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News & Views U.S. claims pattern in killings WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The recent killings of five Iranian dissidents indicates a power struggle between moderates in the government of President Mohammad Khatami and those who want to limit the free expression that has been encouraged by his reform-minded policies, U.S. officials say. State Department spokesman James Foley declined to outright accuse any element of the Iranian government, in which power over security, foreign affairs and intelligence is the sole domain of the fundamentalist mullahs who sit on the Revolutionary Command Council. But he praised Khatami, who was elected this year on promises of greater personal freedoms for the average Iranian, for condemning the grisly killings and vowing to apprehend the culprits. ``These incidents have begun to add up, and point to a pattern of violence and intimidation against those who perhaps differ from the views of the authorities or those who merely express themselves, be they poets or intellectuals or political figures,'' Foley said. ``This trend certainly goes counter to the promise and the opening that was evoked upon the election of President Khatami.'' The bodies of dissident literary figures Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, Javad Sharif and Mohammad Mokhtari were discovered over the past month with signs they had been strangled. The mangled corpses of opposition figures Dariush Forouhar and his wife, Parvaneh, were found during late November. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused unnamed ``enemies'' today of engineering unrest that led to the killings and hinted that the United States may have been indirectly involved, a charge Foley labeled as ``patently absurd.'' Foley said the United States, which cut diplomatic relations with Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979 resulted in the sacking of the American Embassy and subsequent 444-day hostage crisis, has no firm information on who may be responsible for the killings. But other American officials involved in the analysis of events in Iran, speaking under conditions of anonymity, told United Press International the killings appeared to be an effort to undermine the rule of Khatami. The president might lose support if those who elected him felt less secure under his rule, they said. * Iran News
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