Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1999, pages 115-116

Human Rights

Elie Wiesel’s Visit Sparks Protest

More than 35 protesters gathered at a Dec. 10 benefit dinner in Minneapolis on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Protesters called upon the guest speaker, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, to cease his silence on legalized torture in Israel. The black-tie event was sponsored by the Center for Victims of Torture, the Minneapolis University Rotary Club and the Jewish Community Relations Council and was attended by almost 1,000 persons.

Demonstrators carried signs reading, “Elie Wiesel, Torture Is No ACCIDENT,” “Help Bring DAWN to Palestinian Detainees,” and “Why Silence to Israel’s Torture of Palestinians?” The protesters charged that Wiesel had never spoken out against legal torture in Israel and asked Wiesel to oppose torture everywhere in the whole world.

According to the Dec. 11, 1998 Minneapolis Star Tribune, Wiesel denied the charge, saying that he speaks out against torture “anywhere and everywhere.” He also claimed that he has repeatedly called on the [Israeli] government to stop the torture of Palestinian suspects. “Whenever I go to Israel, I ask the question,” he said. In reply to the assertion that torture is necessary to prevent terrorism, Wiesel stated, “My answer is, you should not use torture, there must be other ways. Find them.” He also charged that the protesters would have “more moral standing if they spoke out against torture by Arab countries, and acts of terror against Israelis.”

To the best of this writer’s knowledge, however, this is the first time that Elie Wiesel has publicly spoken out specifically against Israeli torture practices.

Douglas Johnson, executive director of the Center for Victims of Torture, one of the sponsors of the dinner, thought that the demonstration was less a protest than a call to action. He pointed out that “Israel is the only country that has legalized torture in the world.”

—Nick Eoloff

Iranian Resistance Group Charges Iran Expediting Manufacture of Biological Weapons

The National Council of Resistance (NCR) of Iran, a major Iranian opposition group, charged in a Jan. 26 press conference in Washington, DC that the Islamic Republic of Iran is pursuing an aggressive plan to develop and manufacture biological and chemical weapons.

Under President Mohammad Khatami, viewed by many as a moderate leader, Iran is “advancing a very systematic and dangerous program to mass produce the essentials for germ warfare,” said NCR U.S. representative Soona Samsami. “Khatami’s moderation is a myth.”

Samsami said Iran’s biological weapons program started in the early 1980s, soon after the Iran-Iraq war began. When Khatami took power, he formed the Science and Technology Group, which is affiliated with the office of the president and “oversees the regime’s plans and projects in the areas of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons,” she charged.

The NCR said its information was obtained from sources inside the regime who are sympathetic to the exiled resistance group. “In all strata of Iranian society, we have supporters,” explained Alireza Jafarzadeh, a member of NCR’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

The resistance group asserts that the regime has already developed three biological agents, VX, Aflatoxin, and anthrax, with the help of at least 18 Russian, Chinese and Korean experts. The NCR believes that this number represents only one branch of the Science and Technology Group, and does not reflect the total number of individuals working on the project.

Iran’s successful test-firing last September of the Shihab 3 missile, which has an 800-mile range, increases the threat, the NCR representatives said. They cited the Iranian government’s announcement in December that it had successfully fired a ground-to-sea cruise missile named Fajr 3 as proof that Iran has a concrete delivery method for biological and chemical weapons.

What the weapons of mass destruction program lacks, according to the NCR and scientists Mouhammad Khondri and Jahansouz Hossain, who spoke at the press conference, is the ability to produce these agents on a large scale. Iran must therefore rely on foreign companies to procure the equipment needed. Specifically, the regime needs fermenters and computer controllers to launch large-scale production, the scientists said. The NCR spokespersons cited companies from Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and Italy that, they said, have provided biological weapons technology.

Some of the equipment needed for a biological weapons program could have other uses, such as producing vaccines, the NCR representatives admitted. But they maintained the equipment’s intended use is strictly nefarious. “It’s hard to believe, but that is the case,” said Samsami.

To bolster their case, the NCR noted that groups such as the Republican Guard, which has become a branch of the Science and Technology Group, is not involved in the mass production of vaccines, and would have no use for a 100-liter fermenter, except for the manufacture of biological and chemical weapons.

The idea that the announcement’s timing was curiously close to President Clinton’s recent call for the U.S. to prepare itself for the possibility of terrorist attacks via biological or chemical weapons was rebuffed by the NCR. “We didn’t come up with this overnight, we’ve done extensive research into this,” said Jafarzadeh. “It has nothing to do with other recent developments.”

Questions were raised as to why Iran’s possible development of weapons of mass destruction should be a major international concern when both Syria and Israel are also believed to have such weapons. “Iran supports terrorism, and this makes it more dangerous for them to be doing this,” Samsami responded. “This regime would do anything to expand its objectives, which are expansionist and fundamentalist.”

Samsami went further: ”The mullahs are attempting to cover up their regime’s inherent weakness through the export of crises. They must be denied this option.” 

—Rob Swanson