IRAN: A distress signal via Facebook

Amid the notifications prodding me to become a vampire or a zombie and one-line shout-outs from friends around the world, the plea for help on the social networking website Facebook stood out starkly.

The message, written in all capitals to underscore its urgency, came from Pooya Dayanim, an Iranian American living in the Los Angeles area:

TURKISH AUTHORITIES HAVE ARRESTED AMIR-FARSHAD EBRAHIMI, A PROMINENT GERMAN-BASED IRANIAN JOURNALIST ON CHARGES THAT HE COLLABORATED WITH THE FBI IN THE FLIGHT OF A PROMINENT IRANIAN OFFICIAL LAST YEAR. TURKISH AUTHORITIES HAVE ADVISED MR. EBRAHIMI THAT IN ORDER TO AVOID ANOTHER SIMILAR INCIDENT THEY ARE DEPORTING HIM IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS BACK TO IRAN WHERE HE WILL SURELY BE TORTURED AND EXECUTED.

IRAQ: Continuing violence

Reports about the fighting between Shiite Muslim militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. forces have focused on Baghdad and Basra, but violence is not confined to those areas. Here is a snapshot of dispatches received from Los Angeles Times correspondents Saturday that didn't make it into the latest story, but which illustrate the spiraling unrest in the country:

• In Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, police reported fighting between members of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and American and Iraqi forces. Police have reported more than 40 people killed in the city since violence flared Tuesday;
• Police commandos said they had raided the villages of Hamza and Hashimiya, about 75 miles south of Baghdad, and detained 62 Mahdi Army members. The commandos then raided a Sadr office in the city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, and detained two more people;
• Fighting between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi army south of Hillah left six Iraqi soldiers dead, according to police commandos;
• The provincial government of Babil, of which Hillah is the capital, lifted a curfew for three hours Saturday afternoon so residents could stock up on food and supplies. The curfew will be eased further Sunday, allowing residents to go out from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.;
• Police said seven mortar shells landed near the U.S. Embassy annex in Hillah on Saturday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
• Reuters news agency quoted government officials as saying they had killed 120 fighters in Basra in the last five days. And in Baghdad, where a 24-hour curfew has been extended indefinitely,
• The Associated Press reports that U.S. government employees living inside the Green Zone have been ordered to use only armored vehicles to drive in the enclave, and to sleep in reinforced structures rather than the flimsy trailers in which many of them live. This follows repeated rocket and mortar shell strikes on the Green Zone, which have killed at least two Americans in the past week.

— Times correspondents in Iraq

Photo: Plumes of thick black smoke rise as helicopters patrol the area in central Baghdad's Green Zone after a rocket attack  Credit: FALEH KHEIBER/EPA

MIDDLE EAST: Jitters as Dutch movie 'Fitna' is released

Will the world witness soon another wave of angry Muslim protests?

The release on the Internet Thursday evening of a highly controversial Dutch film asserting links between Islam and terrorism raised fears of renewed riots, similar to those sparked in 2006 by the publication of derisive Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

So far, according to Los Angeles Times correspondent Geraldine Baum in Paris, no violence was recorded related to the film, at least not in Holland:

"They were all disgusted by the film, but so far there isn't a big explosion," said [Dutch] police spokesman Arnold Aben. "In fact, it's quieter than usual here today. Sort of like a holiday."

The 15-minute film "Fitna," which in Arabic means strife, was made by an extreme right-wing Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders. The movie intersperses verses from Islam's holy book, the Koran, and inflammatory sermons by Muslim clerics, along with sensational images of terrorist attacks, including the 2001 attack against the World Trade Center in New York.

IRAQ: Not quite the surrender Maliki had in mind

It appears that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's ultimatum to Shiite Muslim militiamen to surrender to the Iraqi government might not be working precisely as he had intended.

When nobody had turned up by Friday, Maliki gave members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia 10 more days to turn in their weapons and renounce violence.

Instead, about 40 members of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and National Police offered to surrender their AK-47s and other weapons this morning to Sadr's representatives in the cleric's east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.

One of the police officers told journalists assembled at Sadr's office that he was heeding a call by an Iraqi cleric based in Iran, Ayatollah Fadhil Maliki, to stop fighting fellow Muslims.

"We came here to tell our brothers, the followers of Sadr, that we will not be against you," said the officer, who was dressed in civilian clothes and had his face covered with a scarf and dark sunglasses.

IRAQ: Politicians a no-show in latest crisis

With Iraqi government troops struggling to quell Shiite Muslim militiamen, the Sunni speaker of parliament summoned legislators to an emergency session. But most lawmakers failed to show up.

Friday’s session, which took place amid rocket and mortar fire, highlighted how persistent divisions between Iraqi political factions continue to stymie progress.

Those present agreed that a committee should be formed to find a negotiated solution to the fighting, which has claimed more than 150 lives.

“It is our duty as a legislative and oversight authority to intervene in order to salvage the situation,” parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani told the Arabic-language satellite news station, Al Arabiya.

ISRAEL: Pollard makes more headlines

Update on a previous post:

The buzz about Jonathan Pollard, the imprisoned former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, continues in Israel.  Israeli state comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, requested by the appropriate Knesset committee to examine Israel's actions toward Pollard's release, said he was surprised to wake up to headlines this week quoting unnamed security sources warning that this would undermine efforts to release him. Hinting at an ongoing dispute between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the comptroller, the chairman of the Knesset committee, MK Zevulun Orlev, expressed his regret that Olmert was engaging in an irresponsible "ugly spin" at Pollard's expense.

Either way, Pollard's wife, Esther, asked incredulously "what efforts" exactly were being made for her husband's release, and promptly answered that there were none. The whole "hysteria" was all about money, she told Israel Radio this week. The government says it has given the Pollards constant support -- "but this is a complete lie" she said.

Esther Pollard said she was told flat out by a source close to President Bush this week that "there is only one person who can release your husband, and that's Bush. And there's only one person who needs to request his release, and that's Ehud Olmert." And Olmert, she says the source told her, "doesn't want your husband."

Some believe an aggressive attitude is the only way to go; yet others fear that the constant rumor mill will undermine quiet hopes that the United States will consent to release Pollard as a gesture to Israel. 

— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

IRAQ: Guns for money

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's hopes of forcing Shiite militiamen to hand in their weapons has fallen flat, so he has extended a disarmament deadline and sweetened the deal by offering money in exchange for guns.

A spokesman for the government's Interior Ministry, Abdul Kareem Khalaf, acknowledged today that not a single weapon had been turned in since Maliki ordered the disarmament Wednesday and gave fighters a three-day deadline. The call came as Shiite Muslim militias battled Iraqi security forces in the aftermath of Maliki's crackdown on militiamen. The offensive was launched Tuesday in the southern city of Basra and has since spread to Shiite strongholds across Iraq.

Khalaf said Maliki had extended the deadline until April 8 and that a "financial reward" awaits militiamen who comply. There's no word on how much this reward could be. Maliki has said fighters who disarm must also sign a pledge to refrain from future militia activities and follow Iraqi law.

If it sounds familiar, that's because this is similar to the model in use by U.S. forces as they work to keep former insurgents from resuming anti-U.S. activities. That program, launched in late 2006, has been aimed mainly at Sunni Muslims who once supported the insurgency but who, for a variety of reasons, have opted out of the fight.

LEBANON: Iran revolution film 'Persepolis' unbanned

So finally, freedom of expression triumphed in Lebanon over the archaic practice of censorship.

Lebanese authorities revoked an earlier decision to ban an animated film that was regarded by some Shiite clerics here as "offensive to Iran and Islam."

The film in question is "Persepolis," an internationally acclaimed animated feature that was released last year in the United States and Europe. It is based on an autobiographical graphic novel series about a young girl trying to find her way in restrictive Iran after its 1979 Islamic revolution.

The earlier ban imposed by an official security body in the country set off an outcry in Lebanese intellectual and political circles, who saw the move as outrageous. Condemning the ban of cultural and artistic works in the country, a Lebanese journalist wrote on his From Beirut to the Beltway blog: "I know that the heart of every culture-loving Lebanese breaks with every ban."

Persepolis will be released in theaters in Beirut starting May 3, according to the film's distributor.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: A Lebanese man holds a copy of the animated film "Persepolis" in Beirut. Credit: Joseph Barrak /  AFP / Getty Images

IRAQ: A love affair with an iconic American car

In the southern city of Basra, the Iraqi love affair with an iconic American car goes back long before U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003.

Chevrolet minibuses dating back to the late 1950s remain the transportation of choice for many city dwellers.

But these buses don’t look anything like the vehicles you see in the United States. The Iraqi companies that distributed Chevys all those years ago only imported the chassis. The body and seats were made locally out of wood.

IRAQ: Casualties of war

Three Iraqi children are among seven civilians killed in a recent U.S. air strike, the latest such mistake to occur on the battlefield. A military statement said Wednesday's incident in Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, also left three women and a man dead. It added that five people it identified as "terrorists" also were killed.

"Multi-National Force - Iraq sincerely regrets when there are civilian casualties during our operations to rid Iraq of terrorism," said Navy Capt. Vic Beck, a U.S. military spokesman.

Nobody knows how many Iraqi civilians or U.S.-allied security forces have been killed in such friendly fire incidents, which have been reported widely in the Los Angeles Times. The teenage son of a Times staff member was killed last April, and earlier this month we told the tale of Batul Abdul Hussein, whose son, an Iraqi police officer, was killed when U.S. forces mistook his patrol for insurgents.

Photo: Batul Abdul Hussein looks at a photograph of her son, Wesam Saleh, who was killed in a friendly fire incident involving U.S. forces in February 2007. (Saad Khalaf)