Nuclear Reactors, a Blatant Betrayal of Our People!

I never comment on the nuclear issue and whether Iran should have nuclear energy, and its because I feel I know very little about the subject to make a worthwhile comment. What I do know however, is that like all other free nations we should have the right to debate the issue. Why should we not be able to freely discuss the nuclear question and debate whether we need this form of energy or not? Why can't we ask whether it is safe and whether it is economically justifiable or not, without fearing the consequences of what we think and say? Why should anyone be branded as traitors to Iran's "national security" if they feel nuclear energy is not the right path to choose. To be able to debate the nuclear issue, is definitely our inalienable right.

It is one of many points of contention I have with the pompous Western 'useful idiots'. Why do they think we should not have the privilege of having a free debate on the nuclear energy issue like they have? Why can they go and march against the nuclear reactors and yet think people in Iran should not have that right?

This is why I found this newspaper article, printed in Jomhouri Eslami, the newspaper of the Islamic Republic Party back in 1979 at the height of the post-revolutionary fever, so interesting.

The headline reads "Nuclear Reactors, a Blatant Betrayal of Our People"

And the first paragraph says "The anti-people regime of the Shah which intended to make our nation more and more dependent on Western imperialism decided to spend the oil income on building 20 nuclear reactors and sign their contracts with Western countries to produce 2400 Mega Watts of electricity"

The cost of building these reactors is said in the article to be equivalent of $2.5 Billion using the exchange rate at the time. Then the Iranian proverb is quoted "Whenever a loss is stopped, it should be counted as a profit" to justify that the building of these nuclear reactors should be stopped immediately.

It further argues that the technology will make our country dependent on the Western powers and all our Petro-Dollars will be spent on buying the technology. The article then refers to some facts and figures which show the nuclear power stations are lesser viable options economically compared to other forms of power stations like the gas power stations. It gives examples of some of these gas power stations already built by the lovely cuddly Russians in Iran. Added to all this is the huge cost of transport related to nuclear power, the article argues. All this claim of nuclear power stations not being economically viable is backed up by a joint MIT-Harvard research commission, carried out in 1976, which concludes the costs of a nuclear power station increase ten times faster than the costs of living every year.

Having proved that nuclear power stations are not economically viable, the article then examines the dangers of nuclear energy to our health and to the environment. "When radio-active particles are released in the environment they enter our bodies in various ways and create poisonous substances in our cells. These poisonous substances result in all kinds of diseases and deformities in children"

So there you go, one year after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the Islamic Republic Party newspaper, the mouthpiece of the hardline clergy, proves to us that nuclear power is economically unjustifiable, it has serious health risks and it was all part of the bad bad Shah's plans to waste Iran's Petro-Dollars.

Thank You Archbishop Tutu

When we speak to others who have lived under repression and experienced struggling for freedom, they understand us immediately. If I talk to people who lived under Communist rule in Eastern European countries, everything about the religious dictatorship in Iran strikes a chord with the ideological dictatorship they had to endure. The empty slogans, the corruption, the injustice, the nepotism, the brainwashing, the systematic cruelty, the censorship, the suffocating despotism, the control freaks, the wasted lives of a generation, the discriminations, the lies and the annoying useful idiots are all too familiar with the people who have lived in despotic states.

The people who it is most difficult to connect to are the pretentious arrogant snobs in the West, who  like to refer to themselves as "progressives", the patronising la-dee-das, the Seumus Milnes, the Kate Hudsons and the Heather Gautneys. These people have never experienced tyranny, they praise tyrants as if they were heros and they adulate dictators with all kinds of flimsy justifications they can scrape from the bottom of the barrel but they remain silent when it comes to supporting the people who want to have the same privileges and luxuries they enjoy in their own lives in democratic states..

Desmond Tutu is a man who did experience the apartheid tyranny, a man who took part in a real struggle, a man who undertands the plight of Iran's pro-democracy activists who want to rid Iran from a religious apartheid and this was his message on the eve of the third anniversary of the march by millions of Iranians against the ruling regime in Iran:

Thank you so much Bishop Tutu.

The Illegal Take Over of Public Land by Mohammad Javad Larijani

Aung San Suu Kyi says "It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it"

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, which claims to be an example of 'global justice', five brothers, the Larijani brothers, wield a hell of a lot power and they fear losing it and many fear their scourge of power and so all the recipe for corruption that Aung San Suu Kyi talks about is there.

Sadegh Larijani is the head of the judiciary power in the Islamic Republic. Ali Larijani is the head of the Legislative power. Mohammad Javad Larijani, who is often seen giving interviews in the West and lying through his teeth about the prisoners of conscience in Iran, is the head of Iran's government run Human Rights Body :)

Not once have I seen the Western anchormen do their homework properly on MJ Larijani and ask him about the unhealthy power the five brothers wield in Iran.

Ahmadinejad has often groaned about the situation, once replying to an Iranian reporter, "What do you want me to do? complain about one brother to another?  I am not in the mood for such troubles.." but has often threatened to "let loose his cannons" and expose the corruption of the Larijani brothers, in reaction to the accusations against the corruption of his own cronies,  and it seems the pro-Ahamdinejad camp have been behind this latest leak to the Iranian opposition website Bamdadkhabar, who have received more than 12 letters which show how Mohamamd Javad Larijani has taken over public land in over two decades and all the letters by the Bureau of Natural Resources and local court orders against Mohammad Javad's actions have all been ignored or dismissed.

Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, The Very Definition of a Freedom Fighter

Well before a fraudster named Austin Heap, was fooling the world that his non-existent Haystack software was breaking the internet filter barriers in Iran, a young Iranian computer genius, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, was the real hero who was helping the people of Iran achieve their inalienable right: 'access to free information'.

At the time when Austin Heap was receiving Guardian's Media Innovation Award and getting state department exemptions for a product that never existed, Hossein Ronaghi's proxies were demolishing the regime's fortress walls which were attempting to contain and  control the flow of information to the Iranian people.

Hossein's proxies which circumvented the regime's online censorship, were released under the name of Babak Khorramdin, an ancient Iranian hero from the Azeri part of Iran, who resisted the Arab invasion for 22 years and died defiant like a true hero.

To pay for the costs of his proxies, Hossein, a computer student from Arak university, laboured on building sites. He had even bought a server inside Iran and continued to release his proxies during the post-election protests at the height of the internet censorship in Iran. Much of the footage that came through, which showed the regime's brutality to the world, would not have come through, had it not been because of Hossein's anti-filter proxies. In fact the Green Movement seemed to subside after Hossein's arrest. Information was the life line of the Green Movement and the forces of the darkness had stifled it by imprisoning the modern day Babak Khorramdin.

Islamic Republic's security agents were after Hossein Ronaghi ever since 2004. Mojtaba Saminejad, an Iranian blogger who was imprisoned in 2004, said his interrogators were pressuring him to say who Babak Khorramdin was in 2005. It was just lucky that Mjtaba didn't know either.

Finally after many years of slipping through the regime's net, Hossein was arrested in his home town of Malekan in East Azerbaijan province.

Iran's intelligence ministry, furious at Hossein having given them the chase for so many years, came down on him with everything they had. Hossein was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His sentence sparked outrage amongst human rights organisations. Amnesty International said he is "held solely on account of his peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression".

In Tehran's notorious Evin prison, Hossein spent 376 days in solitary confinement. His health has deteriorated and he has developed kidney problems. The Intelligence Unit of the Revolutionary Guards who are holding Hossein in Evin prison, are still raging at this one man who singlehandedly helped so much to promote freedom and have so far denied him medical attention.

Hossein however; has remained as resolute and as true to the spirit of the Iranian hero, Babak Khorramdin. His hunger strike in protest at his treatment and denial of his basic prisoner rights has caused deep concern and anxiety amongst many of his friends and supporters. The intelligence ministry agents even threatened Hossein's father, telling him "if you speak too much, you too will be put in jail". A threat they could easily carry out. Last week, Arash Sadeghi's 80 year old grand father was imprisoned for protesting 'too much' against his grandson's conditions.

Unknown and un-praised in the West, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, is the true definition of a freedom fighter; who deserves much more international support.

As part of the campaign to release Hossein, many Iranian activists have emailed and written to Heather Gautney, the Fordham university lecturer who recently went to the Islamic Republic and showered praise on the religious dictatorship in Iran. The campaigners want Heather Gautney to call for the release of Hossein from prison.

After all the propaganda the Islamic Republic made from Gautney's trip and the interviews she gave, it would be hugely costly for the regime, if she only makes a simple public statement and asks for Hossein's release.

As yet, this Wall Street Occupier and US university lecturer who lectures her Fordham University students on 'social movements' and is about to earn some extra cash from her latest book on "Global Justice", has chosen to remain silent and not say anything to help release Hossein Ronaghi Maleki. 

A Different Before and After Prison Picture

Prison in Islamic Republic is tough, very tough. Political prisoners who have been in prison during the  Shah's reign and in the last three decades since the Islamic revolution in 1979 have often said, "one day in Islamic Republic prisons was like a whole year in the Shah's prisons". Regime officials and judges always rebuff the complaints about the conditions in Islamic Republic prisons by saying, "prison is not supposed to be a hotel".

To demonstrate this point, I wrote this post back in July 2010. It is a pictorial confirmation that the "prisons in Islamic Republic are not hotels"

Former Khatami Deputy, Abtahi, Before Prison and After

Journalist Emadedin Baghi, Before and After

Iranian Film Director, Before Prison and After

Journalist Issa Saharkhiz, Before and After

But one person, not only didn't lose any weight, he seems to have fattened up and his cheeks become fuller:

Jamali Fashi Confessing on TV and 2 Years Later During his Trial

An Unusual Before and After Prison Picture