BRIEF ON IRAN, No. 287 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Friday, November 3, 1995 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 Iranians in Scandinavia Met with Mrs. Rajavi, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 2 Today, more than 1,500 Iranian residing in Norway and representatives of Iranian women, professionals and athletes from Sweden and Denmark met with the Resistance's President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. Iranians across the Scandinavian countries attended in this meeting.... Channel One Television of Norway which broadcasted the reports from this gathering said: "This was the largest gathering ever of Iranians in Norway." Iran Upgrading Its Chemical Weapons, Associated Press, November 2 Iran is upgrading and expanding its chemical weapons arsenal and production facilities, a senior CIA official told a Senate committee Wednesday. "Iran is spending large sums of money on long-term capital improvements to its chemical weapons program," said Gordon C. Oehler, director of the CIA's Nonproliferation Center. Oehler testified before the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations on the second day of hearings on the spread of weapons of mass destruction. "Proliferation of these weapons is being undertaken by some of the largest and smallest, richest and poorest countries, led by some of the most reactionary and unstable regimes," said Oehler.... Because chemical and biological weapons are relatively easy to produce and often use material available on the open market, Oehler said, they are particularly attractive to terrorists. Iranian Navy Steps Up Exercises in Gulf, Jane's Defence Weekly, October 28 The Iranian Navy will conduct 38 exercises in the Persian Gulf over the next five months and will hold joint maneuvers with Pakistan and "another neighboring country," commander Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani has announced.... The Iranian Navy, operating under a single command with the naval arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps since December 1991, has been conducting an intensive series of exercises over the last two-three years.... ... In 1993, the total number of naval exercises was 36. That increased by 50 percent last year.... Political Activist Murdered as Drug Smuggler, Iran Zamin News Agency, October 30 According to Iran Zamin, in a recent incident the mullahs' Revolutionary Guards murdered a resistance activist in Kaveh Avenue of the city of Isfahan (central Iran). The victim, Seyed Mehdi Hashemi, a 25 year-old machinist, was a long time supporter of Mujahedin. Realizing that he was being followed by the guards he tried to escape, but he was shot and instantly killed. The family and relatives of this young man gathered at the place of the incident to protest against this crime. But the regime, in an attempt to silence the anger of the people against it accused him of being a drug smuggler. Iran Bookstore Damaged in Arson Attack, Reuters, November 2 TEHRAN - A Tehran bookshop has been damaged in an arson attack, the second of its kind in the Iranian capital since August, a government official said on Thursday. Unidentified arsonists broke the glass storefront of the bookshop Attar, near Tehran University, early on Tuesday and threw in an incendiary device, setting parts of the store ablaze, the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.... In August, a bookstore and offices of Morgh-e Amin publishers in northern Tehran were attacked after Moslem militants condemned a book it brought out as immoral. The case, in which no one has been arrested, drew wide publicity after newspapers and publishers criticized militant Hizbollah groups for taking the law into their own hands. But senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati supported the attack against Morgh-e Amin, saying the people and Hizbollah groups should stop moral corruption if the authorities failed to do so. Hizbollah groups have increased their activities in the past few months by holding demonstrations and vowed to fight Western cultural invasion as reflected in books, music, clothing and social behavior. Hizbollah, literally "party of God," in a domestic Iranian context means zealous Islamic militants who provide grassroots support for the government.