Pilot's - Joe Stack - Suicide Letter Taken offline by FBI

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer... and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report ( [link to www.synergistech.com] regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here ( [link to www.synergistech.com]

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

· "another person" is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.

· "taxpayer" is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.

· "individual", "employee", or "worker" is you.



Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.



The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.



Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

Plane crashes into Northwest Austin building

A small single-engine plane crashed into a building in Northwest Austin Thursday morning, sparking a massive fire and forcing evacuations.

The crash happened near MoPac and Highway 183 just before 10 a.m.

Smoke could be seen pouring from a building in the Echelon complex -- Echelon 3 -- on traffic cameras and in video and photographs send in by KVUE viewers and reporters.

KVUE’s Noelle Newton reported most of the windows are blown out. People were evacuated and standing along roads outside the complex. A witness told KVUE that it didn't appear the plane was having any trouble before it crashed, but it was flying very low.

Some witnesses reported that they thought the plane was headed for their building. Witnesses say the impact felt like an explosion.

Austin fire officials say one person is unaccounted for. Fire officials said they were conducting an office-to-office search. The building houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service.

Assistant Austin Fire Chief Harry Evans says two people have also been taken to a hospital. Their conditions were not immediately known.

U.S. law enforcement officials say they are investigating whether the crash may have been an intentional act by the pilot.

The officials said authorities are trying to determine if the pilot intentionally targeted nearby office space of the Internal Revenue Service. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. A third official said authorities are pursuing reports that the pilot may have been disgruntled with the IRS.

As a precaution, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-16 aircraft from Houston's Ellington Field, and is conducting an air patrol over the crash area.

The IRS said in a statement that the small plane struck its Austin offices, where 190 of the agency's employees work. Officials say they are still trying to account for all the workers.

Georgetown airport officials say federal officials have sealed the airport. The pilot may have stored his plane in one of the hangars.

A federal law enforcement official has identified the pilot in the plane crash as Joseph Stack, a software developer, and says investigators are looking at an anti-government message on the Web linked to him.

The official said authorities are looking for a motive at Stack's company Web site. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation still in progress.

The Web site featured a long note dated Thursday denouncing the government and the IRS in particular. It cited the man's problems with the agency.

The long note dated today on Stack's Web site says "Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer" to his past problems with the IRS.

It also says, "I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

The letter was removed from the cite. A message cites a request from the FBI as part of the reason for removing the letter.

KVUE News covered a house fire near Metric and Parmer that was reported just two hours before the plane crash. The house, which neighbors said belonged to Stack, appeared to be destroyed.

Documents from the FAA also show the plane was registered to Stack.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo cautioned that the reports are hearsay and the investigation is preliminary. He said the plane was not stolen and the crash was not an act of terrorism. Mayor Lee Leffingwell said the situation was contained.

Traffic in the area is being diverted. Power is out in the area. Austin firefighters say the power was shut off in order to fight the fire. Crews were still fighting to put out the fire, but officials said they were fighting the flames offensively, but were pulled back out of fear the building could collapse. It was unclear when the power would be restored and roads reopened.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to investigate.

The White House says President Barack Obama has been briefed about the crash.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs says the president was briefed by counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan shortly before leaving the White House for a trip to Colorado and Nevada. Gibbs says the Department of Homeland Security is investigating all angles of the crash and its cause.

Gov. Rick Perry says with information still "flowing in," he's cautious to relay details he's been told about the crash of a small plane into an Austin office building.

Perry told reporters Thursday in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land that he's hearing "a lot of different story lines" and that Texas law enforcement authorities would assist as appropriate federal officials looking into the crash.

But he says any time an aircraft hits a building, particularly after 9/11, "there is great speculation as to why and how that occurred."

KVUE News has multiple crews on the scene, and KVUE's Tyler Sieswerda and Terri Gruca are on the air.


Plane crashes into Northwest Austin building kvue.com Austin News, Local News, Breaking News, Weather Local News

Democrat Shami also raises doubts on 9/11 attacks

Democrat Farouk Shami on Friday became the second gubernatorial candidate in two days to say it's unclear whether the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Meanwhile, Republican Debra Medina, reeling from her own remarks that questioned the government's involvement in the attacks, on Friday blamed the ensuing firestorm on a "coordinated attack" that she speculated came from the campaigns of her better-known GOP rivals.

Shami's comments came during an interview on Dallas-Fort Worth's WFAA-TV in which the Houston businessman also said that most of his factory workers are Hispanic because "you don't find white people who are willing to work in factories."

When a reporter told Shami he wanted to ask him the same question Medina was asked — whether the U.S. government was involved in the attacks — Shami responded:

"I'm not sure. I am not going to really judge or answer about something I'm not sure about. But the rumors are there that there was a conspiracy. True or not? You know, it's hard to believe, you know, what happened. It's really hard to comprehend what happened. Maybe. I'm not sure."

He compared the situation to lingering questions in some quarters about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

"We still don't know who killed John F. Kennedy, who's behind it.... Will we ever find the truth about 9/11?" Shami said.

Shami's comments on race came when reporter Brad Watson asked him why he said during the debate Monday with Democrat Bill White that "without Mexicans, it would be like a day without sunshine in our state." Shami responded by talking about his own employees. Historically, he said, when "white people come to work in a factory, they either want to be supervisors or they want to be, you know, paid more than the average person. And unfortunately they exit."

Medina, meanwhile, said that "the political games we saw beginning to be played yesterday serve nothing but a diversion." She predicted "more of this" in her race against Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for the GOP gubernatorial nomination March 2. She said there are no "high-profile kinds of scandals in my life that really are going to get people something to chew on. So they're going to have to make some things up."

Her comments came during a news conference in Houston, which she denied was an effort at damage control. "No. This is continuing doing what we've been doing, campaigning hard for months," she said.

In response to a question Thursday from nationally syndicated radio talk show host Glenn Beck, Medina said there were "some very good arguments" that the U.S. was involved in the 2001 attacks that took down the World Trade Center and that killed about 3,000 people.

"I think the American people have not seen all of the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that," she said.

Medina later in the day released a statement saying she didn't believe the government played a role in the attacks, but the damage had been done.

Hutchison campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said Medina's allegation that Beck's question was somehow part of a coordinated effort from her political rivals is "simply not true," a comment echoed by Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner.

"It appears she's trying to spread blame," Miner said.

The profile of the libertarian-leaning nurse from Wharton, about 50 miles southwest of Houston, has risen in recent weeks after her appearance in two televised debates at which she assumed the role of a voice of reason while her two better-known rivals squabbled.

"I'm doing some damage," Medina said. "I'm over the target. They know I'm over the target. And we're heading up pretty quick, and this is a concerted damage control effort maybe on their part to make sure we get her out of the way."

Contains material from Corrie Mac-Laggan and The Associated Press.




Democrat Shami also raises doubts on 9/11 attacks

Iran Controls Protests and Defies West on Nuclear Fuel - NYTimes.com

CAIRO — Iran’s president boasted Thursday that his nation had the capacity to make weapons grade nuclear fuel if it chose to, in a speech designed to rally the nation as it marked the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.



The president’s remarks, combined with the government’s apparently successful effort to prevent the opposition from once again hijacking a national holiday, seemed designed to send a message to the regime’s domestic and international critics that it remained in control, and defiantly so.

There were demonstrations and clashes between security forces and protesters across Iran, and state broadcasters seemingly cut away from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech early, apparently as chants of “death to the dictator” arose in the crowd. But the opposition failed to reach a critical mass on the street, and the sentiment among the protesters was that the government had won the battle this day.

Instead of Internet videos of crowds shouting “Death to the Dictator” and fighting with baton-wielding police, attention focused largely on a government-sponsored rally and Mr. Ahmadinejad’s pugnacious speech, delivered as Washington moves to implement new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

In the address in Tehran’s Azadi Square, Mr. Ahmadinejad relied on familiar nationalist and anti-Western themes, blaming America and Europe for trying to hold Iran down and challenging them by saying that Iran had already succeeded in enriching uranium to 20 percent and could do even more.

“We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but we don’t enrich because we don’t need it,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said.

But he added a warning to the West. “Please pay attention and understand that the people of Iran are brave enough that if it wants to build a bomb it will clearly announce it and build it and not be afraid of you,” he said. “When we say we won’t build it that means we won’t.”

The president also repeated his declaration that Iran was a “nuclear state,” adding that it had the capacity to enrich uranium to weapons grade if it chose to. The West has accused Iran of running a nuclear weapons program, while Iran has insisted it is pursuing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

“The Iranian nuclear issue has become the main pillar of the regime’s legitimacy,” said Mustafa el-Labbad, an Iran expert in Cairo. “So Ahmadinejad is putting it in the center of the scene in order to conceal the internal differences and huge domestic challenges they face.”

It was not at all clear how much uranium had been enriched or whether Iran had the capacity to transform that either into weapons-grade fuel or even into the fuel rods necessary for running the medical research reactor it says it aims to supply.

The Obama administration dismissed the idea that Iran had the capacity to enrich uranium to weapons grade. “Iran has made a series of statements,” said the presidential spokesman, Robert Gibbs, that are “based on politics, not on physics," The Associated Press reported.

His speech, delivered from a platform decorated with flowers, was heard by a largely sympathetic crowd that was bused in from around the country to celebrate the most important political celebration of the year. It is a day similar to the Fourth of July in the United States or Bastille Day in France, and like those holidays it is steeped in myth and symbolism.

Both the opposition and the government hoped to control the message of the day. The opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, had called on their supporters to fill the streets, though they did not offer a clear plan.

The government provided little room for the opposition to gain traction. It sent thousands of security officers into Azadi Square the night before both to intimidate and, if necessary, block the opposition from participating. Those who attended the rally disappeared in a sea of government supporters.

Indeed, when Mr. Karroubi tried to enter the procession leading to Azadi Square, he and his supporters clashed with security forces and plain clothes militia members, according to opposition Web sites and news services.

Witnesses in other parts of the city reported the “greens,” as the opposition members are known, tried to turn out but were prevented from congregating in large groups. In some places, the witnesses said, Basij militias and other security officers descended on them, beating them with clubs until they dispersed.

There were also reports that the police arrested many demonstrators around the country and briefly detained Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s grand daughter, Zahra Eshraghi, and her husband Mohammad Reza Khatami, brother of a former pro-reform president. Protests were reported in the holy city of Mashad, Shiraz, Esfahan and around Tehran.

The greens were not entirely intimidated. Videos circuated on the Internet showing demonstrators tearing down and stomping on posters of the country’s supreme leader, pictures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, burning a motorcycle belonging to the Basij and chanting anti-government slogans like “Khamenei is a murderer, his rule is illegitimate.”

But given how the opposition had totally overwhelmed and defined past holidays, especially the religious observance of Ashura in December, the 31st anniversary day belonged to the leadership and its security forces.

Iran experts said that they were not surprised the government had prevailed, considering the extraordinary measures it had taken in recent months. Since Ashura, at least 1,000 people had been jailed, according to human rights groups. Two prisoners were hanged, many people were given long prison sentences and the government announced that anyone arrested Thursday would remain in prison at least until the end of March.

“This is not a victory for the government,” said Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former member of parliament who is now a visiting professor at the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. “this show was aimed at sending a wrong message to the outside world about the government’s popularity.”

Opposition members in Tehran said that the Ministry of information sent out text messages on Thursday saying that “rioters would be killed today,” while government employees were ordered to participate in the pro-government rally.

As the sun set on Thursday, there were once again people climbing to their rooftops screaming “God is Great” and “Death to the Dictator,” according to people in Tehran.

But that seemed to be the extent of the rebellion on this day. “The opposition seems to have tactically withdrawn, to show up another day and at another time of its own choosing,” said Rasool Nafisi, an Iran expert based in Virginia, who has extensive contacts in Tehran.


Iran Controls Protests and Defies West on Nuclear Fuel - NYTimes.com

Feds move to seize 4 mosques, tower linked to Iran

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.

It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.

The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.

The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.

The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.

The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.

"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."

Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.

The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah.

In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian businesses.