Top Stories
AP: "Iran has activated equipment to enrich uranium more
efficiently in a move that defies the U.N. Security Council, the International
Atomic Energy Agency said Monday. The
Vienna-based nuclear watchdog said Iran has started using a second set of 164
centrifuges linked in a cascade, or string of machines, to enrich uranium to up
to 20 percent at its Natanz pilot fuel enrichment plant. Another cascade there
has been producing uranium enriched to near 20 percent since February." http://bit.ly/bUrSTX
AP: "Iran has dug mass graves in which to bury U.S.
troops in case of any American attack on the country, a commander of the elite
Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday, warning that a military strike would spark an
'extensive war' in the region. The
announcement appears to be a show of bravado after the chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said last week that the U.S. military
has a contingency plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a military strike is
probably a bad idea." http://bit.ly/cXlatD
AFP: "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the
United States remains 'open to engagement' with Iran amid tensions over its
nuclear aims, according to an interview transcript released Sunday. 'We remain open to engagement. But they do
know what they have to do. They have to reassure the international community by
words and actions as to what their nuclear program is intended for,' she said
in an interview with The New York Times." http://bit.ly/cNHjCm
Nuclear Program
AP: "Iran announced plans Monday to get rid of its dollar
and euro reserves in response to the latest U.N. sanctions over its contested
nuclear program. The U.N. Security
Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran in June because of its
refusal to halt uranium enrichment. Tougher unilateral U.S. and European Union
sanctions followed in July." http://bit.ly/aDB40g
AP: "An Iranian official says Americans 'must be dreaming'
if they think they can intimidate Tehran into giving up its nuclear program. Ali Akbar Velayati is an adviser to Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Velayati said Monday during a trip to
Syria that American threats will not deter Iran." http://bit.ly/93nEMx
Human Rights
Radio Farda: "A Baha'i international community official
says the 20-year prison sentences given to seven leaders of Iran's Baha'i
community are 'completely unjust' and based on fabricated charges, RFE/RL's
Radio Farda reports. Fariba Kamalabadi,
Jamaluddin Khanjani, Afif Naeemi, Saeed Rezai, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakoli,
and Vahid Tizfahm were sentenced on August 8 after being found guilty of 'espionage,'
'acting against national security,' and being 'enemies of God.'" http://bit.ly/b4PnR1
Domestic Politics
NYT: "Ms. Fathi is part of a wave of Iranians studying in
the United States in numbers not seen in more than a decade. Since 1979, when
tens of thousands of Iranians studied in the United States, the number of
Iranian students in the United States has taken an almost uninterrupted
nosedive, bottoming out at fewer than 1,700 students in 1999. Since then, the
number of students has begun a slow but steady rise, with more Iranians in the
country now than at any other point since 1994, says the Institute of
International Education in New York." http://nyti.ms/9gFlZL
Culture
Radio Farda: "Prominent Iranian journalist and dissident
Akbar Ganji was today declared a World Press Freedom Hero by the International
Press Institute for his courageous journalistic work in Iran. Ganji spent six years in prison in Iran for a
1999 series of articles on the government's ties to the systematic
assassinations of intellectuals and dissidents in the 1980s and the '90s." http://bit.ly/9ikbhY
Andrew Malcolm in LAT: "Ehsan Khajavi (shown left wearing
his favorite washcloth) warms up before a bodybuilding competition in Tehran,
as a less-energetic colleague takes advantage of the luxury accommodations. Obviously, 19 months of President Obama's
economic sanction threats over nuclear weapons development have virtually
paralyzed normal life in that recalcitrant Middle Eastern country." http://bit.ly/c4o6Tv
Opinion
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in WP: "To see what Shia Islamic
technocrats have done to Iran is tragic. I do not speak only of the violent
clown Ahmedenijad who can look an Ivy-League audience in the eye and say there
are no homosexuals in Iran, which is still a lot better than mowing down his
voters with machine guns. Rather, I speak of a country so suffused with hate
that it can think nothing of producing cartoons, now available on a dedicated
website promoted by the semi-official Fars news agency, denying the holocaust
and portraying Jews as hook-nosed vermin." http://bit.ly/a4UcBO
Jon Lee Anderson in The New Yorker: "One Iranian, who
asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his safety, described the
movement's status. 'Despotism works,' he said. 'That's what this situation
shows. The reformist movement is over. The middle classes aren't willing to die
en masse, and the regime knows this. It has killed and punished just enough
people to send the message of what it is capable of doing. The reformist
leaders and the regime have a kind of unspoken pact: 'Don't organize any more
demonstrations or say anything and we'll leave you alone. Do anything and we'll
arrest you.' It's over." http://bit.ly/dtfURm
Blake Hounshell in Foreign Policy: "One additional
comment. I realize it takes some time to get diplomatic initiatives going, and
the administration is trying to nudge the Iranians toward being productive in
their upcoming talks with EU officials, and perhaps tee something up for the
U.N. General Assembly opening in September. But isn't it a bit early to take the boot off Iran's neck? The U.N.
sanctions were passed on June 9, the United States added its own on July 1,
Europe followed suit with surprisingly tough measures on July 26, and Japan is
bringing up the rear. So they haven't even been fully put in place yet, let
alone implemented." http://bit.ly/9ycv3X
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