Ahmadinejad Pushes Iran Toward Internal Crisis
http://antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=8261
by Jim Lobe
Amid growing alarm over extreme views voiced by Iran's new president,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a major U.S.-based international human rights
group called Wednesday for the immediate dismissal of two of his top
cabinet ministers for their involvement in past repression and
atrocities.
In a report titled "Ministers of Murder: Iran's New Security Cabinet,"
Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged that Ahmadinejad's interior minister,
Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi, played a major role in the summary executions
of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 and is also implicated in
the 1998 "serial murders" of five prominent dissidents when he served
in the Information Ministry.
And it said that the new minister of information, Gholamhussein
Mohseni Ezhei, led a campaign in the late 1990s that resulted in the
closure of more than 100 newspapers when he served as prosecutor
general of the Special Court for the Clergy. He is also alleged by
credible sources to have ordered the killing of an influential
political activist, Pirouz Davani, in 1998.
"It is completely unacceptable that men with such records would be
serving in Iran's government," said Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle
East director. "They should be removed from their posts and
investigated for these terrible crimes."
The 16-page report, which is based on a compilation of published
accounts and interviews with Iranian reporters, intellectuals, and
former government officials, comes amid growing international and
domestic concern about the direction of Ahmadinejad's government,
which is dominated by former security and intelligence officials.
Rest of article at:
http://antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=8261
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Jim Lobe, works as Inter Press Service's correspondent in the
Washington, D.C., bureau.
http://www.ipsnews.net/
He has followed the ups and downs of neo-conservatives since well
before their rise in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/neo-cons/index.asp
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