In the midst of the Islamic Guidance Ministry's recent crackdown on the press, a hard-line weekly has attacked a national daily for its racy new logo.
Partoyeh Sokhan magazine, whose last front page headline was 'We will support the Supreme Leader until our last drop of blood,' published an article decrying what it saw as a dancing woman in Tehran Emrooz (NB Tehran Today) newspaper's redesigned logo.
'The letters of the word Emrooz in Tehran Emrooz's logo have been changed in such a manner that they resemble a dancing woman,' the investigative weekly revealed. The magazine referred to the end of the letter R, which now resembles 'a female leg in the act of dancing,' and the ends of the letter O and Z, which have been modified to look like arms (NB The paper does not indicate whether the arms belong to a woman or a man.). The weekly wrote that other elements in the logo were questionable, but that they were 'not fit to be published.'
Tehran Emrooz daily is close to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, conservative mayor of Tehran and Ahmadinejad rival. The newspaper was banned in June 2008 for having published a special section on the third anniversary of Ahmadinejad's presidency which was deemed too insulting. The paper was only reopened in January of last year.
'We ask officials of the Islamic Guidance Ministry to address a warning to Tehran Emrouz and demand that it change its logo,' wrote Partoyeh Sokhan, which is not a satirical publication. '[The Ministry] is urged to exercise even greater attention so that other parties do not deliberately or unwittingly take similar steps.' No doubt the Islamic Guidance Ministry will soon be forming a special Rorschach brigade.
Ebrahim Nabavi, journalist and satirist, told the Voice of America, 'Because many occupations do not exist in Iran, people get pulled into other fields. For example, I believe that the person who wrote this commentary has a lot of talent for making pornographic films. Instead of writing stuff like this in Partoyeh Sokhan, he should go to California. [...] You don't even see such imagination in Boccaccio. These are rare talents. To take a letter A or a pen and to see six dancing women. [...] In other places, they get Gabriel Garcia Marquez, we have Mesbah Yazdi. (NB hard-line ayatollah and Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor).'
Readers are invited to participate in the homylafayette competition: 'What do you see in Partoyeh Sokhan's logo?' Please enter your comments below...
Mohammad Hossein Shamlou, investigating magistrate at the 1st branch of Tehran's criminal affairs division, declared today that the mysterious deaths of a director of a holding company close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and his wife were accidental and caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Shahin Soleimanipour's lifeless body was found in her home in Tehran's exclusive Ozgol neighborhood on December 10, 2009. Her husband Majid was discovered unconscious and transferred to Shahid Chamran Hospital where he was declared dead.
The case would not have gained any more prominence than a short mention in the inside pages of newspapers, except for two facts. The deaths occurred at a time of heightened tension in a country known for mysterious and convenient disappearances. And, more intriguingly, Majid Soleimanipour was the managing director and member of the board of directors of the Tosse'eh Etemad Mobin company.
The consortium that Soleimanipour managed appears to have been a front company of the IRGC and had on September 27 bought a controlling stake in the Telecommunication Company of Iran for $8 billion in a purchase that was both rigged and the largest transaction in the history of the Tehran stock exchange. The operation provoked concern about the IRGC's increased ability to monitor telephone and Internet communications. Since the sale of the telecom stock was ostensibly carried out in line with the government's privatization drive, the Majlis launched a subsequent investigation in order to determine whether the company had simply been traded from one state body to another.
The consortium is made up of three companies: Tosse'eh Etemad, Shahriar Mahestan, and Iran Mobin Electronics Development Company, according to Masoumeh Taherkhani writing in Donyayeh Eghtesad. Tosse'eh Etemad and Shahriar Mahestan investment companies are directly run by the IRGC's social affairs mutual fund. Mobin Electronics belongs to the Setadeh Ejraieh Farman Emam(The Staff for the Enforcement of the Imam's Decree), a labyrinthine foundation directly under the authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office. (for a previous article on the telecom purchase, click here)
Davoud Zareian, Telecommunications Company of Iran spokesman, said that Soleimanipour had been working until 10 PM Wednesday evening and that the couple's dead bodies had been discovered in their bedroom. His comments were contradicted by the judiciary's official statement which said that Soleimanpour had been found in another room and that he had still exhibited a weak pulse before being taken to the hospital.
Seyed Massoud Miri, spokesman for the Tosse'eh Etemad Mobin consortium, said that the couple's son had found them on Thursday morning. In response to a question about why the son had not suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning, Miri said that the son slept in another room.
Soleimanpour had close links to the IRGC. He was a senior official at Imam Hossein University, which is under the authority of the Revolutionary Guards. According to some reports, he was the acting commander of the institution. He wrote for the Imam Hossein University's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Journal, though it was not possible to confirm the claims of some sources that he was the quarterly's editor several years ago. Soleimanipour was also a senior member of the Iranian Society of Cryptology, set up by the research division of the IRGC. The ISC even issued a statement of condolence following Soleimanipour's death. The Tosse'eh Etemad Mobin consortium's public relations office states that he obtained a doctorate in computer science and information technology from a Canadian university.
Given the sensitive nature of the case, senior officials quickly became involved. A day after the bodies were discovered, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the Islamic Republic News Agency that no signs of violence had been observed on the victims and that they had passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning. Jafari Dolatabadi said that the room containing the house's heating unit had been sealed off. 'The next of kin have not mentioned murder,' the prosecutor added helpfully, saying that the matter would be investigated.
Mohammad Hossein Shamlou, investigating magistrate of the 1st branch of the Tehran criminal affairs division, was tasked with the investigation. Today Shamlou offered his findings to Fars News in a terse statement, which given the importance of the case appears both overly succinct and cavalier. 'The gas company's experts have determined that the cause of death of the late Soleimani (sic), purchaser of the telecom's stocks, was a gas leak in the evacuation pipes of the furnace room,' Shamlou said, not explaining what part of legal procedures in the Islamic Republic allows gas company experts to determine the cause of death.
'The gas company claims that the evacuation pipes are cracked in many places,' Shamlou told Fars News, apparently not having seen the cracks himself and taking the gas company's word for it.
Shamlou's powers of deduction also allowed him to conclude, 'The person responsible for the furnace room, the house's builder, and the overseeing engineer are at fault.'
Favoritsm in the Islamic Republic is reaching such proportions that even pro-regime news outlets are beginning to notice.
Jahan News recently posted an article entitled 'The noteworthy presence of one family in the Saipa automobile company,' referring to the growing number of Ahmadinejad chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashai's relatives in key positions at Saipa Corp.
'Despite the president's repeated admonishments and the positions he has taken concerning the aghazadeha (NB A term which literally means 'gentlemen's sons' and can be loosely translated as 'daddy's boys.' It refers to the children of regime figures who get rich through their connections.),' the article began, 'the appointments of several relatives of a government figure have come under question by the people, especially supporters of Dr. Ahmadinejad.'
Mashai, a close ally of the president, has been a favorite target of anti-Ahmadinejad Principlists (NB osoulgara), conservatives who seek a return to what they see as the founding principles of the Islamic Revolution. After stiff opposition to Mashai's possible appointment as First Vice President, some Principlists were enraged by Ahmadinajd's decision to name Mashai as his chief of staff. Ahmadinejad recently exhibited a similar devil-may-care determination, some would call it disdainful arrogance, when he appointed former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi to a government position after a Majlis report found Mortazavi responsible for the deaths of protesters at the Kahrizak detention center.
Mashai is particularly close to Ahmadinejad and his daughter is married to one of the president's sons, Mehdi, a civil engineer. Photos of the wedding were leaked last year in order to highlight the simple lifestyles of the president and Rahim Mashai. The only food that was served reportedly consisted of one banana, apple, and orange per guest. The women were in Rahim Mashai's residence, while the male guests were entertained in a neighbor's house.
Jahan news reported, 'Reza Rahim Mashai (NB Esfandiar's son) has been named managing director of Saipa's investment arm and [Mashai's nephew] has been appointed to Saipa's business development office.'
'Arash Kousha, Mashai's other nephew, was previously named the manager of Saipa soccer club,' Jahan News added.
Arash Kousha's appointment two months ago had already provoked an outcry, especially since he had previously filled a cushy position, with no connection to sports, as director of environmental tourism at the Cultural Heritage Organization when Mashai had run that state body. In the following state television interview on a sports program called '90' (NB the number of minutes in a soccer match), Kousha employed all sorts of equivocation in responding to the pointed questions of the young and able host Adel Ferdowsipour (a translation follows the video):
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
Where did you work previously, Mr. Kousha?
Arash Kousha:
I was at the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization.
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
You have some sports background too?
Arash Kousha:
Yes, I worked at Tehran City Hall's cultural and sports organization which handled some sports teams. (NB Esfandiar Rahim Mashai also headed this body at the time, when Ahmadinejad was mayor of Tehran.)
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
By the way, I read somewhere today that you have some relation to Mr. Rahim Mashai... Is he your uncle?
Arash Kousha:
I might be related to many people...
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
Yes, but is this claim true?
Arash Kousha:
In any case, there is some connection.
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
A connection... Is he your uncle or not?
Arash Kousha:
No, he's not my uncle.
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
Pardon?
Arash Kousha:
He's not my uncle.
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
Is he related?
Arash Kousha:
Yes, there is some relation.
Host Adel Ferdowsipour:
All right. Thank you very much.
To be fair, Mashai's largesse has not been restricted to his family and relatives. As the newly-appointed head of the government's cultural committee which makes him the country's top cultural authority, a position which he holds alongside that of presidential chief of staff, he authorized a 200-million-touman (NB about $200,000) subsidy to movie actress Hadiyeh Tehrani so she could organize an exhibit of her photography at the Artists' House (NB Khaneyeh Honarmandan).
Mashai reportedly bought the most expensive photograph at the exhibit for 3.7 million toumans (about $3,700). The subsidy and subsequent purchase have stirred some resentment among Principlists, who wrote disparaging articles and posted the following caricature on their news outlets.
For two weeks the Iranian government and official media outlets have claimed that news of the resignation of an Iranian diplomat in Norway in protest to the Islamic regime's crackdown is a lie.
But this evening, Mohammad Reza Heidari, Iran's former consul in Oslo, gave an interview to Norway's NRK channel (video and translation at the end of this report) and set the record straight: He has indeed resigned in protest and it appears that it was the Islamic regime that has engaged in spreading falsehoods. Other reports signal broad dissatisfaction among Iran's diplomatic corps and the resignation and defection of at least 27 diplomats.
News of Heidari's resignation began surfacing on January 5 and was initially based on the claims of the Norweian-Iranian Support Committee, an opposition group. At the time, NRK stated that it had spoken to Heidari and that he had defected. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry declared that it was unaware of the situation.
The Islamic regime riposted by saying that the news was disinformation spread by enemies of the state. Various explanations were engineered by the Islamic Republic: that Heidari's term had simply ended, that he was on vacation... Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the following, as recently as two days ago, minimizing Heidari's role at the embassy, providing a lesson in diplomatic relations and offering a veiled warning to Heidari:
Newscaster: The Foreign Ministry spokesman added the following about the individual who has been described as Iran's head consul in Norway and has been said to have requested political asylum...
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast: We have an embassy in Norway. In places where we have embassies, we cannot have consulates. So these things that are mentioned in the news -- sometimes they speak of the Islamic Republic's ambassador or the chief consul -- well, this is incorrect information. Mr. Heidari is a consular employee and his mission has come to an end. He has a problem with his child's academic life. He would like to stay there a bit longer in order to resolve issues concerning his child's university. I think that he is wiser and wilier than to take the wrong path with respect to the fabrications of some people who oppose the revolution and the regime.
The ensuing NRK news report, prepared by Iranian-Norwegian journalist Mina Ghabel, is mostly in Norwegian, but the sections in Farsi have been translated below. The footage shows Zohreh Moini of the Norwegian-Iranian Support Committee coming to Heidari's house to give him a bouquet of flowers. She tells Heidari, 'I congratulate you on your return to the people's freedom-seeking movement.'
Mohammad Reza Heidari: I was constantly conflicted during the past seven months and asked myself, 'Why should these events take place in my country? What are my people seeking, after all?' On Ashura Day (NB December 27, commemoration of the 7th-Century martyrdom of Imam Hossein, a key figure in Shiism. For several reports and videos on what occurred during protests on Ashura, click here), the blood of my countrymen was shed only because they wanted freedom and what is referred to in the West as democracy. My conscience could not stand those images. I declared that I was resigning so that the people could see that we were with them. [...] They said that if I denied this news, I would be able to return. I know that my decision is the right one. My conscience is clear. I hope that my friends around the world, who are listening to me and seeing me and know me, will also stand alongside the people and that they will spurn personal interests and think of the nation's interests.
Rahman Saki, spokesman for the Support Committee in Germany, spoke to the Voice of America's Newstalk program, and gave additional information this evening. Saki rejected all of the Islamic Republic Foreign Ministry spokesman's allegations, except for the fact that Mr. Heidari is indeed wise. 'Mr. Heidari had not come to the end of his mission in Norway. He had eight months left. Furthermore, Mr. Heidari's son is still in high school and he will not be going to university for some time,' Saki said. 'The Islamic Republic has dispatched a three-man delegation to Norway to meet with Mr. Heidari. They have made all sorts of promises to him, if he retracts his resignation and gives an interview at Tehran airport, saying that he never resigned. Mr. Heidari has refused to meet the delegation, which is still in Norway as we speak.'
In the same program, VOA's journalist in Rome, Ahmad Rafat, reported that he had personally spoken to three Iranian diplomats in Europe who had stated that the country's diplomatic corps was riven with dissatisfaction. 'One diplomat told me that he was preparing to resign [...] and that 27 diplomats in Europe, but also in countries in Asia, had resigned,' Rafat said. These resignations have occurred in recent weeks, particularly after the violence against protesters on Ashura, Rafat reported from Rome. Not all of these individuals have become refugees, but some are thinking of coming to Europe to ask for political asylum.
A Tehran University physics professor was killed in a bomb blast in front of his Tehran home this morning, January 12, 2009.
Massoud Alimohammadi was driving away from his home when a device placed inside a parked motorcycle was detonated.
Amateur footage posted to YouTube shows the scene minutes after the blast and before the arrival of the police:
The official story
Official Iranian news sources almost immediately went into overdrive. Borna news, close to the government, referred to Alimohammadi as a 'senior nuclear scientist' in an article posted at 10:48 AM.
Borna's journalist was one of the first at the scene of the crime and its photos provide an idea of the strength of the conflagration which blew out the windows of the building across from Alimohammadi's house:
Journalists could freely photograph and film the scene:
The photos also show the investigators and several dozen people trampling the crime scene:
One of the many people present points to the bloodstains on the ground, next to the magistrate's vehicle:
Images also show a cleaning crew shoveling debris which could have contained evidence:
Fars news, a semi-official news outlet close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that the professor had been killed by 'anti-revolutionary elements.' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast announced that the opposition, the United States, and Israel were behind the attack.
Fars published an interview with an alleged student of the late professor, Seyed Mohammad Kazem Manzourolajdad, who stated that Alimohammadi 'worked with the IRGC from the start of the [Iran-Iraq] War (NB 1980) until 2003,' though it is unclear why a student would have access to such information. Manzourolajdad also allegedly told Fars that Alimohammadi 'stood firm behind the principles of the Islamic system and the velayateh faghih' (NB Principle of the guardianship of the jurisprudent, from which Leader Ali Khamenei derives his power). The Basij militia also co-opted the slain professor in a statement which condemned the 'martyrdom of Massoud Alimohammadi, a Basiji and Jihadist professor.'
In a television report which shows the remnants of Alimohammadi's automobile and the motorcycle, the chief magistrate in charge of criminal affairs, Fakhreddine Jafarzadeh, was more circumspect and only offered that the explosion had taken place on Soheil Street and that the device with a remote detonator had been secreted inside a motorcycle next to the professor's front door:
Mirzapour Street, still universally called by its former name of Soheil Street, is in Tehran's Gheytarieh neighborhood:
Jafarzadeh was more loose-lipped in an interview with Fars news, in which he said that 'the Tehran judge on duty had been informed of the explosion at 8:05 AM.' Later in the interview, he said that the explosion had taken place at 7:58 AM, therefore indicating that the judge knew of the blast 7 minutes after it occurred. Health Ministry spokesman Abbas Zareh-nejad declared in the afternoon that two other individuals, whom he did not name, had been injured in the explosion.
Though state media had declared since early morning that anti-regime forces were behind the terrorist attack, it was not until 1:30 PM that the villains were designated by name: the Anjomaneh Padeshahi Iran (NB The Monarchist Association of Iran, also known as the API). According to various news reports, including one by Safir News, an offshoot of IRNA created several months ago with the avowed goal of countering the 'soft revolution' engineered by foreign media, the API had taken responsibility for the assassination on its web site.
The API, along with the MKO, is one of the official bogeymen of the Islamic regime. Several political prisoners have been charged with membership in the organization, which has been blamed for orchestrating some of the post-election unrest. Regime officials have been loudly calling for the execution of its members in recent weeks.
The facts
Alimohammadi obtained his Phd in elementary particle physics from Sharif University in 1992, according to Tehran University. His field is linked to nuclear physics and may have weapons applications, though no information that has surfaced thus far indicates that Alimohammadi engaged in such work.
His personal page on Tehran University's web site has a link to published articles which can be downloaded in PDF format. He appears to have been fairly prolific, publishing two to four articles a year (from 1993 to 2009) on arcane topics such as 'Berry phase for spin-1/2 particles moving in a spacetime with torsion' or 'Large-N limit of the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on surfaces with boundaries.' His last published work in 2009 is on 'Remarks on generalized Gauss-Bonnet dark energy.' He does not appear to have been particularly secretive about his work.
In the summer of 2004, Alimohammadi even gave an interview to Gamma, a quarterly Farsi-language physics magazine, which describes its articles as educational and cultural.(Issue 3's table of contents)
In comparison, Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia this summer and is believed to have been involved in Iran's nuclear program, did not publish any works in recent years and did not give interviews. Amiri is thought to have defected to a Western intelligence organization.
Alimohammadi was also a non-resident researcher at the school of physics of the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (NB Pajouheshgah Daneshhayeh Bonyadi, also knows by its acronym IPM, which stands for the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics). Strangely, Alimohammadi was not a researcher at the school of particles and accelerators. Had he been, he may have attended a seminar with Professor John Hauptmann of Iowa State University. Hauptmann gave a talk on 'New ideas for big detectors in high energy physics' at Tehran's Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences on January 6, 2010, according to the institute's site. Would the State Department allow Hauptmann to give a talk there if the researchers were suspected of links to the nuclear program? Possible, but improbable. The instiute is run, by the way, by Mohammad Javad Larijani, regime apologist and brother of the Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani.
Despite the claims of official news outlets, Alimohammadi does not seem to have been a supporter of the current government. He is one of the 420 signatories of a statement in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's run for president. The statement, entitled 'The support of 420 professors of Tehran University and the school of medical sciences for Mir Hossein Mousavi,' was posted on the web site of Academic Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi on June 9, 2009, three days before the ill-fated election. (Screen capture of the statement to the right, with Alimohammadi's name highlighted).'The presidential election is one of the most important manifestations of the most fundamental human right, the right to determine one's fate,' the statement reads. 'We, [...]while respecting the other candidates, express our firm support for Mr. Engineer Mousavi.'
A blog which purports to be run by opposition supporters at UCLA stated that Alimohammadi had applied to spend a year researching at a university in Stockholm, Sweden. It is impossible to confirm this allegation at this time.
As for the supposed masterminds behind the plot... The Monarchist Association of Iran (NB Anjomaneh Padeshahi Iran or API) was created by a former actor, dubber, and film director Foroud Fouladvand. The group does not support the Pahlavi dynasty, but is nostalgic about Iran's former empire. Fouladvand disappeared under suspicious circumstances while in Turkey, near the Iran border, in 2007. Amnesty International gives an account here and believes that Fouladvand is being held in secret in a Tehran prison. Ever since, various individuals have claimed the mantle of leader and two competing web sites have been established.
The original API, based in London, says that both web sites, Tondar (NB Thunder) and Takavaraneh Tondar (NB Thunder Runners), are controlled by the Islamic regime's Intelligence Ministry. There is reason to believe these accusations. Tondar, for example, clearly states that Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani is an API member and that his alias is Bardia. Zamani is currently in prison in Iran and on trial for fomenting unrest after the disputed election of June 12.
The Takavaraneh Tondar web site is much more radical. It encourages armed resistance, highlights videos of rioters breaking public property, and even has pages explaining how to build bombs. (A screen capture of the bomb-building page can be seen to the right.) The site seems to be more an agent provocateur than a genuine opposition source of information.
It is Takavaraneh Tondar which issued a statement claiming responsibility for Alimohammadi's assassination. A screen capture of that statement, complete with celebratory fireworks next to a photo of Alimohammadi can be seen below:
State media in Iran quickly latched onto this claim of responsibility, although the original API in London denied the allegations.
The Secrets of Khamenei's Life The secret life of Iran's Leader, Ali Khamanei, is exposed by former staff members of the Intelligence Ministry and his household in a fascinating article by internationally renowned filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf... (part 1)(part 2)(part 3) Humiliation even in death Detailed analysis of several videos shows the final moments of a protester run over by a car and the refusal of her body by a medical center... (more)
The banality of evil Shocking footage of a man being lashed in Iran reminds the viewer of what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil... (more) Provisional list of 72 dead protesters Originally compiled by the opposition committee looking into the abuse and deaths of protesters, the list has been enhanced with photos, video footage, and commentary... (more)
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