Faizallah Arab Surahi, a senior member of the Revolution Mujaheddin launched a hunger strike in his prison cell to protest the lack of suitable medical treatment and the denigrating treatment he and his family suffer at the hands of prison staff. Faizallah, who had been Deputy Trade Minister in the Khatami government, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of anti-regime propaganda and participation in an illegal assembly.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi has warned, “We would not like the coffins of thousands of American soldiers to be sent from the Persian Gulf to America. However, if we see any stupid moves by the enemy, this will be only one part of Iran’s response to the abusers… Today America, with its little knowledge of our capabilities and understanding of the Persian Gulf region’s sensitivity, has become the country that is most careful to prevent hostilities in the Persian Gulf. America knows that the future of the world is related to the future of the Persian Gulf. If something happens in this region, all their material interests would be in danger.” He added that Iran has acquired such capability that “the aggressors will suffer an unbelievable and crushing defeat in the event of any attack or intervention.” Fadavi emphasized that the enemy seeks to confront Iran by imposing economic and political sanctions and desecrating Islamic sanctities and does not dare directly confront Iranian forces.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Yemen has dismantled a spy ring that included Iranians who entered the country posing as investors looking to set up a factory, the defense ministry said on its website Monday.
The spy cell also had members from Syria and Yemen, the 26sep.net website said, citing an informed source.
“Iranian, Syrian and Yemeni elements were arrested during the past period” across Yemen as part of “Iranian spy cells held in Yemen,” the site reported.
It said the Iranians had entered Yemen posing as investors with authorization to start a factory.
The Iranians began importing equipment through the port of Aden in Yemen’s south but when “one of the containers was inspected, it was revealed that the equipment it was carrying was for military… and not civilian purposes,” said 26sep.net.
When re-assembled, the equipment could be used for “making rockets and various weapons,” it added.
The website did not specify how many people involved in the spy ring were arrested. It also did not offer details on the role of Syrian and Yemeni members of the alleged espionage cell.
In September, Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi accused Tehran of “supporting some armed and political movements in Yemen,” adding that “five spy networks working for Iran have been discovered and referred to justice while a sixth network was recently dismantled.”
He also accused the Islamic republic of “trying to derail the political” process in Yemen, where a year-long popular uprising led to the ouster of former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh after an agreement was sealed in November.
On Friday, al-Hayat daily quoted Hadi as saying that Iran was backing a faction of Yemen’s separatist Southern Movement seeking to secede by the force of arms.
Sunni-majority Yemen and Shiite-dominated Iran have often regarded each other with mutual suspicion. Sana’a suspects Tehran of supporting rebels of the Shiite Zaidi sect in north Yemen who from 2004 fought six wars with central government forces before signing a truce in February 2010.
Meanwhile, Yemeni security forces on Monday detained a man believed to be an American who appeared on a list of wanted al-Qaeda suspects, a security official told AFP.
The suspect was detained in Ataq, the capital of Shabwa province, a jihadist stronghold in the south of Yemen, the official said.
He spoke in English, said he was a Muslim and had three passports in his possession — two American and one German, he added.
As the man appeared on an interior ministry wanted list, he was handed over to the intelligence services, who transferred the suspect to the capital Sana’a.
The official did not identify the suspect, nor give any other details of the circumstances of his arrest or why he was wanted.
Source: Alarabiya
DEBKAfil ereveals one of the CIA’s most dramatic scoops in many years, and epic disaster for Iran. Our most exclusive Iranian and intelligence sources disclose that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s personal cameraman, Hassan Golkhanban, who defected from his UN entourage in New York on Oct. 1, brought with him an intelligence treasure trove of up-to-date photographs and videos of top Iranian leaders visiting their most sensitive and secret nuclear and missile sites.
The cameraman, who is in his 40s, is staying at an undisclosed address, presumably a CIA safe house under close guard.
He stayed behind when Ahmadinejad, after his UN speech, departed New York with his 140-strong entourage. For some years, Golkhanban worked not just as a news cameraman but personally recorded visits by the Iranian president and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of top-secret nuclear facilities and Revolutionary Guards installations.
When he left Tehran in the president’s party, his luggage was not searched and so he was able to bring out two suitcases packed with precious film and deliver it safely into waiting hands in New York.
The Iranian cameraman has given US intelligence the most complete and updated footage it has ever obtained of the interiors of Iran’s top secret military facilities and various nuclear installations, including some never revealed to nuclear watchdog inspectors. Among them are exclusive interior shots of the Natanz nuclear complex, the Fordo underground enrichment plant, the Parchin military complex and the small Amir-Abad research reactor in Tehran.
Some of the film depicts Revolutionary Guards and military industry chiefs explaining in detail to the president or supreme leader the working of secret equipment on view. Golkhanban recorded their voices.
Our sources also disclose that, in late September, he took the precaution of sending his wife and two children out of Iran on the pretext of a family visit to Turkey. They are most likely on their way to the United States by now.
From his years as a member of the loyal Bassij militia, the cameraman earned the complete trust of Iran’s security services and was able to reach his professional pinnacle as personal photographer for the two most eminent figures in the country, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, with the task of recording their most confidential pursuits.
This was his second visit to New York. The first time, a year ago, US intelligence was able to make contact and persuade him to defect with his stock of priceless photos and film.
Although Golkhanban’s defection to the United States and request for asylum was disclosed to the media some days ago, Tehran has not made any comment.
Source: Debka
Brigadier General Seyyed Massoud Rezah Zavvareh’i, head of the Self-Sufficiency Jihad Center of the Ground Forces, said that in ground combat, “Iran is conducting research, adapting to possible threats… We have many projects under development that we are not launching for security reasons.” Regarding military equipment, Zavvareh’i said, “Surely either our equipment should be at the same level as that of the enemy, or be built to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses. We are monitoring the state-of-the-art technology around the world and trying to adapt ideas to products as soon as possible… If we are secure today, it is because the enemy knows what we have and what our capabilities are.”
Source: Iran Daily Brief
The Editor in Chief of MAGHREB announced the arrest of Imami Nasri, the Managing Director of the newspaper. He announced that representatives from the Prosecutor General’s office arrived at the newspaper and arrested Imami and Nasri, in addition to searching the newspaper’s offices.MAGHREB is a relatively new newspaper in Iran.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Former First Deputy of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Dr. Sadegh Rabbani, said that “Although these (Israeli) threats (to attack Iran) have somehow been mitigated, Iran must take these threats seriously and work towards clarifying its positions. It must also prove that it is not striving to achieve a nuclear military program… Some believe that Iran’s nuclear program had and continues to have military aspects. The critical point is that the same sources that have discussed the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program, i.e. the 16 US intelligence organizations, have stated, since 2003, that there is no intention of military use of the atomic energy in Iran. It must be clarified that Iran is not pursuing military dimensions in its use of nuclear energy.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
The Iranian government Wednesday, Oct. 3, invoked the emergency measures drawn up for the 2009 protests to deploy large-scale Bassij militia forces in the capital and put down the first angry protests against mounting economic hardship and the plummeting rial.
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report two waves of riots swept through Tehran’s trading centers Wednesday: the stores trading gold coins and foreign currency on Fereowsi, Estanbol and Manoucheri Streets, and the celebrated gold jewelry market in the Tehran Bazaar.
Money changers and gold traders attacked police forces and torched their vehicles, playing cat and mouse with the officers after they arrested some of the money changers and accused them of black market dealings.
This was part of the regime’s effort to curtail the steep plunge of the Iranian currency against the dollar. Wednesday, a dollar went for 40,000 rials compared with 37,500 rials Tuesday and 24,000 only a week ago.
Fearing that the troubles Wednesday presaged a general strike shutting down the bazaar for an indefinite period, the authorities decided to draw the line before the unrest spread to the rest of the capital and other cities.
Two teams are now at work to deal with the crisis before it gets out of hand: One is meeting at the office of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; the second, including Interior Minister Mostafa Mohamnmad-Najjar and Revolutionary commander of the Tehran district, is working on ways to rein in the crisis in the presidential bureau of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Both have received intelligence briefings, according to which there was a real risk of the Tehran merchants’ revolt igniting a popular uprising in Tehran that may well encompass the entire country.
The brutal Bassij militia were accordingly sent into Tehran. They were told to spread out early Thursday and force the merchants to open their shops. They were directed to act firmly but cautiously and avoid loss of life. Iran’s rulers are fully aware the any blood spilt at this stage would quickly inflame the masses.
Source: Debka
Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base Commander, Farzad Esmayeeli, announced that future wars will not be like the Iran-Iraq War, but may involve serious and extensive electronic warfare. “Therefore, we needed to have our detection and identification systems equipped with different frequency bands.” Esmaili emphasized that approximately 250 Iranian scientists and researchers are working together and helping the Air Defense Base command. Esmaili further stated that if other countries have state-of-the-art technologies and complex systems, Iran might not be able to achieve the same level of advancement and complexity due to sanctions and threats, but it has made progress in its existential systems to such a degree that it can subdue the enemy. Esmaili discussed regional and foreign threats against Iran, claiming that the underlying reason for these threats is the enemy’s opposition to Iran’s Islamic nature and independence. He further emphasized the air defense establishment’s preparedness against threats is only part of Iran’s defense doctrine and that Iran is prepared to face these threats based on their size. In his statements on a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Esmaili stated, “We promise that if our nuclear facilities are attacked, the enemy will not be left alive.” In September, the IRGC started mass-production of the Ra’d (Thunder) air-defense radar system, in ranges up to 50 km and altitudes of 25 to 27 km. In May 2012, IRGC Aerospace Commander, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said that Iran is mass-producing Ghadir Radar systems which cover areas of over 1,000 km.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Iran would enrich uranium up to 60 percent purity if negotiations with major powers over its nuclear program fail, an Iranian lawmaker said on Tuesday, in comments that may add to Western alarm about Iranian intentions.
Mansour Haqiqatpour, deputy head of parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, said 60 percent enrichment would be to yield fuel for nuclear submarines, which often require uranium refined to high levels.
But it would also take Iran another significant step closer to the 90 percent enrichment level needed to make atomic bombs, which the West suspects is the Islamic state’s ultimate aim. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy only.
Even though it is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and not the parliament – who decides foreign policy issues, Haqiqatpour’s remarks were a sign of Iranian defiance in the face of Western demands to curb sensitive nuclear activity.
Iran now enriches uranium to a 3.5 percent concentration of the fissile isotope U-235 – suitable for nuclear power plants – as well as 20 percent, which it says it needs for a medical research reactor.
Israel, Iran’s arch foe, says Tehran is seeking a nuclear weapons capability and last week warned the Islamic state will be on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon by mid-2013, referring to its growing stock of 20 percent material.
But Western experts believe Iran is still a few years away from being able to assemble a nuclear-armed missile.
Haqiqatpour’s comments, carried by Iran’s English-language Press TV, appeared to be an attempt to show the six world powers involved in diplomacy with Tehran that it has no intention of backing down in the long-running nuclear dispute.
The powers – including the United States, Russia, China and six European heavyweights – want Iran to halt 20 percent enrichment, shut down the underground facility where this is done and ship out the stockpile.
Iran wants the powers to recognize its “right” to refine uranium and also ease sanctions on it. Three rounds of talks since April have failed to make any breakthrough.
“In case our talks with the (six powers) fail to pay off, Iranian youth will master (the technology for) enrichment up to 60 percent to fuel submarines and ocean-going ships,” Haqiqatpour said.
The powers should know that “if these talks continue into next year, Iran cannot guarantee it would keep its enrichment limited to 20 percent. This enrichment is likely to increase to 40 or 50 percent,” he said.
Source: Inside of Iran
