Rooyesh

On Wednesday, the House voted on two amendments to the defense authorization bill that would have restricted the ability of the Bush Administration to launch an attack on Iran. An amendment introduced by Reps. DeFazio, Paul, Hinchey, and Lee would have explicitly blocked military action against Iran without Congressional authorization. I say “explicitly” because under the Constitution, of course, Congress has the sole power to declare war.

But as the amendment authors have noted, Bush Administration officials have tried to claim that the Bush Administration has the authority to attack Iran without Congressional authorization. The amendment failed 136-288, with 100 Democrats voting no. The roll call is here. A narrower amendment offered by Rep. Andrews would have prevented funds authorized in the bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from being obligated or expended to plan a contingency operation in Iran. This amendment also failed, but the vote was much closer: 202-216, with 29 Democrats voting no. The roll call is here. These amendments, which merely reaffirm the warmaking powers of the Congress under the U.S. Constitution, would have passed if most Democrats voted yes. So who were the Democrats who voted no? Let’s start with the Andrews amendment, on the theory that the narrower amendment gives you a sharper read on who the problem kids are. Democrats voting no on the Andrews amendment were: Ackerman, Altmire, Barrow, Bean, Berkley, Bishop (GA), Boren, Boyd (FL), Carney, Cramer, Cuellar, Donnelly, Herseth Sandlin, Holden, Klein (FL), Lampson, Mahoney (FL), Marshall, Melancon, Mitchell, Murtha, Rothman, Salazar, Schwartz, Scott (GA), Sherman, Shuler, Space, Tanner. Murtha?! What’s that about? It was Murtha who originally proposed putting a prohibition against an unauthorized attack on Iran in the supplemental. Murtha co-sponsored DeFazio’s bill, and a similar one offered by Representative Jones. Why did Murtha vote no? Democrats voting no on the DeFazio amendment were: Ackerman, Altmire, Andrews, Baca, Barrow, Bean, Berkley, Berman, Bishop (GA), Bordallo, Boren, Boyd (FL), Boyda (KS), Brown (Corrine), Cardoza, Carney, Castor, Cohen, Cooper, Costa, Cramer, Crowley, Cuellar, Davis (AL), Davis (CA), Davis (Lincoln), DeLauro, Dicks, Donnelly, Edwards, Ellsworth, Emanuel, Etheridge, Giffords, Gordon, Harman, Hastings (FL), Herseth Sandlin, Higgins, Hill, Hinojosa, Hodes, Holden, Hoyer, Israel, Jefferson, Kanjorski, Klein (FL), Lampson, Lantos, Larsen (WA), Levin, Lipinski, Lowey, Mahoney (FL), Marshall, Matheson, McCarthy (NY), McIntyre, Meek (FL), Melancon, Miller (NC), Mitchell, Mollohan, Moore (KS), Murphy (Patrick), Murtha, Ortiz, Perlmutter, Pomeroy, Reyes, Rodriguez, Ross, Ruppersberger, Salazar, Sanchez (Loretta), Sarbanes, Schiff, Scott (GA), Sestak, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Shuler, Skelton, Smith (WA), Snyder, Space, Spratt, Tanner, Tauscher, Taylor, Towns, Udall (CO), Van Hollen, Walz (MN), Wasserman Schultz, Waxman, Weiner, Wexler, Wilson (OH). Murtha also voted against the DeFazio amendment. As I noted last week, Barrow, Berkley, Berman, Cooper, Costa, Hoyer, Lipinski, Ruppersberger, Scott, and Udall voted against the McGovern bill to withdraw from Iraq even though they represent districts that voted for Kerry in 2004. Jefferson is a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus and co-sponsored a bill against attacking Iran offered by Representative Lee. Andrews and Brown (Out of Iraq Caucus) voted against the DeFazio amendment even though they co-sponsored DeFazio’s bill. Towns (Out of Iraq Caucus) voted no although he co-sponsored a similar bill offered by Representative Jones. That information is recorded here. Tauscher has been targeted by Working for Us for not supporting a Democratic agenda, as The Nation has reported. (Cuellar is also mentioned in this article.) Thank and spank, praise and punish, as they say. MoveOn is running radio ads expressing disappointment with Hoyer and Senator Levin for undermining Democratic efforts to end the Iraq war. Send your Representative a note to let him or her know what you think about their votes.

Robert Naiman is Senior Policy Analyst and National Coordinator at Just Foreign Policy.

CommonDreams.org

The Guardian newspaper is reporting Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say. “Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it’s a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces,” a senior US official in Baghdad warned.

“They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government].” The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran’s Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat. “We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus’s report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush's controversial, six-month security "surge" of 30,000 troop reinforcements],” the official said. “Certainly it [the violence] is going to pick up from their side. There is significant latent capability in Iraq, especially Iranian-sponsored capability. They can turn it up whenever they want. You can see that from the pre-positioning that’s been going on and the huge stockpiles of Iranian weapons that we’ve turned up in the last couple of months. The relationships between Iran and groups like al-Qaida are very fluid,” the official said. “It often comes down to individuals, and people constantly move around. For instance, the Sunni Arab so-called resistance groups use Salafi jihadist ideology for their own purposes. But the whole Iran- al-Qaida linkup is very sinister.” Iran has maintained close links to Iraq’s Shia political parties and militias but has previously eschewed collaboration with al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents. US officials now say they have firm evidence that Tehran has switched tack as it senses a chance of victory in Iraq. In a parallel development, they say they also have proof that Iran has reversed its previous policy in Afghanistan and is now supporting and supplying the Taliban’s campaign against US, British and other Nato forces. Tehran’s strategy to discredit the US surge and foment a decisive congressional revolt against Mr Bush is national in scope and not confined to the Shia south, its traditional sphere of influence, the senior official in Baghdad said. It included stepped-up coordination with Shia militias such as Moqtada al-Sadr’s Jaish al-Mahdi as well as Syrian-backed Sunni Arab groups and al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, he added. Iran was also expanding contacts across the board with paramilitary forces and political groups, including Kurdish parties such as the PUK, a US ally. “Their strategy takes into account all these various parties. Iran is playing all these different factions to maximise its future control and maximise US and British difficulties. Their co-conspirator is Syria which is allowing the takfirists [fundamentalist Salafi jihadis] to come across the border,” the official said. Any US decision to retaliate against Iran on its own territory could be taken only at the highest political level in Washington, the official said. But he indicated that American patience was wearing thin. Warning that the US was “absolutely determined” to hit back hard wherever it was challenged by Iranian proxies or agents inside Iraq, he cited the case of five alleged members of the Revolutionary Guard’s al-Quds force detained in Irbil in January. Despite strenuous protests from Tehran, which claims the men are diplomats, they have still not been released. “Tehran is behaving like a racecourse gambler. They’re betting on all the horses in the race, even on people they fundamentally don’t trust,” a senior administration official in Washington said. “They don’t know what the outcome will be in Iraq. So they’re hedging their bets.” The administration official also claimed that notwithstanding recent US and British overtures, Syria was still collaborating closely with Iran’s strategy in Iraq. “80% to 90%” of the foreign jihadis entering Iraq were doing so from Syrian territory, he said. Despite recent diplomatic contacts, and an agreement to hold bilateral talks at ambassadorial level in Baghdad next week, US officials say there has been no let-up in hostile Iranian activities, including continuing support for violence, weapons smuggling and training. “Iran is perpetuating the cycle of sectarian violence through support for extra-judicial killing and murder cells. They bring Iraqi militia members and insurgent groups into Iran for training and then help infiltrate them back into the country. We have plenty of evidence from a variety of sources. There’s no argument about that. That’s just a fact,” the senior official in Baghdad said. In trying to force an American retreat, Iran’s hardline leadership also hoped to bring about a humiliating political and diplomatic defeat for the US that would reduce Washington’s regional influence while increasing Tehran’s own. But if Iran succeeded in “prematurely” driving US and British forces out of Iraq, the likely result would be a “colossal humanitarian disaster” and possible regional war drawing in the Sunni Arab Gulf states, Syria and Turkey, he said. Despite such concerns, or because of them, the US welcomed the chance to talk to Iran, the senior administration official said. “Our agenda starts with force protection in Iraq,” he said. But there were many other Iraq-related issues to be discussed. Recent pressure had shown that Iran’s behaviour could be modified, the official claimed: “Last winter they were literally getting away with murder.” But tougher action by security forces in Iraq against Iranian agents and networks, the dispatch of an additional aircraft carrier group to the Gulf and UN security council resolutions imposing sanctions had given Tehran pause, he said. Washington analysts and commentators predict that Gen Petraeus’s report to the White House and Congress in early September will be a pivotal moment in the history of the four-and-a-half-year war - and a decision to begin a troop drawdown or continue with the surge policy will hinge on the outcome. Most Democrats and many Republicans in Congress believe Iraq is in the grip of a civil war and that there is little that a continuing military presence can achieve. “Political will has already failed. It’s over,” a former Bush administration official said. A senior adviser to Gen Petraeus reported this month that the surge had reduced violence, especially sectarian killings, in the Baghdad area and Sunni-dominated Anbar province. But the adviser admitted that much of the trouble had merely moved elsewhere, “resulting in spikes of activity in Diyala [to the north] and some areas to the south of the capital”. “Overall violence is at about the same level [as when the surge began in February].” Iranian officials flatly deny US and British allegations of involvement in internal violence in Iraq or in attacks on coalition forces. Interviewed in Tehran recently, Mohammad Reza Bagheri, deputy foreign minister for Arab affairs with primary responsibility for Iran’s policy in Iraq, said: “We believe it would be to the benefit of both the occupiers and the Iraqi people that they [the coalition forces] withdraw immediately.”

Fatemeh Rakeii of the Islamic Iran Participation Party said in Tehran on Monday that she plans to form a coalition of women political activists to help women gain all their rights in the political and management arenas. “I am trying to form a coalition of all women political activists who believe in the abolition of discrimination,” Rakeii told the Mehr News Agency.

A coalition of reformist women is also going to be formed for the 2008 parliamentary elections that will try to convey the views and wishes of all women to the “main coalition”, she stated. “We will surely try to obtain a 30 percent share of Majlis seats for women,” she added. On the establishment of a women’s branch of the IIPP, she said that the women’s committee has informed the political office of the party of their views on women’s issues, but due to certain cultural considerations, the office was unable to form a comprehensive link between women throughout the country so the women’s branch will establish the link.

Iran’s outgoing envoy to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, is to represent Tehran in talks next week with Washington over Iraq’s security, state television said on Tuesday. The Iranian envoy is set to meet US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker in Baghdad on May 28 for the highest-level official bilateral encounter between the two arch-foes in three decades.

“Iran’s envoy to the United Nations Javad Zarif will represent Iran in the talks with the United States in Iraq,” state television said on its rolling newsbar. The United States has already said its delegation would be headed by Crocker, but there was no immediate confirmation of Zarif from the Iranian foreign ministry which said the decision had yet to be taken. “It has not been finalised yet,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told AFP, without giving further details. Zarif, a charismatic fluent English speaker who has been the subject of admiring profiles in the US press in recent weeks, has headed Iran’s UN mission since 2002 and his five-year stint is about to end. He represented Iran in UN talks on the future of Afghanistan after the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. US negotiators worked closely with Iranian counterparts to form a new Afghan government. Both sides have said the May 28 talks would be limited to the crisis in Iraq and that Iran’s disputed nuclear programme will not be discussed. The United States accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and wants Tehran to freeze sensitive uranium enrichment operations immediately. Iran says its atomic drive is peaceful and that it has every right to the full fuel cycle. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week that Iran would merely use the talks with US diplomats over Iraq to remind Washington of its “occupiers’ duty” in the conflict-torn country. US-Iran relations have been frozen since 1980 after radical students stormed the American embassy in Tehran in the wake of the country’s Islamic revolution and held its diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Source: Associated Press

An Iranian photographer who was anonymously awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for capturing a chilling image of men before a firing squad was honored Monday at a ceremony for this year’s winners. The identity of Jahangir Razmi had been kept secret out of concern for his safety but was revealed in December by The Wall Street Journal with the photographer’s permission.

Images of men before their executions

“It’s a very nice feeling. I’ve waited for 27 years, and I’ve always been longing for this day,” Razmi said through an interpreter just before the ceremony at Columbia University. The photo depicted a line of 11 blindfolded men executed by a firing squad in 1979, winning the Pulitzer for Spot News Photography — the only time in Pulitzer history that the board gave an anonymous award. Razmi was presented with a certificate and $10,000 in award money. The slender, salt and pepper-haired man did not address the gathering. The mother and sister of two of the men in the photo were present. Joshua Prager, the Journal reporter who revealed Razmi’s identity, also attended. As he was heading back to his table, Monir Nahid, who witnessed the execution of her sons Ahsan, 23 and Shahrivar, 20, tearfully embraced Razmi. Her daughter, Roya Nahid, sitting nearby, also cried openly. Both women are Kurds who now live in Orange County, Calif. The Pulitzer board, in announcing the winners in April, gave special recognition to Razmi for the 1979 photo, taken after Islamic radicals overthrew the shah of Iran. It was published by the Iranian newspaper Ettela’at and later distributed by United Press International. His photo has long been used by critics of Iran’s Islamic government as a symbol of the regime’s brutality.

Source: Associated Press

Associated Press is reporting a jailed Iranian-American academic was charged Monday with setting up a network to overthrow the Islamic establishment, the government announced. Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, has been held at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison since early May. An Intelligence Ministry statement read on state TV said she and the Wilson Center were conspiring to topple the government by setting up a network “against the sovereignty of the country.”

“This is an American designed model with an attractive appearance that seeks the soft-toppling of the country,” the ministry said. Esfandiari’s husband, Shaul Bakhash, said an Intelligence Ministry statement that he received did not indicate that his wife had been formally charged. In detailing the allegation against Esfandiari for the first time, however, the Intelligence Ministry was effectively charging her. Bakhash also denied the allegations against his wife. “Any implication that my wife was involved in a plan in a revolution — soft or otherwise — is totally without foundation,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Maryland. Sharon McCarter, a spokeswoman for the Wilson Center, also called Iran’s claims untrue. Esfandiari came to Iran in December to visit her 93-year-old mother. Later that month, she was prevented from leaving the country when three masked men with knives stole her luggage and passport as she headed to the airport, according to the Wilson Center. In the weeks before her arrest, she was called in for questioning daily on her activities, the center said. Iran has stepped up accusations that the United States trying to use internal critics to destabilize the government. Tensions have mounted between the two countries over Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. allegations that the Iranians have been supporting armed groups in Iraq. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hardline government has also increased restrictions on local non-governmental organizations, particularly women’s rights groups and other critics. The broadcast said Esfandiari confirmed during interrogations that her center “invited Iranians to attend conferences, offered them research projects, scholarships … and tried to lure influential elements and link them to decision-making centers in America.” It was not immediately clear when Esfandiari will stand trial or if the trial will be public. The Intelligence Ministry also accused the Soros Foundation, a New York-based group that promotes democracy, of being involved in the network. Iran’s secret services claimed other unidentified American institutions were working with U.S. intelligence agencies to target other countries, state TV said. A telephone message left with the Soros Foundation was not immediately returned. Esfandiari, who has been living in the U.S. since 1980, has for years brought prominent Iranians to Washington to talk about the situation in Iran. Some have subsequently been detained and questioned back home. Her defenders in the U.S. say some of those she brought to Washington were supporters of the Iranian government who sought to explain Iran’s stance to Americans. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has demanded Esfandiari’s immediate release. Other Iranian-Americans have also been prohibited from leaving Iran in recent months, including journalist Parnaz Azima, who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda. Another American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, disappeared in March after going to Iran’s resort island of Kish, and his whereabouts are unknown. The Wilson Center is a nonpartisan institution established by Congress in 1968 and funded through private and public funds, according to its Web site. It says its Middle East program focuses on several areas, including “analysis of internal domestic and social developments in Iran; the aspiration of the younger generation for reform and expansion of individual liberties.”