The Iranian regime has appointed one of its most feared prosecutors to interrogate reformists arrested during demonstrations, prompting fears of a brutal crackdown against dissent.
Relatives of several detained protesters have confirmed that the interrogation of prisoners is now being headed by Saaed Mortazavi, a figure known in Iran as “the butcher of the press”. He gained notoriety for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her detention in 2003.
“The leading role of Saeed Mortazavi in the crackdown in Tehran should set off alarm bells for anyone familiar with his record,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch.
As prosecutor-general of Tehran since 2003 and as a judge before that, he ordered the closure of more than 100 newspapers, journals and websites deemed hostile to the Establishment. In 2004 he was behind the detention of more than 20 bloggers and journalists, who were held for long periods of solitary confinement in secret prisons, where they were allegedly coerced into signing false confessions.
Mr Mortazavi has also led a crackdown in Tehran that has seen women arrested for wearing supposedly immodest clothing.
Earlier this year he oversaw the arrest and trial of Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist sentenced to eight years for spying, and his name has appeared on the arrest warrants of prominent reformists rounded up since the unrest started, such as Saeed Hajarian, a close aide of Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former President. With more than 600 people now having been arrested, including dozens of journalists, many fear the worst.
Mr Mortazavi became notorious for his role in the death of Zahra Kazemi while in Iranian custody on July 11, 2003. Kazemi, a freelance photojournalist with dual Iranian-Canadian nationality, was arrested while taking photographs outside Evin prison, Tehran, during an earlier period of reformist unrest in the city, also ruthlessly repressed.
The first news of what happened to Kazemi, 54, came in a statement from Mr Mortazavi, which said that she had died accidentally of a stroke while being interrogated.
Two days later a contradictory statement was issued, saying that she had fallen and hit her head.
On July 16 Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the Vice-President, admitted that Kazemi had died of a fractured skull after being beaten.
Mr Abtahi, who is no longer in office, was also arrested in the round-up of hundreds of dissidents and reformists overseen by Mr Mortazavi last week.
On July 21, Mr Mortazavi was appointed to head the official investigation into Kazemi's death. Reformists protested, saying that he lacked independence as he was involved in the case, and that as prosecutor general it had been his duty to ensure Kazemi's well-being in custody. The appointment went ahead anyway.
Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel prize-winning lawyer who represented Kazemi's family at the subsequent trial of a junior intelligence officer in July 2004, tried to sub-poena Mr Mortazavi to give evidence, but the judge declined. The defendant was cleared of the charge of semi-intentional murder.
There the matter rested until March 2005, when Shahram Azam, an Iranian military doctor, claimed asylum in Canada and revealed that he had examined Kazemi's body after her death. He said he had seen obvious signs of torture, including a fractured skull, broken nose, crushed toe, missing fingernails, broken fingers, marks from flogging, deep scratches on her neck, and severe abdominal bruising. A female nurse who examined Kazemi's genitals - he said he was forbidden to do so as a male doctor - told him there were signs of brutal rape.
Dr Azam's evidence reignited concern at Kazemi's death, with blame coalescing around Mr Mortazavi. The Canadian government continues to maintain that Mr Mortazavi not only ordered Kazemi's arrest but supervised her torture and was present when she was killed.
Reporters without Borders concurs: "It was Mortazavi who was chiefly responsible for Canadian-Iranian press photographer Zahra Kazemi's death."
Mr Mortazavi has repeatedly been accused of human rights abuses in the treatment of other detainees, including journalists who said they received death threats after reporting their alleged torture on Mr Mortazavi's orders while in custody in 2005, and students who say they were mistreated after they were pre-emptively arrested in 2008 because they were suspected of planning protests.
It was seen as a black joke when, in 2006, Iran selected Mr Mortazavi to lead its delegation to a meeting of the the United Nations Human Rights Council. Human Rights Watch appealed unsuccessfully for him to be dropped from the delegation, or for other nations to refuse to meet the Iran delegation while he remained in it.
Mr Mortazavi used his right to address the council to give a speech arguing that all nations had the right to free access to nuclear power, and accusing the council of being a catspaw of Western powers. He urged it to turn its attention to human rights abuses by the West, including bans on Holocaust denial, hostility to the burka, and atrocities committed by America during its War on Terror.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6570089.ece
Roadable airplane. Will it be a hit?
UNDATED - Don't call it a flying car. It is a roadable airplane.
That is what team over at a Boston-based company is saying about their vehicle, The Transition.
Terrafugia is hoping the Transition will be a hit at $194,000 piece.
It is designed to both fly and drive on the same 100-horsepower engine, that runs on super unleaded.
The plane can only be flown by a trained pilot. It also has to land and take off from an airport.
Taking a look at the prototype, the car controls and airplane controls are blended together, from the dash to the pedals on the floor.
The car's steering wheel is a bit higher than most cars, while the stick to fly the plane is between your legs in the driver's seat/cockpit.
The prototype was on display this past Saturday at the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. It caught the eye of many visitors, especially when it opened and closed its wings.
Dietrich, one of the co-founders of Terrafugia, tells WTOP that the company is hoping to start full production in 2011.
Dietrich adds that the prototype has completed a round of flight testing and that they will make some changes to the Transition.
http://wtop.com/?sid=1704354&nid=25
Cities' gun restrictions begin to topple
Atlanta - It's been a disappointing year for American cities seeking to curb violence via tough gun laws.
Since last June, when the US Supreme Court struck down key parts of the District of Columbia's gun-control ordinance, cities have seen the 20,000 local gun regulations enacted over the years begin to slip from their grip, one by one.
Philadelphia's ban on assault weapons and limits on handgun purchases are the latest to succumb, struck down Thursday by a state court. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is expected. In April, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an ordinance in California's Alameda County that banned gun shows, saying the Second Amendment of the US Constitution applies in the states.
For years, strict gun laws in primarily Midwestern, Northeastern, and California cities have created an uneasy tension between the Second Amendment and crime-fighting realities on the ground. Then, the US Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision, affirmed the constitutional right of individual Americans to own handguns, in a case known as District of Columbia v. Heller. In striking down parts of D.C.'s law, it opened the door to court challenges of other cities' ordinances restricting access to certain kinds of guns.
Gun-control laws in "New York and Chicago are next," says Bill Vizzard, a criminologist at California State University at Sacramento. Though the Heller ruling doesn't give a carte blanche right to "have a gun anywhere, under any circumstance," he says, its effect "could still be extensive. We just don't know yet how courts are ultimately going to interpret it."
Post-Heller, US appeals courts have divided over whether the ruling means that other city and state gun-control laws should be invalidated. The US high court could resolve the matter, but legal scholars say it's hard to tell if the justices are interested in setting a broad precedent on the issue.
The two laws in Philadelphia stuck down Thursday were enacted in 2008. One banned assault-style weapons, which are semi-automatic rifles altered to combat specifications. The other restricted an individual's ability to buy handguns to one a month.
Mr. Vizzard characterizes the gun rights movement as a long-term, deliberate, and scholarly based march akin to that of the civil rights movement. But the pro-gun legal effort, he notes, is moving counter to trends that show Americans becoming increasingly distant from their pioneer roots, with gun-rights stalwarts primarily consisting of middle-age and older white men.
That paradox puts more focus on the makeup of courts, including the US Supreme Court.
In January, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, as part of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, was part of a majority that ruled against invoking the Second Amendment in a challenge to New York's ban on nunchaku sticks, a martial arts weapon. The ban stands.
The Pennsylvania high court ruled in 1996 that cities can't preempt the state's gun laws to create their own, but Philadelphia is now hoping that a court with a different makeup will rule differently, says Scott Shields, the lead National Rifle Association attorney.
Not all cities have lost in court. One challenge to Chicago's handgun ban was turned back earlier this month by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Polls show that most Americans believe in the Second Amendment, but most also want stronger gun laws. The percentage of Americans who support an assault-weapons ban, however, has slid several percentage points in the past few years. In 2007, gun groups spent nearly $2 million to lobby Congress; pro-gun control groups spent $60,000.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0620/p02s02-usgn.html
Wyoming Toad Recovery Program
(excerpt)
Description
The US Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming Ecological Services Field Office, has regulatory authority for the recovery of the endangered Wyoming Toad (Bufo baxteri). The Wyoming Toad is endemic to the Laramie Basin of Wyoming. The acquisition of Mortensen Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the enrollment of private lands within the Laramie Basin under the Laramie Rivers Conservation District’s Wyoming Toad Safe Harbor program have recently provided the Wyoming Toad with multiple recovery sites within its historic range. One of the new needs, therefore, of the recovery program is the ability to breed sufficient numbers of healthy toads for release at release sites. The University of Wyoming Department of Zoology and Physiology Red Buttes Environmental Biology Laboratory, provides a world-renowned aquatic laboratory to help ensure the Wyoming toad recovery program meets this need. The result of such captive breeding is expected to benefit both the goals and purpose of the Wyoming Toad recovery program and the University, including, but not limited to: Wyoming Toad related research, teaching, and opportunities to assist on the ground recovery efforts.
http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=48044
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