A complex network of individuals and organizations with ties to the clerical regime in Tehran is pressing forward in seeming synchrony to influence the new U.S. administration’s policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. Spearheaded by a de facto partnership between the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other organizations serving as mouthpieces for the mullahs’ party line, the network includes well-known American diplomats, congressional representatives, figures from academia and the think tank world. Among those signatories are two names that are prominent among the Iran Lobby network of influential Washington-based organizations. They are Ambassador Charles ”Chas” W. Freeman, a member of the AIC’s Board of Directors, and retired Lieutenant General Robert G. Gard, one of the Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran’s experts.

Dancing was banned by Islamic regime of Iran soon after 1979 revolution. Aram Bayat, An Iranian dancer and choreographer, reveals the story of her political exile from Iran to Canada and her desire to preserve the tradition of Persian dance while residing in exile since 1988.

Public executions continued throughout the year despite the judiciary chief’s January 30 directive banning them. The government executed minors and juvenile offenders despite an October 15 judicial directive banning the practice.

At the same time that Tehran is accelerating its last march towards the bomb, The US has once again turned to its failed policy of the past thirty years. It is well perceived in Washington that the Obama administration might wait for the result of the Iranian regime’s election circus in next June. Once again, the illusion for the emergence of an Iranian moderate leader will only serve to buy precious time for the Mullahs’ nuclear ambitions.

The government has intensified its attacks on the members of the Baha’i Faith during the past year. There are currently at least 30 Baha’is in detention throughout the country. The Baha’is, numbering inside Iran at about 300,000, are a religious minority that is not recognized under Iranian law.

Branch 101 of Sanandaj Penal Court originally sentenced Razani to a 9-month suspended prison term and 70 lashes. The same court sentenced Kheirabadi to a 4-month suspended sentence and 40 lashes.

ElBaradei : “No, I’m not obviously happy with the degree of co-operation, because there is a number of issues they still need to co-operate with us. Have they done studies in the past? Have they done weaponisation work in the past? They shut off any co-operation with the agency over the past few months.”

Iran has now built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, United Nations officials acknowledged on Thursday.

After 30 years of dealing with the United States and Europe, the Iranian regime has mastered two qualities: How to achieve objectives by bullying and blackmail; and, how to recycle its political refuse and reuse it in the US.Mohammad Khatami’s recent candidacy for presidency illustrates Mullahs masterful art in selling an archaic political system as an example of good governance and indigenous democracy. The United States has been so far one of the prime consumers of this Iranian “democratic” masquerade.

In the last three months, Amnesty International has received reports of waves of arbitrary arrests and harassment, directed particularly against members of Iran’s religious and ethnic minority communities, students, trade unionists and women’s rights activists.