The covert war against Iran

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Iran and the West are engaged in an undeclared covert struggle fought through sabotage, espionage and murder that may yet escalate into open war.

The latest blow against Iran came two weeks ago in Tehran, when two assassins on a motorbike pulled up alongside a car carrying Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, deputy director of Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant, and affixed a magnetic bomb to it. The bomb exploded, killing Roshan and his driver. It was a daring and sophisticated assault, likely requiring long and intensive surveillance of the victim, one or more safe houses, access to explosives, and the ability to make a device that murdered the occupants of the targeted car without harming passersby. Iran immediately blamed Israel, the U.S. and Britain, and says it has made arrests connected to the killing.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued an explicit and categorical denial of any American involvement. Britain also said it was not involved. Israel was more circumspect. The attack came one day after Israel’s military chief, Benny Gantz, told a parliamentary committee the Iranian regime could face “unnatural” events this year. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, writing on his Facebook page, said he didn’t know who had killed Roshan, but added, “I certainly won’t shed a tear.”

Continue…

What to do about Tehran’s push for nukes?

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:10 AM - 0 Comments

Reuters

War drums are beating again in Washington, nearly a decade after the push to invade Iraq over stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be non-existent. This time critics warn that time is running out for President Barack Obama to stop Iran’s alleged progress toward building a nuclear weapon. A growing chorus of hawkish voices say the United States—or Israel—must soon bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities or else accept a world in which the theocratic Islamist regime wields nukes, and then try to “contain” the threat.

The world’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, concluded in a report on Nov. 8 that Iran is closer than ever to obtaining nuclear weapons. Then, on Friday, Nov. 18, the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors, including representatives from China and Russia, voted to censure Iran. “The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device,” said the agency’s head, Yukiya Amano.”

The IAEA said Iran has been acquiring large quantities of enriched uranium, and that it was working toward perfecting an “implosion device” that would turn it into a weapon. “It is no longer within the bounds of credulity to claim that Iran’s nuclear activities are solely peaceful,” said Glyn Davies, the chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA.

Continue…

Who's the real supreme leader?

By Erica Alini - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 9:35 AM - 2 Comments

Reuters

The latest piece of political theatre in Iran features a bitter public tussle between the country’s hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and its equally hardline supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It’s the kind of venomous power struggle that Iranians love cracking jokes about over a good cup of chai. Who’s up and who’s down? And is the battle real or just an act? Collective cabs in Tehran, those four-wheeled vehicles for gossip, are buzzing with elaborate conspiracy theories on the issue, the PBS news site Tehran Bureau reports from the capital.

It all started in mid-April with a revelation worthy of a spy novel: the offices of Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, had allegedly been bugged by none other than the Ministry of Intelligence. Ahmadinejad promptly sacked the intelligence chief, Heidar Moslehi, but the supreme leader, who notoriously dislikes the president’s right-hand Mashaei, ordered the embattled spymaster reinstated. In a fit of pique, Ahmadinejad then boycotted cabinet meetings and avoided public appearances for over a week.

His defiance quickly precipitated the spat into a full-blown political storm, with personalities from across Iran’s conservative political spectrum—from influential clerics to top-level members of the elite Revolutionary Guard—thundering that an affront to the supreme leader constituted an affront to the Islamic Republic. Some even suggested the president should be impeached. A sulky Ahmadinejad eventually reappeared in the majlis, Iran’s parliament, after receiving an ultimatum to return or resign. But in a sign of how much the president’s gutsy standoff irked many within Iran’s conservative camp, several associates of his ally Mashaei, a highly controversial figure among Iran’s hard-liners, were arrested on charges ranging from corruption to demon worship and sorcery.

Continue…

Who loves Iran?

By Michael Petrou - Friday, August 27, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

Canadian invitees to conferences hosted by the Iranian government this spring and summer, aimed at burnishing the country’s image, included a former candidate for the Green Party of Canada and Ontario, as well as a University of Alberta professor.

On Aug. 2 and 3, more than 1,000 Iranian expatriates were welcomed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the “Grand Conference of Iranians Living Abroad” in Tehran. Successful and well-placed Iranians were identified by Iranian embassies, and then offered an all-expenses-paid trip to the conference, with a side trip to a tourist destination. Organizer Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh said expats are exposed to negative images about Iran because of “lying media organizations outside the country.” The conference would correct this misconception. But according to Potkin Azarmehr, an Iranian blogger based in London, its purpose was to demoralize Iranians “by hiring and bribing a mish-mash of sycophants and turncoats, to say to the Iranian people, despite all their suffering and sacrifices, Ahmadinejad’s administration and not them enjoy widespread support outside Iran.”

Continue…

Playing nice, to no avail

By Michael Petrou - Monday, August 9, 2010 at 1:08 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Stuparyk/ TORONTO STAR

Hossein Derakhshan, the Iranian Canadian who helped launch a blogging revolution in Iran, is on trial in Tehran, almost two years after he was arrested. According to the government-linked Fars News Agency, charges against him include working with hostile governments, spreading propaganda against the Islamic regime, and launching and managing obscene websites. The trial opened on June 23 and is expected to end shortly.

Derakhshan moved to Canada in 2001 and soon created a blog that was widely read in Iran, and among Iranian exiles. The tech-savvy Derakhshan also posted an online guide that allowed other Iranians to start their own Persian-language blogs. Thousands did. “Hoder changed everything,” says Arash Azizi, an Iranian journalist who knew Derakhshan in Tehran and recently moved to Toronto, referring to him by his nickname.

Continue…

The nuclear puppet-master

By Charlie Gillis and David Armstrong - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 4:00 PM - 0 Comments

Shahpari Sohaie/Redux

When Mahmoud Yadegari became the first man in Canada convicted of supplying nuclear equipment to Iran two weeks ago, his lawyer was quick to downplay his importance. The 36-year-old Iranian-born Canadian was nothing more than a “rube” caught up in Tehran’s global smuggling operation, said lead counsel Frank Addario, noting that, before his landmark conviction under UN special regulations and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Act, Yadegari was merely a truck driver in desperate need of a dollar. “I think if he could redo it,” said Addario, “he would have continued driving a truck.”

The depiction required a certain leap of imagination. In the six months leading up to his April 2009 arrest, Yadegari had contacted 118 companies across North America and sent more than 2,000 emails to suppliers in hopes of getting his hands on parts used in the enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel. Several firms warned him that his activities ran afoul of international law, while his “handler” in Tehran—a man named Nima Tabari— instructed him on how best to avoid attracting the attention of authorities. Yet the hapless Torontonian pressed on, and in March 2009 was caught trying to ship devices called pressure transducers to Iran via the United Arab Emirates. He now faces up to 10 years in prison.

Continue…

Iran: bracing for a backlash

By Katie Engelhart - Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 4:34 PM - 3 Comments

Since last summer, when demonstrators took to the streets to protest what they viewed as the fraudulent re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran has faced its worst upheavals since the Islamic revolution of 1979. For weeks, until a bloody crackdown by the regime in large part quelled the disturbances, proponents of the so-called Green Revolution united in a show of defiance against the ayatollahs. The response—thousands were detained and dozens killed in clashes with police—brought harsh criticism from the West, as has the government’s recent announcement that it is ramping up its nuclear program, viewed by many as a means of gaining nuclear arms. Now, with Tehran facing the threat of new sanctions that could further hurt the country’s faltering economy, the regime is bracing for more unrest. But that may come at its own initiative: with his government facing insolvency, Ahmadinejad has proposed a radical overhaul of the system of massive state subsidies that have kept life tolerable for Iran’s citizens.

Continue…

Protests and a Nokia boycott

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 4:00 PM - 1 Comment

Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Tehran last Friday after Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential cleric and former president, publicly called for the government to release those detained in protests following the controversial June presidential election. But even as those demonstrations were underway, a different kind of protest was unfolding as companies deemed complicit in the post-election crackdown were targeted with a boycott.

An opposition daily, Etemad Melli, reported that Nokia sales have been slashed in half because the Finnish firm provided Iran Telecom with the ability to monitor local communications from fixed and mobile phones late last year. For members of the “Twitter Revolution” who used their phones to tell the outside world of the protests and government crackdowns, there is a very real worry that their texts and videos will get them thrown in jail. An online watch group, OpenNet Initiative, recently reported that arrested activists were shown transcripts of their texts. Continue…

Tehran: again

By Paul Wells - Friday, July 17, 2009 at 8:53 AM - 11 Comments

From Nico Pitney, who as always on days like this is must-reading.

The correction will be twittered

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 10:29 PM - 3 Comments

Jason Kenney refutes reports that foreign embassies in Iran were taking in the wounded.

Update. Italy’s foreign minister has issued a statement that comes rather close to offering assistance. Austria seems willing, even if no one’s yet asked.

'The Iranian people deserve to have their voices heard'

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 4:27 PM - 5 Comments

The official statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon this afternoon.

“Canada condemns the decision of the Iranian authorities to use violence and force against their own people. Although the scale of the casualties is unclear, it is evident that Iranian security forces are using deadly force on citizens and deaths have occurred. Millions of Iranian civilians have taken to the streets in the past week in Tehran and throughout the country protesting what they consider a fraudulent election. The government’s reaction has been to silence the voices of its own people through brutality.

“The Iranian people deserve to have their voices heard, without fear of intimidation or violence. Canada condemns the use of force to stifle dissent, and we continue to call on Iran to fully respect all of its human rights obligations, both in law and in practice, and to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the fraud allegations. The Government of Canada continues to support freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Iran.”

The burden that is democracy

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 12:40 PM - 6 Comments

John Mraz makes the humbling comparison.

Canadians don’t want an election, to be sure. Yet the act of voting should not be perceived as an onerous task, but an enlightened right. As the son of a Czechoslovak émigré seeking refuge from tyranny, I was raised to value my enfranchisement. Spending several minutes, or even hours, going to the polls, is a privilege, not a burden.

As we empathize with the Iranian people in their pursuit of such simple freedoms, Canadians should remind themselves that true suffering is not be found in the narcissism and gamesmanship of our political theatre, nor even in the tired partisan invective and deplorable tactics sometimes used across the board. True suffering is not having your vote counted.

Photo Gallery: Iran in revolt

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 4 Comments

Tehran today

By Paul Wells - Monday, June 15, 2009 at 9:29 PM - 14 Comments

“Longing on a large scale is what makes history” — Don DeLillo

Iran cracks down harder on the Bahá'í

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 2 Comments

Iran says it will soon charge seven followers of the Bahá’í faith with spying for Israel, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency. Deputy Tehran prosecutor Hassan Haddad was quoted saying the seven will face a revolutionary court this week. He did not name those to be tried, but it is almost certain he was referring to seven Baha’i leaders who were arrested last spring.

Ottawa resident Naiem Tavakkoli’s father, Behrouz, is among those arrested. He called his mother in Iran as soon as news of the trial broke last week. “She’s worried. We’re all worried,” he said in an interview with Maclean’s. Behrouz has been detained in the past, but given the charges against him this time Naiem is particularly concerned. Behrouz has not been allowed to see his lawyer since his arrest, and the charges against him amount to treason. “If they take him to the court, which is mostly behind closed doors, without having access to their lawyers, and with all these accusations, you can imagine what’s going to happen,” Naiem said.

Continue…

Further reading (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 9:56 PM - 2 Comments

One way or another, it would seem our present predicament will be left for Michaelle Jean to sort out. Lucky her. (As of 6:07pm today, her plans had not changed. She remains due back in Canada on December 6.)

Time then to read-up on the Vice Regal.

To my knowledge, Maclean’s has published two major features on Madame Jean. In Oct. 2005, Shanda Deziel wrote about her and we compared the Governor General to Angelina Jolie. Earlier this year, I wrote about her and we compared the Governor General to Oprah.

Furthermore, shortly after her appointment was announced, John Geddes looked into the much-discussed political leanings of her and her husband.

Even furthermore, two years ago Michael Petrou wrote about Lafond and his book, Conversations in Tehran.

Facing down the Mullahs

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 12:00 AM - 0 Comments

Ahmad Batebi was doomed and made famous because of a bloody white T-shirt he held aloft during student protests against Iran’s religious dictatorship in 1999. Another student had been shot beside him. Batebi took off the wounded man’s shirt to stem the bleeding and carried him to safety. He then returned to the crowd and brandished the garment—a gesture somewhere between defiance and a warning to his fellow protesters. The image was captured on film, and a photograph of Batebi—his longish hair held back with a bandana, dark stubble on his handsome face, the T-shirt above his head—ran on the cover of The Economist. He instantly became an icon of Iran’s student democracy movement.

Batebi had already been detained for his role in the protests when the photograph was published. A judge hearing the case showed him the magazine cover and said: “With this you have signed your death warrant.” He was condemned to death for “creating street unrest,” but his sentence was commuted to 15 years and then reduced to 10. He endured solitary confinement and torture. He was beaten with cables, held face down in a pool of sewage, kicked, cut, and hung from the ceiling. Twice he suffered mock executions. His jailers wanted him to confess, betray his fellow students, say the blood on the T-shirt was merely paint. He says he refused.

I met Batebi in a modest suburban Tehran house one night in April 2004 when I was in Iran to secretly meet with Iranian dissidents. He had secured a day pass from the infamous Evin Prison. We sat on the living room floor, as the mostly young Iranians talked about the kind of future they wanted for their country. The parents of one were also there. The father said he had supported the Islamic revolution 25 years ago because he believed it would free Iranians, but had not imagined the horrors it would bring.

Batebi entered the room only briefly. He asked that I not write about seeing him then. He was afraid of jeopardizing the sporadic hours of freedom he enjoyed, and didn’t want to endanger others. But it is safe to write about Batebi now. In March, temporarily released for medical attention, he escaped to Iraq. A few months later Batebi arrived in the U.S., where he now faces a brighter, if uncertain future. In a Voice of America radio interview, he said he wished that every Iranian could travel to the U.S. or Europe for just one week to “breathe freedom, human dignity, and realize the value of their lives.”

The fortunes of the other Iranian democrats who risked so much to meet with a Canadian journalist that night four years ago have been mixed. Two are still in Iran and have been in and out of prison. Kianoosh Sanjari, another student, was arrested and jailed several times, usually because of reports he wrote on an online blog. He was eventually forced to flee Iran to Iraq and is now in exile in Norway, from where he continues his online activism.