Foreign Reporting and Analysis Since April 2005China Confidential
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Iran Planning Missile Strikes on US Cities
Foreign Confidential....
A growing number of intelligence experts believe Iran intends to attack the United States in the event of a war with the US or Israel over Iran's nuclear program.
The clerical fascist regime will probably use foreign-flagged cargo ships to fire Scud or Shahab-3 missiles at US cities. The missiles can be fired from concealed, containerized launching systems atop the ships.
There is no known defense against this kind of seagoing strike, the capability of which, North Korea has helped Iran to develop.
Bush Criticizes China's Human Rights Record
US President George Bush travels Thursday to China, where he will attend the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games Friday.
Before leaving for Beijing, Bush is scheduled to give a speech in Thailand criticizing China's human rights record.
Excerpts of the speech released by the White House quote the President as saying the United States "stands in firm opposition" to China's detention of political, human rights and religious activists.
China is the final stop on Bush's three-nation tour of Asia. He flew to Thailand Wednesday from South Korea.
Praised Thailand
In Thailand, the President praised Washington's 175-year-old relationship with that nation, pledging greater cooperation on security and health issues.
Speaking in Bangkok, Bush said the US has contributed $35 million to Thailand's fight against HIV/AIDS, and is helping efforts to control bird flu.
He also thanked Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej for being an ally in the fight against terrorism. Thailand has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. It also hosts Cobra Gold, one of the largest multilateral military training exercises in Southeast Asia.
Bush said the US and Thailand are cooperating to help the people of Burma, which was devastated by a powerful cyclone. He said they want to see prosperity and freedom restored to military-ruled Burma. The president is also expected to discuss Burma in his speech Thursday in Thailand.
Also Thursday, the President's wife, Laura, will visit a refugee camp and clinic along the Thai-Burmese border.VOA: Iran Corruption Exposed
An unprecedented and highly sensitive investigative report prepared for Iran's Parliament has detailed instances of corruption throughout the country's judiciary. But in an apparent political tug-of-war between rival Iranian leaders, the nearly 200-page document has been suppressed and never released to the public. VOA has obtained a copy and Payam Yazdian of VOA's Persian News Network reports exclusively on the document's findings. 
Iran's constitution authorizes the country's parliament to conduct investigations and, based on this right, several Iranian parliamentary deputies in 2004 requested a probe of alleged corruption by Iran's judiciary. Investigators working for the parliament's Judicial Inquiry and Review Committee, many of them deputies themselves, subsequently reported a variety of corrupt practices.
According to the report, these range from cases of judicial officials conspiring with convicted drug dealers who received reduced jail sentences or were allowed to escape custody, to instances of apparent profiteering by judicial officials who collaborated with private businesses for personal gain.
Among the cases cited in the extensive report: justice officials appeared to have turned a blind eye to a problem-plagued construction project through the mountains north of the Iranian capital, Tehran --- an expansion of the Kandovan tunnel that was originally built 70 years ago. The report notes construction took 10 years and came in way over budget. The report says there were no legal consequences.
$100 Million Missing
In another scandal, the report cites the case of Almakaseb, a large state-run trading company headed by Vaez Tabasi, son of one of Iran's most important religious leaders. The company was partially privatized seven years ago in a process that the report says was not transparent and that $100 million went unaccounted for. Several courts heard cases related to the financial losses, but the company and its officials were not penalized.
The Parliamentary probe also found judges were allowed to purchase new Iranian Khodro automobiles at the reduced rates normally charged for vehicles that came off the assembly lines with defects. The auto manufacturer then allowed the sub-standard cars to be sold to the public at full, new car prices.
Drug Dealer Escapes
In another case, the report says a drug dealer named Ali Azadi was arrested with 95 kilograms of opium and 40 kilos of morphine in his possession. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but after two years was granted a short prison furlough and never returned. Judiciary officials did not inform the police of his escape. Six months later the dealer was arrested again, according to the report, and this time with 300 kilograms of opium.
The report even documents such problems as the sale of university entrance exam questions, a practice that allowed unqualified students to secure coveted university admission slots. The report found that none of those identified as perpetrators ever faced punishment. In one instance, a judge ruled that the exam questions that were sold were fake, thereby allowing a suspect to go free.
The names of top Iranian political and religious leaders allegedly linked to corruption are not mentioned in the report obtained by VOA, which Iranian sources say appears to have been heavily edited to protect reputations.
However, Abbas Palizdar, who has been identified in state-controlled Iranian media as a key investigator for the parliamentary probe, discussed the findings in speeches at Iranian universities earlier this year. He asserted that some of the country's top leaders were implicated.
Council of Guardians
Those mentioned by Palizdar include Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, a member of the powerful Council of Guardians; Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Nategh Noori, head of special investigations in the office of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; former Iranian President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; Mohammad Rafighdoost, former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards; and former intelligence minister Hojatoleslam Ali Fallahian.
Palizdar was detained in June after speaking out and has not been heard from since. Some members of the investigative committee have denied knowing him even though state-controlled Iranian news organizations have confirmed his official involvement in the probe.
Ahmadinejad Supporter
Palizdar had previously been identified publicly as a supporter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had in the past threatened to expose officials involved in corruption.
But Western experts on Iran interpreted this as a challenge to conservative backers of supreme leader Khamenei, and before Palizdar's allegations could spread, he and several associates were arrested and the parliamentary report suppressed.
Palizdar had claimed those who were corrupt were protected by the head of Iran's Judicial Branch.
The report says Judiciary officials did not respond to the requests of the committee, ignoring most of the 300 questions the panel submitted.
Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, the head of the Judiciary since 1999, wrote a letter to the Investigative Committee, claiming security officials within the Judiciary did not have to answer to parliament.
Corruption Index
The problem of corruption in Iran has been studied in the West. In 2007, the international private watchdog group, Transparency International, ranked Iran 131st out of 179 countries in its corruption index. The conservative Heritage Foundation, a U.S. based policy study group, asserted that in Iran: Corruption is perceived as widespread. Graft is extensive and viewed as growing worse by the day. The anti-corruption agency has less than 1,000 inspectors to monitor the 2.3 million full-time civil servants and numerous government contractors who control most of Iran's economy.
The U.S. State Department has also described official corruption in Iran as persistent. In its 2007 Human Rights report, the State Department stated: Corruption was a problem in the police forces and revolutionary courts and to a lesser extent in the criminal and civil courts.
Meanwhile, in Iran, a top official recently has publicly praised the Judiciary for its role in fighting corruption. According to Iran's official IRNA news agency, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, speaking to thousands of worshipers at the central campus of Tehran University, voiced appreciation for the Judiciary, the Intelligence Ministry and the Disciplinary Forces for arresting, putting to trial, and executing murderers, rapists and drug traffickers. He was quoted as saying: This decisive move was praiseworthy, since the roots of corruption need to be dried.
Thursday, 7 August 2008
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