ROME 28 June (IPS) On the initiative of a group of Iranian intellectuals and journalists in Italy and in collaboration with "Il Riformista" newspaper, a hundred of leading Italian personalities of all walk announced their support for the Iranian student’s freedom seeking protest movement."On 9 July, all of us we shall be Iranian", wrote Marco Follini, the General Secretary of the "Unione di Centro Democratice"(Union of Democratic Centre),

Iran refuses to agree to nuclear inspections, still open for discussions By: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)

It was no wonder that Saudi Arabia's Teflon spokesman Adel al-Jubeir was racing around Capitol Hill on Thursday: two hearings were held simultaneously that afternoon on Saudi Arabia, one on child abductions, the other on the Saudi money trail that leads to terrorism.
The child abduction hearing couldn't have been more timely given the intense news coverage in the past week of Sara Saga. Sara is a 24-year-old mother of two who had spent just over a week holed up in the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with her children. She escaped from her abusive Saudi husband, and she tried to get her children out of the desert prison, receiving powerful media assistance from the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. Sara, who was kidnapped to the kingdom when she was 6 years old, didn't want her children to grow up under a despotic regime as she had been forced to. But her dream of freedom for her children was sadly not realized.
Two days before the hearings, Sara arrived in the United States _ but without her children. State Department officials in Jeddah _ the Saudis' greatest friends _ allowed a Saudi goon squad to enter the U.S. consulate and bamboozle the terrified young mother into signing an "agreement" whereby she essentially forfeited her parental rights. Even though within hours Sara, upon realizing what she had done, wanted to take back what had happened, the fate of five-year-old Ibrahim and three-year-old Hanin had been sealed. Unless her children fare better than the dozens _ or more _ of other American children held hostage in the Kingdom, they will remain trapped there for years.
Although Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar _ the best friend the State Department, and thus the House of Saud, has in the Senate _ tried to downplay the significance of Saudi Arabia in child abduction cases, it was clear to the standing-room-only audience that the hearing was very much about our so-called ally.
The first witness before the committee was actually a fellow senator, Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who testified about the plight of her constituent, Margaret McClain. Margaret's daughter, Heidi, was kidnapped by her Saudi father in August 1997 _ with the apparent help of the Saudi embassy.
With Heidi, who turns 11 on July 10, almost of marrying age _ some kidnapped American girls have been married off in the Kingdom at age 12 _ Margaret is desperate.
Her visit to see her daughter, which didn't happen until July 2002 after nearly five years had passed, was disastrous.
Margaret's scheduled five-day visit with Heidi was reduced to three hours _ at a McDonald's. Her second visit this year went somewhat better, but Heidi's prospects of reaching freedom don't seem any better.
After Sen. Lincoln finished, assistant Secretary of state for Consular Affairs Maura Harty, whose agency is responsible for handling abduction cases, testified that her office was doing all that it could to help the children. But even though the Saudis received mild criticism from her, the House of Saud has never been pressured by Harty to return the kidnapped American kids.
Although State might not be pressuring the Saudi royal family, Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., certainly are holding a hearing one floor above the session on child abductions, Kyl and Schumer explored the tangled web of Saudi funding for Islamic terrorism. For the Saudis, it was devastating. Despite protests from Saudi-defenders at State and "unnamed" administration officials that the Saudis are helping in the War on Terror, a high-ranking FBI official plainly disagreed.
In testimony that could only be considered damaging for the House of Saud, the FBI's assistant director for counter-terrorism called Saudi Arabia the "epicenter" of terror funding. When asked if that included al-Qaeda, he said, "Yes.”
No amount of money can conceal an increasingly _ glaringly _ obvious reality: the Saudis are not our friends. They not only fund groups who aim to kill us, but they directly imprison Americans, preventing them from leaving the kingdom. The sooner Americans see past the Saudi spin machine, the sooner the Saudi jig will be up.
It is hoped that for 10-year-old Heidi, 5-year-old Ibrahim, 3-year-old Hanin _ and all the other American children trapped in the desert prison _ the truth will set them free. __
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Joel Mowbray (joel@nationalreview.com) is a reporter for National Review and a contributing editor for National Review Online. Readers may write to him at National Review, 215 Lexington Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10016.
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(c) 2003, Joel Mowbray
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services

Iran has announced that it now holds more than 4000 people in jail in the aftermath of a week of violent protests, in which the students demonstrated for freedom and challenged the rule of the Mullahs.
Abdolnabi Namazi, the prosecutor general for Iran has also admitted that, of those arrested, 800 are students and 30 are deemed to be key organizers. The state aparatus claims that only 2000 of those arrested remain in jail.
The news coverage in the West has been sporadic but the level of vitriol from the Bush administration remains strong, with the U.S. president making encouraging remarks addressed to the people of Iran, who are locked in the struggle with the regime.
Four lawmakers, Fatemeh Haqiqatjou, Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeini, Meysam Saeidi and Reza Yousefian, who had initially been voted in on a "reform" ticket began a 48-hour sit-in inside Majlis or the House of Parliament to protest the "violent and illegal continuing arrest of students."

The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has remained quiet and warned of the harshest treatment for the "hooligans" that threaten the regime at the "behest of America". After his speech, a systematic attack by the Hezbollahis was ordered which all but ended the demonstrations and eventually resulted in the arrest of demonstrators.
According to the Associated Press, Allahbadashti, one of few student leaders not imprisoned during the protests, said the establishment had lost its legitimacy through the crackdown.
"The judicial authorities are openly lying to the nation. First, they said few hooligans had been arrested. Now, they confirm the arrest of 800 students. They are buying only greater hatred from the people whose call for change has been ignored," he said.
July 9 marks the anniversary of the 1999 attacks at the Tehran University dormitories by the government and those who support it which resulted in a six day nation wide demonstration and protest.
According to the AP, authorities have banned any marches to commemorate the raid. "An incident took place a few years back and there is no necessity to mark the anniversary," Namazi said, according to the Iran newspaper.
The Television stations which beam programming into Iran from the suburbs of the Golden State have kept up the pressure on the regime by encouraging the masses to continue their resistance. Students have vowed to defy the ban and warned that their accumulated wrath was about to explode.
The voices of opposition to the clerical government of Iran have been divergant up to now but slowly the demands seem to chrystalize around a "referendum" which they all hope would result in the Islamic system of government being voted out. Within months of the overthrow of the previous regime a similar referendum took place. Then the question left little choice to the people. The only question posed in 1979 was: An Islamic Government, Yes or No?
Iranians who felt they wanted the monarchy voted out felt divided on the answer. For many, although they were willing to forego twenty five hundred years of monarchy, the only alternative in the form of a republic based on the rule of the clergy was less than they had hoped for. Although many political groups and ordinary citizens boycotted the vote, the Islamic government won majority support and the rest is history.
It is not clear what types of choices will be placed before the Iranian people this time around should the call for a vote ever come to pass. The protesters have also consistently called for the abolishment of the concept of the Supreme Leader. However, whether the ruling clerics are willing to go along with the public demand is a question which is yet to be answered.

Fatemeh Haqiqatjou, one of 11 female lawmakers in the 190-seat Iranian parliament, second left, speaks with the media as her colleagues, Meysam Saeidi, left, Reza Yousefian, second right, and Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeini, right, listen to her, during a press conference, at the parliament building in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 28, 2003, before their 48-hour sit-in to protest 'continuing illegal arrest' of students. Some 4,000 people were arrested during recent pro-reform protests, according to the Iranian authorities. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Mon Jun 23,12:47 PM ET
Iran said on June 23, 2003 that it would ban demonstrations outside universities during next month's anniversary of the 1999 student unrest after protesters threatened to adopt more violent methods following a government crackdown. Pro-democracy students gather around a fire during a protest July 13, 1999. (Reuters)

The tragic legacy of the Six Day War By: Ahmad Faruqui DANVILLE, Calif. _ On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive war against the combined militaries of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria.