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| FarsiNet News Archive
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| Just click on the page of your interest |
June 2000, Week 4 |
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Weather forcast of 50 cities in Iran
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Web Site Publishes CIA Iran Report
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By D. Ian Hopper Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - An administrator of a Web site specializing in national security issues is publishing an unedited version of a secret history of the 1953 CIA-mastered coup in Iran found on the New York Times Web site. The report detailing the CIA plot was previously published on the Times Web site with portions redacted, or blacked out, by the newspaper. But because of a mistake made by the Times, the private Web site is able to reveal names of CIA agents and Iranian officials who took part in the coup and other details that the Times decided not to publish. A Times spokeswoman says the newspaper currently has no plans to stop site administrator John Young. "The names were obscured because of our concern for possible retribution against the families of people named in the report," said spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. "We strongly urge (the site) to respect that judgment." The Times was leaked the report about the joint British-American intelligence plan to unseat Iran's elected nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and replace him with the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Until contacted by a reporter, the CIA did not know that Young was releasing the unedited report. "We have not been informed of that situation, and we would urge anyone to refrain from publishing information which might put lives at risk," said Bill Harlow, a CIA spokesman. "We made that request of the New York Times when they published the story originally, and they attempted to comply." When the Times first posted the report on its Web site along with the article, Young noticed that he could stop the report from loading the black boxes that obscured the names. Young alerted the Times, and the newspaper's Web site has since republished the report to keep that tactic from working. But despite a direct plea from the Times reporter who wrote the April story, Young decided to publish the report without the redactions. He frequently publishes obscure intelligence reports on his site. "It's better that more people know about it than only a select few," Young said. "It was a public interest."
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Iranian Judge Said To Issue Verdict
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The Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran -A judge doubling as prosecutor in a spy trial whose fairness has been questioned will issue a verdict in the case next week, a court official said Friday. Judge Sateq Nourani will issue a verdict in the trial of 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel on July 1, the official, Hossein Ali Amiri, told Iranian television Friday night. Eight of the 13 Jewish defendants have pleaded guilty, four have pleaded innocent and one has said he passed information to Israel, but did not think his action constituted espionage. Israel has said none of the 13 was a spy. Israel, the United States and several European countries have questioned the fairness of a trial that has no jury, has been closed to the public and where the judge is also prosecutor. "The Zionist media and the arrogant media tried to make a campaign to influence the trial, but the Iranian judiciary was not at all influenced," Amiri said on Iranian television. The case, he said, was studied in an atmosphere free of politics. Nourani has spent 604 hours on the case, Amiri said. Eight Muslims also are on trial in the case, including two who have been detained for passing secret information to the Jews.
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Text of Clinton Transmittal Letter on Iran Report
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WASHINGTON/U.S. Newswire/
Following was released by the White House: TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: As required by section 401(c) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1641(c) of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. 1703(c), I transmit herewith a 6-month periodic report on the national emergency with respect to Iran that was declared in Executive Order 12170 of November 14, 1979. WILLIAM J. CLINTON |
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No Death Penalty for Accused Spies
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By Afshin Valinejad Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran - None of the 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel will be sentenced to death, a judiciary official said Thursday. The defense had said previously the charges do not carry the death penalty, but it was the first time an Iranian official representing the prosecution has ruled out death sentences for the accused. "According to the law, none of the 13 accused are expected to get the death penalty," said Hossein Ali Amiri, the judiciary chief of Fars province, where the trial is being held. He said the verdict would be announced before the end of the month. Amiri told The Associated Press the death penalty applies only to charges of "moharebeh," fighting against God and the state, and the men have not been charged with that offense. The penalty for conviction on espionage charges is a long prison term. Eight of the 13 Jewish defendants have pleaded guilty, four have pleaded innocent and one has said he passed information to Israel, but did not think that his action constituted espionage. Israel has denied any of the men were spies. Israel and several European countries have expressed concern about the case, and the United States has said the outcome could affect a recent rapprochement. Attention has focused on the fairness of the trial, which was closed to the public with no jury and with the judge acting as prosecutor. Eight Muslims also are on trial in the same case, including two accused of passing secret information to the Jews.
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U.S. Drops "Rogue State" Tag
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran, Libya and North Korea are rogues no longer, the U.S. State Department has decided.
Now they're just "states of concern", Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a radio interview. "Some of those countries aren't as bad as they used to be. They say: 'We've done some stuff so why are you still calling us a rogue state?'," one State Department official said. Or, as State Department spokesman Richard Boucher put it more carefully on Monday: "It's just a recognition that we have seen some evolution in different ways in different places, and that we will deal appropriately with each one based on the kind of evolution we're seeing." Iran, for example, has become more democratic, with presidential and parliamentary elections. Libya has handed over the suspects in the Lockerbie case for trial and North Korea has declared a moratorium on tests of its long-range missiles. Even Iraq, a hardcore "rogue state" under the old description, is now "a state previously known as rogue", to quote Boucher's jocular formulation. Albright, speaking on National Public Radio's Diane Rehm show, said: "We are now calling these states 'states of concern' because we are concerned about their support for terrorist activities, their development of missiles, their desire to disrupt the international system." FOUR GROUPS OF NATIONS The Clinton administration, and especially Albright as ambassador to the United Nations, was once an enthusiastic proponents of the "rogue state" theory. In an April 1994 lecture, she divided the countries of the world into four categories -- international good citizens, emerging democracies, rogue states and countries where a state hardly exists, such as Somalia and Sierra Leone. She defined a rogue state as one that had no part in the international system and that tried to sabotage it. U.S. policy should be to isolate them, she added. For the past year or so, the United States had used the term mainly for countries it thought might be working on long-range missiles. This was the justification for planning a controversial national defense against their missiles. But experience, especially with the isolated Stalinist state of North Korea, has shown that it might be more productive in the long run to engage in dialogue. In the case of Iran, moreover, the United States has been actively seeking a dialogue with the government, despite repeated rebuffs from Tehran.
CALLING NAMES DOES NOT HELP Boucher said the State Department wanted to move away from putting countries in groups and would not be drawn on whether there were "states of concerns" which were never rogues. The term "rogue" never had any formal status but Albright initially included Iraq, Iran, Serbia, Sudan, and North Korea. Cuba and Syria have been on the U.S. list of "terrorism sponsors" but were rarely if ever called rogues. "The category has outlived its usefulness...but we're not trying to create new categories. We're trying to deal with each situation in U.S. interests. If we see a development that we think is in U.S. interests, we will respond," Boucher said. "If we're able to encourage them (states of concern) or pressure them or otherwise produce changes in their behavior, and therefore change in our relationship, we're willing to do that," the spokesman added.
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