Twenty hours after the Mojahedin’s operations in Ilam Province, the mullahs’ regime broke its silence last night and acknowledged the attacks in the main evening news bulletins of the state radio and television.

While the locations of the targets that have been attacked are no secret and the mullahs’ suppressive forces never gather "on the border point," the state-run media recited a "report" concocted by the Ministry of Intelligence, which claimed that "the Mojahedin fired several mortars on the border point in Ilam Province."

In three major military operations on Tuesday morning, military units of the Mojahedin in Iran pounded a battalion headquarters in Dehloran and two centers of the an Armored Division in Saleh-Abad and Sarnay in Ilam Province, inflicting heavy casualties and damages on enemy forces and installations.
 

Khamenei Says Authority of Supreme Jurisprudence Indisputable, Associated Press, January 26

TEHRAN - [Mullahs'] supreme leader Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that his authority is indisputable.

Iranian radio quoted Khamenei as saying that the "true meaning" of the Iranian concept of "velayat-e-faqih," or the authority of the leader, is that "the person in charge of the Islamic government does not make mistakes..." "This is an obvious point that must be understood well and spelled out properly," the broadcast quoted Khamenei as saying.

Last week, the hard-line Experts Assembly formed a committee to safeguard Khamenei's authority.

The committee, which elects and supervises the supreme leader, condemned any opposition to Khamenei and appealed to voters not to elect pro-West candidates in the Feb. 18 elections.

Khamenei, who leads the hard-liners, has direct control of the Intelligence Ministry, the judiciary, the armed forces, and the broadcast network.
 

Rafsanjani Threatens Pro-Khatami Camp With Disclosing Their Past, Reuters, January 26

TEHRAN - Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in an interview published on Wednesday, has linked [pro-Khatami's] camp to widespread hangings and other extreme measures after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Some of these gentlemen disguised as reformers and liberals made problems for us due to their extremism," Rafsanjani told the newspaper Iran.

"You wouldn't imagine how much I suffered in trying to curb their excesses - hangings, trials and confiscation of (private) property in the early years of the revolution," he said. "This same pressure group has now resurfaced in a different guise."

Rafsanjani did not give names, but among his critics are formerly radical clerics who back Khatami and student leaders behind the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

There are also former judges notorious for handing down tough sentences against dissidents.

"...I have always had to guard secrets for many people and protect everybody...But if they go too far, I will answer," he said.

But many have publicly called on Rafsanjani to abandon behind-the-scenes politicking.

They have also challenged him to take responsibility for alleged failure of economic policies during his eight years in office and repressive measures against dissidents.
 

700 Decoders for "Satanic Dishes" Seized, Agence France Presse, January 26

TEHRAN - Iran's Islamic militia seized 738 decoders for banned satellite television reception in the south of the country, the daily Jomhuri-Eslami reported Wednesday.

The decoders was discovered hidden in a truck by the hardline Bassiji volunteer militia near the port of Lenqeh. The driver had already fled, the paper said.

The import, manufacture and use of equipment for receiving transmissions by foreign television stations was banned in April 1995 in the wake of a campaign against the "satanic dishes" which allowed "western depravity" into the home.
 

150,000 LEF Personnel to Watch Majlis Elections, State Controlled Daily Tehran Times, January 26

TEHRAN - Security of the Sixth Majlis elections will be maintained by some 150,000 forces of the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) as well as 4,000 police stations all over the country, head of the Ideological-Political Organization of the LEF announced here yesterday.

[Mullah] Mohammad-Ali Rahmani added the LEF have been provided with needed facilities for holding a glorious elections in a peaceful atmosphere…

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