Back to Brief on Iran
On Thursday, February 11, 1999, senior members of the House International Relations Committee will sponsor a briefing in the U.S. House of Representatives, at which representatives of the Iranian Resistance will release for the first time a detailed list of 3,000 victims of mass prison executions. The names of some of the officials who took part in these atrocities and now hold posts in the Khatami administration will also be revealed.
Speakers will also address such key issues as Tehran’s drive to obtain weapons of mass destruction, prospects for change, and implications for U.S. Iran policy.
Rajavi Addresses People of Iran on Twentieth Anniversary of The Anti-Monarchic Revolution, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 10
The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement today saying that Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the NCR, addressed the Iranian people on the twentieth anniversary of the anti-monarchic revolution in Iran.
In his remarks, Mr. Rajavi said: With the free fall in the country’s official currency, the dollar is reaching the 9,000 rial mark. In the first six months of this year, the rate of inflation has doubled. Unemployment has risen by six percent. Government debt to the banking system has risen from 55 trillion rials in 1995 to 80 trillion rials this year. The budget deficit is officially put at 6.3 billion dollars. The country’s industries are working with only 50% of their capacity. Investment in the industrial sector has dropped by 43% and the budget deficit for next year is forecast to be 40% or 36 trillion rials.
NCR President said: The catastrophes caused by the clerical rule, including the disastrous state of the economy, are before anything else due to this regime’s reactionary and anti-Iranian policies. The solution to these problems are political in nature, namely the overthrow of the anti-human enemy and the establishment of the sole democratic alternative, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The NCR President added: Twenty-one months after Khatami took office,
it can clearly be observed that inside Iran, those political figures sitting
on the fringes, or working within the regime, who had pinned their hopes
on Khatami, have become disillusioned. So helpless is the situation that
the regime’s leaders and officials speak openly of the danger of being
toppled and the end of the regime, saying that our enemies' predictions
have come true. Rival factions admit that the state has "drunk poison"
and acknowledge explicitly or implicitly that the ultimate "winner" of
this schism and turmoil is the Iranian Resistance.
Resignation by Mullahs’ Intelligence Minister Reflects Aggravation of Power Struggle Within Regime, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 10
The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement on Wednesday indicating that the resignation of mullah Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi, Khatami’s Intelligence Minister, reflects the clerical regime’s impasse and demonstrates that the regime as a whole is in disarray and is also a sign of aggravating internal power struggle on the eve of the "Islamic councils’ elections."
Mullah Ali Younessi, reported to be
Dorri Najafabadi’s successor, is a notorious henchman in the Judiciary
involved in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.
Mullahs Are Most Aggressive Developers of Weapons of Mass Destruction—Report, The Associated Press, February 10
The CIA is becoming increasingly concerned that business "entities" in China and Russia are trafficking weapons of mass destruction to countries such as Iran, Syria and India despite restrictions imposed by their own central governments.
A report to Congress on Tuesday by the CIA's Nonproliferation Center points to the emergence of independent or quasi-government entities in Russia and China as exporters of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons technology.
The CIA identifies Iran as perhaps the most aggressive developer of weapons-of-mass-destruction capability, seeking its own indigenous missile capability, working to develop a nuclear capability, beginning work on a biological weapons program, and expanding its already formidable chemical weapons arsenal that includes stockpiles of "blister, blood and choking agents and the bombs and artillery shells for delivery them."