this was made horribly clear by remarks in The Guardian from a shopkeeper friend of an 18-year-old who had been “questioned” by the Iranian security services: “You could tell straight away he had just been released. His face was bruised all over. His teeth were broken and he could hardly open his eyes . . . [Later] the doctor told me that he had suffered rupture of the rectum.”

The shopkeeper quoted his 18-year-old friend to the effect that he had not “confessed” despite several days of beating while being hung from a ceiling with his hands and feet tied together. At that point two men tore his clothes off while a third “did it” – that is, inflicted the assault that ruptured his rectum. He was raped several times in this way, in front of four other detainees, but continued to refuse to sign a confession along the lines suggested by his interrogators.

So when we hear Ayatollah Jannati, chief of the Guardian Council, say of arrested Iranian employees of the British embassy in Tehran, “Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions,” we should be only too aware of what will have been happening to some of Her Majesty’s servants. >>> Dominic Lawson | Sunday, July 05, 2009

'Jewish Ahmadinejad' Blogger Arrested
THE JERUSALEM POST: The Iranian blogger who claimed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots is being detained by the authorities after he was arrested along with 150 university students earlier this week, according to sources in Teheran.

Dr. Mehdi Khazali, who reportedly participated in several recent opposition demonstrations, was reportedly summoned to a special court convened for religious figures, detained and transferred to an unknown location.

The son of a prominent, conservative pro-Ahmadinejad ayatollah, Khazali wrote on his Web site earlier this year that the president - a Holocaust denier and relentless critic of Israel - was of partially Jewish origin, asserting that Ahmadinejad had changed his family name from Saburjian, and calling for the origins of the Saburjian family in the town of Aradan to be investigated.

The assertion featured in the bitter presidential election campaign, when rival reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi challenged Ahmadinejad in a live TV debate, reportedly stating: "My full name is Mehdi Karroubi. What is your full name?"

Ahmadinejad gave his full name, according to an Al-Arabiya TV report, but left out one surname which is said to indicate Jewish ancestry. >>> Sabina Amidi | Friday, July 03, 2009

Hat tip: JihadWatch >>>