Back to Brief on Iran
The regime's Ministry of Intelligence is doing it utmost to prevent foreign reporters from gaining access to the realities of the Iranian society.
According to reports from Iran, the regime has instructed the majority of foreign reporters to leave Tehran immediately after the summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference.
The reporters have reportedly asked to go to Qom and meet with dissident clergymen. Meanwhile, the regime has imposed more restrictions on Montazeri, former successor to Khomeini. Montazeri's comments against Khamenei in recent weeks escalated the power struggle within the regime.
Protest Gathering of Mojahedin Families in Tehran,
Iran Zamin News Agency, December 8
According to reports from Iran, simultaneous with the Organization of Islamic Conference's meeting in Tehran, large groups of families of Mojahedin martyrs and political prisoners gathered today in the Iranian capital's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery to protest the clerical regime's repressive policies.
The families gathered despite security measures by the regime and chanted slogans against the regime's leaders, and in support of the National Liberation Army and the Resistance's leaders.
The protesters condemned the regime's efforts to take advantage of the OIC summit to legitimize their atrocities in the name of Islam.
The Revolutionary Guards attacked the gathering of Mojahedin families and arrested and took away dozens of people, including elderly mothers, the reports say.
Iran Denies It's Involvement in Killing of Four Americans,
Agence France Presse, December 8
ISLAMABAD - Iran Monday denied its nationals were involved in the killing of four US business executives in the Pakistani city of Karachi last month.
Police in Karachi said Sunday security agencies had detained eight Iranian nationals in connection with the murder of the Americans.
The detainees included two people suspected of involvement in the theft of the car the assailants used in the November 12 slaying, the police said.
A police official said that investigators were working on a number of theories including suspicions of an Iranian connection in the slaying.
Police were questioning the Iranians but none of them had confessed to involvement in the crime, said Saud Mirza, a senior superintendent of Karachi police.
Trail Heats Up in '94 Argentina Bombing,
The Los Angeles Times, December 6
BUENOS AIRES--The hunt for terrorists who slaughtered 86 people in the bombing of a Jewish community center here in 1994 has picked up unexpected momentum....
Investigators believe that the attack also involved Iranian terrorists and members of Modin, a rightist political party of former military officers known for coup attempts and anti-Semitic violence.
The latest and most politically prominent investigative target is congressional Deputy Emilio Morello, a former army captain and Modin member. Under questioning by the commission last week, Morello denied allegations that he met with Iranian diplomats and traveled secretly to the Middle East....
Meanwhile, Judge Juan Jose Galeano sought another piece of the puzzle: the suspected Iranian connection. After gathering information in France and Germany on Iranian terrorism, Galeano flew to Los Angeles to re-interview witness Manouchehr Moatamer, an Iranian defector who lives in California.
Moatamer, who fled Iran in 1994, describes himself as a former well-placed Iranian operative with powerful family connections. He says he had access to meetings where intelligence officials plotted the Buenos Aires bombing. During his testimony last week in the Argentine Consulate in Los Angeles, he provided purportedly official Iranian documents on the plot to back his claims...
Iranian officials, who deny any role in the bombing, call Moatamer a con man. But investigators believe that he can help them. During his 1994 testimony in Venezuela, he predicted a bombing at the Israeli Embassy in London that occurred days later during a worldwide terror offensive.
19th Dissident Assassinated Abroad During Khatami's Tenure, Iran Zamin News Agency, December 5
Wednesday, December 3, terrorists dispatched by the Iranian mullahs' regime assassinated Seyyed Jamal Nikjouyan, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, in Kouysenjaq, Iraqi Kurdistan.
He was the 19th dissident assassinated on Iraqi territory since Khatami has taken office.