Iran Poets Whereabouts Unknown After Arrest

Islamic Republic security forces entered the home of Iran's satirical poet, Seyyed Mohammad Reza Aali Payam, aka Haloo and confiscated his computer and writings and took him away on Tuesday 14th August.

Haloo is yet another popular Iranian poet who has been arrested in recent times. The arrest happened after the recent earthquake in NW Iran, when Haloo derided the regime's pre-occupation with other causes and the apathy the regime showed for the people of Iran, by writing this couplet  in his blog:

Who says we are an untroubled government?
We always care for the problems of the Arab people

Don't keep going on about the earthquake in Ahar
For right now Damascus and Aleppo are our trouble

Haloo also announced on his blog, one day before his arrest, that the Amirkabir Literary Society, where many of Iran's poets recited their poetry to the enthusiast audiences, had been shut down by the security apparatus.

Almost ten days later after Haloo was taken away, there is no news of his whereabouts.

Below is one of his poetry recitals at the Amirkabir Poetry Society, where he is reading one of his masterpieces, "Cowards"




Why is the Guidance Ministry so scared of women's hair?
What is so scary about the flowing hair in the wind?

Put on dark clothes, brown or black
For they are scared of bright and happy colours

They destroy the remnants of our ancient civilisation
For they fear from what will remind us of the past

In Yasuj they fear the statue of Aryobarzan and his sword
[referring to the regime bringing down the statue of pre-Islamic Iranian hero, Aryobarzan]
And in Sari they tremble from the statue of Arash

The same way the Taliban feared from the statue of Buddha
"Our Friend", is also scared of stone, plaster and steel

You have to only kiss his hands and say Yes Sir, Yes Sir,
For he shivers from things like thought, logic and talent

Look the other way and pretend you didn't comprehend
For he fears anyone who has caught on

He is scared of the redness of the flower and the greenness of its leaf
He fears that tall cedar that is resolutely standing its ground

Not only he fears our sharp tongues and our able minds
He is startled by the rebellious aroma of the stews we cook

Then he interrupts his poem and say please remember this poetry is meant for Yemen, don't think I am referring to anyone in Iran! then he continues:

There was a time when he was scared of large crowds
But now he is scared of each single one of us

The same person whose trait is shouting and hurling insults
is so scared when we too want to shout

Strike your blows on our heads and bodies
My dear, when was the mountain bothered by Farhad's axe?

Gone are those days when the gazelle ran away from the hunters
Today each hunter trembles at seeing his own shadow

The dove flies along with the swallow
and the owl fears that it has lost its reputation

There was a time that he who knew, shirked from sticks and truncheons
But now the club fears the heads that understands

Salmon does not fear the fisherman's net no more
Now its the net and the hook that fear the salmon

The pine trees no longer fear the ax and the sickle
For today, its the ax that fears the tallness of the Pine tree

Gone are those days of fear my dear, today its the monsters
Who run away from the children of this ruined land

And I wonder if the day will come
Where this reversal will go on
and it will be the mother-in-law who fears her son-in-law

Laugh my countryman, laugh aloud, These laughters are a thorn
in the eyes of those who fear these happy hearts
 

Al-Quds Parades in Iran Today

Today is the Al-Quds Day in Iran, the day marked by Ayatollah Khomeini in the Islamic Republic's calendar to show the state's commitment in "liberating" Palestine. There will be parades all across Iran and throughout the world, including London and other European cities. In fact in London, this year, the Advertising Standards Agency, had allowed the advertising for the Islamic Republic sponsored demo to be publicised on the back of London's buses.

The footage below is from the Iranian state TV today, from Khorram Abad, West Iran. Huge megaphones ask the crowds to chant Allah Akbar in support of Palestine, but no one chants back. The speakers repeat the calls for Allah Akbar and still nothing. So the state TV plays Pirates of the Caribbean theme music and moves on



And this one is from Sari, North Iran. This time the huge megaphones chant "The Blood of the Martyrs of the Nation Boil/ The Supreme Leader of Iran Roars", but no one roars back. Everyone is busy talking to each other or playing with their mobiles!

Cabinet's Family Trip to Saudi, While the Quake Victims Suffer

Seldom do you come across a government who cares so little about its own and yet places such high priority on someone else's cause. Saturday's devastating earthquake in NW Iran, was another manifestation of such disregard for the people of Iran by the Islamic Republic.

Iran's state controlled television simply ignored the news about the earthquake and carried on with its normal programming. People were mostly alerted about the earth quake via the social media and foreign satellite TV stations. Worse still just to add salt to injury, the IR state TV, in complete indifference to the plight of its citizens in Azerbaijan, started to show one of its few cheap tasteless comedy programs, Khandeh Bazaar - Laughter Bazaar.

Iranians gritted their teeth and whined that had the devastation taken place in Gaza or Lebanon, the state TV would be showing their suffering non-stop.

The fury and backlash was such that even the hand selected and pre-approved MPs for Azerbaijan voiced their anger at the shameless state TV and demanded an apology.

Only one day after the earthquake and while citizens were waiting to be rescued from under the rubble, Ahmadinejad and several of his ministers packed their bags, not to go to the quake zone but to Saudi Arabia, with some ministers like Science Minister and the Guidance Minister taking their family and relatives along with them too for presumably some fun and shopping.

The usual protocol at times like this by other heads of the state, is to rush to the disaster areas and be with their people even if its just for symbolic purposes. Even if they are in middle of a foreign trip, they would cancel their arrangements and rush back home.

Included in this untimely cabinet trip to Saudi, is the Minister for Roads and Housing, Ali Nikzad. One would think someone in charge of Roads and Housing would be the most required official to be on the scene and evaluate the damage, especially if the minister himself is born in Ardebil and Azerbaijani himself.

This disaster once again shows that the people ruling Iran today are nothing but foreign occupiers, alien to our history and to our culture and apathetic to the suffering of our people. No wonder the post-election protesters were chanting "Neither Gaza Nor Lebanon, I Die Only for Iran"

Azerbaijan ::(

BBC Wrongly Blames Sanctions for Soaring Chicken Price in Iran

The soaring chicken prices in Iran and the ridiculous/condescending statements made by the authorities and religious figures in the Islamic Republic that followed the chicken price hike, made the headlines in several Western media. As usual however, most of them got the headlines right, but when it came to the nitty gritty details, either lazy journalism or other personal considerations let them down. One of the authors, Ali Hamedani, who works for BBC Persian, I  could confidently describe as the quintessential lazy journalist.

This BBC Report however,  didn't even get the headline right and blamed the soaring chicken prices on sanctions! "Growing Anger in Iran Over Cost of Chicken as Sanctions Bite".

The fact is, as the Iranian MP, Ali Aliloo, member of the Majlis for Shabastar, E. Azerbaijan, pointed out in Iran's Islamic Consultative Assembly - (Majlis) - the chicken feed had been imported and was cleared by the customs, but it was not distributed to the chicken farms, in order to artificially push up the prices. In an interview with Enekas, Aliloo rightly blamed 90% of the ills in Iran's economy on the 'economic mafia' which is strangling the country. 

The headline in Shomal News  article, asks the question "Who is the importer of the chicken feed?". A very good question. Indeed, who is this sole importer of chicken feed who has caused so much misery to so many hard working families for the sake of profiteering for himself? 

Despite the lengthy article in Shomal News in trying to answer this question and the author's efforts in describing "rent seeking behaviour", mis-spelled as "rent seejing behaviour", no one is still any wiser as to who has the monopoly on chicken feed imports and the power to manipulate the markets for his own personal profits?

The best answer one can extract from the article, are the importer's initials: "M.M"! 

Undoubtedly "M.M" is a very powerful figure within the Islamic Republic establishment, whom no one can touch or even talk about. 

The truth is whether oil is $10/barrel or over $100/barrel and whether there are sanctions or not, it makes no difference to the people in Iran. What is left from all of Iran's riches and resources is always the very bottom of the barrel. The top cream always goes to the establishment elite, their relatives and cronies and to the "liberation movements" and the "lobby of useful idiots"!

BBC Persian reporter, Ali Hamedani, during last year's Al-Quds Parade, organised annually by the Islamic Republic, more interested in cuddling up to the IRIB reporter than reporting the counter demonstration behind him.

Now Other Ayatollahs Suggest What to Replace Chicken with

It hasn't been long since I wrote the previous post about Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi and his outrageous remark, "so what if people can't eat chicken?". The remark which was made by Brent Council's favourite symbol of religious tolerance, was in reaction to the soaring price of chicken in Iran, which is spiralling out of control, as a direct result of the mismanagement of the economy. More Ayatollahs with their bellies full and their brains drained of active cells have started to join the race in making more condescending remarks about people's inability to buy chicken.

Hojatoleslam Shojooni

Iranian exiled columnist, Massih Alinejad interviewed Hojatoleslam Shojooni by phone and asked him about the recent protests by the people in Neishabur against the soaring chicken prices. The Don Quixote like cleric rebuked the protests by the people in the birth place of Omar Khayyam by saying "This is not right to march in the streets, one shouldn't act against the regime just because of chicken prices". One wonders what exactly people in Iran can protest against?

Mashad's Friday Prayer Leader, Ayatollah Alamolhoda, with his huge protruding belly, told the faithful in his sermon yesterday "Its not as if you are supposed to have the same living standards as before...if you cant have chicken then replace it with another protein based substitute".

Mashad's Friday Prayer Leader 

Ayatollah Alamolhoda suggested Ashkane Piaz, a soup dish with fried onions, garlic, potatoes, turmeric, tomato sauce and eggs instead of chicken dishes.

Meanwhile an armed robbery on a chicken farm in Minab, Hormuzgan province, was foiled when the robbers found no chickens in the farm and they fell with their motor bike in a water canal ditch as they fled, because they were unfamiliar to the area.

So What if People Don't Eat Chicken?

It is attributed to Marie Antoinette that when she was told people in France don't have bread to eat, she had replied 'Let them eat cake' but I  am told there is no evidence she ever said that and the phrase has now become a cliche. Today a new cliche 'so what if they can't eat chicken?' must replace 'Let them eat cake'.

This new masterpiece of a cliche was uttered today by Ayatollah Makrem Shirazi during his sermon in Qom. Posterity will not be able to argue, as in the case of Marie Antoinette, that there is no evidence, for it was all broadcast live on state TV.

In his sermon he told the hapless faithful:
"People should not be so persistent about some matters. For example we see a lot of people ranting on about the soaring price of chicken. Now so what if people don't eat chicken?" and he goes on to justify this by saying "all doctors agree that eating meat products is bad for your health."



The soaring price of chicken which has trebled since the beginning of the Iranian New Year in March, has become a national obsession, even more important to ordinary people than the fluctuating gold and foreign currency prices. Pictures of ordinary people queuing to get the cheaper 'state chicken', occasionally handed out in the streets, is yet another chapter in humiliation of the people of Iran, a rich country which should have been a prosperous place to live for all. People juxtapose their own misery of queuing up for state chickens with that of foreign guests having lavish lunches in "Islamic Awakening" conferences.

The soaring price of chicken is also nothing to do with sanctions, it is pure mismanagement of the economy which has resulted in closure of many hen farms, thus shortening the supplies.

People in the West are probably not so familiar with who Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi is. This reactionary Grand Ayatollah, a staunch supporter of the Supreme Leader of Iran and Bashar Assad of Syria, is a super wealthy businessman himself, who controls the sugar imports to Iran, amongst many other commodities. Makarem Shirazi is also a Holocaust denier. On his official web page, he refers to the Holocaust as superstition:

(Translation)

B) The Holocaust Superstition

Apart from idolatry, which is one of the biggest superstitions, several more superstitions have come about and exist today. Even in today's age of progress and civilisation, strange superstitions have been propagated by the Europeans and the Americans. One of these new superstitions is the superstition of Holocaust. Those who believe in this superstition claim "The criminal Hitler burned six million Jews in the gas chambers and everyone must believe in this story and if they don;t they should be imprisoned.

Interestingly many people in American and in Europe have accepted this great lie but we must tell them this is illogical and far removed from reason. Of course a historic issue must be studied and researched. If Hitler has committed such a crime, he should be condemned and if this was not the case and the Zionist have created this big lie to make themselves look like victimes and solicit sympathy for themselves, then they should be condemned. What logic dictates that anyone who researches the issue should go to jail? Is this issue so special amongst all others that talking about it must be banned and everyone should simply accept it by force?

There is so much more archaic stuff about women, apostasy, dogs and how to deal with the infidel West on his website and in his books.

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi was also the first Iranian Grand Ayatollah who issued a fatwa and explicitly referred to the Iranian rapper, Shahin Najafi, who lives in Germany, to be killed for apostasy because of the lyrics Najafi used in one of his songs.

But it gets better. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, also has his representative office here in UK, in Harrow Road, known as Babul Murad Centre. He also has a registered charity in UK and wait for this one..........He has received a grant from Brent Council for helping with "Religious Freedom and Tolerance" :)))))) Ignorant and lunatic political correctness which is helping to bring down UK to its knees.

Reuters report on the ‘simmering chicken crisis’
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/22/us-iran-economy-chicken-idUKBRE86L08E20120722

Travel Ban on a 96 Year Old and a 12 Year Old

Two travel bans were issued against two Iranian citizens this week by the Islamic Republic judiciary, one on a 96 year old man and one on a 12 year old girl.

The 96 year old man is Dr. Ahmad Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi, himself the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Justice in the post-revolution's provisional government of Mehdi Bazargan.


Dr. Sadr was one of the founders of the Freedom Movement, a religious opposition to the Shah which backed Dr. Mossadeq and the nationalisation of Iran's oil industry. Perhaps more ironically, he was also the defence lawyer for many of the dissident clerics during the Shah's rule, his dissident clients included the Supreme Leader himself.

A year ago, Sadr Haj S. Javadi wrote a private letter to the Supreme Leader, which was later published to the public.  In the letter, Haj S. Javadi had asked the Supreme Leader to release all political prisoners, abolish the revolutionary court and end the house arrests of Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Most strikingly, he apologised to the Iranian nation for his part in the revolution and having helped bring about the Islamic Republic. He asked the Almighty to forgive him for the pain he has brought about on the Iranian nation.

Sadr Haj S. Javadi's travel ban was delivered to him by judicial post and was issued by the Security Court Prosecutors in Evin prison. He has since responded to the letter by saying "I am not able to move. I mean I can barely move from one room to another. Someone has to hold my back so I don't fall and I have no wish to travel".

Mehraveh on the other hand is only 12 years old. She has committed no crime other than she is the daughter of the jailed Iranian lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh.

Sotudeh's husband, Reza Khandan also responded to the travel ban issued against his daughter by saying "We have no plans to travel. In my view this is an attempt by the authorities to destroy our emotional and mental well being and shock the family"

Iran Poet Sentenced to Three Years Prison

Iran's nationalist poet, Mostafa Badkoobei aka Omid, was today sentenced to three years prison and five years ban from reciting poetry in public.

Badkoobei is an expert on Iranian literature. He has written 29 books to date on Iran's history and literature. Many of them have sold out and been re-printed several times.


Mostafa Badkoobei has even appeared on Iran's state TV to talk about the great Persian poet, Hafiz.
His patriotic poems stir great passions in the audience and crowds rise to standing ovation for him. His poetry recitals have been uploaded on youtube and have received several hundred thousand hits:



One wonders why such a patriotic Iranian poet is sentenced to prison and the answer can only be that those who rule Iran are alien occupiers of Iran, determined to destroy the Iranian culture and heritage.

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

Why BBC or VOA Persian Didn't Report Jamali Fashi's Photoshopped Passport?

I don't think I ever remember an Iran related news story that was so widely reported in the global media, as the Jamali Fashi's photoshopped Israeli passport was, which still didn't make the news on BBC Persian or VOA Persian; the two most funded Persian news channels outside Iran, not financed by the Islamic Republic.

To explain the main reason for my disappointment, I need to talk about a brief chance meeting I had with a former OTPOR activist, Ivan Marovic, few years ago. As I listened carefully to Ivan's recollections of how OTPOR grew from a small organisation into a movement that played a major role in bringing democracy to Serbia, there were a number of commonalities that matched his experiences to my own instincts.

One of Ivan's recollections of how they brought down the dictatorship in Serbia, that relates to this post, was the importance of exposing the bungling incompetence of the Milosevic regime.  Ivan was saying if someone wanted to make a documentary about North Korea, it shouldn't be about the tortures and brutalities and the iron grip of the regime, we already know all that, it should be about how easy it was to bribe the border police and fool the party officials etc.  To constantly keep going on about the brutality and the tortures and the imprisonments by the regime will create an atmosphere of fear amongst the general public and will show the state is powerful and in control.  What needs showing most; is the regime's ineptitude and it's Achilles Heel.

The comical attempt by the Islamic Republic's intelligence ministry to show how Jamali Fashi was given an Israeli passport by Israel was just the sort of thing Ivan was talking about and it was just the kind of story that needed to be told to the Iranian public but both BBC Persian and VOA Persian failed to report the story.

What could be the reason for such bad judgement shown by their news teams? Is it a personal problem they have with me? Possibly or more probably, as another friend of mine suggested, the overwhelming majority of staff in BBC Persian and VOA Persian are anti-Israeli Leftists who become tunnel visioned as soon as they hear the word Israel. It is a question that can only be answered by VOA Persian and BBC Persian news teams themselves.

Regime Hypocrisy for Martyrs

Martyrs, Martyrs, Martyrs! Thats all you hear from the regime's propaganda machines. Everything is justified by just mentioning the word martyrs. If dissidents are imprisoned it is for the martyrs, if protesters are killed, it is for the martyrs, if newspapers are closed, it is for the martyrs, if the election candidates are hand picked, it is for the martyrs, if the dictatorship continues, it is for the martyrs.

Of course respect for our martyrs who stood up to the Saddam invasion is a must, but the truth is if they were alive today, they would have stood up to the tyranny and the hypocrisy of the Islamic Republic. Many of the children of the martyrs are now in prison and many openly oppose the regime.

This footage from Iranian state TV, sums up how much the regime cares for the martyrs. Laying flowers on the graves of the martyrs on the anniversary of the liberation of Khorramshahr is a noble act, but not if they are immediately removed and probably sold after the cameras have gone.

This footage below, sums up the false shop front window of the IR propaganda for the martyrs:

Why Pep Guardiola was 'Sacked' According to IR State TV

I was quite pleased with the global attention my previous post on Jamali Fashi's fake passport received. Hopefully it gave a little taster to people around the world that not only the Islamic Republic is a brutal regime but that it is also an incompetent establishment which lies through its dentures.

Here is another disclosure which will appeal to the football fans:

According to the 20:30 program, which is widely thought to be the production of Islamic Republic intelligence services, Pep Guardiola, the legendary F.C Barcelona coach, did not leave for personal reasons to have a break. He was, according to whoever makes this ideological propaganda 20:30 program, removed by the Zionist lobbies.  Of course! who else to blame for the loss of such a legendary coach to turn millions of football fans against Israel, but the Zionist lobby.

But why would the Zionist lobby 'sack' Guardiola? Watch the video @1:03 you see some other player lift his team shirt to reveal the words Palestine written on it. This player is not Guardiola but he looks like him from a distance and if he is shown quickly, some may believe it is Guardiola. I am sure this will include the "useful idiots" in the West who support the religious apartheid in Iran.

Case shut and closed. Guardiola is a campaigner for the Palestinian cause and so despite his legendary successes with Barcelona, the Zionist lobby decided to eliminate him.

Here is a footage of Guardiola arriving happily in Israel. A trip which angered many Arabs:

"They consider telling lies the most disgraceful than anything else, and next to that is owing money" - Herodotus on Ancient Iranians.

How Fake is this Passport?

This video below is another IR state TV showing of Jamali Fashi's "last minutes" before being executed. Here they claim he was given an Israeli passport with a different name.

Below is a freeze frame of what the state TV alleges to be Jamali Fashi's Israeli passport:

There are several things that don't add up.

The date of issue is 17/11/2003, that is nine years ago. It was said that Jamali Fashi was 24 years old when he was "executed" last week. The passport picture however does not come across as that of a 15 year old teenager.

In fact the picture is truly a give away in many ways. No passport will be issued with such a picture, anywhere in the world. You need a headshot where you are open-eyed AND looking into the camera.
This is yet another question in the whole series of doubts about what Jamali Fashi's role, if any, in the assassination of Iranian particle physicist, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was.

Three Questions About Jamali Fashi's Execution

The Times published an article this week, which questioned whether a wikileak report gave the pretext for the regime to implicate Jamali Fashi in Prof. Ali-Mohamadi's assassination.  This post is not about the wikileaks report, I never managed to find out who the martial arts instructor in the wikileaks report was, but I was the one who after watching Jamali Fashi's confessions on state TV, found out he had been representing the Islamic Republic in a kick-boxing tournament in Australia and I have always suspected the regime's own involvement in the assassination of scientists since 2010.

Here, I want to ask three questions about Jamali Fashi's alleged execution after having watched this video, showing him "few minutes before his execution" on IR state TV:




Question 1) Does Jamali Fashi's demeanour in this video suggest this is a man few minutes before his execution?

He comes across composed and articulated. At one point the camera even focuses on his hands and they are not trembling a bit. Once again his statements contradict his other statements in this video and his previous recants shown on television as to when and where he first made contact with the Israelis. He suggests that he was duped by the Israelis into thinking that by killing the Iranian scientists, he will 'save the world'. A motivation that just doesn't become his portrayed greed for money.

Question 2) Where are the other 9?

At the time of his arrest and first TV confession, it was suggested that he was arrested as part of a ten man network. Two years on, nothing has been said or heard about the other nine. Where are they?

Question 3) Is that Jamali Fashi in the picture of a hanged man?

The only picture of Jamali Fashi's execution which is shown in the video above is blurred and from a distant and it can not be verified that its him. Given that the regime is not known for its regard for public sensitivity in seeing pictures of the dead and morbid images, why is it that in this instance they have chosen not to show his pictures? A practice which they have been quite comfortable with in the past, ever since publishing pictures of the executed regime officials of the Shah.

Hoveyda After His Execution

Rigi After His Execution

Jamali Fashi?