In its latest issue, the weekly Mojahed, official organ of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, published the names of 25 editors and managers of major state controlled media who in the past 19 years have been among Revolutionary Guards commanders, religious judges, and members of the notorious secret police, VEVAK, or involved in the torture and execution of political prisoners.

Most of these editors head pro-Khatami newspapers. A number of the more well-known individuals are as follows:

Fereidoon Verdinejad, head of the official news agency, IRNA, is a Guards Corps Brigadier General;

Hamid Jalai-pour, managing editor of Jame'eh daily (now banned), was the secretary for Kurdistan province's security council and commander of Guards Corps forces in Naqadeh, northwest Iran;

Mohsen Sazgaran, Director General of Jame'eh, is a GC Brig. Gen.;

Mullah Mohammad Moussavi Kho'einiha, managing editor of Salaam daily, was the Revolutionary Prosecutor in the 1980s and responsible for the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988;

Abbas Abdi, editor of Salaam daily, is an ex-hostage-taker and deputy to the Revolutionary Prosecutor in the 1980s;

Ali Rabi'i, editor of Kar-o Kargar daily, head of the Guards Corps' Intelligence Department, Deputy Minister of Intelligence until 1994, and current executive secretary for the Supreme National Security Council;

Mohammad Soltanifar, managing editor of Iran News daily, was head of the Guards Corps' para-military Bassij force in Tehran province;

Mohsen Armin, editor in chief of Asr-e ma weekly, was member of the Guards Corps' general command in Lebanon and personally based in that country;

Ali Mohammad Mahdavi, manager for Gozaresh-e Rouz (banned), was one of GC's intelligence commanders until 1985;

Hossein Shari'atmadari, editor of Kayhan; Massih Mohajeri, managing editor of Jomhouri Islami; and Mehdi Nassiri, manager of Sobh weekly, are former commanders of the Guards Corps. All three publications are pro-Khamenei. Ali Larijani, head of the state radio and television organization, was also a GC Brigadier General and a GC commander.

This list shows that claims about an opening in the media and respect for freedom of expression during Khatami's tenure are but propaganda by some Western circles who aim to legitimize dealings and trade with the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship.
 

More on Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, Iran Zamin News Agency, August 17

Yesterday, NCR's Committee on Counter-terrorism released more information on recent bombings in Africa. The Committee said:

In 1995, the Qods Force formed a clandestine organization in Sudan, called "the Corps of Islam." It was comprised of fundamentalist Muslims in Africa. The Qods Force is one of the five forces of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, responsible for organizing and running the Iranian clerical regime's terrorist activities outside Iran. Overseen by the Qods Force, nationals of different African countries including Tanzania and Kenya, receive training in the Corps of Islam for terrorist operations.

The religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran expanded its campaign in 1991 to organize fundamentalist networks in various countries in Africa. In summer 1991, the regime's Supreme National Security Council met for this purpose and ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study the issue and prepare the necessary grounds.

A confidential report of one of the meetings held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reads in part: "From the standpoint of religious and cultural activities, Muslims in Kenya and Tanzania are virgin soil, offering us a fertile ground. These two countries, especially Tanzania, can be a very suitable extra-territorial base for the Islamic Republic in the Horn of Africa." The report adds: "The situation of Muslims, who comprise a majority in Tanzania and a strong minority in Kenya, as well as pervasive poverty have created favorable grounds for expanding the foothold of the Islamic Republic in Africa."

In February 1993, Sarrafpour, the official responsible for African affairs in the Qods Force, wrote in a report: "The Qods Force has set up very active bases in Tanzania, Mali and Sudan and enjoys good local cooperation."

Parallel to the expansion of the regime's activities in African countries, the mullahs' Foreign Ministry dispatched in a short span of time in 1996 and 1997, four of its veteran diplomat-terrorists as ambassadors and cultural attach's to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. They were Kazem Tabatabai, Ali Sagha'ian, Ahmad Dargahi and Mohammad-Javad Taskhiri.

The state controlled daily Jomhouri Islami, openly expressed support in its August 12 editorial for the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and wrote: "Everyone must be in search of ways to institutionalize the struggle against America, for whom the titles of the century's mother of corruption and Great Satan remain quite fitting."

 
Back to Brief on Iran