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Out in a theater near you: starring Shohreh Aghdashloo... FDI updates now on Twitter. Follow: fdipres Anti-regime demonstrations ARCHIVES: 2009 2007-2008 2006 entries 2005 entries 2003 entries 2000 entries FDI Legacy site and archive Make a Donation Human Rights archive Opposition links Earlier Postings About FDI FDI Newswire archive Iran Brief archive ARCHIVES: Featured  Iranian Bloggers: Sharif Behruz Amir Farshad Ebrahimi Hassan Daioleslam Kamangir Winston Directory of Iranian Weblogs in English Read the State Department's 2007 report on Human Rights abuses in Iran (released March 11, 2008) FDI Executive Director Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2006. Read about it in the Wall Street Journal Read about it at Newsmax    Read the latest Mideast headlines here. HOW TO TOPPLE THE MULLAHS - There is an alternative to the Baker-Hamilton capitulation Check here for the latest news from the Iranian Political Prisoners Association Ahmadinejad newswatch from VitalPerspective.com Iran Press News Search OMID for victims of Islamic Republic human rights abuse Anti Censorship Committee in Iran (anonymous proxy servers, petitions, and more

Feb. 6, 2010: Exclusive new photos of Imad Mugniyeh. Iranian defectors have provided dramatic new pictures from Iranian intelligence archives of Imad Fayez Mugniyeh, the star overseas terror operative of the IRGC Qods Forces. One of the photos shows Mugniyeh in Saudi Arabia in 1985 some 45 days before he hijacked TWA Flight 847 to Beirut. View the photos here. Feb. 4, 2010: Former PM Jose Maria Aznar: West must help pro-freedom movement. In a speech at the annual Herzliya conference just outside of Tel Aviv yesterday, former Spanish PM José Maria Aznar said that domestic unrest had opened a "window of opportunity" in Iran. “It will be a shame if a democratic world looks [aside], because our help can be decisive in bringing down the Ayatollahs’ regime," Aznar said. "Helping these events in Iran is our responsibility and our duty.” Watch the video. Jan. 29, 2010: Iran sanctions bill passes Senate. Long-stalled legislation to sanction suppliers of refined petroleum goods, and their shippers and insurers, passed the U.S. Senate last night, after Sen. John F. Kerry lifted a hold placed at the prompting of the Obama White House. Read the story here from Newsmax. Also look at the role played behind the scenes by Sen. John McCain, who is seeking even tougher sanctions against IRGC members, and by Sen. Joe Lieberman. Download here a 3-page pdf summary of the bill from the Senate Banking Committee. AIPAC's summary of the bill is here. Jan. 28, 2010: Regime executes two protestors. In its desperate efforts to head-off mass demonstrations on February 12, the anniversary of the "Islamic" revolution in 1979, the regime executed this morning two activists, Arash Rahmanipour and Mohammad Reza Ali Zaman, who took part in recent peaceful street protests. Another 11 protestors have be sentenced to death, according to Canadian human rights activist Sayeh Hassan. Jan. 27, 2010: Pro-regime supporters cancel event in Canada. Iranian-regime supporters had been planning to host an event tonight at McMaster College in Toronto to "expose" so-called "media myths" on Iran. The pro-regime supporters would have us believe that Iranians really don't support the "riots" and that the Green Movement does not represent the people of Iran. But apparently, strong opposition to the event from supporters of the Green Movement such as Sayeh Hassan have forced them to back down. "The Iranian people are no longer satisfied with reforming [Iran’s] existing Islamic regime, but want regime change entirely," says Ms. Hassan, a 29-year old lawyer and pro-democracy activist, Jan. 25, 2010: Green Cyber Army? A shadowy Iranian Green Cyber Army has been set up to oppose the equally shadowy pro-regime Iranian Cyber Army that brought down a major Chinese web portal earlier this month. But Pujan Ziaie, a top IT specialist for Karrubi says the regime doesn't have many IT specialists to defeat opposition bloggers and websites, since "[m]ost of the country's elite support the opposition." • KDPI leader calls for Greens to embrace Iran's nationalities. KDPI leader Mostafa Hijri criticizes Mousavi and Khatami for their calls earlier this month to respect and reform the Islamic Republic. He also notes that the Green Movement has not yet called on Iran's minorities for their support. "Therefore, the way forward at this point is twofold: (1) to combine the forces and massive waves of support behind this movement across the country and (2) to garner the support of those segments of society that have thus far remained on the sideline," he wrote in an editorial today. Hijri also called for the opposition to establish a "leadership council." In an interview with Newsmax in November, PJAK leader Rahman Haj Ahmadi also called on Iranian opposition groups to unite. PJAK has called on its activists to throw their support behind the Green Movement, and many of them have been arrested during recent sweeps by the security forces. Jan. 15, 2010: Ten Kurdish activists arrested at gravesite. IRGC troops stormed a gravesite in Sanandaj yesterday and rounded up activists who had come to commemorate the second anniversary of the murder of Ebrahim Kotfollahi. Read the details and names of those arrested here. Jan. 12, 2010: Former South Carolina Governor Joins FDI Board. Former South Carolina Governor David M. Beasley has been elected to the Board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran, FDI chairman Nader Afshar announced today. “Governor Beasley brings a wealth of political experience and international contacts to FDI. We are especially pleased that Gov. Beasley has agreed to make room for the people of Iran and their aspirations toward freedom in his busy schedule,” Afshar said.  As Governor of South Carolina from 1995-1999, David Beasley was best known for combining Christian ethics with conservative economics. “I look forward to working with FDI on their important mission of empowering the Iranian people to achieve freedom and democracy,” Beasley said. Read more about Gov. Beasley in the full press release. - The Progressive American-Iranian Committee is calling on Iranian-Americans to send letters of encouragement and thanks to Sen. Jon Kyl, for his efforts to get the Department of Justice to investigate the activities of Trita Parsi and NIAC in supporting the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. - Mothers holding a weekly protest to find out information on arrested family members were themselves arrested last Friday in Laleh park. Some of the women were beaten by security forces; others were transferred to Evin prison. Jan. 11, 2010: More Iranian diplomats seek political asylum. Ali Akbar Omidmehr, former Islamic Republic ambassador in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, tells Voice of America (VOA) that 29 Iranian diplomats have sought political asylum in the countries where they are serving since the stole presidential elections in June. Over the past two weeks, two Iranian diplomats in Germany, one in France, and one in the UK have sought asylum with their families, in addition to Mohammad Reza Heydari, Iran’s Councilor in Norway whose resignation was announced in the media. (Translation from Planet-Iran) Jan. 8, 2010: NIAC - a False Friend of the Green Movement. Hassan Daioleslam reveals the "sea change" Trita Parsi and his pro-Tehran lobbying group have undergone since the green movement came on the scene this year. In Jan. 2008, when an Iranian-American asked him why NIAC didn't stand up against human rights abuses in Iran, Parsi demurred, saying 'we do not have the expertise' in the area... Now, of course, NIAC is trying to make people believe that they are in the forefront of the Green movement. Their agenda? Same as before: no U.S. sanctions on Iran, and no credible military option - just what Tehran wants. Jan. 7, 2010: More arrests announced. The American Enterprise Institute's IranTracker project has identified more arrests of political activists: Ahmad Ahmadpour, Mosharekat Party member in Qom Behrang Tonekaboni, Farhang Va Ahang editor, and Keyvan Farzin, music critic. 53-year-old Parvaneh Rad, mother of two, missing since the Ashoura demonstration Amirkhosrow Dalir Sani, political activist 35 students arrested at Khayam University of Mashhad. An unnamed popular rap singer is arrested in Tehran. Jan. 6, 2010: Another Kurd executed for PJAK affiliation. Early this morning the regime executed another alleged PJAK activist, Fasih Yasamani, warning his family they would not be informed of his burial place for six months. He was arrested along with his father in 2007, and was the second Kurdish political prisoner executed in the past two months. 17 more Kurdish political prisoners have been sentenced to death for anti-regime activities. - FDI President Kenneth R. Timmerman was on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning to discuss Iran. Watch the Video Jan. 5, 2010: Regime bans FDI and other "seditious" Western groups. Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has banned contact with 60 U.S. and international organizations it accuses of inciting a “soft war” against the regime. Banned groups included the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Yale University, the Carnegie Endowment, the New America Foundation, and FDI. Most foreign-based Farsi-language radios were also banned. (Read the RFE/RL report in English; read the original Farsi, where FDI appears at number 29 in the list.) Some organizations, such as the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), are conspicuous for their absence from the Iranian regime's black list. Indeed, why would the regime want to ban a group that continues to lobby the Obama administration against imposing "crippling" economic sanctions - the one policy that would appear to strike fear into the heart of key regime leaders since it will cut into their profits and their ability to buy allegiance? Jan. 2, 2010: Washington Times warns that MOIS has "infiltrated agents" into opposition. In a front page story featuring a photo of activist Amir Abbas Fakhravar, the Washington Times warns that the regime has "infiltrated agents into the Office to Consolidate Unity, a student body that led the last widespread student protests" in July 1999. Fakhravar told the Times he hoped to create a "revolutionary council" of people inside and outside Iran to lead the "Iranian Green Revolution." The strength of the Green movement to date has been the lack of any identifiable leadership, so any council of this sort that identified leaders inside Iran would be a free gift to the regime. Fakhravar claims he left Iran in 2006 while facing a death sentence, but in fact left the country on a regular flight to Dubai with a freshly-issued passport in his own name. Jan. 1, 2010: New photos show plainclothes security police firing into crowds of protestors on Ashoura. This news came as Compass Direct News reported today that three Christians were arrested in Tehran on January 21 as part of a larger operation in which as many as 50 people were rounded up. "The arrests come as part of a tsunami of arrests in the past several months," the news service reported. Whereas past waves of harassment and arrests of Christians eventually have subsided, recent pressure has been “continuously high,” with reports of arrests in almost every month of 2008, the news service added. Compass Direct News focuses on endangered Christian communities being persecuted around the world.

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