Media List's List: Iran

• Doch das Dokument, das erst seit Kurzem zum ersten Mal auf Englisch zugänglich ist, zeigt, dass seine einzige Quelle für diese Behauptung Vertreter der MEK oder anders genannt die Volksmudschahedin Irans (PMoI) waren. Die MEK hat eine widerwärtige Vergangenheit von Terroranschlägen gegen zivile Ziele in Iran aufzuweisen und diente während des Iran-Irak-Krieges als eine in Irak ansässige Söldnerarmee für Saddam Husseins Truppen.
• Die Organisation wurde im vergangenen Jahr vom US-Außenministerium von der Liste der terroristischen Gruppen gestrichen, nachdem prominente ehemalige US-Funktionäre - die hohe Zahlungen von pro-MEK Gruppen und Einzelpersonen erhalten hatten - in einer Kampagne ihre "Listenstreichung"  forderten.
  

• Der Vorfall, der im noch nicht erschienenen Buch „Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry“ über die US-Geheimdienstarbeit beschrieben wird, ereignete sich während einer UN-Vollversammlung, berichtet Daily Mail. Als ein Agent des Secret Service seine Flinte an einem Wagen befestigte, der zum Konvoi des US-Präsidenten Georg W. Bush gehörte, wurde zufällig ein Schuss ausgelöst. Die Kugel flog in Richtung des iranischen Präsidenten Ahmadinedschad, der in der Nähe gerade in seinen Wagen einstieg.

   

  „Als der Schuss fiel, blieben alle stehen“, wird ein Beamter des Secret Service in dem Buch zitiert, das im April erscheinen soll. „Die Iraner schauten uns an und wir schauten die Iraner an. Der Agent begann sich zu entschuldigen. Ahmadinedschad hat sich nur umgedreht und ist ins Auto gestiegen."

   

  Die US-Administration hätte daraufhin befürchtet, dass der iranische Präsident den Vorfall zu seinen Gunsten ausnützen und vor der UN-Generalversammlung, die sich gerade mit dem iranischen Atomprogramm befasste, behaupten würde, die USA hätten einen Anschlag auf ihn versucht. Dennoch hat Ahmadinedschad diesen Vorfall nie erwähnt.

• Bei der sogenannten Währungskrise handelt es sich wieder um einen weiteren Teil des Krieges gegen den Iran, der schon seit langem auf allen Ebenen läuft. Der Iran wird von allen Seiten und in allen Bereichen ständig vom westlichen Ausland und von den Golfstaaten attackiert. Ziel ist es die iranische Bevölkerung zu verunsichern und das Vertrauen in den Staat zu untergraben. Jetzt ist die Währung des Iran dran.
• lar ist, die Schwarzhändler betreiben ihr Spekulationsgeschäft mit der Absicht, so viel wie möglich an Gewinn herauszuschlagen.
  Durch das Streuen von Gerüchten über eine Wirtschaftskrise im Iran, speziell von ausländischen Agenten, gab es in letzter Zeit hektische und übertriebene Fluktuationen auf diesem Schwarzmarkt. Dann verursachen die ständigen Drohungen eines Angriffskrieges auch eine Verunsicherung in der Bevölkerung. Die verschärften Sanktionen, speziell der Ölboykott, tragen ebenfalls zu größeren Sorgen bei.
  Es gibt einige Gruppen, speziell die Spekulanten, die auf grösseren Geldmengen sitzen, die diese Verunsicherung ausnützen und sie auch anheizen, um Profit damit zu machen. Wenn man den Rial schlechtredet, dann kann man mehr Gewinn einstreichen. Auch im Iran gibt es leider gierige Abzocker, die auch noch mit dem feindlichen Ausland zusammenarbeiten. Darunter leidet die Bevölkerung, die Maßnahmen von der Regierung gegen die Schwarzhändler verlangt hat.
• "Passieren diese Schwankungen wegen wirtschaftlicher Probleme? Die Antwort ist Nein", sagte Ahmadinejad am Dienstag. "Sind sie bedingt durch Regierungspolitik? Niemals. Der Grund ist psychologischer Druck. Es ist eine Psycho-Schlacht."
• Was man nicht vergessen darf, die Sanktionen haben auch viel Positives bewirkt. Zur Schah-Zeit importierte der Iran fast 90 Prozent aller Waren und Lebensmittel und wendete das meiste seiner Öleinnahmen dafür auf. Heute ist es genau umgekehrt, der Iran ist fast in allen Bereichen autark geworden, produziert das meiste selber und nur ein kleiner Teil wird importiert. Die Wirtschaft und Industrie ist gestärkt worden und versorgt das Land fast selbstständig.
  Deshalb spielt es praktisch keine Rolle wie der Wechselkurs der iranischen Währung zum Dollar oder Euro steht. Das interessiert nur die illegalen Geldwechsler und den Außenhandel. Die Binnenwirtschaft wird dadurch nicht tangiert. Es handelt sich eher um einen psychologischen Faktor und das ist auch die Absicht der westlichen Aggressoren, mit wilden Gerüchten die Bevölkerung zu verunsichern.

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• Eine Recherche der britischen Zeitung "The Guardian", die zum Teil auf ermittelten Daten des Center for Responsive Politics basiert, eine Gruppe, die den Einfluss von Geld auf die US-Politik verfolgt, hat einen ständigen Geldfluss  von iranisch-amerikanischen Schlüsselorganisationen und ihren Leitern in die Kampagne zur Entfernung der Volksmudschahedin  (MEK) von der Liste der Terrororganisationen aufgedeckt.
• Die Kampagne soll die blutige MEK-Geschichte, die Bombenanschläge und Attentate auf amerikanische Geschäftsleute, iranische Politiker und tausende von Zivilisten begraben und sie als loyalen US-Verbündeten gegen die islamische Regierung in Teheran porträtieren. Sie hat große Geldsummen an drei Hauptzielgruppen verschlungen: Kongressmitglieder, Washingtoner Lobbyorganisationen und einflussreiche Ex-Regierungsmitglieder.
  
• Unter jenen Kongressmitgliedern, die Geldmittel erhalten haben, wurde der Name von Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Vorsitzende des Außenausschusses des US-Repräsentantenhauses, bekannt. Sie akzeptierte von iranisch-amerikanischen Gruppen bzw. von deren Leitern mindestens 20.000 Dollar an Spendengeldern für ihren Wahlkampf.
  
• Ein anderer Empfänger ist der Kongressabgeordnete Bob Filner, der zweimal nach Frankreich flog, um dort auf Pro-MEK-Veranstaltungen zu sprechen. Auch lancierte er Resolutionen im Repräsentantenhaus, die zur Legalisierung der Gruppe aufriefen. Über 14.000 Dollar ließ sich der Leiter einer iranisch-amerikanischen Organisation Filners Reisen nach Paris kosten. Dieselbe Gruppe zahlte auch knapp eine Millionen Dollar an eine Washingtoner Lobbyagentur, die daran arbeitete, die MEK zu legalisieren. 
  
  Ted Poe, Kongressmitglied aus Texas, bekam tausende Dollar an Spendengeldern vom Leiter einer Pro-MEK-Gruppe in seinem Bundesstaat. Zur gleichen Zeit trat er regelmäßig als Fürsprecher ihrer Legalisierung bei einer Reihe von Veranstaltungen in den USA auf. Er beschrieb die Organisation als Sprungbrett zu einem "Regime Change" in Iran.
  
  Mike Rogers, Vorsitzender des Geheimdienstausschusses im Repräsentantenhaus, bekam ebenso Unterstützung von Individuen und Gruppen, die die Legalisierung der MEK unterstützen. Rogers gehörte zu den größten Unterstützern überhaupt, die sich im Kongress für eine Streichung der Gruppe von der Liste der Terrororganisationen einsetzte. Er förderte Resolutionen und übte Druck auf andere Kongressmitglieder aus, die Sache zu unterstützen.
  
  Ein führender Verfechter der Legalisierung der MEK war Dana Rohrbacher, Vorsitzender des Aufsichtskomitees im Ausschuss für auswärtige Angelegenheiten. Der Kongressabgeordnete bekam allein in diesem Jahr tausende Dollar an Spendengeldern von Unterstützern der verbotenen Gruppe.
  
• Drei führenden Washingtoner Lobbyagenturen, DLA Piper, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld und DiGenova & Toensing wurden im Laufe des letzten Jahres insgesamt fast 1,5 Millionen US-Dollar gezahlt, um die US-Regierung und die Gesetzgeber dazu zu drängen, die Streichung der MEK von der Terrorliste zu unterstützen und ihre Mitglieder in den Camps im Irak zu schützen.
  
  Zwei weitere Lobbygruppen wurden für deutlich kleinere Beträge angeheuert. Die Unternehmen beschäftigten ehemalige Kongressmitglieder, die ihre ehemaligen Kollegen am "Capitol Hill" bedrängten, der Legalisierung der MEK beizustehen.
• Zahlreichen ehemaligen führenden Offiziellen wurden bis zu 40.000 Dollar gezahlt, damit sie Ansprachen zugunsten der Streichung der MEK von der Liste hielten. Unter den Geldempfängern waren der ehemalige Vorsitzende des Vereinigten Generalstabs, General Hugh Shelton, der ehemalige FBI-Direktor Louis Freeh sowie Michael Mukasey, der als Generalstaatsanwalt die Strafverfolgung bei Terrorismusverdacht beaufsichtigte.
  
  Der ehemalige Gouverneur von Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, akzeptierte über 150.000 Dollar an Honorar für Reden, die er bei Veranstaltungen zur Unterstützung der Legalisierung der MEK gehalten hat. Clarence Page, eine Kolumnistin des Chicago Tribune, wurden 20.000 Dollar gezahlt, um bei der Kundgebung zu sprechen. Ein Teil des Geldes wurde über die Büros der Redner im Osten der USA gezahlt.
  
• Im Juni flog Newt Gingrich, ehemaliger Sprecher des US-Repräsentantenhauses und Präsidentschaftskandidat der Republikaner, nach Paris, um bei einer Pro-MEK- Veranstaltung zu sprechen und deren 2. Vorsitzende, Maryam Rajavi, zu treffen. Er wurde dafür kritisiert, sich vor ihr verbeugt zu haben.
  
  Der Kongressabgeordnete Rohrbacher beschrieb die Lobby-Kampagne als die effektivste, die er je am "Capitol Hill" gesehen habe. Sie hätte schlagartig machtvolle Unterstützung für die Rücknahme der MEK von der Terrorliste aktiviert, und zwar weit über jene Personen hinaus, die politische Zuwendungen, Lobby-Honorare und andere Zahlungen erhalten haben.
• Ros-Lehtinen war eine energische Verfechterin der Anerkennung der MEK. Sie flog quer durchs Land, um für die Legalisierung der Gruppe zu sprechen und den Kollegen aus dem Kongress diese Angelegenheit aufzudrängen. Sie nahm einen Preis von einer Gruppe an, die die Kampagne zur Streichung der MEK von der Terrorliste finanzierte. Andere Empfänger politischer Spenden haben ebenso weitere Kongressmitglieder für die Unterstützung der Legalisierung bearbeitet, darunter auch Rogers, Filner und Rohrbacher. Im Ergebnis protegierten fast 100 Kongressmitglieder jene Resolution mit, die Obama dazu aufforderte, die MEK von der Liste zu streichen.
• Unter den großzügigsten Spendern waren:
  
  • Saeid Ghaemi, Chef der Iranisch-Amerikanischen Gemeinde Colorados. Er zahlte rund 900.000 Dollar seines eigenen Geldes an eine Washingtoner Lobbyagentur für ihre Arbeit, die MEK zu legalisieren.
  
  • Ali Soudjani, Präsident der Iranisch-Amerikanischen Gesellschaft von Texas. Er steckte im Laufe der letzten fünf Jahre fast 100.000 Dollar in Spendentöpfe für Kongresswahlen. Seine Organisation zahlte im letzten Jahr über 110.000 Dollar für Honorare an Lobbyisten.
  
  • Ahmad Moeinimanesh, Leiter der Iranisch-Amerikanischen Gemeinde Nordkaliforniens. Die Gruppe zahlte 400.000 Dollar an ein Lobbyunternehmen. Moeinimanesh spendete persönlich für Ros-Lehtinens Kampagne, obwohl ihr Wahlbezirk mehrere tausend Meilen von seinem eigenen Wohnort entfernt liegt.
• Soudjani sagte gegenüber "The Guardian", dass das Geld von iranischen Amerikanern in den USA entrichtet werde. „Die iranische Gemeinschaft ist wohlhabend. Sie besitzt über 600 Milliarden Dollar in den Vereinigten Staaten. Das sind nur Pennys zur Förderung der Freiheit", sagte er.

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• Dem Zeitungsbericht zufolge wurden entsprechende Anfragen von US-Diplomaten mit dem Argument zurückgewiesen, dass jegliche Hilfe für einen möglichen Präventivschlag gegen Teherans Atomprogramm ein Verstoß gegen internationales Recht sein könnte.
• Die britischen Offiziellen verwiesen demnach auf ein Dokument der Generalstaatsanwaltschaft, das im Außen- und im Verteidigungsministerium zirkuliert. Darin heiße es, dass Iran derzeit "keine klare und gegenwärtige Gefahr" darstelle. Das Ergebnis des Dokuments ist unmissverständlich: Eine Unterstützung für einen Präventivschlag wäre ein "klarer Verstoß" gegen internationales Recht.
• Es sei um Stützpunkte in Großbritannien und britische Militärbasen auf der Mittelmeerinsel Zypern gegangen. Ebenso bat Washington demnach darum, Militärflüge von den US-Basen auf der Südatlantik-Insel Ascension sowie von Diego Garcia im Indischen Ozean starten zu dürfen. Ascension gehört zum britischen Überseegebiet, Diego Garcia ist ebenfalls britisches Territorium.
• So nutzte das US-Militär britische Stützpunkte, um sich auf die Irak-Invasion im Jahr 2003 vorzubereiten.

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• On September 21, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton passed Public Notice 8050, de-listing the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK) from the State Department’s Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, effective September 28.
  

  What is MEK? Mujahadin-e Khalq is an Iranian Islamic militant organization in exile that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since its inception in 1965 in Iran, the group conducted assassinations of US military personnel and civilians working in Iran in the 1970s, jubilantly supported the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and opposed the release of American personnel, calling for their execution instead, fought against the Islamic Republic together with Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran War (1980-1988) and set up headquarters in Iraq at Camp Ashraf.
  

  In recent years, according to various sources including NBC, MEK teamed up with the Israeli secret service to kill Iranian nuclear scientists. NBC reported that US officials confirmed that “the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement”.

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• Over the past few years, a formidable fundraising operation and campaign to de-list MEK from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist register gathered some high-caliber US supporters including General James Jones, President Obama's National Security Advisor from 2009 to 2010; Bill Richardson, Energy Secretary and UN ambassador in the Clinton administration and Obama's Special Envoy to North Korea; Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security; General Wesley Clark, former supreme commander of NATO; Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI; three former directors of the CIA – Michael Hayden, James Woolsey and Porter Goss; Rudolph Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City; former UN Ambassador John Bolton; General Hugh Shelton, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002; and many others. 
• Top Washington lawyers and lobbyists made the case for the terrorist group as well: Akin Gump, Strauss Hauer & Feld, Patton Boggs and others. Robert Strauss, of the firm of the same name, was US Ambassador to the Soviet Union during the critical months of August 2, 1991, through December 26, 1991. A senior member of the firm Tobi Gati was also head of the intelligence branch of the US State Department.
• Camp Ashraf itself is one of the best-kept military facilities in Iraq and a sprawling city of 4,000 people, with shopping centers and hospitals, gardens, monuments, fountains and illuminations quite unexpected in the war-torn deserts of Iraq. The MEK is also armed with more than 2,000 well-maintained tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft guns and armored personnel carriers. Its supplies are guarded by US military police, and the camp itself is guarded by the American military.
• US Major General Gardner said, according to a Headquarters Multinational Force Iraq document dated March 11, 2006. Michael Ware calls the MEK “the US’ officially protected terrorists.” Another film of Australian origin shows Camp Ashraf’s own parliament and hundreds of tanks on the camp’s parade ground.
• Well-versed in American political mores, the MEK’s leadership says the group is ‘pro-democracy.’ However, even the New York Times disagrees: In the middle of the 2011 de-listing campaign, it described MEK as “a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.”
• Seymour Hersh, in his New Yorker piece“Our Men in Iran?” revealed that beginning in 2005, MEK fighters were trained in Nevada by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). 

• Why is Washington backing the MEK? As General Shelton said at a conference in February 2011, “When you look at what the MEK stands for, when they are antinuclear, separation of church and state, individual rights, MEK is obviously the way Iran needs to go. … By placing the MEK on the FTO [Foreign Terrorist Organizations] list we have weakened the support of the best organized internal resistance group to the most terrorist-oriented anti-Western world, anti-democratic regime in the region.”
  
• In an interview with Germany’s WDR TV back in 2005, ex-CIA operative Ray McGovern explained the logic: “Why the U.S. cooperates with organizations like the Mujahadin, I think, is because that they are local, and because they are ready to work for us. Previously, we considered them a terrorist organization. And they exactly are. But they are now our terrorists and we now don't hesitate to send them into Iran …. for the usual secret service activities: attacking sensors, in order to supervise the Iranian nuclear program, mark targets for air attacks, and perhaps establishing secret camps to control the military locations in Iran. And also a little sabotage.”
• Karen Kwiatkowski, formerly with the Department of Defense, makes a long story short for WDR TV: “MEK is ready to do things over which we would be ashamed, and over which we try to keep silent. But for such tasks we'll use them.”
• The MEK is much better trained and prepared for war than the Syrian rebels were at the beginning of the conflict, or even today. The MEK has all the necessary capabilities to become the military arm of an American attack against Iran. This time – unlike in Syria – the world should not ignore the march to war, and must take steps to prevent it from happening again.

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• a): The Economic Situation

• -Poverty is on the rise and the gap is widening between the rich and the poor.

   

  -Total foreign debt of 18 industrial countries has exceeded 60 trillion dollars, whilst the repayment of half of this amount is sufficient to eradicate poverty in the world.
• -Economies dependent on consumerism and exploitation of people only serve the interests of a limited number of countries.
• -Creation of worthless paper assets by using influence and control over the world's economic centers constitutes the greatest abuse of history, and is considered a major contributor to global economic crisis.
• -It has been reported that only 32 trillions of paper assets were printed by one government alone.
• -Development planning based on capitalist economy that runs in a vicious circle, triggers unhealthy and devastating competitions and is a failed practice.

• c): Political and Security.Situation

   

  Unilateralism, application of double standards, and imposition of wars, instability and occupations to ensure economic interests, and expand dominance over sensitive centers of the world have turned to be the order of the day.
• -A state of mistrust has cast its shadow on the international relations, whilst there is no trusted or just authority to help resolve world conflicts.
• - No one feels secure or safe even those who have stockpiled thousands of atomic bombs and other arms in their arsenals.

• They are of the opinion that:

   

  -It is the nations that succumb to discrimination and tyranny;

   

  -It is the nations that surrender to dictatorship and greed;

   

  -It is the nations that accept the hegemony of Arrogant and expansionist powers;
• It is the nations that are influenced by the propaganda tactics of powers, and most all vices in our world are the result of their passive attitudes with the inclination to live under the supremacy of the world powers.
• These are the arguments raised by those who tend to blame nations for the unfavorable conditions prevailing in the world, with the intention to justify the attitudes and destructive behaviors of the ruling minority.
• -Masses of people never want to expand their territories, nor do they seek to obtain legendary wealth. They have no disputes among themselves in principles and have never played any role in the creation of any disastrous events in the course of history.
• -I do not believe that Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and others have any problems, or are hostile against each other. They get along together comfortably and live together in an atmosphere of peace and amity.
• They are all devoted to the cause of justice, purity and love.

• -The current abysmal situation of the world and the bitter incidents of history are due mainly to the wrong management of the world and the self-proclaimed centers of power who have entrusted themselves to the Devil.

   

  -The order that is rooted in the anti-human thoughts of slavery and the old and new colonialism are responsible for poverty, corruption, ignorance, oppression and discrimination in every corner of the world.

• The current world order has certain characteristics, some of which are as follows:

   

  - It is founded on materialism, and that is why it is in no way bound to moral values.

   

   It has been shaped according to selfishness, deception, hatred and animosity.

   

  3- It believes in classification of human beings, humiliation of other nations, trampling upon the rights of others and their domination.

   

  _ It seeks to expand its domination by spreading discord and conflicts amongst ethnic groups and nations.

   

  It aims to monopolize power, wealth, science and technology.
• Policies of the world's main centers of power are based on the principles of domination and the conquering of others. These centers only seek supremacy, and are not in favor of peace and definitely not at the service of their nations.

• -Are we to believe that those who spend hundreds of millions of dollars on election campaigns have the interests of the people of the world at their hearts?

   

  -Despite what big political parties claim in the capitalistic countries, the money that goes into election campaigns is usually nothing but an investment.

   

  -In such countries, people have to vote for parties that only represent a small number of people.
• -The will and the views of the masses have the least impact and influence on the big decisions especially those made about the major domestic and foreign policies. Their voices are not heard even if they constitute 99% of their societies.

• -Care about the interests of all the people of the world and join hands to reform the current structures of the UN with our joint efforts and coordination. It is necessary to note that the UN belongs to nations. Thus, the existence of discrimination amongst the members is a great insult to all. The existence of discrimination and monopoly in the UN is in no way acceptable.

   

  5-Have more coordinated efforts to generate and propagate and firmly establish the language needed for designing the required structures of the joint global management filled with justice, love and freedom. Participation in global management is the basis of lasting peace. The Non-Aligned Movement as the second largest trans-regional group after the UN, held its 16th summit in Tehran with the motto of "Joint Global Management", cognizant of the importance of this issue and the shortcomings of the current mismanagement in the emergence of crises and problems afflicting the world today. During the Summit, participating Heads of State and representatives of more than 120 countries underscored the necessity of a more serious and effective participation of all nations in the global management.

• The UN lacks the efficiency to bring about the required changes. If this inefficiency persists, nations will lose hope in the global structures to defend their rights. If the UN is not restructured, international interactions and the spirit of collective global cooperation will be tarnished and the standing of the UN will be damaged.

   

  The UN that has been created with the purpose of expanding justice and reinstitution of the universal rights has in practice been engulfed by discrimination preparing a supportive ground for the domination of a few powerful countries.

   

  Consequently, UN's inefficiency has been on the rise. Moreover, the existence of the veto right and monopolization of power in the Security Council have made it nearly impossible to defend the rights of the nations.

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• The United States has significantly scaled down a planned joint military exercise with Israel most likely because of disagreements on how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions, Time magazine has reported on its website

   

    Citing "well-placed sources in both countries", the magazine said Washington was slashing by more than two-thirds the number of US troops going to Israel, and reducing the number and potency of missile interception systems that will be used in the exercise dubbed Austere Challenge 12, which is scheduled for October.

   

    Instead of approximately 5,000 US troops, the Pentagon will send between 1,200 and 1,500. Patriot anti-missile systems will arrive in Israel as planned, but the crews to operate them will not, according to the report.

   

    Instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships, the new plan calls for sending just one, and even the remaining vessel is listed as a "maybe", the report said.

   

    Basically what the Americans are saying is, "We don't trust you," a senior Israeli military official is quoted by Time as saying.

• In a message to the NAM media representatives attending the Movement’s 16th summit in the Iranian capital city, Tehran, Zarghami called on the journalists to make concerted efforts “to establish the NAM media bloc in the face of the media bloc of the [global] hegemonic system.” 
   
  “A convergence among the press and the journalists committed to the humane and divine values is necessary as the main arm for revival of the NAM,” the IRIB chief pointed out.

• Such global developments demonstrate “the public’s uprising and awakening and their serious resolve to form a new order in international interactions,” and herald “the end of the monophonic era and the advent of polyphonic era,” he pointed out.
• The IRIB chief called on the media representatives to safeguard the professional principles of journalism by “lending support to the free flow of information and breaking the monopoly of news imperialism of the [global] hegemonic system.”

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• TEHRAN, Aug 30 (NNN-FNA) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has lauded Iran's "constructive" cooperation with the UN bodies, specially the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its nuclear programme.
   
   "Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency has been constructive and useful," Ban said, addressing the inauguration ceremony of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit here Thursday.
• He stressed that the UN considers nuclear energy as a right for all countries, and asked Iran to continue confidence-building measures in a bid to achieve its rights to access peaceful nuclear energy.
• "Based on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), all countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran are entitled to use the nuclear energy and there is no doubt in this issue," Ban has said at the meeting.
  
• Iran says its nuclear programme is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
• Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the NPT would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West's hardline stance on Tehran.

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• Nuland and the US State Department have bitterly declared that Iran is not deserving of such “high-level presences.” The US, however, is forced to grin and bear the gathering of world leaders in Tehran.

   

  What will take place is an international extravaganza, minus NATO and its key de facto members – Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea – in the Asia-Pacific and Israel. African, Asian, Caribbean, and Latin America officials will be there in full strength.
• The Chinese, which have the status of observers in the NAM, will be there. The Russians, which are not part of the NAM, have been invited as Iran’s special guests and will be represented by Konstantin Shuvalov, Russian ambassador-at-large and Vladimir Putin’s envoy. Even non-NAM member Turkey has been given an invitation from Tehran.
• To help the Palestinians, Hamas will also be given a special seat at the table under an invitation sent from Iran to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to participate at the summit alongside the US-Israeli puppet Mahmoud Abbas.
• The gathering of NAM leaders will doubtlessly be an important event for Iran’s international prestige and status. For almost a week Tehran will be a key center of the world alongside the offices of the UN in New York City and Geneva.
• Iran will retain this position as the leader of the NAM for the next few years and will be able to speak on behalf of the international organization. Up to a certain degree this position will allow Tehran to have more influence in world affairs.
• The NAM is the second largest international organization and body in the world after the United Nations. With 120 full members and 17 observer members it includes most the countries and governments of the world. About two-thirds of the UN’s member states are full NAM members.

• The US and NATO which very generously and misleadingly throw around the term “international community” when they are referring to themselves are really a global minority that pale in comparison to the international grouping formed by the NAM.

   
• Any agreements or consensuses drilled out by the NAM represent not only the bulk of the international community, but also the non-imperialist international majority or those countries that have traditionally been viewed as the “have-nots.”

• The NAM gathering in Tehran signifies an important event. It demonstrates that Iran is genuinely not internationally isolated like the images that the United States and major European Union powers, such as the UK and France, like to continuously project. Atlanticist media are scrambling to explain this situation and the Israelis are clearly upset.

   
• Despite Algerian and Iranian opposition, Syria was expelled from the OIC at the behest of Saudi Arabia and the petro-monarchies. While the OIC emergency summit in Mecca may have been a political and diplomatic blow to Damascus, the situation is expected to be much different at the NAM summit in Tehran. The Syrians will also be present in Tehran and able to face their Arab antagonists from the petro-monarchies of the Persian Gulf.

• The NAM started as an Asian initiative, which sought to address the tense relations between China and the US on one hand and China’s relations with other Asian powers on the other hand.

   

  The newly independent Asian states wanted to avoid any ratcheting up of the Cold War in their continent, especially after the disastrous US-led military intervention in Korea, or the manipulation of India and Indonesia as buffer states against the People’s Republic of China.

   

  This Asian initiative quickly broadened and gained the support of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Egypt, and the various leaders of the nationalist independence movements in Africa that were fighting for their liberation against NATO countries like Britain, France, and Portugal.

   

  Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser were the three main forces behind the organization’s creation. Kwame Nkrumah, the Marxist pan-African leader of Ghana, and Ahmed Sukarno, the leader of Indonesia, would also put their weight behind the NAM and join Tito, Nehru, and Nasser.

   

  These leaders and their countries did not view the Cold War as an ideological struggle. This was a smokescreen. The Cold War was a power struggle from their perspectives and ideology was merely used as a justification.

• Both the NAM and, especially, Third World are wrongly and carelessly used as synonyms for the Developing and Under-developing Worlds or as economic indicators. Most Third World countries were underprivileged former colonies or less affluent states in places like Africa and Latin America that were the victims of imperialism and exploitation. This has led to the general identification or misidentification of the NAM countries and the Third World with concepts of poverty. This is wrong and not what either of the terms means.

   

  Third World was a concept that developed during the Cold War period to distinguish those countries that were not formally a part of the First World that was formed by the Western Bloc and either the Eastern/Soviet Bloc and Communist World that formed the Second World. In theory most these Third Worlders were neutral and joining the NAM was a formal expression of this position of non-alignment.

• The first NAM summit would be held in the Yugoslavian capital of Belgrade in 1961 under the chairmanship of Marshall Tito. The summit in Belgrade would call for an end to all empires and colonization. Tito, Nehru, Nasser, Nkrumah, Sukarno and other NAM leaders would demand that Western Europeans end their colonial roles in Africa and let African peoples decide their own fates.

   

  A preparatory conference was also held a few months earlier in Cairo by Gamal Abdel Nasser. At the preparatory meetings non-alignment was defined by five points:

   

  (1) Non-aligned countries must follow an independent policy of co-existence of nations with varied political and social systems;

   

  (2) Non-aligned countries must be consistent in their support for national independence;

   

  (3) Non-aligned countries must not belong to a multilateral alliance concluded in the context of superpower or big power politics;

   

  (4) If non-aligned countries have bilateral agreement with big powers or belonged to a regional defense pact, these agreements should not have been concluded in context of the Cold War;

   

  (5) If non-aligned states cede military bases to a big power, these bases should not be granted in the context of the Cold War.

• Many people ask what relevance the Non-Aligned Movement has today. Since the end of the Cold War the NAM’s strength has been eroded as the US, neoliberal economic reforms, the IMF, and the World Bank have gained more and more control over NAM members.

   

  In many cases NAM members have reverted back to de facto colonies in all but name. Many members of NAM, such as Belarus, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, are actually fully aligned states.
• There is no question about it that Iran wants to make NAM relevant again to use it to fight off the expansionist Atlanticist World. So do the Russians and the Chinese. The NAM after all has provided Iran important diplomatic support in its politicized nuclear dispute with the Atlanticists. The NAM is also the closest alternative to the Atlanticist-infiltrated and perverted United Nations.
• One small step in this direction is that Iran will begin negotiations with 60 NAM countries to drop bilateral visa requirements with Iran. A universal statement may also be released asking for the anti-Iranian sanctions to be dropped or modified.
• Other steps would include proposals for a new and alternative financial global structure, which would evade the Atlanticist chokehold on international financial transactions.

• Morsi is widely seen as Qatar’s man and relations between Riyadh and Cairo have been uneasy for some time. The Saudi Embassy in Cairo was even temporarily closed after Egyptian protests against Saudi Arabia flared up. More importantly, the House of Saud opposed Morsi in support of longstanding Mubarak henchman Ahmed Shafik during the Egyptian presidential elections.

   

  In addition, the House of Saud has propped up its own political clients inside Egypt against the Muslim Brotherhood. The House of Saud’s Egyptian clients, the Nour Party and the their parliamentary coalition called the Alliance for Egypt (Islamic Bloc), trailed in second place behind the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary coalition, the Democratic Alliance.

   

  Despite the fact that Doha and Riyadh are both serving US interests, the two sheikhdoms have a rivalry with one another. This Qatari-Saudi rivalry picked up again after a brief pause that saw both sides invade the island-kingdom of Bahrain to support the Khalifa regime and to work together against the governments of Libya and Syria.

   

  The Saud and Al-Thani rivalry has seen both sides supporting different armed groups in Libya and competing anti-government forces during the so-called Arab Spring (or Islamic Awakening in Tehran). The elections in Egypt, where Doha and Riyadh supported different sides, just added fuel to the Qatari-Saudi fire.
• Aside from favorable news coverage, it is also widely believed that Qatar helped finance the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during elections. In addition, Qatari investments in Egypt grew by 74% according to figures released by the Egyptian Central Bank in July 2012.
• On August 11, Emir Al-Thani and a Qatari delegation also travelled to Egypt for a one-day visit with Morsi. The next day, on August 12, Morsi politely dismissed or “retired” Field Marshal Tantawi, the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, and Sami Anan, the Egyptian Armed Forces chief of staff and Tantawi’s number two.
• An outcome of Emir Al-Thani’s Egyptian visit was that it was announced that Qatar gave Cairo two billion dollars (US). In reality, the Qataris only gave Egypt 500 million dollars (US) and said that the remainder will be given in installments, which will start after the NAM summit in Tehran. Does the payment schedule say anything?

• The timing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visit to Cairo to negotiate a loan on the eve of the NAM summit in Tehran is also suspicious. After a year of uncertainty and begging, Qatar and the IMF have opened their pockets to the Egyptians (although Qatar sent some money earlier).

   

  The Libyan Transitional Council government has even offered to pitch in financially, even when its own coffers are in disarray as a result of the NATO war on Libya and the looting of Libya’s treasury and assets by the Atlanticists with the help of US neoliberal economist turned Libyan “minister of oil and finance” Ali Tarhouni. As for the House of Saud everyone understands that their terms for financial aid to Egypt include the continuation of anti-Iranian policies in Cairo.

• Like most politicians, Morsi has watered-down his election promises. He has had to walk a fine line surrounded by enemies and competitors alike while he has worked to slowly accumulate power. When he was elected there was a delay in announcing the outcome of the Egyptian election.

   

  Field Marshal Tantawi and the Egyptian military junta were taking their time to think over on deciding whether to keep Morsi as a president or to impose a new round of martial law while forcibly installing their fellow general Ahmed Shafik as the country’s civilian president.
• Where Morsi’s foreign policy is going after the NAM conference in Tehran is the other important question. Where he stands will begin to crystallize from the NAM meeting onwards. The fear of rapprochement between Iran and Egypt certainly keeps a lot of people up at night in Riyadh, Tel Aviv, London, and Washington, DC. Everyone is waiting to see what Cairo and Tehran will do and for many the expectations of rapprochement are running high, but the leverage and restrictions that exist over Morsi should not be forgotten either.

• Although there is far less fanfare and attention being paid to Morsi’s trip to China, what he does there will also be very important. Some say he plans on slowly shifting Cairo’s foreign policy away from the Atlanticist camp, with Washington as its capital, towards the Eurasianist camp that includes China and Iran. Certainly Chinese foreign aid will reduce Egyptian dependency on the Atlanticists and their Arab petro-monarch partners.

   

  What we are dealing with here is an intricate web of multiple relations between different groups who are interacting with one another in different ways and through changing relationships.

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• Wie es weiter heißt, haben Apetra und Cova, die belgische und die holländische Agentur, die für die strategischen Erdölvorräte ihrer Länder zuständig sind, Ausschreibungen für den Import von insgesamt etwa 250 000 Tonnen Dieselkraftstoff und Benzin mit Lieferung im September - Oktober initiiert.
  
• Die französische Agentur Sagess kaufte ihrerseits 267 000 Barrel Dieselkraftstoff und führte eine Auktion für die Lieferung von etwa 300 000 Tonnen Rohöl durch.
  
  Gemäß einer 2009 angenommenen EU-Richtlinie dürfen die strategischen Erdölvorräte der 27 EU-Staaten nicht unter das Importniveau des durchschnittliche Tagesbedarfes fallen.
• Dabei müssen die EU-Mitglieder ein Drittel ihrer Erdölvorräte als Erdölprodukte halten.
  
  Die Richtlinie legt auch die Regeln für die Nutzung der strategischen Vorräte bei der Entstehung einer Krisensituation im Energiebereich fest.

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• Doch setzten Kritiker des westlichen Konfrontationskurses bald nach und hielten, wie zum Beispiel Seymour Hersh, der Internationale Atomenergiebehörde vor, dass sie sich offenbar für politische Zwecke einspannen ließ. Seymour warf der IAEA vor, dass ihr Bericht "viel kriegstreiberisches Gerede" ("lots of belligerent talk") enthalte, aber keine stichhaltigen Beweise. Dies begründete er ausführlich, indem er einzelne Hinweise mit anderen Quellen verglich. Als Erklärung für den neuen Kurs der IAEA diente ihm der zuvor vollzogene Wechsel an der Spitze. Der neue Leiter Amano sei schon zuvor in einer von WikiLeaks veröffentlichten US-Depesche als "sehr brauchbar" eingestuft worden.

    

• Als Dokument, das solchen Hinweisen auf iranische Aktivitäten zur nuklearen Bewaffnung widerspricht, wurde bislang immer wieder der Bericht der amerikanischen Geheimdienste (NIE-Report) aus dem Jahr 2007 zitiert. Dort hieß es, dass nach Einschätzung  von 16 Geheimdiensten Iran zwar an einem militärischen Nuklearprogramm gearbeitet habe, dies aber Ende 2003 eingestellt hätten. Die Einschätzung wurde Anfang dieses Jahres noch einmal von der CIA im Wesentlichen bestätigt.

    
• Nun gibt es nach aktuellen Informationen der israelischen Zeitung Ha'aretz einen neuen National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) - Bericht. Wie der israelische Verteidigungsminister Ehud Barak bestätigte, soll der neue Bericht, den Obama kürzlich bekommen habe, unter hochrangigen Offiziellen kursieren. Inhaltliche Details werden nicht verraten, aber es sieht - nach Aussage Baraks - so aus, als ob die US-Geheimdienste diesmal bestätigen, was Israel schon lange wisse: Dass Iran "beträchtliche Fortschritte in Richtung atomarer Bewaffnung" mache. Der Bericht rücke die amerikanische Position wieder näher an die israelische heran und würde das Thema dringlicher machen.

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• Government sources claim that over 17,000 Iranians were killed by the MEK.
• The group claims to have renounced violence in 2001^[12] and today it is the main component organization of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an "umbrella coalition" calling itself the "parliament-in-exile dedicated to a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran.
• French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (Union for a Popular Movement) declared that the MEK "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq", while Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of France's domestic intelligence service, claimed that the group was "transforming its Val d'Oise centre [near Paris]... into an international terrorist base".
• Along with other members of Congress, he wrote a letter of protest to President Jacques Chirac, while longtime MEK supporters such as Sheila Jackson-Lee, Democrat of Texas, criticized Maryam Radjavi's arrest.^[29] However, the MEK members were quickly released.
• The U.S. military also protected and gave logistical support to the MEK as U.S. officials viewed the group as a high value source of intelligence on Iran.^[84] The MEK is credited with revealing Iran's nuclear program in 2003 and alerting Americans to Iranian advancements in nuclear technology.^[
• On December 14, 2006, Time Magazine published an article about MEK and reported: "In 2003, French anti-terrorist police raided Maryam Rajavi's place in Auvers-sur-Oise, securing millions of euros and taking Maryam Rajavi and some of her collaborators into custody. Several of Rajavi's followers set themselves on fire to protest her arrest, confirming official French concerns about the cultish nature of the group."

• On August 28, 1988, New York Times published an article that after chemical attacks by MEK against western Iranian cities, Alireza Jafarzadeh as then public spokesman for MEK in the United States said:

       

  “

  "Mujahedeen have learned to take proper tactics when and if necessary. We have always adjusted tactics in our fighting. The form of fighting is secondary."[91]

  ”

   

  The Mujahedeen claimed to have inflicted 40,000 Iranian casualties.

• On July 13, 2003, New York Times published an article that in 1991 when Saddam Hussein used the MEK and its tanks as advance forces to crush the Iraqi Kurdish people in the north and the Iraqi Shia people in the south, Maryam Rajavi as then leader of MEK's army forces commanded:

     

  “	"Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards."
• "They have been extremely clever and very, very effective in their propaganda and lobbying of members of Congress," says Gary Sick, a Persian Gulf expert at Columbia University's Middle East Institute and the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran. "They get all sorts of people to sign their petitions. Many times the Congressmen don't know what they're signing." But others, Sick adds, "are quite aware of the fact that this is a designated terrorist organization, and they are quite willing to look the other way for a group that they think is a democratic alternative to the Iranian regime."
• On May 18, 2005, Newsweek published an article about MEK and reported: "Human Rights Watch alleges that the Iranian exile group known as Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) has a history of cultlike practices that include forcing members to divorce their spouses and to engage in extended self-criticism sessions. More dramatically, the report states, former MEK members told Human Rights Watch that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned.
• ccording to Human Rights Watch, following this 1988 military defeat, the Rajavi's leadership of MEK became increasingly authoritarian and cultlike. According to an MEK defector's memoir, Rajavi claimed to have a mystical relationship with a prophet known as Imam Zaman, who is Shia Islam's version of the long-awaited Messiah.
• Human Rights Watch says the testimony of former MEK prisoners paints a grim picture of how the organization treated its members, particularly those who held dissenting opinions or expressed an intent to leave the organization.
• "The Iranian government has a dreadful record on human rights. But it would be a mistake to promote an opposition group that is responsible for serious human rights abuses."
• In 2011, several former senior US officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, three former chairmen of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, two former directors of the CIA, former commander of NATO Wesley Clark, two former US Ambassadors to the United Nations, the former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a former White House Chief of Staff, a former commander of the United States Marine Corps, former U.S. National Security Advisor Frances Townsend, and US President Barack Obama's retired National Security Adviser General James L. Jones called for the MEK to be removed from its official listing on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, on the grounds that they constituted a viable opposition to the Iranian regime^[95]. In early 2012, a controversy arose regarding whether Townsend had committed federal felonies by providing material support to the MEK^[96].
• In April 2012, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported that the US Joint Special Operations Command had trained MEK operatives at a secret site in Nevada from 2005 to 2009. According to Hersh, MEK members were trained in intercepting communications, cryptography, weaponry and small unit tactics at the Nevada site up until President Barack Obama took office in 2009^[97]. Hersh also reported several former U.S. officials from both of the main political parties in the US have been paid to speak in support of the group, including former CIA directors James Woolsey and Porter Goss; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; former Vermont Governor Howard Dean; former Attorney General Michael Mukasey; former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Louis Freeh; former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton; and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell^[97].
• In May 2005, Human Rights Watch claimed that the MEK were running prison camps within Iraq and were committing severe human rights violations against former MEK members.^[98] The report described how the MEK was held under tight control of the husband and wife team of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi.
• Prompted by the FOFI document, Human Rights Watch re-interviewed all 12 of the original witnesses, conducting private and personal interviews lasting several hours with each of them in Germany and the Netherlands, where the witnesses now live. All of the witnesses restated their claims about the MEK camps from the 1991-2003 period, saying MEK officials subjected them to various forms of physical and psychological abuses once they made known their wishes to leave the organization.^[
• Countless first-rate analysts, scholars and human rights organizations -- including Human Rights Watch -- have determined that the MEK is an undemocratic, cultlike organization whose modus operandi vitiates its claim to be a vehicle for democratic change.
• In an interview with RFERL escaped MEK leader Abdul Latif Shardouri (aka Abdollatif Shadvari) who says he had been in the MEK for 25 years stated that his family thought he was dead because he had had no contact with them during those 25 years. "Using the telephone, mobile phone, Internet, and even listening to radio is forbidden in the organization."
• The issue is, as [MEK leader Massoud] Rajavi has said many times, whoever wants to escape from Ashraf will be punished with death and execution. Not only me, but many of my friends who are now in Ashraf don't have the possibility to leave the camp. Escape is the only way

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