The Mojahedin Command inside Iran announced that it has obtained a top secret document from inside the mullahs'
jails in Tehran and will soon place it at the disposal of the international authorities as well as human rights organizations.

The Mojahedin Command inside Iran reported that the spine-chilling document is a video recording which shows the henchmen of the mullahs' regime gouging out the eyes of a prisoner and amputating the hands of several individuals in Tehran's Qasr Prison during Khomeini's rule. The amputations were carried out with a specially-designed machine.

The state-owned Qods daily reported on October 17, 1999, that a prisoner's eyes had been gouged out. Kayhan reported on June 22, 1999, that the hands of four persons had been amputated. Qods reported on June 23 that the hands of 15 prisoners had been amputated. The daily Salaam announced the amputation of the hands of three persons on July 5, 1999, and Qods reported on January 20, 2000, that the hands of 7 persons were amputated.
 

Mullahs' "Morals" Squads Crack Down, Reuters, February 29

TEHRAN - Iran's morals squads have gone on the warpath against illegal satellite dishes and free-spirited young people in what is widely seen as a hardline response to the recent elections.

In a series of seemingly coordinated actions in the days since the February 18 polls, police and units of the Islamic Basij militia have stepped up raids on apartment blocks in search of satellite receivers.

They have also hauled young men and women from restaurants, cafes and shopping malls, accusing them of violating the strict Islamic dress codes or fraternizing with the opposite sex. The raids have been centered in affluent north Tehran.

There was an open call for revenge attacks on Tehran's middle class.

"Our brothers in the Basij and police...must increase their moral, social and cultural enforcement and carry out Islamic punishments precisely, so the middle class feels fed up and believes the reformists are incompetent," proclaimed the hardline Jebheh magazine.

"This violence must not be turned into a perpetual daily event but must take place on special days with full force, swiftly and surely."
 

Iran Election Short of Epochal Change, The Washington Times, February 29

[Excerpts from an article by Amos Perlmutter, a professor of political science and sociology at American University
and editor of the Journal of Strategic Studies.]

In unusually bold language, the Clinton administration expressed euphoria over the serious gains made by the reformers in the Iranian parliament. A State Department spokesman had this to say: "By all indications this [election] is an event of historic proportion." In its last year in office, the administration, after a confused policy toward Iran, now touts the victory of the reformers as if it were its own. The Iranian reform should be examined more carefully before such bold statements are issued...
Is... Khatami a Nikita Khruschev or a Mikhail Gorbachev? In my view, neither one. Khruschev's anti-Stalin speech has
been hailed ever since as the beginning of the end of the Stalinist regime. The reformers made no such condemnation of the ruling clergy. Mr. Khatami and the reformers do not have a Gorbachev, either, since they have not challenged the existing reactionary, theocratic ruling class... The forces of totalitarianism and reactionary theologians are still in place... Some writers who claim expertise on Iran should be reminded there are 100-plus member states of the United Nations that have held elections and continue to be authoritarian regimes.

... Real reform means the establishment of a secular rule of law in Iran and the end of the Islamic republic... Reform in Iran means a transformation of the system from Islamic fundamentalism to secularism. Reform in Iran means the end of the politicized clergy and their return to the mosques and seminaries. This has not taken place... It is not yet time to celebrate the Iranian election as "an event of historic proportions."

Since his election two years ago, Mr. Khatami has sided more often with the reactionaries, not seriously challenging the regime of Iran's supreme leader...Khamenei, who, with his colleagues, runs the country tyrannically in both foreign and domestic affairs... Concerning foreign affairs, none of the reformers have offered ideas for how to devise an alternative foreign
policy to that of the theocrats and, in his two years in office, neither has Mr. Khatami... This is still a regime dedicated to terror, to upsetting peace in the Middle East and to eventually resuming the war in the Persian Gulf.

There is nothing historic about Iran's foreign and security policies. ... We should not be deceived into believing that the
reformers have made a dent in Iran's anti-American and terrorist orientations and dedication to the destabilization of the Middle East and the Gulf. The Iranian election is not the beginning of any serious reform. Not until we see that they have succeeded in
changing the nature and structure of the Islamic fundamentalist theocracy will it be time to celebrate.

Back to Brief on Iran