حزب مردم بلوچستان  Balochistan People’s Party  بلوچستانءِ اُستمانءِ گــَل

Attempts Seen As Model for New Attacks On U.S. Soil

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 3, 2007; http://www.washingtonpost.com

The next terrorist assault on the United States is likely to come through relatively unsophisticated, near-simultaneous attacks -- similar to those attempted in Britain over the weekend -- designed more to provoke widespread fear and panic than to cause major losses of life, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials believe.

Such attacks require minimal expertise and training and are difficult to prevent. Although British investigators have not claimed al-Qaeda involvement in the latest incidents, officials here said they may constitute a "hybrid" phenomenon, in which al-Qaeda inspires and guides local groups from afar but establishes no visible operational or logistical links.

The connection, several officials said, is made through a growing network of al-Qaeda intermediaries and affiliates who are far removed from the organization's leadership.
"What is a direct link?" asked one counterterrorism official. "Is it couriers? Messengers?" U.S. officials "from very senior folks" on down, he said, are watching as the British work to reconstruct the attacks and trace their origin.

In an internal memo titled "Staying on Target," CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told agency employees yesterday that "events in Great Britain since last Friday serve as a reminder -- if we ever needed one -- that this remains a dangerous world and that our work in defending America is as important as ever."
The incidents in England and Scotland, counterterrorism officials said, coincide with recent U.S. intelligence indicating stepped-up movement of money and people from al-Qaeda camps in the ungoverned tribal areas of Pakistan, near the Afghan border. Several senior U.S. military officials were sharply critical yesterday of what they saw as the Pakistani government's unwillingness to move forcefully against the camps and the U.S. administration's failure to press Pakistan harder to curtail what one called a terrorist "growth industry."
Al-Qaeda's "presence in the tribal areas has not been this secure since before 9/11," one senior U.S. military intelligence official wrote in an e-mail.
Hayden's memo appeared designed to rally his troops in the face of the morale-deadening criticism directed at the intelligence community in recent years. Accused of incompetence for failing to warn of the September 2001 attacks and for providing faulty intelligence on Iraq, it is also charged with overzealous anti-terrorism efforts that see al-Qaeda operatives under every bed.
"Even as we deal with the current threat," Hayden's memo said, "it is hard not to notice the growing debates on both sides of the Atlantic about certain aspects of the war on terrorism: Guantanamo, habeas corpus, detentions, renditions, electronic surveillance, etc. For us, though, the choices are pretty clear: We will use all of our lawful authorities to defend America and her friends.
"Some say elements of the current debate reflect the thinking of a pre-9/11 world," the short memo concluded. "Don't worry about that. Keep your eye on our objective. For all of us at CIA, today's date is clear: It's always September 12th."

After the events in Britain, U.S. officials have tried to strike a balance between insisting that "we do not currently have any specific threat information that is credible about a particular attack in the United States," as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday, and asking Americans to keep a careful watch on their surroundings.
Although the Department of Homeland Security did not raise the threat level, Chertoff and other officials said that security and surveillance have been increased in several ways, including the placement of more U.S. marshals on flights to Britain and other European destinations.
Officials said the weekend's events had only heightened existing concerns. "It's not just what happened in England and Scotland that has us watching," another counterterrorism official said. "We have had some concerns for some time."
On Jan. 22, the Holland Tunnel in New York was evacuated for several hours after a suspicious package was spotted after an accident. Hazardous-materials teams were brought in, and the package was blown up by a robot before the tunnel was reopened.
In Georgetown on Saturday night, some restaurants and nightclubs were evacuated after firefighters spotted an abandoned backpack on a sidewalk. And on Sunday afternoon, police set up checkpoints on the access route into Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, stopping some cars and trucks for inspection.

A senior administration official acknowledged that recent arrests of groups charged with plotting terrorist attacks in Miami and at Fort Dix, N.J., and John F. Kennedy International Airport, as well as the arrest of a man charged with planning to detonate an explosive device in an Illinois shopping mall, have "come under a great deal of criticism for not being serious."
But the official saw some vindication for U.S. law enforcement in the British plots. "Remember that the FBI and the law enforcement community have done important work in nipping these cells in the bud so that we don't get to the stage of cars pouring into an airport terminal," the official said.
Saying that the British incidents "certainly appeared to be al-Qaeda-inspired," the official said they were more of a "reminder" of an ongoing threat in this country than an indication that similar attacks are imminent here.
Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert at Georgetown University, said he considered al-Qaeda involvement likely in the British incidents and disagreed with those who labeled the attacks amateurish. "They didn't work, but I think of all the al-Qaeda plots we've seen, their sophistication is in their simplicity. They used available materials. Where they tripped up is in the detonation of the devices. That's a trickier business."
The alleged perpetrators under arrest in Britain -- two of them physicians -- pose a challenge for both British and U.S. intelligence officials. The doctors' names did not appear on any U.S. list of people with suspected terrorist ties, U.S. officials said.

Al-Qaeda has made a "strategic investment" in Britain in recent years, Hoffman said, creating ties to an infrastructure of individuals and groups that are difficult to fit into an intelligence profile.
By drawing from a large reservoir of potential operatives, Hoffman said, al-Qaeda is attempting to "break any attempt at profiles, and also to demonstrate the diversity of their movement."
Staff writers Thomas E. Ricks and John Solomon contributed to this report.
 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'ISLAMOPHOBIA' IDIOCY

Amir Taheri
July 3, 2007 -- LONDON
http://www.nypost.com


THE car-bomb/suicide-terror operations in London and Glasgow should have provided a fresh opportunity for reminding everyone, especially Muslims in Britain, that terrorism in the name of Islam still poses a major threat to public peace and safety. Yet this is not what is happening.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown keeps repeating that the attacks have nothing to do with Islam - but, at the same time, keeps inviting "Muslim community leaders" to Downing Street to discuss how to prevent attacks. If the attacks have nothing to do with Islam, why invite Muslim "leaders" rather than Buddhist monks?

Brown hasn't deemed fit to tell it like it is: that Muslims in Britain, indeed all over the world, must come out and condemn terrorism in unambiguous terms.
Instead, we are hearing that the attacks may have been prompted by "Muslim bitterness" about Salman Rushdie's knighting, the latest addition to the Islamist litany of woes. Some "moderate community leaders," like a certain Baroness Uddin, drop hints that Muslims have "foreign-policy issues" that might make them unhappy. The barely coded message: Unless Britain reshapes its foreign policy to please al Qaeda, it must expect to be attacked.

The most that "the moderate community leaders" concede is a "yes, but" position: Yes, it is not quite right to blow up innocent people - but, then again, we must understand how anger at the policies of the government of those same innocent people might prompt some Muslim youths to want to slaughter everyone.

Worse still, Ken Livingstone, London's quixotic leftist mayor, has shifted the blame from the terrorists to the British at large, who are supposedly tempted by "Islamophobia."

Thus, Livingstone works his way into a logical impasse: Do we dislike them because they want to kill us, or do they want to kill us because we dislike them? He implies that the main blame must lie with the British government and its U.S. allies, especially President Bush, who has declared war on terror rather than seeking to cuddle it.

But can one accuse Britain of "Islamophobia"? The answer is an emphatic no.

Britain and a few other Western democracies are the only places on earth where Muslims of all persuasions can practice their faith in full freedom. A thick directory of Muslim institutions in Britain lists more than 300 different sects - most of them banned and persecuted in every Muslim country on earth.

A Shiite Muslim can't build a mosque in Cairo; his Sunni brother can't have a mosque of his own in Tehran. Editions of the Koran printed in Egypt or Saudi Arabia are seized as contraband in Iran; Egypt and most other Muslim nations in turn ban the import of Korans printed in Iran. The works of a majority of Muslim writers and philosophers are banned in most Muslim countries.
In Britain, all mosques are allowed; no Muslim author or philosopher is banned. More importantly, rival Muslim sects do not massacre each other, as is the case in half a dozen Muslim-majority countries.
The only time that the British media practice self-censorship is when an item might be seen as remotely anti-Islamic. Every British publisher has turned down at least one book proposal for fear of hurting Muslim feelings. "Taking Muslim sensibilities into account" is also the reason given for the cancellation of some art exhibitions and the selection of works on display in others.

Even the most rabid anti-West and pro-terror Islamist clerics are granted visas to come to the United Kingdom and spread their message of hatred (at times, as guests of Mayor Livingstone and his friends). Hamas and Hezbollah are strongly present in Britain; the Islamic Liberation Party, banned in all Muslim countries, has its headquarters in London.

Pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah militants are featured on British TV almost every evening. The Islamic Republic of Iran's "Supreme Guide," Ali Khamenei, maintains a "personal office" in London with twice as many personnel as Iran's official embassy.

The latest "Islamophobia" charges come as Prime Minister Brown has appointed two Muslims to his ministerial team, the first in U.K. history.

The terrorists who tried to kill people in London and Glasgow are the same ones killing people in Baghdad and Karachi. They are the same who killed tens of thousands of Egyptians and perhaps as many as a quarter-million Algerians over the decades. They are motivated not by any religious grievance but by an insatiable appetite for political power. They want to seize control of societies, break them into submission and impose on every individual a mad tyranny of terror in the name of God.

If Islam is the religion of peace, then the real Islamphobes are those who planted the car bombs in London and Glasgow - not the poor Brits who are censoring themselves and curbing their hard-won freedoms in order not to offend "the Muslim community."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japanese banks put pressure on Iran

By Guy Dinmore in Washington and David Pilling in Tokyo

Published: June 24 2007; http://www.ft.com; The Financial Times Limited 2007

Japan’s private sector has responded to signals from Washington by adding to financial pressure on Iran – restricting loans and rejecting an Iranian request to pay for oil imports in currencies other than dollars, banking and official sources say.

A senior banker said three banks – Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho, and Sumitomo Mitsui – had informed the Iranian authorities in April that they would not conduct new business in Iran.

This development places Japanese banks “ahead” of many European counterparts, which have reduced dollar transactions with Iran, but are generally still willing to do business in euros.

The banker, who asked not to be named, said the banks’ action followed pressure from Washington and reflected a hardening line towards Iran by Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister.

The banker and a Japanese energy official said in April, Iran had proposed to Japanese trading houses that they pay for Iranian oil in non-dollar currencies.

This may reflect Iran’s concerns about the vulnerability of its dollar assets to a freeze by US authorities and its increasing difficulty in conducting international transactions in dollars.

Trading companies declined to stop paying in dollars after consulting the Japanese government, the banker said. The energy official denied government influence, saying it was a private sector matter.

The US Treasury is at the forefront of Washington’s efforts to pressure Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons programme and support for “terrorist” groups.

Iran, which rejects the claims, says sanctions will not stop its civilian nuclear programme. Analysts argue over the likely effect of sanctions, saying that Iran’s revenues are swelled by high oil prices and the ability of Chinese enterprises to fill the gap in areas outside big energy projects.

Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, says US “outreach” to the international private sector is paying dividends. In recent months the US has stopped two Iranian banks – Sepah and Saderat – from carrying out dollar transactions with other banks.

“Most of the world’s top financial institutions have now dramatically reduced their Iranian business or stopped it altogether. For the most part, they are not legally required to take these steps but have decided, as a matter of prudence and integrity, that they do not want to be the bankers for such a regime,” Mr Paulson said this month. Transactions with Iran, even in non-dollar currencies, carried risk.

Tokyo Mitsubishi confirmed it had stopped a part of its Iranian businesses, but would not say which. Mizuho said it was doing “very very little” Iranian business, but would not confirm any decision to stop business. It said it ran potential Iranian business past Japan’s foreign ministry.

The foreign ministry confirmed unofficial contact between business and the ministry over Iran, but said it had no authority other than “moral suasion”.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iran curses Ahmadinejad over petrol rationing

By Colin Freeman in Teheran, Sunday Telegraph
02/07/200; http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The petitions kiosk outside President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's home in Teheran, set up as a hotline to Iran's self-described "humblest servant", receives all kinds of requests.

Yet amid the pleas for help with debts and joblessness, and tussles with Iran's byzantine bureaucracy, there is one letter that the men at the counter particularly remember.

"A woman asked if Mr Ahmadinejad could find her a good husband," said one proudly. "It shows how popular he is - you would only request something like that if you really felt he'd become part of your family."

In this particular case, the president's office replied that it was beyond his powers - a rare admission of defeat from a leader whose personality cult rivals that of Iran's "supreme leader", Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Yet last week, two years after his election to power on a promise to help Iran's downtrodden masses, Mr Ahmadinejad, 49, finally learnt the downside of the demagogic approach - namely, that running a country of 69 million inhabitants as a one-man band involves taking blame as well as credit.

The issue was not over his notorious threats to "wipe Israel off the map", his defiance on Iran's nuclear programme, nor his puritanical desire to return to the early days of the Islamic revolution. Instead, the man who considers himself on a divine mission was floundering because of his inability to minister to one of his flock's most basic needs: petrol.

On Tuesday, a proclamation from his palace suddenly imposed a fuel ration of three litres (0.6 gallons) a day, a move designed to stockpile supplies because of fears of United Nations sanctions.

Within hours his name was being cursed, as motorists clashed with riot police at fuel stations and set garage forecourts ablaze.

"Without fuel I cannot earn," said the driver of a battered saloon car who had finally reached the head of a long queue for petrol. He was a shopkeeper who, like many residents of Teheran, supplements a meagre income by moonlighting as a cabbie. "Ahmadinejad is an ass. This is not what he promised the ordinary man."

The protests, the most open sign of discontent with Mr Ahmadinejad's rule since he took office in 2005, were accompanied by a stream of text-messaged jokes, which often serve as a vent for Iranians' suppressed frustrations. "On the orders of President Ahmadinejad," read one, "those who are short of petrol can have a ride on the 17 million donkeys who voted for him."

For a man whose key election promise was to "put the oil income on people's tables", there could scarcely be a more symbolic failure than the imposition of fuel rationing. Heavily state-subsidised, petrol normally costs less than bottled drinking water at about 1,000 rials (5p) a litre, and most Iranians regard it with a sense of entitlement.

The government, admittedly, has long threatened to introduce such measures, pointing out that such generous subsidies encourage wasteful usage and exacerbate the choking fumes on Teheran's streets. Now, however, the fuel restrictions are seen as the latest example of how hardship has grown under Mr Ahmadinejad.

The fear of UN sanctions following Iran's refusal to stop uranium enrichment means that foreign investment in the country has waned, hampering the president's ability to deliver on his pledge to slash unemployment. His response, a big, state-directed jobs and welfare programme using earnings from record oil revenues, has led to inflation soaring to 40 per cent.

Only weeks ago, 50 senior Iranian economists wrote an open letter warning that the president's policies were hurting the people he had vowed to help - the poor. It was the second such missive in a year, yet it is no surprise that it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Mr Ahmadinejad recently removed one of the government's main economic planning units, replacing qualified technocrats with his own acolytes. And in any case, he prefers to rely on the economic wisdom of "common men" like himself.

"We have hard-working shopkeepers in our neighbourhood from whom I get important economic information," he told Iranian newspapers recently. "For example, there is an honourable butcher in our neighbourhood who is aware of all the problems."

The Sunday Telegraph attempted to track down the traders with the presidential ear, but those near Mr Ahmadinejad's home denied that he had ever sought their counsel. Even if he had done, it is unlikely he would have liked what he heard.

"I voted for Ahmadinejad because I thought he represented a new way of doing things," said Samid Jalali, a grocer, whose cramped shop is a minute's stroll from Mr Ahmadinejad's house.

"But I am not satisfied with the way things are going. Inflation is much worse now: a tin of cooking oil has gone from $6 to $9 in just three months, for example. We have arguments every day with customers now, because they think we are just increasing the prices for ourselves."

Small wonder, then, that Mr Ahmadinejad's critics predict that his downfall may lie in the discontent of his ordinary working-class constituents, rather than the reformist efforts of Teheran's educated, pro-Western middle class. The reformists remain as fractured as they were during the last elections, and an increasing clampdown on the press, academia and student organisations seems to have further weakened them, rather than galvanised them.

nstead it is the economy that is Mr Ahmadinejad's Achilles' heel, said one Western official, not least because his highly personalised style of government means there is nobody else to take the blame.

Even his harshest critics, though, concede that Mr Ahmadinejad has tried to connect with the Iranian people in a way that few of his predecessors, reformist or hardline, have ever done. Since he came to power he has made a point of touring the country's provinces and visiting remote villages that have suffered decades of neglect.

Of more concern, critics say, is the "narcissistic" way such visits are carried out. They usually start with a speech about the Mehdi, the Shia messiah whom Mr Ahmadinejad believes will soon arrive to deliver universal justice. Yet listening to the grandiose promises that inevitably follow, some might wonder what would be left for the Mehdi to do.

"He loves to show off by asking the ordinary people what they want, and telling them he will build roads and houses," said one senior reformist.

"But it's all about him, and it often involves humiliating the provincial governors. On some occasions he has told a crowd of people, 'I will twist this governor's ear for you,' while the governor is sitting there. How is the governor supposed to maintain his authority after that?"

Opponents are pinning their hopes on Mr Ahmadinejad being unable to satisfy his growing legion of supplicants, most of whom, they claim, get nothing more than one of five standard response letters when they send in a petition. "Soon there will be disappointment, because little of what people ask of him will materialise," predicted Abdullah Momeni, another leading reformist.

That, however, may not stop Mr Ahmadinejad spending billions of pounds in the attempt. He now has an extremely ambitious plan to create up to a million jobs in Iran's under-developed rural east, by building a vast network of steel, cement, and petrochemicals factories - despite the fact that some of the planned steelworks will be more than 200 miles from the nearest iron mines.

The scheme has been condemned as "Stalinist" by Mr Ahmadinejad's critics, who say it will squander state oil riches on plants that will eventually be left to rust away.

Yet for the president's diehard faithful, only when Islamo-communism's first five-year plan is complete will his own judgment day truly come. Even then, in keeping with all hardline ideologues, they are likely to insist that failure is not the fault of the revolution itself, but of its enemies.

"Ahmadinejad is number one," said Mohammed Reza, a member of the Basiji religious militia, which provides the bedrock of his support. "But we can only evaluate him once his work is done - and right now there are many people standing in his way."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Ties Iran to Deadly Iraq Attack

By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: July 2, 2007; http://www.nytimes.com

BAGHDAD, July 2 — Iranian operatives helped plan a January raid in Karbala in which five American soldiers were killed, an American military spokesman in Iraq said today.

Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, the military spokesman, also said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used operatives from the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah as a “proxy” to train and arm Shiite militants in Iraq.

American military officials have long asserted that the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, has trained and equipped Shiite militants in Iraq. The Americans have also cited extensive intelligence indicating that Iran has supplied Shiite militants with the most lethal type of roadside bomb in Iraq, a bomb called the explosively formed penetrator, which is capable of piercing an armored vehicle.

Previously, Iranian officials have said that the United States is fabricating evidence to back up its accusation that Iran is sending bombs and weapons into Iraq. Some critics have cast doubt on the American military statements about the penetrator bombs, saying the evidence linking them to Iran was circumstantial and inferential.

In remarks that were reported over the weekend, Iran’s defense minister, Mohammad Najar, denied American claims of Iran’s “military interference” in Iraq. “We have many times announced that we are ready to cooperate with the Iraqi government so to restore security and stability to that country,” Mr. Najar was quoted as saying in a July 1 report by the Iranian student news agency, ISNA. It did not make clear which remarks he was responding to. Today’s assertions by the American military spokesman, which were presented at a news briefing here, marked the first time that the United States has charged that Iranian officials have helped plan operations against American troops in Iraq and have had advance knowledge of specific attacks that have led to the death of American soldiers.

In effect, American officials are charging that Iran has been engaged in a proxy war against American forces for years, though officials today sought to confine their comments to the specific incidents covered in their briefing.

When the Karbala attack was carried out on January 20 this year, American and Iraqi officials said that it appeared to be meticulously planned. The attackers carried forged identity cards and wore American-style uniforms.

One American died at the start of the raid, but the rest of the American soldiers were abducted before they were killed.

Some officials speculated at the time that the aim of the raid might have been to capture a group of American soldiers who could have been exchanged for Iranian officials that American forces detained in Iraq on suspicion of supporting Shiite militants there.

But while Americans officials wondered about an indirect Iranian role in the Karbala raid, until today they stopped short of making a case that the Quds Force may have been directly involved in planning the attack.

General Bergner declined to speculate on the Iranian motivations. But he said that interrogations of Qais Khazali, a Shiite militant who oversaw Iranian-supported cells in Iraq and who was captured several months ago along with another militant, Laith Khazali, his brother, showed that Iran’s Quds force helped plan the operation.

Similar information was obtained following the capture of a senior Hezbollah operative, Ali Musa Daqduq, General Bergner said. The capture of Mr. Daqduq had remained secret until today.

“Both Ali Musa Daqduq and Qais Khazali state that senior leadership within the Quds force knew of and supported planning for the eventual Karbala attack that killed five coalition soldiers,” General Bergner said.

Documents seized from Qais Khazali, General Bergner said, showed that Iran’s Quds Force provided detailed information on the activities of American soldiers in Karbala, including shift changes and the defenses at the site.

More generally, General Bergner added, Iran’s Quds Force has been using Lebanese Hezbollah as a “proxy” or “surrogate” in training and equipping Shiite militants in Iraq.

The aim of the Quds force was to prepare the militant groups so they would attack American and Iraqi government force while trying to conceal an obvious Iranian role, he said.

There have long been reports that Hezbollah operatives have been working with the Quds Force to train Iraqi operatives in Iran and even Lebanon. But few details had emerged about specific Hezbollah officials.

According to General Bergner, Ali Musa Daqduq joined Hezbollah in 1983, commanded Hezbollah units in Lebanon and was involved in coordinating the protection of the group’s leader, Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah has been armed and funded by Iran.

In 2005, the Hezbollah leadership instructed Mr. Daqduq to go to Iran and help the Quds Force train Shiite Iraqi militants, General Bergner said. Mr. Daqduq went to Tehran in 2006 with Yussef Hashim, another Hezbollah operative who serves as the head of the group’s operations in Iraq. They met with the senior Quds force commanders and were directed to go to Iraq and report on efforts to train Shiite militants there, General Bergner said.

Groups of up to 60 Iraqi militants were brought to Iran for military instruction at three camps near Tehran and trained in using road-side bombs, mortars, rockets, kidnapping operations and in how to operate as a sniper. The Quds Force also provided up to $3 million in funding a month to the Iraqi militants, the American general said.

Mr. Daqduq was captured in March in Basra. To avoid giving away his Lebanese accent, he initially pretended that he was a deaf mute, General Bergner said. But he eventually began to speak under interrogation.

In Washington, Bush Administration officials have generally held open the possibility that the Quds Force activities might have been carried out without the knowledge of Iran’s senior leaders.

But military officials say that there is such a long and systematic pattern of Quds Force activity in Iraq, as well as a 2005 confidential American protest to Iranian leaders regarding Iran’s alleged supply of road-side bombs, that senior Iranian leaders must be aware of the Quds Force role in Iraq.

“Our intelligence reveals that the senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity,” he said. When he was asked if Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could be unaware of the activity, General Bergner said “that would be hard to imagine.”

Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iran Cited Over Execution of Minors

71 Child Offenders Are on Death Row, According to Rights Group

By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 27, 2007; http://www.washingtonpost.com

In a troubling report on the execution of minors in Iran, Amnesty International said yesterday that at least 71 child offenders are on death row and more than 24 have been executed since 1990, more than in any other country.

Defendants younger than 18 are being hanged after swift decisions and hurried procedures, said the report, "Iran: The Last Executioner of Children." Of the 24 child offenders reported executed, 11 were still younger than 18 at the time of their deaths.

The 41-page report lists names and details of each known case but says the actual number of executions was higher because many death penalty cases in Iran go unreported. In the last three years, only three other countries used the death penalty against minors: China executed one child offender in 2004, Sudan executed two in 2005 and Pakistan executed one in 2006.

Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said Iran's execution of child offenders not only goes against international standards but "is absolutely repulsive and unconscionable."

Iranian officials deny that the government executes minors, although two such executions have been recorded this year, according to Amnesty's Iran country specialist, Elise Auerbach.

Under Iranian law, capital offenses include adultery by married people, incest, rape, four convictions of an unmarried person for fornication, three convictions for drinking alcohol, or four convictions for homosexual acts among men.

The report noted the emergence in recent years of a growing movement for the abolition of the death penalty for minors. The report said activists, lawyers, journalists and children's rights advocates have stepped up to represent minors on death row and in some cases prevented executions by highlighting miscarriages of justice. They have campaigned for an abolition of the laws allowing for such executions, putting themselves at great personal risk and facing bureaucratic harassment and travel bans.

In one case outlined in the report, Sina Paymard was a 16-year old drug addict in 2004 when he was sentenced to death for knifing a man during a fight over a marijuana purchase. Two weeks after his 18th birthday in 2006, he was taken to the gallows to be hanged.

With a noose around his neck, Paymard's final request was to play the ney, a reed flute, which his father had given him. The mellifluous tune moved the victim's relatives, who agreed to a payment from his family in lieu of his execution. After the family struggled to collect the $160,000, the victim's relatives refused to accept it. Paymard remains on death row in a prison in Karaj.

Several of the child offenders on death row are members of minority groups, such as Iranian Arabs, Afghan refugees, homosexuals, and young girls who had been abused and molested.

The most prominent capital case is that of Atefeh Rajabi , who was hanged on Aug. 15, 2004, in the town of Neka, in northern Mazandaran province. She was 16 and had been sentenced to death for a fourth conviction of crimes against chastity. Her crimes included being alone in a car with a boy and being caught at a cafe without a chaperon. Officials claimed she was 22, but her birth certificate listed 1988 as her year of birth. She was arrested repeatedly as a child by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the first time when she was 13.

According to a BBC documentary, Rajabi was abused by guards in Behshahr prison. After having served her third prison term, she was arrested while at home because of a petition signed by local police, which they claimed came from Neka residents.

During the trial, she confessed to having entered into an abusive relationship with 51-year-0ld Ali Darabi. Losing her temper under harsh questioning, she shouted at the judge that she had been a victim of this older man. It was her fourth conviction for crimes against chastity.

Human rights activists said they are encouraged by discussion in Iran of legislation calling for the establishment of a Juvenile Court, with the aim of prohibiting the death penalty for minors in most cases.