[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[haleh]

Son Of Slain Journalist Vents Anger At Ottawa
July 25, 2004
Canadian Press
Jim Brown


OTTAWA -- The son of a Canadian photojournalist beaten to death in an Iranian prison says he's ashamed the federal government hasn't taken a tougher stand in the affair.

Stephan Hashemi expressed his frustration Sunday in a television interview, a day after an Iranian court acquitted the man who had been charged in the death of his mother Zahra Kazemi.

The verdict was "clearly a cover-up" and it's obvious lawyers for the family must protest and appeal the verdict, said Hashemi. But in the meantime Ottawa has to put more pressure on Tehran.

"They look like fools right now," Hashemi said of the efforts made so far by Canadian officials.

"I'm really proud to be Canadian, but I'm ashamed of the position of our government."

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew was pondering his legal and diplomatic options and was expected to issues a statement later Sunday.

"The minister has followed the developments closely in the last 24 hours," said spokesman Sebastien Theberge.

"The statement will reflect the fact that minister Pettigrew considers this case as a priority. Canadians want to get to the bottom of this through a fair trial and will expect the Iranian authorities to live up to their responsibility."

Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, a counter-espionage agent, was acquitted Saturday by a court in Tehran of a charge of "semi-premeditated murder" in the death of Kazemi.

The Montreal-based freelance journalist, who was born in Iran, died a year ago while in detention. She had been arrested for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests against the government.

Iranian officials initially said Kazemi died of a stroke, but a presidential committee later found that she died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage from a blow to the head.

The Iranian government issued a statement Sunday saying it agreed with the judicial verdict brought down the day before.

"The Iranian government from the beginning believed the defendant was innocent and the court came to the same conclusion," said Hamid Reza Asefi, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.

Canadian officials said they had been unable to determine whether authorities in Tehran planned to continue pursuing the case - for example by investigating or charging other suspects - in the wake of Ahmadi's acquittal.

Hashemi has been pressing Ottawa to take the case to the International Court of Justice at the Hague. Federal officials have acknowledged that is one possibility but say they are also studying a range of diplomatic initiatives to put pressure on Iran.
_________________
Haleh -
There can only be ONE Iran, a FREE one.

[Acidrain]

Canada wont do a dame thing! They are a weak nation with no power, its sad becuase they use to be a great power on the international stage during WWI&II.

What did the family expect, thier was nothing to come out of it all!! Its a joke and a farse.

Cheers

Acidrain

[redemption]

Kazemi's son should do some interviews on American media. You are right about Canada - they are best friends of Rafsanjani - he owns much of toronto!
_________________
IRANIANS UNITE
PERSIA LIVES ON!!
FREE IRAN NOW!

[Spenta]

I hear he did an interview on CNN. Did anyone catch that?

[Khorshid]

Let’s take a moment and look at the way the murder of Zahra Kazemi, but one manifestation of the tyranny of the Islamist Republic, is being examined by the popular “leftist” website Znet. Why? Znet is home to many leftist activists and scholars and as such often consulted to provide the alternative view. It is wise then to know exactly what that “alternative” view is, to know whether we as Iranians can appeal to or expect any help from the general mindset it typifies. Do we not want to know why Islamists, of all people, often cite articles from a supposedly secularist Znet to lend credibility to their arguments or to attempt to discredit their Iranian opponents? Why would the Islamic Republic’s ISNA news agency headline an interview with Noam Chomsky, a Znet writer, on the front page of it’s website? Why would Znet dedicate a full page to Iran but fill it with articles by “Iranian” anti-nationalists and anti-monarchists, such as the miniscule but vocal Jebhe Melli group, which supported the mass murderer Ayatullah Khomeini and which represents no one but itself, while censoring an “alternative”, and naturally popular view in favor of Iranian interests? Do we not want to know why the most vocal anti-Iranian crowd during the 1970’s, who accused the Shah of Iran of the vilest “crimes against humanity”, and thus paved the way for the likes of Carter and Henry Precht, has been silent, since the 79 “revolution”, on the genocidal Islamists?

Here Stephen Kerr argues against the “condemnation” of the Islamic Republic. Like Mullahs Rafsanjani and Kashani during their “Friday Prayers”, Kerr believes that Canada is in no position to condemn the Islamic Republic.

“More good old Canadian hypocrisy”
By Stephen Kerr
Znet July 24, 2004
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=11&ItemID=5928


One would expect an informed journalist, let alone self-styled “progressives” writing about Iran, to know that the murder of Zahra Kazemi is but one manifestation of the tyranny of the Islamist Republic. Given the Islamic Republic’s crimes against the Iranian people, of which the horrendous murder of Zahra Kazemi is but instance, “progressives” worthy of the label would expect the Canadian government to have withdrawn its ambassador much earlier and to have done much more in material terms. Yet, far from challenging what may well be only a slap on the hand in diplomatic terms as an adequate form of condemnation and proportional to the crime, Kerr denounces the condemnation!

The author argues that Canada’s policy vis a vis OTHER states preclude a moral condemnation of the Islamic Republic. That this type of argument is logically fallacious* does not occur to Mr. Kerr. Interestingly enough, if Canada cannot condemn Iran it also cannot condemn Syria! Nevertheless, if Kerr intended to expose the Canadian government’s hypocrisy in condemning the Islamists instead of cleverly detailing, to the point of irrelevance, crimes committed by other states, why not refer to Canada’s past record and policy towards the Islamic Republic ITSELF? Canadian government has had 25 years to condemn the Islamic Republic but chose instead to trade with and profit from it: According to “Iran Canada Business Council”, ** Iran's imports from Canada for the year 2000 totaled over $656 million. It is not difficult to realize that Kerr’s intention is to deflect, not focus, his readers’ attention from the tragedy in Iran and Canadian government’s past (optimistically assuming that policy to have changed) Iran policy. He writes, “Iran is a scary ‘totalitarian society’ according to President Bush.” Certainly not according to a person like Stephan Hashemi and millions of other Iranians!

Shielding his flawed viewpoint by trying to seem principled, Kerr writes, “Yes, Iran should have a transparent, public trial with due process. Yes, the man responsible for the brutal murder of Kazemi must face justice.” He does not tell his readers that transparent, public trials with due process cannot and have never existed since the 1979 reaction, a reaction supported by the luminaries writing in Znet as “progressives”. He does not tell his readers that it is the Islamic Republic that should be condemned, not some single individual paraded by the Islamic Mafia system as the culprit. In fact the term “Islamic Republic” is never even employed! Not even once.

Znet’s Stephen Kerr also defends the Mullahs’ nuclear project, assuring his readers that the Iranian Taliban have not withdrawn from the Nonproliferation Treaty. He adds, by way of passing, “an agreement which our ally Israel has not even signed”! Znet readers, humanity itself, should not accept Kerr’s assurances, or the assurances of the Islamic Republic for that matter, for the Islamists have shown that one need not withdraw from the NPT in order not to comply with NPT protocols! When the Islamist regime broke the seals on nuclear equipment monitored by United Nations inspectors a few days ago, was it not a signatory to the NPT?


*Should the argument hold, most (Chomsky would in fact say ALL) states, and all persons but saints, are precluded from morally condemning anything whatever. For instance, Roosevelt, president of a criminal state according to Znet, was in no position to condemn Nazi Germany.

** “The objectives of the ICBC are: To promote and support business, trade and investment activities between Canada and Iran and to serve as an advisory body to the Government in Canada on matters related to trade and economic relations with Iran.” http://www.palantir.ca/sites/ICBC/chairreport.html


ICBC’s Board Members:

Samir Zalza (Zenon Environmental and also President, ICBC)
Joseph Tavana (Tavana and Co. Chartered Accountants and also Treasurer of ICBC)
Ahmad Tabrizi (TAIM Canada)
Farrokh Khalili (Canadian Bearings)
Ken Haves (GM Canada)
Massey Ghatavi (BTI Services)
Zouheir Chebyl (SNC-Lavalin)
Anwar Hashim (Scotiabank)
Oskar Sigvaldason (Acres International)

.

[Persian]

Liberals are taking money under the table and letting go ...

If they had balls, or decency, either way we would not see more jurnalists slain in cold blood. ie in Moscow, etc.

Liberals are British puppets, and so are the Ayatollahs.

Now go CONNECT THE DOTS.
_________________
Long live Iran.