BRIEF ON IRAN No. 560 Tuesday, December 17, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Washington, DC Mullahs' "Concrete and Specific" Plan to Kill Rushdie, Reuters, December 16 COPENHAGEN - Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen declined on Monday to comment on media reports that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had warned him of a possible attempt to kill British author Salman Rushdie during a visit to Copenhagen last month.... Quoting sources in Washington, the Copenhagen daily Politiken on Monday said the CIA had tipped off the Danish government that Iran had "concrete and specific" plans to kill Rushdie in Copenhagen on November 14, when he was due to receive a European Union literary prize. According to these sources, the Danish government took the CIA warning "very seriously," the newspaper wrote. Similar reports were published in Monday's Los Angeles Times, which said U.S. government officials confirmed them.... Tehran Upgrades Hezbollah's Arsenal with Missiles..., Los Angeles Times, December 13 Iran is now flying at least three 747 jumbo cargo jest of supplies monthly to Syria for shipment to Lebanon's Hezbollah forces in an effort to upgrade the arms capabilities of Tehran's allies, according to Pentagon and U.S. intelligence sources. The shipments are primarily weapons... The weapons include the Russian-made Saggar antitank missile that Hezbollah has begun using... Israeli intelligence has told the United States that the shipments also contain modified long-range Katyusha rockets with a reach of 25 miles that could be launched from Lebanon as far south as Haifa, Israel's third-largest city.... Indeed, Iran has been singled out by American officials for obstructing a Mideast peace and fomenting terrorism, including a possible role in an attack in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. service personnel in June.... Clinton administration is now deeply concerned about the military intentions of Iran and its allies on the only active front line in the Middle East conflict.... Iran's behind-the-scenes role in obstructing the peace process has grown this year, intelligence officials said... ... More Reasons to Isolate Iran, CNN, December 13 In a related report regarding Los Angeles Times article on escalation of weapon shipment to Hezbollah by the mullahs, CNN added: Some investigators believe that Iran, Syria, Lebanon connection may have also played a crucial role in the bombing of a U.S. military complex in Saudi Arabia last spring, in which 19 Americans were killed. The Israeli official describes the escalation of Iran's weapons supplies to Hezbollah as a substantial and serious change. Combined with suspicions of Iranian involvement in the Khobar Towers bombing. It could give U.S. officials more political ammunition in their efforts to secure worldwide isolation of Iran. Mullahs' Intolerable Repression, USA Today, December 12 TEHRAN - More than 17 years after a revolution overthrew Iran's pro-Western monarch, this is a difficult country to pigeonhole.... ... "For the first time, my husband and I are thinking of leaving this place," says an Iranian writer... "We have never felt this bad. We have never felt this scared." Other Iranians, who for obvious reasons also asked not to be named, spoke fearfully of the fate of two writers among 134 who two years ago signed an open letter protesting government censorship. A translator, Ghaffar Hosseini, was found dead in his Tehran apartment last month... Another singer, Faraj Sarkouhi, the editor of a weekly newspaper called Friday, has disappeared. A Tehran newspaper said he bought a ticket last month to fly to Germany but never arrived.... Yet for all the regime's efforts to suppress dissent, challenges keep building up. The government's actions have the air of the Dutch boy sticking his finger in the dike. Iran is an increasingly porous society. Outside information floods in from shortwave radio, cable television and, increasingly, the Internet.... Two Iranian Asylum Seekers in Turkey in Danger of Deportation, Iran Zamin News Agency, December 13 Two Iranian asylum seekers were arrested Thursday, December 12, by the Turkish police in Aksaray and are being deported to Iran, reports from Turkey say. Both asylum seekers, Mohammad Reza Moghimi and Mansour Sabetghadam, have obvious records of sympathy and activity in support of the Iranian Resistance. The National Council of Resistance of Iran in a statement condemned the arrest of these asylum seekers and called on international human rights organizations to secure their release and facilitate their transfer to a third country.