Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - February 22, 2003

Ayatollah Khamenei's complaints about the inaction of the heads of the three branches of government to fight economic corruption and an example of Ahmad Masjed Jamei's report for an audited book

Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's Complaints about the Pressure of Supervisory Organizations on Executive Managers

Meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei

Announcing the list of the victims of the IRGC plane

Full text of the diary:

At nine o'clock in the morning, we went to the Supreme Leader's office. There were also the heads of the three branches. The Supreme Leader complained about the inaction of the heads of the three branches of government in the fight against economic corruption and said that they expected them to act more seriously after all this emphasis. They wanted to increase the number of summit meetings with my presence for this purpose and also to monitor the issues of Iraq, given the seriousness of the danger of a U.S. attack.

Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Khatami also criticized the pressure exerted by the supervisory organizations on the executive directors and said that they have prosecuted 77 people in one ministry, about 70 of whom have been discharged before the trial, and only two of the others have been convicted, and this has caused the managers to lose the courage to make decisions.

For example, [Mr. Ahmad Masjed Jamei], the Minister of [Culture and] Guidance, told him that the author of a book had been prosecuted for likening the Leader to red blood cells and had banned the publication of the book, but after the investigation by the Leader's office, it became clear that the book was full of various insults to the Leader and officials. They read the samples.

I said that the heads of the armed forces do not raise serious issues in their meetings because they do not trust each other, and the words of the meeting are usually leaked out and create an atmosphere.

In the evening, Mr. Mohamed ElBaradei, [the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency], came and said that in Natanz, after seeing the work done, he was convinced that Iran had joined several countries with nuclear technology, and that this would cause a stir in the United States and others, and that it was necessary for Iran to observe full transparency in its reports and accept the Additional Protocol. I said that if the IAEA and others respect Iran's right to peaceful nuclear interests, and the IAEA fulfills its duty to encourage and help other countries to acquire nuclear industries, Iran will accept it. Regarding Iraq, he said that if Saddam did not accept complete disarmament, the war would be definite and the United States would not be able to return empty-handed.

The names of those killed in the crash of the Ilyushin [IRGC] have been announced. A large number of them are from Rafsanjan because they were personnel of the 41st Division of Tharallah. In Kerman, three days of public mourning have been declared. In the meeting with the Supreme Leader, it was said that both Zahedan and Kerman airports had told the pilot to return to Zahedan due to unfavorable weather, but the pilot, relying on his skills, decided to continue on his way. He had already had a problem on his way to Mashhad and had made an emergency landing of the same plane at the airport.

Hashemi's account of the production of a program by Radio America about the causes of the explosion of the Columbia spacecraft

Full text of the diary:

Snow and rain continue in most parts of the country. In Afghanistan, too, due to heavy rains, floods have flowed in Helmand and entered Iran with a flow rate of 500 cubic meters per second, rewatering the Hamoon Lake, which had dried up.

[Colin Powell], the US Secretary of State, has officially announced that after the fall of Saddam, an American soldier will temporarily take over the government of Iraq, and this has caused resentment among the Iraqi opposition, who have gathered in Iraqi Kurdistan these days for the second summit and announced their opposition. The summit was supposed to start today in Salahuddin, but it has been postponed to tomorrow due to security issues and rain.

Sayyid Abdul Aziz Hakim denied the claim of the Western media that 5,000 members of the Badr Army had been transferred to northern Iraq, saying that a limited number of the Badr Army had been present in northern Iraq for a long time.

The US Secretary of State has said that they will soon resume food aid to North Korea, and this is considered a withdrawal of the United States, and the United States has announced that hundreds of American troops are fighting alongside Filipino soldiers in the southern Philippines, which is against the Philippine Constitution.

Radio America had a detailed program today about the causes of the explosion of the spacecraft in Colombia, to defend the criticism of NASA. He interviewed Dr. Firouz Naderi, an Iranian scientist who is the director of the Mars Exploration Project, and he made some interesting points that are part of public information, including that there are three possibilities for the cause of the explosion:
1. Damage to the left wing during the throw, as a result of hitting a cloud patch that may have ice in it. 2. The impact of metal fragments left by the round-trip ships around the International Station and wandering in space. 3. The shape of some of the 14,000 pieces of refractory ceramics that have been used as insulation around the ship. 4. The roughness of a part of the body due to excessive work, which causes air molecules to be hit when entering the earth's atmosphere, which is about 70 kilometers above the earth, and as a result of the impacts, it creates a temperature of about 3000 degrees [Celsius].

[Dr. Naderi] said that the spacecraft is serviced with one million man-hours after each trip, in addition to the rotating overhaul.