Khomeini's Role in Pan Am Blast Probed, Associated Press, July 5

HAMBURG - German officials are looking into information from a former top Iranian spy that the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, a magazine reported.

According to The weekly Spiegel, the tip came from Abolghassem Mesbahi, a co-founder of the Iranian intelligence service who later went into exile.

Spiegel said Mesbahi told investigators Khomeini ordered the terror attack as retaliation for the downing of an Iranian passenger jet by a U.S. warship in July 1988.

According to the report, Iran Air's representative in Frankfurt at the time smuggled parts for the bomb through airport security in Frankfurt.

Execution of Political Prisoners, Iran Zamin News Agency, July 5

According to a statement by the NCRI, the mullahs' regime secretly hanged seven prisoners arrested on political charges were in Isfahan prison in central Iran on Sunday, June 29, reports from Iran say.

The hangings come at a time when reports from Iranian prisons speak of extensive protests by inmates against harsh prison conditions as well as cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners in different cities, including the prisons of Tabriz (northwest), Isfahan and Shiraz (south).

In the statement, the Iranian Resistance urged the international human rights organizations to intervene immediately to save the lives of political prisoners.

Concerned over Russia's Nuclear Cooperation with Iran, The Washington Post, July 3

The Clinton administration has privately complained to Moscow that Russia's burgeoning nuclear cooperation with Iran may already exceed the limits that Russian President Boris Yeltsin promised two years ago, U.S. officials said.

The Russian assistance could help Iran make more progress in developing nuclear arms than previously anticipated, they said...

In addition, U.S. intelligence reports have indicated that Russian experts may still be advising Iran on its effort to mine uranium ore and process it for eventual use in a nuclear program...

The administration has also raised complaints about Russia's apparent collaboration with Iran on various ballistic missile projects, "Iran is working very hard to acquire nuclear [weapons] and even long-range missiles" to carry such arms, a U.S. official said.

Overview

Mullahs' Factional Infighting on the Rise Iran Zamin News Agency, July 5

Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the man Khomeini dismissed as his heir apparent in 1989, has written an open letter to the clerical regime's new president, Mohammad Khatami, sharply rebuking and challenging the leadership of the mullahs' supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who is regarded as a third-rate mullah in the traditional Shiite clerical hierarchy.

Montazeri stressed in his letter that the regime's constitution defined the supreme leader's power's and it must not be violated, adding that "the leader stands equal before the law... Those who want to put an individual or certain individuals above the law are in fact undermining the country's political stability."

Montazeri has been under virtual house arrest in the city of Qom in the past few years because of his disputes with Khamenei and Rafsanjani. He wrote in his open letter: "The people are suffering as result of hollow promises, unjustifiable discrimination, administrative mismanagement and nepotism, influence peddling, factional monopolies, slanders, rejection of valuable cadres on senseless grounds, vulgar flattery, imposition of unlawful restrictions, denial of legitimate freedoms stipulated in the constitution, mismanagement and embezzlement of government funds and property, and extravagant and costly ceremonies while the vital needs of society are being ignored."

In another part of his letter, Montazeri referred to the clerical regime's "inquisition, wiretapping, unlawful and arbitrary arrests" and other acts of repression.

Montazeri also focused on the economic and social crises in Iran and wrote: "Inflation, the imbalance between state earnings and spending, profound class differences and atrocious health conditions are among the current problems of our country...You cannot keep the hungry and the sick happy by just making them lots of promises."

Montazeri's letter, widely distributed in government circles, has aggravated the already heated strife that has plagued the mullahs' internal factions since the election of Khatami and the emergence of three factions led by Khamenei, Khatami and Rafsanjani. The forthcoming announcement of the make-up of the new cabinet is also fueling hostilities among the factions vying with each other for ministerial portfolios.

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