Rose water ceremony begins in Kashan

KASHAN, May 20 (MNA) – Rose water annual celebration has just begun in the town of Qamsar in Kashan city, Isfahan province. The ceremony is held for one month usually from early May to early Jun in Kashan which is considered the rose water capital of Iran.

Defiant Iran Says It Won’t Halt Enrichment or Allow Parchin Access

Defiant Iran Says It Won’t Halt Enrichment or Allow Parchin Access

As Iran and world powers prepare for another round of negotiations next month in Moscow, a senior Iranian official said Tehran would not stop enriching uranium and rejected the UN’s repeated demand to visit a military site suspected of hosting nuclear weapons-related activities.

Iran: No reason to stop 20% enrichment

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic would not stop the production of higher-grade uranium. “We have no reason to retreat from producing the 20%, because we need 20% uranium just as much to meet our needs,” the senior official said. [1]

The United Nations Security Council has passed several resolutions since 2006, demanding that Iran suspend “all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.” [2]

Iran’s 20% enriched uranium is of particular concern because it can be converted into weapons-grade material relatively easily and in just a matter of months, experts say. [3]

Handelsblatt: GAUCK WARNT VOR IRAN – „Gefahr für Israel und Europa“

Mit deutlichen Worten hat Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck bei seinem Israel-Besuch vor Iran und dessen Atomprogramm gewarnt. Gauck zeigte sich zudem besorgt ob des immer schlechter werdenden Israel-Bildes in Deutschland.

Tel Aviv Bei seinem ersten offiziellen Besuch in Israel hat Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck vor den Gefahren des iranischen Atompotenzials gewarnt. Er sei wegen der Nuklearpläne des Iran „sehr besorgt“. Diese seien nicht nur für Israel und den Nahen Osten eine Bedrohung. Auch für Europa stelle dieses eine potenzielle Gefahr dar, sagte Gauck bei seinem Treffen mit dem israelischen Staatspräsidenten Schimon Peres.

Deutschlands Politiker würden für die Sicherheit und das Existenzrecht Israels eintreten, sagte Gauck in Jerusalem, wo er von Peres mit militärischen Ehren empfangen worden war. Deutschland und Israel seien „enger verbunden als jemals zuvor“, so Gauck. Er wolle in Israel „ein Zeichen der Solidarität in schweren Zeiten“ setzen.

Über die immer kritischere Haltung vieler Deutscher zum jüdischen Staat äußerte sich Gauck besorgt. „Ohne Umfragen überzubewerten: Als Freund Israels besorgen mich die Ergebnisse dennoch“, antwortete er der Zeitung „Haaretz“ auf eine Frage nach dem sinkenden Ansehen Israels in Deutschland. Eine Umfrage hatte kürzlich ergeben, dass 70 Prozent der Deutschen Israel vorwerfen, seine Interessen ohne Rücksicht auf andere Völker zu verfolgen, und 59 Prozent die israelische Politik für aggressiv halten.

IRAN - Wie der Konflikt um das Atomprogramm eskalierte

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„Aus den Abgründen seiner Geschichte kommt Deutschland eine einzigartige Verantwortung gegenüber Israel zu“, betonte Gauck. „Wachsende Ressentiments gegenüber Israel sind zwar nicht allein ein deutsches Phänomen, aber wir Deutsche sollten uns besonders kritisch fragen: In welchem Geist urteilen wir über israelische Politik? Doch bitte nur im Geist der Freundschaft. Da ist durchaus auch Platz für Kritik, nicht aber für Vorurteil“, betonte der Bundespräsident.

Zu der Kritik von Nobelpreisträger Günther Grass an der israelischen Iran-Politik sagte Gauck, die Meinung des Schriftstellers entspreche in keiner Weise der offiziellen Haltung Deutschlands. Grass habe seine „persönliche Meinung“ geäußert, sagte Gauck in seinem Interview mit Haaretz.

Vollständiger Artikel

Iran Letter: An Imprisoned Blogger Writes the Supreme Leader

Hossein Ronaghi MalekiHossein Ronaghi Maleki, who blogs as Babak Khorramdin, was arrested in December 2009 for his dissemination of anti-blocking software for Iranian Internet users.

Ronaghi Maleki spent ten months in solitary confinement inside the Revolutionary Guards’ Ward 2A at Evin Prison. He was sentenced in October 2010 to 15 years in prison for “membership in the Iran Proxy internet group”, propaganda against the regime, insulting the Supreme Leader, and insulting the President.

Kaspersky Lab and ITU Research Reveals New Advanced Cyber Threat – update

Kaspersky Lab announces the discovery of a highly sophisticated malicious program that is actively being used as a cyber weapon attacking entities in several countries. The complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious program exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date.

The malware was discovered by Kaspersky Lab’s experts during an investigation prompted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The malicious program, detected as Worm.Win32.Flame by Kaspersky Lab’s security products, is designed to carry out cyber espionage. It can steal valuable information, including but not limited to computer display contents, information about targeted systems, stored files, contact data and even audio conversations.

The independent research was initiated by ITU and Kaspersky Lab after a series of incidents with another, still unknown, destructive malware program – codenamed Wiper – which deleted data on a number of computers in the Western Asia region. This particular malware is yet to be discovered, but during the analysis of these incidents, Kaspersky Lab’s experts, in coordination with ITU, came across a new type of malware, now known as Flame. Preliminary findings indicate that this malware has been “in the wild” for more than two years – since March 2010. Due to its extreme complexity, plus the targeted nature of the attacks, no security software detected it.

Although the features of Flame differ compared with those of previous notable cyber weapons such as Duqu and Stuxnet, the geography of attacks, use of specific software vulnerabilities, and the fact that only selected computers are being targeted all indicate that Flame belongs to the same category of super-cyberweapons.
Commenting on uncovering Flame, Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, said: “The risk of cyber warfare has been one of the most serious topics in the field of information security for several years now. Stuxnet and Duqu belonged to a single chain of attacks, which raised cyberwar-related concerns worldwide. The Flame malware looks to be another phase in this war, and it’s important to understand that such cyber weapons can easily be used against any country. Unlike with conventional warfare, the more developed countries are actually the most vulnerable in this case.”

The primary purpose of Flame appears to be cyber espionage, by stealing information from infected machines. Such information is then sent to a network of command-and-control servers located in many different parts of the world. The diverse nature of the stolen information, which can include documents, screenshots, audio recordings and interception of network traffic, makes it one of the most advanced and complete attack-toolkits ever discovered. The exact infection vector has still to be revealed, but it is already clear that Flame has the ability to replicate over a local network using several methods, including the same printer vulnerability and USB infection method exploited by Stuxnet.

Meet ‘Flame’, The Massive Spy Malware Infiltrating Iranian Computers

Map showing the number and geographical location of Flame infections detected by Kaspersky Lab on customer machines. Courtesy of Kaspersky

 

A massive, highly sophisticated piece of malware has been newly found infecting systems in Iran and elsewhere and is believed to be part of a well-coordinated, ongoing, state-run cyberespionage operation.

The malware, discovered by Russia-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, is an espionage toolkit that has been infecting targeted systems in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, the Israeli Occupied Territories and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa for at least two years.

Dubbed “Flame” by Kaspersky, the malicious code dwarfs Stuxnet in size – the groundbreaking infrastructure-sabotaging malware that is believed to have wreaked havoc on Iran’s nuclear program in 2009 and 2010. Although Flame has both a different purpose and composition than Stuxnet, and appears to have been written by different programmers, its complexity, the geographic scope of its infections and its behavior indicate strongly that a nation-state is behind Flame, rather than common cyber-criminals — marking it as yet another tool in the growing arsenal of cyberweaponry.

The researchers say that Flame may be part of a parallel project created by contractors who were hired by the same nation-state team that was behind Stuxnet and its sister malware, DuQu.

Writer-translator to serve out prison sentence

Manijeh Najm Eraghi

Manijeh Najm Eraghi, an Iranian writer and translator, was arrested on Sunday to serve out a one-year sentence.

Najm Eraghi first had been arrested in September of 2010 and was released on bail after three days.

Her one-year sentence was issued on the charges of membership in the Iranian Writers’ Association, mailing announcements from the writers’ association and participating in gatherings for the assassinated writers Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jaffar Pouyandeh.

On May 21, Fariborz Rais Dana, an Iranian economist and another member of the Iranian Writers’ Association was arrested. Rais Dana was also sentenced to one year in jail for membership in the writers’ association and for giving interviews to the foreign media about the impact of government-subsidy restructuring in Iran.

The Iranian Writers’ Association has been working for the rights of writers for over four decades, and its history is one of constant resistance and pressure from the government.

Source: Radio Zamaneh

Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran

New IAEA Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program

On May 25, 2012, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency issued a new report about Iran’s non-compliance with U.N. resolutions on its controversial nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that it is “unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

But the IAEA did note that progress was made during talks in Tehran on May 21 between IAEA Secretary General Amano and chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili on ways to clarify outstanding issues. The report urges Tehran now to engage with the substance of those issues and to provide access to Parchin, a military site where recent satellite imagery has indicated “intensive activities.” Iran has blocked IAEA inspectors from Parchin despite repeated requests to inspect it.

The following is a link to the full report. IAEA Safeguards Report on Iran

Guards Set Back in Majles amid Charges They Intervened in Election

by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI

Press Roundup provides a selected summary of news from the Farsi and Arabic press and excerpts where the source is in English. 

7:15 a.m. IRDT, 9 Khordad/May 29 The election Monday of Ali Larijani, speaker of the Eighth Majles, as the interim speaker for the newly installed Ninth Majles has significant implications for the ongoing power struggle within the Islamic Republic’s regime. As described here, the parliamentary elections that were held on March 2 and May 4 largely came down to a contest between two fundamentalist factions, Jebheh Mottahed-e Osoolgarayaan (United Front of Principlists) and Jebheh Paaydaari Enghlelaab-e Eslaami (Stability Front of the Islamic Revolution). The United Front’s spiritual leaders are Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, chairman of the Assembly of Experts, and his deputy, former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi. The United Front was supported by the traditional conservatives, such as Hezb-e Motalefeh Eslaami (Islamic Coalition Party). The Stability Front, led by the ultra-conservative cleric Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, was backed by groups closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as former and current supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Though some candidates appeared on both factions’ lists, the two groups competed fiercely. It was widely reported — see, for example, here and here – that the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia that they control distributed leaflets against many of the United Front candidates and urged everyone to vote for the Stability Front.After the elections, Majles deputy and Ahmadinejad critic Ali Motahari accused the Guards, commonly referred to as Sepah in Farsi, of inappropriate involvement in the elections. In a speech to parliament, Motahari said, “One of the weaknesses of the elections was that the intervention of Sepah in the elections in many districts was clear, and many candidates among those who were elected or not elected confirm this. Sepah was seriously supporting its own candidates. The intervention of Sepah in the elections is a danger to both Sepah itself and the Islamic Revolution.” Another Majles deputy, Mostafa Kavakebian, also declared in the Majles that the Guards had intervened in the elections and that he has documents which prove it; he demanded that parliament form a commission to look into the matter. (Kavakebian, who used to present himself as a reformist, ran this year as a principlist and failed to win reelection.) There was also a claim that Larijani — Motahari’s brother-in-law — had submitted a secret report to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about the Guards’ intervention in the elections before Motahari went public with his accusations. Larijani, who in the 1980s was deputy Guard chief for ideological matters, is supported by the United Front. In his speech, Motahari said, “The highest officials of the nezaam [the political system] are aware of the intervention, and are not happy about it,” a possible reference to the claimed Larijani report. Both the Majles speaker and his brother, judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani, have implicitly confirmed Motahari’s allegations.

The Guards and Stability Front supporters and members denied the allegations and accused Motahari of a variety of transgressions. Mojtaba Zolnoor, former deputy to Khamenei’s representative to the Guards, called the allegations “absolute lies” and declared, “Motahari is saying the same things that the enemy’s mass media such as the BBC and CNN are saying.” Asking of Motahari, “How can he allow himself to enter issues that are for the highest officials of the nezaam?” Zolnoor demanded that the Guards take him to court. Lieutenant Brigadier General Ramazan Sharif, head of the Guards’ public relations office, issued a statement that denied the accusations and said that the Guards reserve the right to take Motahari to court. Parviz Soroori, a Majles deputy and former Guard commander said, “If Sepah intervened in the elections, then how come Motahari was reelected?” Hardline cleric Hamid Rasaei, a leading member of the Stability Front, accused Motahari of “insulting the president and Sepah.” In response, Motahari explained in another Majles speech that he did not mean that all the top Guard commanders had intervened in the elections, but “if Sepah continues this” he will reveal the documents that prove his claims.

On Sunday, Melli-Mazhabi, a nationalist-religious website, reported on the existence of a tape recording of speeches by two Guard officers that clearly indicate the Guards did indeed intervene in the elections. The tapeincludes speeches, given on May 3 — the day before the second round of voting — by the cleric Hojjatinia, Khamenei’s representative to Khatam ol-Anbiya, the Guards’ engineering arm, and a commander Seraj, a Guard political ideologue, or hadian, at the shrine of Shah Abdolazim in Rey on Tehran’s southern edge, in which they spoke about the elections and the Guards’ positions.In his speech, Seraj claimed that there is a triangle of high officials working against Khamenei: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a “Mr. X,” widely believed to be Ali Larijani. The goal of the political triangle, according to Seraj, is to force Khamenei to drink the “poison” of negotiating with the United States regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Following are some of Seraj’s most important claims:

(a) Fearing the reaction of the nezaam, former President Mohammad Khatami and some of the reformists had to vote in the Majles elections.

(b) Both the “sedition” — the Green Movement — and the “perverted current” — the circle around Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff and senior confidant — believed that less than 40 percent of the people would vote in the elections and, thus, they did not take part. The perverted current wanted to use the low voter turnout it anticipated to pressure Khamenei to negotiate with the United States.

(c) The perverted current led the November attack on the British Embassy.

(d) The perverted current believes that Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council, will run for president next year. Therefore, they are trying to get rid of him.

(e) A group inside Iran that has penetrated the nezaam has told the United States and Europe to impose sanctions against Iran. Seraj did not specify who is in this group.

(f) Both Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani advocate negotiations with the United States. To establish closer relations with Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad has begun participating in the meetings of the Expediency Discernment Council, which Rafsanjani chairs. (Ahmadinejad had not participated in the council’s meetings for many years.)

(g) If the triangle of Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad, and Mr. X takes shape, the pressure on Khamenei to negotiate with the United States will grow. But if Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, father-in-law of Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, becomes the next Majles speaker, the triangle will not form. (Mojtaba is believed to be close to some of the top Guard commanders.)

(h) When Haddad Adel was speaker of the Seventh Majles (2004-08), parliament had good relations with the Guards, whereas the Eighth Majles (2008-12) did not, something that concerns Khamenei. (In essence, Seraj was declaring the Guards’ support for Haddad Adel’s candidacy for Majles speaker.)

(i) If Larijani is again elected speaker, the tension between the Majles and the government will increase, because “Larijani’s tone and language regarding the government are not appropriate.”

In announcing his candidacy for the speakership, Haddad Adel declared, “Even if only I vote for me, I will run out of duty.” He has been praising Khamenei and his son-in-law Mojtaba profusely, declaring that Khamenei is the deputy to Imam Mahdi and that after him Mojtaba will be the deputy. The Stability Front has thrown its support behind him, with Mesbah Yazdi supporting him publicly. It was reported that Khamenei traveled to Qom unofficially and met with Mesbah Yazdi, presumably to discuss the issue.

Interestingly, there appears to be a rift within the Guards regarding the Majles and Haddad Adel. In a blog post titled “With Reluctance I Prefer Larijani to Haddad Adel,” Hamed Talebi, who leads the political division of Fars, the news agency that is controlled by a Guard foundation,wrote, “God forbid that more power, field [of activity], and leadership positions are given to those around Haddad Adel. If Larijani is elected the speaker [again], we know how we should handle it, but what can we say, given the track record of and our experience with the friends of Haddad Adel and the people that are close to him?”

The Ninth Majles finally began its work on Saturday. A large number of high officials took part in the ceremony for the opening session. One significant absentee was Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Guard chief who almost invariably takes part in such ceremonies. His absence was widely interpreted as indicating the Guards’ displeasure with Larijani. After the ceremony ended, parliament’s first order of business Monday was the election of an interim leadership team. Khabar Online, which is close to Larijani, reported that there was a considerable amount of horse trading.Larjani ultimately received 173 votes to Haddad Adel’s 100 for the post of interim speaker. His election and that of two other major United Front figures, Mohammad Reza Bahonar and Mohammad Hassan Abootorabifard, to leadership positions represent major setbacks for the Guards’ top commanders in Iran’s power struggle. The results may even be interpreted as a setback for Khamenei himself.

Kazem Jalali, secretary of the United Front’s parliamentary group, said that the election of the speaker indicated “the weight of each faction within the Majles.” He was referring to the claims by many Stability Front members that their faction has the upper hand in the legislature. Will the election of Larijani as interim speaker result in the Guards — and possibly Khamenei himself — pressuring the Majles deputies to change their votes when the election of a permanent speaker is held? Time will tell.

Source: Tehran Bureau

Bahrain Court Sentences Eight For Ties With Iran

Source: RFE/RL

A Bahrain court has sentenced eight people to prison terms of up to 15 years on charges of plotting with suspected Iranian agents to topple the kingdom’s ruling system.

Persian Gulf countries

Defense lawyer Mohsin al-Alawi says six received 15-year sentences.

He said three were sentenced in absentia, including the son of jailed activist Hassan Mushaima, who is appealing a life sentence imposed in 2011 for links to opposition protests in Manama.

Bahraini prosecutors repeatedly claim that Iran encourages and assists Bahrain’s opposition.

Bahrain and its Gulf allies, led by Saudi Arabia, have issued strongly worded statements demanding Iran stop “meddling” in their affairs.

Bahrain also plans to remove its broadcasts from Arabsat, a regional television service, on June 1 to protest what it calls a “hostile media campaign” by Iranian television.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Bahrain News Agency
Source: RFE/RL,

Iran may import 1bn cubic meters of potable water from Tajikistan

Source: Mehr News Agency, Tehran

Iran is in talks with Tajikistan to import as much as one billion cubic meters of potable water, Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou said on Sunday.

The volume to be imported has not been yet finalized, but it is anticipated that one billion cubic meters of water will be imported, Namjou added.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the 9th meeting of the Iran-Tajikistan Joint Economic Commission, which opened in Tehran on Sunday.

The Iranian energy minister also stated that Iran, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan have agreed to create a joint water and electricity corridor.

To connect the national electricity grids of the three countries, a 500KV transmission line should be established, he said, adding that the exact amount of investment needed and related technical considerations are being studied.

In April, the Iranian ambassador to Tajikistan, Ali-Asghar Sherdoost, said that during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent trip of to Tajikistan, the presidents of Iran, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding authorizing the construction of a highway from Iran to Afghanistan and Tajikistan and from there to China.

“If this highway is built, it will be possible to have a pipeline transporting oil and gas from Iran and transporting water from Tajikistan to Iran, Afghanistan, and some countries in the Persian Gulf. We also discussed the construction of a petroleum refinery, which is in need here in Tajikistan, and for which Iran has the technology”, he added.

Trade between Iran and Tajikistan exceeded $500 million during Iranian calendar year 1390 (March 2011-March 2012).

Ahmadinejad Calls For Support From Conservatives In Parliament

Source: RFE/RL

Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has urged parliament to stand with him against “evil ones” who he says have encircled the country. Ahmadinejad also asked legislators not to intervene in his areas of authority.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad Speaking in Parliament (file photo)

Ahmadinejad made the plea to the opening session of Iran’s newly elected parliament.

His speech is seen as an appeal to conservative opponents who crushed Ahmadinejad’s allies in an election that ended earlier this month.

Ahmadinejad and Iran’s conservatives share similar views on foreign policy but disagree on economic issues.

The president lost the support of conservatives when he was perceived to challenge the supremacy of top Iranian clerics last year.

Ahmadinejad also is under pressure from Western countries that accuse Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization has said Tehran has “no reason” to suspend its enrichment of uranium to the 20 percent level — a key demand of world powers engaging Iran in talks.

Fereydoon Abbasi Davani says Iran is only producing as much 20 percent uranium as it needs for fuel — “no more, no less.”

His remarks follow a UN report saying Iran enriched uranium to a higher-than-expected level — with traces found slightly higher than 20 percent.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, downplayed that finding as a “technical issue.”

Uranium enriched to 90 percent is used for nuclear weapons.

Uranium enriched to 20 percent, used for nuclear fuel, is considered just a few steps short of enrichment for weapons.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and Fars

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Source: RFE/RL,

Audio of the Day

The website Melimazhabi posts what it asserts is a leaked audio from speeches on 3 May by a Revolutionary Guards commander and the Supreme Leader’s representative to Khatam al-Anbia, the Guards’ engineering section.

In the claimed audio, Commander Seraj and Hojetoleslam Hojjati-Nia assert that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, President Ahmadinejad, and an unnamed senior politician — thought to be Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani — are urging the Supreme Leader “to drink hemlock” and make concessions in the nuclear talks. Seraj says the President flooded the Bazaar with cheap money ahead of the Baghdad discussions, to sway opinion.

Seraj, the political officer of the Guards, continues with allegations that countries such as Pakistan as well as a domestic “deviant current” and reformists of trying to “topple” the Parliamentary elections, although they failed because of the “brave turnout” of the Iranian people.

The commander adds that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel had planned bomb attacks in Tehran, Mashhad, Zahedan, and Khuzestan during the first round of the elections but were unsuccessful.

http://melimazhabi.com/wp-content/themes/melimazhabi/player/player.swf

Ayatollah Alamolhoda: Fatwa not enough; practical measures must be taken to eliminate apostates

Friday prayer leader in Mashhad Ayatollah Alamolhoda claimed that treatment of anyone harming and insulting clerics must be planned, saying that in order to execute a person considered an apostate, a fatwa is not enough; planned, practical measures must be taken. Alamolhoda said that an all-out front has formed against Islam that holds wealth, power and the media, and we must not act in a way that encourages others to join this front against Iran. Alamolhoda further claims that treatment of apostates and anyone harming the sanctity of Islam must be done in a manner that will not encourage expansion of this anti-Islamic front. A fatwa, therefore is not enough. Planned, correct and vehement measures must be adopted.

Source: Iran Daily Brief

Rezension: Asef Bayat, Life as Politics 2010

Asef Bayat, Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East, Stanford University Press: Stanford 2010. 310 Seiten. USD 21,95 (deutsche Ausgabe mit einem neuen Beitrag zu den Frühlingsrevolutionen in Vorbereitung beim Verlag Assoziation A, Berlin, http://www.assoziation-a.de/vor/Leben_als_Politik.htm). In: Sozial.Geschichte Online 7 (2012), 195-302

Rezension: http://duepublico.uni-duisburg-essen.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-30301/Sozial_Geschichte_Online_7_2012.pdf

Asef Bayats Buch enthält einen Schlüssel zu den Frühlingsrevolutionen im Maghreb und im Nahen Osten, vielleicht gerade weil es in den zehn Jahren vor dieser Revolution geschrieben und am Vorabend der Revolution veröffentlicht wurde. Es ist ein soziologisches Buch, aber gut lesbar. Ausgehend von einem im Jahre 2000 veröffentlichten Aufsatz, „From ‘Dangerous Classes’ to ‘Quiet Rebels’“, entfaltet Bayat eine Perspektive, in der nicht die Ereignisgeschichte, nicht die Politik, nicht die Organisationen und nicht die Bewegungen im Vordergrund stehen, sondern eine Präsenz der Unterschichten, die in langen Wellen zu unaufhaltsamen und den repressiven Regimes nicht zugänglichen Veränderungen führt. Die Frühlingsrevolutionen waren ein Ausdruck davon und eine Zwischenstation, aber nicht der Endpunkt dieser Entwicklungen.

Bayat ist Professor für Soziologie und Middle East Studies an der Universität von Illinois; zuvor hielt er eine entsprechende Professur in Leiden inne. Geboren 1954 in einem iranischen Dorf, sechzig Kilometer entfernt von Teheran, verbrachte er seine Schulzeit und die ersten Studienjahre in Teheran, wo er sich in der studentischen Linken engagierte und unter anderem auch Vorlesungen Ali Shariatis besuchte. Der Wechsel nach England, ein Jahr vor der iranischen Revolution, war für ihn ein Schock: Erfüllt mit linken Gewissheiten sah er sich vor die Notwendigkeit gestellt, alles noch einmal neu zu lernen. Und kurz darauf, bei Besuchen im revolutionären Teheran, erlebte er, dass die dortigen Vorgänge in der Terminologie der westlichen Sozialwissenschaften nicht recht zu beschreiben waren. Ab Mitte der 1980er Jahre forschte und lehrte Bayat an verschiedenen US-amerikanischen Universitäten, wobei er sich

Roundup of Today’s International News 28/05/12

IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

After Talks Falter, Iran Says It Won’t Halt Uranium Work
Iran’s nuclear chief, reversing the country’s previous statements, said on state television on Sunday that the country would not halt its production of higher-grade uranium, suggesting that the Iranian government was veering back to a much harder line after talks in Baghdad with the West last week ended badly.

U.N. inspectors find high-grade uranium traces in Iran
The IAEA report said environmental samples taken in February at Iran’s Fordow facility – buried deep beneath rock and soil to protect it from air strikes – showed the presence of particles with enrichment levels of up to 27 percent. That is above the 20 percent enrichment level Iran has declared at the site, and takes it across the line from low-enriched to high-enriched uranium.

Iran has enough uranium for five nuclear weapons, claims US thinktank
Iran had produced almost 6.2 tonnes of uranium enriched to a level of 3.5% since it began the work in 2007 – some of which has subsequently been further processed into higher-grade material. This equates to nearly 750 kg more than in the previous IAEA report issued in February, and the thinktank said Iran’s monthly production had risen by roughly a third.

Spiegel: Computerschädling Flame – Experten enttarnen neue Cyberwaffe

AP

Computer-Tastatur: Flame kann das Mikrofon einschalten und Chats aufzeichnen

IT-Experten haben einen neuen Computerschädling identifiziert, der noch gefährlicher sein könnte als Stuxnet: Der Virus Flame soll bereits seit Jahren aktiv sein und hochsensible Daten sammeln – Tausende Rechner im Nahen Osten, in Iran und Nordafrika sind demnach befallen.

Hamburg – Über den möglichen Urheber der Schadsoftware wollten die Experten des russischen Antivirus-Unternehmens Kaspersky Lab keine Angaben machen. Gegenüber der “BBC” teilten die Wissenschaftler mit, Flame sei mindestens seit August 2010 im Einsatz und wahrscheinlich von einem Staat initiiert worden.

Tausende Rechner sollen infiziert sein, vorwiegend im Nahen Osten: Experten für IT-Sicherheit haben einen neuen, hochkomplexen Computer-Virus entdeckt. Die Flame getaufte Schadsoftware sei bereits seit bis zu fünf Jahren aktiv, teilte die auf Anti-Viren-Programme spezialisierte russische Firma Kaspersky Lab am Montag mit.Die Experten von Kaspersky stehen bei der Entschlüsselung des Virus nach eigenen Angaben noch am Anfang, auch die International Telecommunication Union (ITU), eine Unterorganisation der Uno, ist an den Untersuchungen beteiligt. Sollten sich die Angaben bestätigen, wäre Flame nach Stuxnet und Duqu die dritte entdeckte Cyber-Waffe, die im großen Stil verbreitet wurde. Flame habe 20 Mal mehr Code als Stuxnet, mit dem iranische Anlagen zur Urananreicherung angegriffen und Zentrifugen zerstört wurden, hieß es.

Laut Kaspersky kann Flame Daten sammeln, die Einstellungen des befallenen Computers verändern, das Mikrofon einschalten, um Gespräche mitzuschneiden, Screen-Shots machen und Chat-Konversationen aufzeichnen. Betroffen seien bis zu 5000 Computer, vor allem von Unternehmen und Bildungseinrichtungen in Iran,Israel, in Palästina, im Sudan und Syrien.