[NYTr] "Iran's Future" - Exactly what Herman & Peterson are talking about

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[This is exactly the sort of thing Herman and Peterson are talking about
in their article "The US Aggression Process and Its Collaborators"
11/25/2007 just posted:
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071119/072131.html

While it criticizes the US for interfering in Iran's internal affairs
since post-World-War-2 plotting, it also includes a long list of
complaints about human rights abuses inside Iran. It is followed by a
long list of more than 200 intellectuals, almost all at US
universities, and many of whom -- especially writers, artists, and
various other intellectuals -- have no expertise on the Middle East,
Iran, or human rights.  There are a few exceptions, such as the human
rights legal expert Richard Falk, Professor Juan Cole, Noam Chomsky,
etc., all of whom do know something -- some a great deal -- about Iran.
But most of the "endorsers" cannot know much more about Iran than they
have read in the mainstream press. A number of the "endorsers" are
cold-war liberals who sign on to thousands of such documents each year,
it seems and who have no expertise or experience with Iran.- NYTransfer]

sent by Tim Murphy - activ-l - Nov 25, 2007

(No source cited; provenance unknown.)


Iran’s future: 

Open letter to the UN secretary-general from Akbar Ganji

September 24, 2007

[The Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji writes to the United Nations
secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, in a document endorsed by more than 300
leading intellectuals. ]


To His Excellency Ban Ki-moon, 
Secretary-General of the United Nations, 

The people of Iran are experiencing difficult times both
internationally and domestically. Internationally, they face the threat
of a military attack from the United States and the imposition of
extensive sanctions by the United Nations Security Council.
Domestically, a despotic state has - through constant and organised
repression - imprisoned them in a life-and-death situation. 

Far from helping the development of democracy, US policy over the past
fifty years has consistently been to the detriment of the proponents of
freedom and democracy in Iran. The 1953 coup against the nationalist
government of prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq and the unwavering
support for the despotic regime of the Shah, who acted as America's
gendarme in the Persian Gulf, are just two examples of these flawed
policies. 

More recently the confrontation between various US administrations and
the Iranian state over the past three decades has made internal
conditions very difficult for the proponents of freedom and human
rights in Iran. Exploiting the danger posed by the US, the Iranian
regime has put military-security forces in charge of the government,
shut down all independent domestic media, and is imprisoning
human-rights activists on the pretext that they are all agents of a
foreign enemy. 

The Bush administration, for its part, by approving a fund for
democracy assistance in Iran, which has in fact being largely spent on
official institutions and media affiliated with the US government, has
made it easy for the Iranian regime to describe its opponents as
mercenaries of the US and to crush them with impunity. At the same
time, even speaking about "the possibility" of a military attack on
Iran makes things extremely difficult for human rights and
pro-democracy activists in Iran. 

No Iranian wants to see what happened to Iraq or Afghanistan repeated
in Iran. Iranian democrats also watch with deep concern the support in
some American circles for separatist movements in Iran. Preserving
Iran's territorial integrity is important to all those who struggle for
democracy and human rights in Iran. We want democracy for Iran and for
all Iranians. We also believe that the dismemberment of middle-eastern
countries will fuel widespread and prolonged conflict in the region. 

In order to help the process of democratisation in the middle east, the
US can best help by promoting a just peace between the Palestinians and
Israelis, and pave the way for the creation of a truly independent
Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel. A just resolution of
the Arab-Israeli conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state
would inflict the heaviest blow on the forces of fundamentalism and
terrorism in the middle east. 

Your Excellency, 

Iran's dangerous international situation and the consequences of Iran's
dispute with the west have totally deflected the world's attention and
especially the attention of the United Nations from the intolerable
conditions that the Iranian regime has created for the Iranian people.
The dispute over the enrichment of uranium should not make the world
forget that, although the 1979 revolution of Iran was a popular
revolution, it did not lead to the formation of a democratic system
that protects human rights. 

The Islamic Republic is a fundamentalist state that does not afford
official recognition to the private sphere. It represses civil society
and violates human rights. Thousands of political prisoners were
executed during the first decade after the revolution without fair
trials or due process of the law, and dozens of dissidents and
activists were assassinated during the second decade. Independent
newspapers are constantly being banned and journalists are sent to
prison. All news websites are filtered and books are either refused
publication permits or are slashed with the blade of censorship before
publication. 

Women are totally deprived of equality with men and, when they demand
equal rights, they are accused of acting against national security,
subjected to various types of intimidation and have to endure various
penalties, including long prison terms. 

In the first decade of the 21st century, stoning (the worst form of
torture leading to death) is one of the sentences that Iranians face on
the basis of existing laws. A number of Iranian teachers, who took part
in peaceful civil protests over their pay and conditions, have been
dismissed from their jobs and some have even been sent into internal
exile in far-flung regions or jailed. 

Iranian workers are deprived of the right to establish independent
unions. Workers who ask to be allowed to form unions in order to
struggle for their corporate rights are beaten and imprisoned. Iranian
university students have paid the highest costs in recent years in
defence of liberty, human rights and democracy. Security organisations
prevent young people who are critical of the official state orthodoxy
from gaining admission into university, and those who do make it
through the rigorous ideological and political vetting process have no
right to engage in peaceful protest against government policies. 

If students' activities displease the governing elites, they are
summarily expelled from university and in many instances jailed. The
Islamic Republic has also been expelling dissident professors from
universities for about a quarter of a century. In the meantime, in the
Islamic Republic's prisons, opponents are forced to confess to crimes
that they have not committed and to express remorse. These confessions,
which have been extracted by force, are then broadcast on the state
media in a manner reminiscent of Stalinist show-trials. 

There are no fair, competitive elections in Iran; instead, elections
are stage-managed and rigged. And even people who find their way into
parliament and into the executive branch of government have no powers
or resources to alter the status quo. All the legal and extra-legal
powers are in the hands of Iran's supreme leader, who rules like a
despotic sultan. 

Your Excellency, 

Are you aware that in Iran political dissidents, human-rights activists
and pro-democracy campaigners are legally deprived of "the right to
life"? On the basis of Article 226 of the Islamic penal law, and note 2
of paragraph E of section B of Article 295 of the same law, any person
can unilaterally decide that another human being has forfeited the
right to life (mahduroldam) and kill them in the name of performing
one's religious duty to rid society of vice. Over the past few decades,
many dissidents and activists have been killed on the basis of this
article and the killers have been acquitted in court. In such
circumstances, no dissident or activist has a right to life in Iran,
because, on the basis of Islamic jurisprudence and the laws of the
Islamic Republic, the definition of those who have forfeited the right
to life is very broad. 

Are you aware that, in Iran, writers are lawfully banned from writing?
On the basis of note 2 of paragraph 8 of Article 9 of the press law,
writers who are convicted of "propaganda against the ruling system" are
deprived for life of "the right to all press activity". In recent
years, many writers and journalists have been convicted of propaganda
against the ruling system. The court's verdicts make it clear that any
criticism of state bodies is deemed to be propaganda against the ruling
system. 

Your Excellency, 

The people of Iran and Iranian advocates for freedom and democracy are
experiencing difficult days. They need the moral support of the
proponents of freedom throughout the world and effective intervention
by the United Nations. We categorically reject a military attack on
Iran. At the same time, we ask you and all of the world's intellectuals
and proponents of liberty and democracy to condemn the human-rights
violations of the Iranian state. We expect from Your Excellency, in
your capacity as the secretary-general of the United Nations, to
reprimand the Iranian government - in keeping with your legal duties -
for its extensive violation of the articles of the universal
declaration of human rights and other international human-rights
covenants and treaties. 

Above all, we hope that with Your Excellency's immediate intervention,
all of Iran's political prisoners, who are facing more deplorable
conditions with every passing day, will soon be released. The people of
Iran are asking themselves whether the UN Security Council is only
decisive and effective when it comes to the suspension of the
enrichment of uranium, and whether the lives of the Iranian people are
unimportant as far as the Security Council is concerned. The people of
Iran are entitled to freedom, democracy and human rights. We Iranians
hope that the United Nations and all the forums that defend democracy
and human rights will be unflinching in their support for Iran's quest
for freedom and democracy. 

Yours sincerely, 

Akbar Ganji 

*** 

Akbar Ganji's letter is endorsed by: