Destabilization? Strange Goings On in Iran Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Rumors of an assassination attempt against Ayatollah Ali Khameini, a possible coup attempt, expulsions of plotters to Afghanistan, and news of an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in Iran... All at the same time Bush has had to back off temporarily from a renewed high-intensity slaughter against Iraq, and has agreed to disagree with his pal Vladimir Putin about the "danger" of Iranian nuclear power. The Caspian oil fields are a prize worth working for. Perhaps a game of "let's you and him fight" is in the cards for Iran and Iraq once again.] Iran Press Service - May 21, 2002 http://www.iran-press-service.com/ KHAMENEH'I ESCAPED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, RUMOURS TEHRAN 21 May (IPS) The leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i has escaped an assassination attempt, according to unconfirmed news circulating in Tehran. According to the rumours, at least four commanders of the Revolutionary Guards attacked the residence of Mr. Khameneh'i, but they could not kill him for unknown reasons and had been caught by the leader's personal guards. The news of the assassination attempt emerged after un-identified high-ranking officers of the Guards intervened with Mr. Khameneh'i to stop an order to have the four commanders involved in the coup executed. "They were expelled to neighbouring Afghanistan", an informed source from the Guards reported. The rumours filled the capital at a time that there are more and more talk in every political circle that the ayatollah's regime is reaching its end and is in the process of crumbling, the Soviet Union way. The last alarm was given by a senior conservative cleric in Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, saying the regime was "in the verge of collapse". In unrelated story, President Mohammad Khatami apparently has offered his resignation to the leader, telling him that he do not care what "others" would say about his decision or how they would react. Last week, in a speech with teachers, the embattled and powerless Khatami menaced to resign "if the government deviated from the course of reforms". Following the speech, some senior reformist MMs (members of the Majles) said if the President resigns, the bulk of the reformist deputies would also follow him. The latest information about Mr. Khatami's threats to resignation is that he had told the leader that either the conservatives stop at once in putting brakes on the reforms, that some senior dissidents, including journalists and clerics, would be freed and some of the 84 publications shut on the order of the leader would be allowed to resume or he would go home. * AP via IranExpert.com - May 24, 2002 http://www.iranexpert.com/2002/virusofdeadlydiseaseoutbreak24may.htm Virus of deadly disease spreads in Iran A deadly virus has infected 30 percent of Iran's cattle stock and killed 20 people since last year,the Outbreak of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, the head of the Disease Management Center of the Health Ministry, was quoted as saying that the 20 people who died were among more than 140 people diagnosed carrying Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever Outbreak. Health officials have warned that a new outbreak was possible with hot weather coinciding with the return of Muslim pilgrims from the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Relatives of pilgrims slaughter cattle and distribute meat among neighbors, IRNA said. Health officials say spilled blood from slaughtered cattle can cause infections. Crimean-Congo fever was first identified in the northeastern Khorassan province in 1978 after entering Iran through imported cattle from eastern states, it said. The fever broke out in Pakistan and Afghanistan -- Iran's eastern neighbors -- earlier this year. Doctors said three people died then. The virus causing Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever _ which is found in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe _ is transmitted by ticks, which thrive on sheep and cattle. Infected people can transmit the virus by blood, saliva or droplets from sneezing. The disease causes a sharp drop in platelets, which allow the blood to clot. Without rapid antiviral drug treatment and platelet replacements, victims can bleed to death. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-05.26.02-03:05:34-25925