By Mark Mazzetti
Source: The New York Times
 
WASHINGTON — They wake before dawn, with time to exercise, eat and pray before the day’s first class in firing Kalashnikov rifles.

Over the next eight hours, they practice using bazookas or laying roadside bombs, with a break for lunch and mandatory religious instruction.

NCRI – Nine youths received 74 lashes in public each for what the mullahs' judiciary called participating in "public disturbances" in the holy city of Qom, reported the semiofficial news agency Fars on Saturday.

On June 26, mullahs' highest judicial authority, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, says public flogging is an effective criminal deterrent, while imprisonment is a useless punishment.

BY: MAJ. GEN. (RET.) PAUL VALLELY | ALIREZA JAFARZADEH
Source: Middle East Times

KEEP ASHRAF OUT OF IRAN’S HANDS -- The lives of the 3,500 Iranian refugee rebels at Camp Ashraf in Iraq (see location on map) must not be put in jeopardy. The United States has a central role to play, and must prevent the transfer of Ashraf to the Iraqi security forces.

NCRI – Last year's widespread student protests which engulfed all colleges of the university in the southern city of Shiraz and ended with the promises made by the schools appointed officials to address students' demands.

A year later, many of the active students participating in the past demonstrations are facing disciplinary actions by the school's administrators.

The mullahs arrested 20 individuals on charges of sending short telephone messages in support of the Mojahedin in Tehran  

NCRI – The state-run website Jahan quoted a "well informed official" as saying, "A twenty member team was arrested for transmitting short telephone messages in support of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) in northern Tehran."

NCRI – Following Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Tabriz, Qazvin, and Ahwaz bazaar strikes, Kerman joined the rest of the strikers on Thursday.

Most of bazaar in the southern city of Kerman was closed yesterday. It was the latest in the string of protests beginning with added-value tax imposed on Iranian bazaars by the mullahs' regime a week ago.

By Alireza Jafarzadeh
Source: Fox News

In a major setback for the ayatollahs’ regime, widespread strikes by traders and merchants erupted in Iran’s larger cities, reportedly in reaction to a new Value Added Tax (VAT) imposed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration. Witnesses described the unrest as “an expression of protest reminiscent of the days of the Iranian revolution.”

NCRI - The Iranian Resistance condemns visit to Finland by mullahs’ Majlis (parliament) speaker, Revolutionary Guard Ali Larijani, and warns against consequences of such exchanges.

The experience of past three decades indicates that the medieval regime ruling Iran takes advantage of such diplomatic and political exchanges to politically justify its suppressive policies and terrorism and legitimize its rule.