Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran's Radical Leader

If you want to understand the sham elections in Iran's kleptocracy, this book will provide you with factual account of what is going on in Iran now and who runs the Islamic Republic, reading this book is a must!

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
As Iran's nuclear program accelerates, all eyes are on the blacksmith's son who could have his finger on the trigger. Who is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? What drives him? To whom, if anyone, does he answer? Internationally acclaimed Iranian journalist Kasra Naji has spent years interviewing Ahmadinejad's friends, family, and colleagues to tell for the first time the true story of how he came to power. What emerges in this riveting account, featuring never before published color photographs, is a picture of a man who is much more of a force to be reckoned with than the caricatures offered up so far suggest. While Naji documents Ahmadinejad's often strange behavior, he also shows him to be full of complex contradictions: a man gripped by apocalyptic beliefs, yet capable of switching spiritual allegiance in the quest for power. A man tough enough to fight street battles in the name of Ayatollah Khomeini, crude enough to invite the German chancellor to join him in an anti-Jewish alliance, yet sophisticated enough to win the support of the all-powerful Revolutionary Guard. Kasra Naji takes us inside the shadowy council chambers of Tehran, and shows us the plots, passions, and personalities that will influence Ahmadinejad's next move, while the world waits with bated breath.

From the Inside Flap
"An excellent biography, one that is lively and informative, and at the same time sets the President in his international and domestic contexts. In so doing, Naji provides a most informative portrait of Iran today, and of the many, conflicting, forces that are at play within it."--Fred Halliday, author of 100 Myths about the Middle East

Potkin has more on the Islamic Republic's so-called Elections: "As If We Will Hand in the Presidency on a Plate"!!
Cleric Mohammad Ali Abtahi points out an interesting point on his blog made by Ayatollah Jannati during last week's Friday Sermon. Abtahi quotes Ayatollah Jannati when he lashed at the newspapers who have been criticising President Ahmadinejad's government saying 'They think we are going to hand them the presidency on a plate'. Abtahi then humours the sermon speech saying, so it sounds like the Presidency is an appointed position. Sounds like it is!

Read more!

Why doesn't the Isamic Regime Never commemorates the end of Iran-Iraq war while it Celebrates the start of that war with great fanfare?

نه اسلامیست، نه ناسیونالیست

بسیاری از ایرانیان می‌دانند جنگ ایران و عراق چه روزی آغاز شد: 31 شهریور 1359. ولی آیا به همین اندازه روز پایان آن را نیز می‌شناسند؟ شاید برای بسیاری از ایرانیان این پرسش مطرح شده باشد که چرا رژیم ایران هر سال سالگرد آغاز جنگ را با مراسم ویژه برگذار می‌کند ولی هرگز هیچ سخنی از پایان جنگ نمی‌گوید. چرا کسی پایان جنگ خانمانسوزی را که صدها هزار کشته و زخمی و معلول و ویرانی‌های مادی و معنوی گسترده بر جای نهاد، یادآوری نمی‌کند و جشن نمی‌گیرد؟ چرا در رسانه‌ها درباره پایان جنگ و سالگرد آن سخنی گفته نمی‌شود؟ سالگرد آزادی خرمشهر در سوم خرداد 1361 نیز یا به فراموشی سپرده می‌شود و یا تنها زمانی مطرح می‌شود که دستاویز رقبای قبیله حاکم قرار گیرد. در حالیکه هر سال به مناسبت سالگرد آغاز جنگ در بوق و کرنا می‌دمند و از آفتابه لگن جنگی خود که از روی مدلهای روسی از دور خارج شده کپی شده است، سان می‌بینند. تو گویی واقعا به قول خمینی جنگ «نعمتی» بوده است که باید هر سال نزول آن را بزرگ و گرامی داشت.
حالا جنگ جهانی دوم را در نظر بگیرید. کمتر کسی است که تاریخ شروع آن را بداند. شاید فقط دانستن همین اطلاع که با حمله آلمان به لهستان آغاز شد، فراگیر باشد. اما تاریخش را که اول سپتامبر 1939 بود بعید است کسی به ذهن سپرده باشد. حال آنکه پایان آن در روز هشتم ماه مه چه در اروپای مرکزی و غربی و چه در اروپای شرقی (از جمله در دوران سوسیالیسم واقعا موجود) با مراسم ویژه جشن گرفته می‌شود و سالگرد راندن عفریت جنگ را از اروپا گرامی می‌شمارند.
یا دیوار برلین را در نظر بگیرید. شاید خیلی‌ها بدانند که در سال 1961 ساخته شد ولی اینکه روز 31 اوت بوده را احتمالا کسی به ذهن نسپرده است. حال آنکه روز نهم نوامبر 1989 روز فرو ریختن دیوار برلین را که هر سال با سخن و فیلم و گفتگو و خاطره در رسانه‌ها یادآوری می‌شود، کمتر کسی است که به یاد نداشته باشد. روزی که حدود یک سال بعد در سوم ا کتبر 1990 به اتحاد دو آلمان انجامید. به راستی در کجای جهان آغاز یک رویداد منفی آن هم نفرینی چون جنگ را گرامی می‌دارند و تبلیغ می‌کنند بدون آنکه لحظه‌ای پایان آن را به یاد مردمی بیاورند که در طول آن سرنوشت‌شان تغییر کرده است. و نه تنها این، بلکه با نمایش «قدرت نظامی» بشارت جنگی دیگر را می‌دهند!

جهانگشایی اسلامی
خمینی بنیانگذار جمهوری اسلامی در ایران در نامه محرمانه‌ای که سال پیش، هجده سال پس از پایان جنگ، روز هفتم مهرماه 1385 در کشاکش درگیری‌های رقابتی زمامداران رژیم به دست رسانه‌ها سپرده شد، خطاب به «مسئولان لشکری و کشوری» می‌نویسد: «حال که مسؤلان نظامی ما اعم از ارتش و سپاه که خبرگان جنگ می‌باشند، صریحا اعتراف می‌کنند که ارتش اسلام به این زودیها هیچ پیروزی به دست نخواهند آورد و نظر به اینکه مسؤلان دلسوز نظامی و سیاسی نظام جمهوری اسلامی از این پس جنگ را به هیچ وجه به صلاح کشور نمی‌دانند و با قاطعیت می‌گویند که یک دهم سلاحهایی را که استکبار شرق و غرب در اختیار صدام گذارده‌اند به هیچ وجه و با هیچ قیمتی نمی‌شود در جهان تهیه کرد و با توجه به نامه تکان دهنده فرمانده سپاه پاسداران که یکی از دهها گزارش نظامی سیاسی است که بعد از شکست‌های اخیر به اینجانب رسیده...»
و به این ترتیب برای «مصلحت اسلام» دست به سوی «جام زهرآلود» برد و روز 29 تیر 67 درباره پذیرش قطعنامه 598 چنین گفت: «در مقطع کنونی آن را به مصلحت انقلاب و نظام می‌دانم و خدا می‌داند که اگر نبود انگیزه ای که همه ما عزت و اعتبار ما باید در مسیر مصلحت اسلام و مسلمین قربانی شود، هرگز راضی به این عمل نمی‌بودم و مرگ و شهادت برایم گواراتر بود. بدا به حال من که هنوز زنده مانده‌ام و جام زهرآلود قطعنامه را سر کشیدم». زنده ماندن خمینی پس از سر کشیدن جام زهرآلود به یکسال نکشید. دستور اعدام هزاران زندانی سیاسی را داد، فتوای قتل سلمان رشدی را هم صادر کرد و در آستانه بیست و ششمین سال قیام ارتجاعی که در مخالفت با اصلاحات ارضی، آزادی زنان و حقوق برابر پیروان اقلیت‌های مذهبی به راه انداخته بود، دق کرد و نخستین سالگرد پایان جنگ را ندید.
ولی اگر جمهوری اسلامی امکاناتش را می‌داشت آنگاه پیروزی در آن جنگ به چه معنا می‌بود؟ چه باید به دست می‌آورد و تا کجا باید پیش می‌رفت تا پیروز به شمار آید؟ اگر هدف بیرون راندن دشمن از خاک کشور و مرزهای ایران بود، که این کار پس از آزادسازی خرمشهر انجام شده بود. چه باید می‌شد که به دلیل نداشتن «امکانات» نشد؟ رؤیای آن پیروزی، جمهوری اسلامی را وا داشت در نیمه دهه هشتاد میلادی برنامه اتمی را که با وقوع انقلاب اسلامی متوقف شده بود از سر گیرد. کابوس آن شکست و آن جام زهر اما سبب شد تا جمهوری اسلامی بر تلاش خود برای رساندن برنامه اتمی به مرحله بازگشت ناپذیر، حتی به بهای مقابله با جامعه جهانی، بیفزاید. برای پیشبرد این تلاش، ناسیونالیسم نژادپرستانه نیز به یاری جمهوری اسلامی آمد تا با «افتخارات گذشته» مرهمی بر عقده حقارت اسلامگرایانی بنهد که جز «افتخارات آینده» و وعده جهانی نامعلوم چیزی برای ارائه در برابر جهان غرب ندارند.

ملی‌گرایی دروغین
امروز ناسیونال اسلامیسم جمهوری اسلامی که هر بار در تنگنای جنگ با عراق با سرودهای میهنی و شعارهای دروغین بروز می‌کرد و اخیرا در مورد برنامه اتمی به نمایش گذاشته می‌شود، کاریکاتوری است از جهانگشایی «ناسیونال سوسیالیسم» آلمان هیتلری که این یک به تقسیم آلمان، از خودبیگانگی آلمانی و نفرت از «ناسیونالیسم» و ملی‌گرایی انجامید که هنوز پس از شصت سال که از شکست نازیسم می‌گذرد، ملتی را از برافراشتن غرور‌آمیز پرچم خود می‌هراساند. و آن یک، اگر همچنان سوار بر «قطار بدون ترمز» خود ادامه دهد، به خطرات نامعلوم، از خودبیگانگی ایرانی و نفرت از «اسلام‌گرایی» خواهد انجامید که همچنان پس از سالها که از نبود جمهوری اسلامی بگذرد، ملتی را از بروز اعتقادات مذهبی خود بهراساند.
خوشوقتی اما اینجاست که هنوز فرصت هست تا ناسیونال اسلامیسم رژیم را متوقف ساخت. رویدادهایی مانند نشست سه روزه گوادلوپ از 14 تا 17 دی 1357 با شرکت آمریکا، آلمان، فرانسه و انگلیس کمی پیش از انقلاب اسلامی در ایران (به مثابه جلسه تصمیم نهایی برای تغییر رژیم در ایران) و یا نشست یک روزه آزور در پرتغال در 16 مارس 2003 چهار روز پیش از آغاز جنگ عراق به ابتکار آمریکا، انگلیس و اسپانیا (به مثابه جلسه تصمیم نهایی برای تغییر رژیم در عراق) و یا فاجعه‌ای مانند یازده سپتامبر 2001 (به مثابه رویداد نهایی برای تغییر رژیم در افغانستان) تنها نقش میخ آخر را بازی می‌کنند. اینک اگرچه تابوت آماده شده است، لیکن هنوز صدای چکش به گوش نمی‌رسد. باید گوش به زنگ رویداد یا نشستی مشابه و یا حتی ابتکاری بدیع و زیرکانه مانند دعوت احمدی نژاد به دانشگاه کلمبیا بود تا وی به مثابه نماد و سخنگوی تفکر سیاسی- ایدئولوژیک جمهوری اسلامی افکار عمومی جهان را بیش از پیش علیه جمهوری اسلامی هدایت کند. احمدی نژاد، بر خلاف نظر برخی تحلیل‌گران، نمی‌خواست از مواضع رژیم کوتاه بیاید. احمدی نژاد بر خلاف نظر برخی تحلیل‌گران دیگر، نماینده ملت ایران نیست که کسی از واقعیاتی که رییس دانشگاه کلمبیا بر زبان آورد، به عنوان «توهین» رنجیده خاطر شود. احمدی نژاد آمد و خیال غرب را درباره دو نکته بسیار مهم و تعیین کننده راحت کرد: یکی اینکه رژیم ایران نه تنها هولوکاست را به عنوان واقعیت به رسمیت نمی‌شناسد بلکه آن را فقط یک تئوری می‌شمارد که باید بیش از اینها درباره‌اش تحقیق کرد تا به اثبات برسد، و بر این اساس موجودیت اسراییل را به رسمیت نمی‌شناسد. به زبان دیگر، خواهان عدم موجودیت آن است! یعنی همان نابودی اسراییل که احمدی نژاد حاضر نشد آن را به شکل «آری» یا «نه» بیان کند و معلوم نیست چرا برخی فکر کردند احمدی نژاد با این عدم صراحت «کوتاه» آمده است. چه کسی می‌تواند انتظار داشته باشد که احمدی نژاد یا هر زمامدار دیگری در جمهوری اسلامی به این پرسش صریحا «آری» بگوید؟!
نکته دیگر اینکه رسانه‌ها به آن توجه چندانی نشان ندادند، این بود که وی در پاسخ اینکه چرا می‌خواسته به محل فاجعه یازده سپتامبر برود، گفت علاوه بر ادای احترام به کشته‌شدگان قصد داشت با خبرنگاران درباره اینکه چه کسانی این فاجعه را به وجود آورده‌اند «گفتگو» کند! یعنی با وجود اینکه القاعده پس از مدتی انکار و آنگاه رو شدن اسناد و افراد، رسما اعلام کرد که این عملیات تروریستی را سازماندهی کرده است، احمدی نژاد می‌خواست از این فرصت استفاده کند و در برابر خبرنگاران کسانی را که آن فاجعه را به وجود آوردند، افشا کند! و کیست که نداند منظور رییس جمهوری اسلامی چیست: یازده سپتامبر کار اسراییل و آمریکاست!
به این ترتیب حضور و سخنان احمدی نژاد به عنوان نماد ایدئولوژیک و نماینده واقعی نیات و اهداف جمهوری اسلامی می‌تواند در تصمیمات آتی جامعه جهانی نقش تعیین‌کننده داشته باشد.
در این میان، دمکرات‌های ملی و مستقل می‌توانند دست کم سه نقطه اتکا داشته باشند: علیه جمهوری اسلامی و علیه جنگ و برای منافع ملی به میدان بیایند. همین سه نقطه اتکا که اتفاقا سبب پراکندگی گروههایی می‌شود که یا می خواهند در کنار جمهوری اسلامی قرار گیرند و یا کنار مدافعان حمله نظامی بایستند و یا خام‌دلانه و سبکسرانه سودای تجزیه ایران را در سر بپرورانند، بزرگترین امتیاز جبهه و صف سوم است که بیشترین مردم ایران را می‌تواند در خود گرد آورد: ملتی که جمهوری اسلامی را نمی‌خواهد، با جنگ مخالف است و اکثریت ساکنان آن از کرد و آذری و فارس و بلوچ و عرب و ترکمن با هر دین و مذهب از یکپارچگی آن مراقبت خواهند کرد. ملتی متنوع و رنگارنگ که نه اسلامیست است و نه ناسیونالیست و چاره‌ای جز مبارزه برای دمکراسی و صلح با هدف تأمین منافع ملی خود ندارد.
25 سپتامبر 07 a,

Read more!

HOSTAGE TELLS Ahmadinejad: SHUT UP!

BARRY ROSEN 1979-81 ordeal in Iran.

NYPOST: September 23, 2007 -- Barry Rosen, executive director of public and external affairs at Borough of Manhattan Community College, was a hostage in Iran from 1979 to 1981. He studied Iranian culture at Columbia University.

I wonder what the Founding Fathers would think of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University tomorrow.

They instilled the belief in all of us: Everyone has the right of free speech.

But I believe they'd be in a quandary about this one. I'd certainly like to talk to James Madison, who drafted our Bill of Rights, and ask him whether Ahmadinejad deserves that right.
Ahmadinejad is a reprehensible leader who violates free speech in his own country and cracks down on those Iranians who attempt to open up his repressive regime.

He uses speech to spread age-old anti-Semitic stereotypes in the Middle East, denying the existence of Israel, and denies that the Holocaust ever happened.

Ahmadinejad was one of those outrageous Iranians who took me and more than 50 other Americans hostage for 444 days, violating international law and making us suffer indescribable moments of terror.

There is simply no reason to give him a platform to spew his venom.

No matter how hard-hitting Columbia's president questions Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader is a winner.

Every word he utters is meant for his radical constituents at home and legitimizes his standing among other dictators like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

It's only when Ahmadinejad permits his own people to march and speak freely, that I believe Columbia President Lee Bollinger would be justified in giving the Iranian president an open forum.

Not before then.

Read more!

More Public Execution in Iran

Warning: Graphic




3men executed in Saveh-Iran on 08/19/2007 morning

A criminal regime struggling to survive, "For around two years now the Islamic Republic government has stepped up the execution and torturing of political prisoners and dissidents on the pretext of security. The largest numbers of executions have taken place in the provinces of Khuzestan, Kurdistan, Azarbaijan and Tehran. All those sentenced to death have been sentenced behind closed doors and without any regard for international conventions.

These days in Tehran a number of prisoners on death row, mostly political prisoners, have been transferred from around the country to Rejaee Shahr Prison. Two of those prisoners, Mr Fazel Ramazani and Mr Hajat Morad Mohammadi, both political dissidents and activists who had spent 9 years in prison, were executed along with prisoners which the government labels as “rogues and ruffians”.

A few months ago Hojjat Zamani was executed. The torture of the prisoners is so severe that last year two prisoners, namely Akbar Mohammadi and Valiollah Feiz Mahdavi, were killed under mysterious circumstances. It is feared that the executions and tortures will continue".

Read more!

Can't keep my promise, mother

Denial of Bahai students acces to higher education by
Bahai Student24-Aug-2007

Since 1979, the government of Iran has systematically sought to deprive its largest religious minority of the right to a full education. Specifically, the Islamic Republic of Iran has for more than 25 years blocked the 300,000-member Bahai community from higher education, refusing young Bahais entry into university and college.
Eventually, in response to an international outcry over this oppressive behavior, the government officially announced in late 2005 that it would drop the declaration of religious affiliation on the application for the national university entrance examination. Consequently, the Bahai students could take the examination in 2004 and 2005.Yet, later in the admission procedure, Bahai youth were passed over and not accepted.
In 2006, for the first time in 29 years, more than 200 Bahai students could enter national universities. However, from the very beginning of the school year, gradually most of these students were expelled according to a previously planned strategy.
This year (2007), however the government has employed a new tactic. Most Bahai students have not yet received their test report cards. Not receiving their results, they are now even unaware of their scores and the fact that whether they have passed the test or not.
According to the web site of the national Educational Measurement and Evaluation Organization (EMEO), 800 Bahai students whose report cards are not issued lack enough documentation. Contact have been made with those officials in charge; nevertheless, no reasonable answer was given. Right now, the Bahai students who have not been informed of their exam results face an unclear situation
When I was a child, I talked about my dreams with my mother. One day I wanted to be a teacher; the other day; a scientist or a physician. My mother would look at me and tell me "try to love everybody. Whatever you become, try to help others."
So, seven years ago when I decided to become a physician, I was sure that I would treat my patients with love. Days have passed and I have learnt a lot. At first, the dream of becoming a physician was the most real and beautiful dream of my life. However, later I got to know my mother who was denied to finish the final semester of her studies at university. I saw my brothers who could not even take the entrance exam of national university.
Then, one day I heard the hopeful voice of one my friends who had a new story for me. He told me of his courses, of the entrance exam that he was going to take, and of the test preparation classes. He shared his dreams, hopes, worries and fears with me. I felt his excitement. I felt his preoccupation and anxiety. However, I was happy that being a Bahai is not any more an obstacle for continuing our education.
Today, my friend called and talked in a voice that showed no trace of that anxiety. He told me of his report card which has not been issued, and of his result which is not clear. He told me of the answers which were not given to him. He told me of his more-than-ever-strong determination to revitalize his country, Iran.
I cried. I cried to the extent that no tears remained for me to shed. I cried but not because of my mother who could not fulfill her dream; not because of my brothers who did not envy their non- Bahai friends even for a second; not because of my friend who was deprived of continuing his education, not even because of myself and my lost dream of becoming a physician. I cried only because I still remembered that day in my childhood when I had promised my mother to love everybody. It was only then that I understodd why I made such a promise in the prime of my dreams. I cried, and I feared that I might not keep my promise.
But weren't these people -- who I try to love -- once children? Haven't they promised their mothers to love me?

You can leave your comment for him here.

Previously:
Iranian Baha'i students shut out of vocational education

Read more!

In death, a martyr's smile foretells victory

Denver Post
By Ana Sami

The world has seen nothing like it. When Majid Kavosifar was hanged in public in Tehran for killing criminal judge Hassan Moghadas, no one expected to see the expression they saw on his face the day of his execution.

As Kavosifar was jostled through the crowd by the regime's demonic henchmen in ski masks - and even as he was hoisted onto the platform that he was to be hanged from - he wore a triumphant, almost joyful smile on his face. If there were ever an image that qualified for "Is there something wrong with this picture?" it would be this one.

Hanging in public serves the purpose of quelling dissent and evoking fear for Iran's people. The recent wave of hangings in Iran has proven once again that many of those who are hanged under the pretext of social crimes are indeed people who are fed up with the unjust Iranian regime and are taking matters into their own hands.

Most of the public images of hangings in Iran that have taken place normally show a victim with a much different demeanor than that of Majid. Sullen eyes that speak of endless pain, faces blank with fear, and for the women, dark cloaks, chadors that enshroud their bodies and a blindfold to disguise their anguish.

This scene has become all too familiar, especially since the Iranian regime has stepped up its public executions to horrifying degrees. On July 22, the Iranian regime hanged 12 people simultaneously, and several other hangings took place in July all over the country, including another group hanging in Azerbaijan.

In a televised interview regarding the group hangings, Ahmad Reza Radan, the commander of Tehran's police force, stated that, "The response to those who stand firm against the Iranian regime and its practices is execution."

In Iran, legal procedures to execute the most outspoken against the regime are often expedited or simply ignored. Such was the case with Atefeh Rajabi, the 16-year-old girl who was hanged in Neka. Her case was expedited to lightening speeds. In Iran, the judiciary and the government are one and the same, thus leading to dangerous exploitations of the law simply for political purposes.

Majid Kavosifar and his uncle, Hossein Kavosifar, were both hanged for killing Moghadas. They had collaborated and confessed to committing the act. Moghadas was Tehran's assistant chief prosecutor, responsible for signing countless death sentences. Moghadas's role was that of a ruthless cleric who bypassed judicial procedures to ensure the swift death of the Iranian regime's opponents.

Tehran's public prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, did not allow the press to interview Majid Kavosifar, 22, and his uncle Hossein, 28, as is typical with public executions. However, after the execution, Mortazavi did state that he had spoken to both men, and that they refused to renounce their actions and expressed no regret for what they did. Majid is reported to have said, "I have reached a level of understanding to know who the corrupt and depraved are."

The price these victims pay for their bravery is the same, and all hangings are equally as disturbing and unjustified. However, the smile that gleamed over Majid's face as he strained to wave goodbye while handcuffed was indeed victorious, and the message was clear: "I defeated you, I am not frightened, and I am honored to die; hanging me will no longer repel resistance."

While Majid's courage is remarkable in the face of such torment and brutality, we can be sure that there will be other fearless Iranian youths ready to give their lives, until that proud smile gives way to the much awaited dawn of change.

Ana K. Sami (ansami@mines.edu) is a master's degree candidate at the Colorado School of Mines and a specialist on human rights and women's issues in Iran.

Read more!

Iran: Sadistic Public Flogging by the government of thugs

Zombie News Network put the photos together in a video:h/t to : Gatewaypundit

اراذل و اوباش حکومتی Government of thugs

by Massoud Noghrekar

حکومت اسلامی ایران به کشتارشهروندان اش نیاز دارد . این حکومت بدون کشتار, زندان , شکنجه و ایجاد ارعاب و وحشت ساقط و سقط خواهد شد. دلیل هم" اظهرمن الشمس" است. حکومت اسلامی , حکومت توهم ,هذیان و روان پریشی ست , بدیهی ست چنین حکومت بیماری توان و ظرفیت پاسخگویی به نیازهای شهروند ان اش, و نیز مسایل جهانی نداشته باشد و برقامت زمانه و جهان ناجور ترین وصله باشد.با چنین ویژگی هایی برای حفظ سلامت و قدرت بیضه ی اسلام و حکومت نابهنگام اش , اقدام هایی موثرتر و کارا تراز ایجاد رعب و وحشت و ترور , آنهم به وحشیانه ترین و سبعانه ترین شکل اش وجود ندارد , فکر وروشی که اسلام از بدو پیدایی اش به کار بسته و بهره ها برده است.سیاست ایجاد رعب و وحشت و ترور توسط این حکومت از فردای انقلاب بهمن , به عنوان عملی " قانونی و شرعی" اعمال شده است. از همان هنگام در کنار کشتار دگراندیشان و مخالفان سیاسی و عقیدتی , کشتار قربانیان بی عدالتی های اقتصادی و اجتماعی , یعنی معتادان , تن فروشان ," اراذل و اوباش "و دیگر بزه کاران و ناهنجاران اجتماعی, به گونه ای وحشیانه به دست پاسداران اسلام آغاز شد. کشتارها یی که تا امروز , یعنی نزدیک به 30 سال عمر حکومت اسلامی, ادامه یافته است, و تا هنگامی که این حکومت حیات داشته باشد , ادامه خواهد یافت. طی ماه های اخیر شکنجه های خیابانی و اعدام های سبعانه ی در ملاعام - که حتی کودکان را نیز برای عبرت گیری به تماشا واداشته اند- بار دیگر سیاست محوری این حکومت شده است. این بار حکومت اسلامی شکنجه گران اش را با نقاب به شکار قربانیان اش گسیل داده است تا شکنجه گری و تعذیب را به بیرون شکنجه گاه ها , به خیابان ها و برابر چشمان حیرت زده ی مردم گسترش دهند , ونیز دارها را برای اعدام این قربانیان , که آنان را " اراذل و اوباش" می خواند , برپا کنند.اگر حکومت اسلامی برای نخستین بار واقعیت را گفته باشد و تنی چند از قربانیان این دوره اش " اراذل و اوباش" باشند, به خود زنی روی آورده است , چرا که برخی از این قربانیان می توانستند درزمره ی " اراذل و اوباش حکومتی " در خدمت این حکومت قراربگیرند. برای اثبات این ادعا بهتر است , به اختصار, با" اراذل و اوباش حکومتی" آشنا تر شویم !.
"اراذل و اوباش حکومتی "
چماق,چاقو و قمه کشان, زورگیران یا باج گیران, مزاحمین و مرعوب کنندگان مردم را " اجامر", " لات" , " لش" یا اراذل و اوباش خوانده اند. این پدیده نو رسیده و تازه نیست . اراذل و اوباش پاره ای از سپاه بیکاران جامعه هستند, اینان قربانیان بی سوادی و فقر, قربانیان نظام سیاسی, اقتصادی و فرهنگی جامعه, وقربانیان بی عدالتی های اجتماعی و اقتصادی اند. بسیارانی از اینان در زمره ی بیماران روانی ای قرار می گیرند که بیماری شان قابل درمان است, ویژگی ای که در بسیاری از " اراذل و اوباش حکومتی" , به ویژه قاتلان و شکنجه گران حرفه ای اش می توان دید.اکثر سلسله ها و دودمان های حکومتی و بسیاری از جریان های سیاسی , مذهبی و قومی , سازمان دهنده و پشتیبان چنین گروه هایی بوده اند، گروه هایی که آزار و اذیت و تحقیر و تحمیق و تکفیر، و ضرب و شتم و شکنجه و کشتار دگراندیشان , دگررفتاران و مخالفان وظیفه و کارشان بوده و هست.اراذل و اوباش حدودا" از دوران صفویه به شکل و شمایل ورفتار امروزین در آمدند. از همان تاریخ تا به امروزاراذل و اوباش نه فقط به عنوان یک پدیده ی اجتماعی , به پدیده ای سیاسی و مذهبی بدل شده اند.حکومت ها , و برخی از گروه های سیاسی و مذهبی , به سازمان دهی اراذل و اوباش در" گروه های فشار و کشتار " روی آورده اند و بیش از پیش از آنا ن به عنوان ابزار سرکوب دگراندیشان و مخالفان سیاسی و عقیدتی بهره برده و می برند . سازمان دهنده ها در صورت لزوم نیز از قربانیان برای ایجاد رعب و وحشت و زهرچشم گرفتن در جامعه استفاده کرده اند. البته گاه حکومت ها یا ژست تامین " امنیت اجتماعی", مازاد اراذل و اوباش مورد مصرف شان را قربانی کرده اند." اراذل و اوباش حکومتی " یا گروه های فشار و کشتاربتدریج به یکی از بازوهاي "مسلح" دربار (شاه و شیخ) و برخی از نیروهای سیاسی و مسلمان بیرون از حکومت بدل شد ه اند. این گروه ها به اشکال و انواع مختلف، برخی با پول و امکانات و مقام، برخی با تهییج و تحریک احساسات وطن پرستانه و کیش شخصیت و جماعت هایی با تحریکات و وعده های مذهبی ی آن جهانی، به فشار و کشتار دست زده و می زنند.....more

Read more!

Hefty and Unforgiving Price of Staying Loyal to the Regime

Akhbare-rooz: بهای سنگین وفاداری به نظام by سام الدین ضیائی

با نگاهی بیرونی به تجربه ی بیش از ربع قرنی جمهوری اسلامی، والیان فقیه که حاکمان واقعی

کشورند با نگاهی «ارباب ــ رعیت» مآبانه به رابطه‌ی حکومت و مردم، در باقی ماندن بر قیمومیت رعایا و ولایت قدسی بر آنان منافعی دارند که به راحتی به حذف اصل «ولایت فقیه» و اصول متبوع آن در قانون اساسی و قوانین نانوشته‌ی خود رضایت نخواهند داد। توزیع عادلانه‌ی «قدرت»، «ثروت» و «معرفت» در میان مردم که اولین اصل «جمهوریت» است در نظام ولایی که این هر سه در انحصار والیان فقیه است، قابل اجرا نیست. این فقیهان که از ساختار نابرابر توزیع بهره می‌برند، با توجه به این که منافع خود را در پوشش ارزش‌های قدسی پنهان کرده و از آن دفاع می‌کنند هرگز حاضر به کوتاه آمدن از ولایت خود بر مردم نیستند. از سویی اولین مانع «جمهوریت» نیز همین توجیهات دروغین و ابهام‌زای قدسی است. بدین ترتیب، آن چه آشکار است با توجه به تضاد آشکار میان دو مدل حکومتی «ولایت فقیه» و «جمهوریت»، ابزار دموکراسی در نظام ولایی قابل استفاده نیست. «انتخابات» و «پارلمانتاریسم» از جمله ابزاری است که در چنین نظامی فرمایشی و بلا استفاده می‌ماند. تجربه‌ی هشت ساله‌ی اصلاحات بهترین شاهد مدعاست. ...

With an outwardly look at the 28 years experience of Islamic Republic, the pundit guardians (euphemism for Wardens) who are the real rulers of the country view their relationship with their people as a Lord would look at it his Vassal. And thy have vested (economic) interest in keeping the vassals to remain as such and by staying as the "holy wardens" over the people many privileges and benefits will make it very hard to get rid of the matrix of Velayate-faghih and those unwritten laws associated with this concept in the constitution. The equal and just distribution of wealth, justice, and power among the people, which are quintessential features in a republic, in a regime of Velayate-Faghih where all three components are monopolized by the Pundit Wardens (Velayate-faghihs), is unfeasible.

These pundit wardens who benefit from the unequal infrastructure and unjust institutions, cognizant of this fact, they conflate and wrap their interests with religious values. They will defend their interest and will never back down from their self-declared position of "Guardianship" over the people.

On the other hand, one of the impediment to establishing a "Republic" is exactly these fictitious, fuzzy, confusing and obscure constructs such as velayate-faghih. Consequently, given this obvious contradiction between a "Republic" and a "velayte-fahigh style of governance, democratic organs, institutions and other natural tools of democracy in a regime of velyate-faghih are useless and irrelevant. "Elections" and "Parliamentary" are among those tools, which will remain unused in the system of velyate-faghih. The 8- year experience with the reformists is the best evidence for my observations and assertions.

Read more!

Slickville Marine leads lawsuit against Iran

For programmer Craig

It was Oct. 23, 1983, when the largest non-nuclear explosion ever detonated sent Marine Lance Cpl. Terry Valore, of Slickville in Westmoreland County, flying into a wall as his barracks disintegrated around him in Beirut, Lebanon.

Valore was a member of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, which was part of a multinational United Nations peacekeeping force assigned to Lebanon when Hezbollah terrorists, backed by Iran, drove a truck filled with explosives past a Marine checkpoint. They crashed the truck into the barracks, killing 241 Marines, soldiers and airmen.

Nearly 24 years later, Volare could be on the verge of payback.

The former Marine, who was burned over 90 percent of his body, said, "it's been a long, tough road" to get to this point.

He is lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In March, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington entered a judgment against Iran that could allow Valore and relatives of Marines killed in the attack to recover damages...more

Read more!

Containment for Iran for the next 8 years??

BBC: A veteran of the Reagan administration and a protege of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Mr Rodman uses the word "containment" with explicit echoes of America's Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union.

He sees Iran as an essentially ideological threat, and puts little faith in diplomacy as a solution.

[...]

Striking at Iran would further inflame the Middle East, cause Iranians to rally round an unpopular regime - and probably set back its nuclear programme by only a few years.
"Iran can't be fixed right now," says Jon Alterman, who runs the Middle East programme at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The problem has to be managed, he says, even if that means passing it to the next administration - and perhaps the one after that.

Read more!

Islamic Inquistion

Picture: Alexandra von Maltzan

For more than 28 years, the henchmen and death squads of Khomeini have inflicted a cruel barbarism and mass ignorance on every part of the society in Iran. Law has been replaced by "Divine Velayte-Faghih's Sharia", philosophers, scholars, writers, journalists, students, former allies, and even clerics have all been criminalized, jailed, censored, kidnapped, killed, tortured and maimed in body and soul for life.

Women, fortunate enough to be considered as half a human being might find themselves stoned to death, resort to prostitution or temporary marriages to feed their children and family, or sold as sex slaves to Persian Gulf Arab states. Hanging "heretics" in the streets as "enemies of God" and national threat to the "Holy Islamic Republic" have become popular entertainment and a religious duty (savab?).

The Islamic Republic is marked by corruption, bigotry, censorship, racism, intolerance, violence, terror, and brutal suppression of anyone who dares to express the slightest disapproval of the regime. The fanatics of Shi'a Islam are proving useful to export their martyrdom-seeking culture throughout the Islamic world.

The Islamic Republic has essentially expropriated all the resources – both human and material – which might have improved the lives of Iranians in the name of Islam and the Ummah. While an indolent army of clerics live on the state, the impoverished legion degenerate into life of crimes, addiction, and depravity.

Orchestrated by parasitic Islamic clerics, a cancer of superstition, fear and brutality has been imposed across Iran. The clerical "protection racket" requires the criminalizing of the whole of humanity through the doctrine of Sin. Once a particular mullahcracy, it has become wedded to the military Junta funding and training terrorists of all stripes.

The barbarian tribes that are overrunning Iran are for the most part, true believers (so called men of principles); and the forces that oppose them are tired and their spirit broken. A new Islamic Inquisition was set in motion in 1979 and it continues in full swing.

Read more!

Amir is back blogging

This one's for you Gracchii of Westminster Wisdom:

This is an old post of Amir but contains information you will not read anywhere else. . Here we go:

In 1980 Yasser Arafat came to Iran and brought with him a few dozen girls of say 9 and 10 to around 14. (I was 9 then.) They were staying at the hotel my dad was managing at the time, and where my family was staying, the Arya-Sheraton (Homa). They were also on the News, they had singing choruses, singing revolutionary songs, and of course “Khomeini qa’ed”. At some point my dad was forced to go with them and meet Khomeini at Jamaran.
Years later my dad told me that these girls were brought to Iran as an offering of sorts. Everynight, the Hezbollah bigshots and the important mullahs would go to their rooms and temporarily marry them. In Iran this is called “sigheh;” in Arabic I think it is “jawaz muta” or something like it. In America it is child-prostitution.

Then my dad would get a call from housekeeping about the disgusting state the rooms would be left in the next day.

The host of this group was Ayatollah Karubi, the long time leader of the Islamic parliament and a presidential candidate in the last elections, running on a “reform” platform.
***
I am told that my experiences with the Hezbollah in Iran has blinded me, rendering me inable to understand that the Hezbollah in Lebanon is a “grass-roots” movement.

Well, a “grass-roots” movement funded (given weapons to) in the hundred million dollar a year range, by Iran, while the line of absolute poverty is always on the rise in Iran. “Grass-root”? Well, let’s cut the foreign money and see how “grass-roots” it is. And does being a “grass-roots” movement make it right? Nazis were also “grass-root.”

As the matter of fact, among the people who accuse me of not realizing the difference between the Hezbollah in Iran and the “grass-roots” movement in Lebanon, I am the only one who has seen both.

I’ve seen the places that are currently bombed, in Beirut and in the south, close up, and I’ve even spoken to the Hezbollah characters, both Iranians and Lebanese.
The Lebanese of other confessions other than Shiite Islam, because they don’t (yet) have to conform to the Shiite rules made up by the Hezbollah, have little problem tolerating what the Hezbollah does to their own people. They keep thinking to themselves that what is going on in Iran is perhaps part of their culture, and that no one will ever force them to be the same, because they are different and special… I remember during the revolutionary upheavals how Christians and Jews were also ranking among the Hezbollahis and how even my own family members would put on a chador or a veil just to show solidarity… They then were never able to take them off, and the Christians and Jews lost all their rights and in huge numbers had to flee the country.

Being a Shiite would mean either having to submit to the mafia that is running the neighborhoods, or to break-away completely and live with harassments, being a Kafar, someone who has had religion but now is going against it, an apostate… The sentence for that is death, no questions asked. This is of course a lot harsher in Iran than in Lebanon. In Lebanon this self-proclaimed “resistance movement” does not yet have hegemony… But many Lebanese, “blinded” by heroic tales of the unity of the underclasses around the world against big business and IMF and World Bank and Imperialism and what have you… might soon make a hegemonic force out of this so-called “resistance movement” that hides behind the civilians.
But the Iranian money they receive, if they were a grass-roots movement that really cared about the well-being of their community, should have improved their neighborhoods enormously. Instead, they are proud of having Iranian re-fabricated Chinese and Ukranian military technology that only brings on them more death and destruction and subjects them further to the mercy of this ruthless fascistic cult.

I don’t care about Venezuella, the multi-national corporations that want to rule the world. I don’t care about Ghana. I don’t care about places I haven’t been to. I only care about places I have been to, and the people I know, not some generic revolution of the downtrodden.
When I became a US citizen, the oath that I took was not a lie. I truly believe what I promised, and realize why I am here and what a privelege it is to be here. But I also remember Iran, read and follow the news about it, and have seen Lebanon also.

I hope they take away Hezbollah’s weapons and stop them from starting fights that they cannot win.

Read more!

Iran: Woman shot by the Police

An Unverified video thanks to Kamangir. Translation below.

Translation: Which part is it? Take her up. Women! come and help! Men! Help! Men! Help! She is shot by the Police. The Police has shot her. Police shot her. In her own home. Police shot her. Go away! Take care of her! She was shot by the Police.

Read more!

Forging an Iran Strategy

This is a 27 page report ,Convened by American Foreign Policy Council
and McCormick Tribune Foundation. (read in full--pdf file)

Report of the Working Group on Iran’s

The global threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran is mounting. In
defiance of United Nations (UN) resolutions, the Iranian regime is developing
a nuclear weapon capability, and has engaged in a campaign of
systematic deception vis-à-vis the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
about the scope and pace of its nuclear effort.

Iran is also actively expanding it sballistic missile arsenal, and will soon be capable of holding at risk targets far beyond the Middle East. At the same time, Iran has become a serial proliferator,
demonstrating both the capacity and the intent to transfer WMD technology and
know-how, including those related to nuclear weapons, to rogue states and terrorist
organizations alike.

The Iranian regime remains the world’s leading state
sponsor of terrorism, fueling the activities of proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas
and insurgents in Iraq. Through reenergized diplomacy, the Islamic Republic is
expanding its influence in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Latin America as well,
and is actively attempting to forge anti-American coalitions in those regions.
So far, however, the United States has not formulated a comprehensive strategy
to address this complex challenge.

Rather, Washington has wedded itself to a—and deeply flawed—diplomatic process aimed at addressing just one aspect of the contemporary Iranian threat: its nuclear program. In doing so,
the U.S. has placed its reliance on the United Nations system, as well as its allies
in Europe, none of whom have shown much appetite for confronting Iran over the
nuclear issue. Yet both Russia and China, which have extensive economic, political
and military ties to Iran, remain an impediment to meaningful diplomatic and
economic efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and can be
expected to continue obstructing forceful action against their client state.
Instead of relying on diplomacy alone, the United States should seek a broader
strategy—one designed to prevent Iran from going nuclear, contain its regional
ambitions, and encourage a fundamental political transformation within its borders.
In order to achieve these objectives, the United States must:
• Expand American and allied intelligence capabilities to better gauge the scope
and pace of the Iranian threat, and which responses will be most effective in
countering it
• Exploit existing vulnerabilities in the Iranian economy through targeted financial
measures outside the confines of the United Nations
• Degrade and deny Iran the ability to sponsor international terrorism through more
aggressive U.S. and allied counterproliferation, interdictions and covert action

Executive Summary

aimed at neutralizing or eliminating Iranian-supported radicals responsible for acts
of terrorism
• Enhance outreach to the Iranian people by improving the clarity of U.S. strategic
communications through better programming, better content and greater clarity of
message about America’s commitment to fundamental change in Iran
• Reestablish credibility vis-à-vis the Iranian regime by making clear, both in word and
in deed, that continued rogue behavior will carry adverse consequences, up to and
including the use of force

• Build countervailing coalitions, including with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, to constrain Iran’s regional freedom of action through increased intelligence-sharing,stepped-up counterterrorism coordination and greater military-to-military interaction

• Promote fundamental change within the Islamic Republic through greater outreach
to—and financial and logistical resources for—opposition forces now active inside
and outside of the country
• Build effective homeland and missile defenses to defend the U.S., its allies and its
deployed forces against the nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities that Iran is
acquiring
• Curb Iranian influence in Iraq through better border security measures and initiatives
intended to marginalize Iranian-supported militias and activities there
• Map out a full spectrum of military options, ranging from aggressive covert action
against Iranian agents and proxies to extensive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities
and ballistic missile sites

Read more!

For the Sake of Rotten Ideology...

From Katayoun's blog:

Khomeini’s hostility towards Iranians’ intellectual activities, and scientific endeavors, and cultural progress was a religious reaction, on his part, to all things that challenged his rotten beliefs.

Like all Fanatics, Khomeni detested all things that appealed to the truly-educated- free-spirit-people, and was incapable of conceiving notions that were strange to him. His fear of “reason”, “accountability”, “fairness”, “progress”, “prosperity”, was the very projection of his own ignorance, of his inability to understand and respect people’s needs that which were secondary to his Faith. His only talent, however, was to act as Iran’s only Moral Entrepreneur, and following his nonsensical orders and commands, went herds of men and women through an Islamic-filtering-process, so brutal in tone and in application that it “cleansed the education system” in a way that was perceived as “religiously revolutionary”.
The intention of this brief note is not to make a study of what had happened during that two-years-of-cultural-revolution in Iran, and how it did happen—although the whole thing requires, in all fairness, an in-depth study of the issue of “cultural revolution” and its impact on Iranian’s education system. With intensive focus on the crucial elements that played part in satisfying Khomeini’s need for establishing his Islamic Empire of atrocity, viciousness, and propaganda, one certainly shall understand the effect of that Fascist-cultural-revolution and its aftermath throughout Iranian society.

To give you a hint of Khomeini’s view on education and those who inquired knowledge and were eager to satisfy their own thirst for intellectual activities, it is most appropriate to use his own words and expression (a very careful translation, not transliteration of his words) and see how he saw the world through the eye of a needle.

Khomeini, in one of his speeches in the beginning of his famous “cultural cleansing” asserts:
“We don’t want the kind of universities whose slogan is ‘progressed and prosperous Iran, and we want to move towards the great civilization’. In principle, we oppose the kind of establishment. We need professors who are not leaning towards either East or West.”

Or in another speech about the same issue he aims his anger at those intellectuals who rose in opposition against him, and states that, “whatever has befallen this nation is because of the meddling of these so called intellectuals in our affairs. We don't need them, and we ought to rid of them for the sake of our dear Islam.”


Do you think I need to explain more?


katayoun
And here is the rest of it.

Read more!

Domestic Terror in Iran

Photo Via Cityboy

Iran has just carried out the largest wave of executions since 1984. BY AMIR TAHERI Monday, August 6, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT



It is early dawn as seven young men are led to the gallows amid shouts of "Allah Akbar" (Allah is the greatest) from a crowd of bearded men as a handful of women, all in hijab, ululate to a high pitch. A few minutes later, the seven are hanged as a mullah shouts: "Alhamd li-Allah" (Praise be to Allah).
The scene was Wednesday in Mashad, Iran's second most populous city, where a crackdown against "anti-Islam hooligans" has been under way for weeks.
The Mashad hangings, broadcast live on local television, are among a series of public executions ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month as part of a campaign to terrorize an increasingly restive population. Over the past six weeks, at least 118 people have been executed, including four who were stoned to death. According to Saeed Mortazavi, the chief Islamic prosecutor, at least 150 more people, including five women, are scheduled to be hanged or stoned to death in the coming weeks.





The latest wave of executions is the biggest Iran has suffered in the same time span since 1984, when thousands of opposition prisoners were shot on orders from Ayatollah Khomeini.
Not all executions take place in public. In the provinces of Kurdistan and Khuzestan, where ethnic Kurdish and Arab minorities are demanding greater rights, several activists have been put to death in secret, their families informed only days after the event.

The campaign of terror also includes targeted "disappearances" designed to neutralize trade union leaders, student activists, journalists and even mullahs opposed to the regime. According to the latest tally, more than 30 people have "disappeared" since the start of the new Iranian year on March 21. To intimidate the population, the authorities also have carried out mass arrests on spurious grounds.
According to Gen. Ismail Muqaddam, commander of the Islamic Police, a total of 430,000 men and women have been arrested on charges related to drug use since April. A further 4,209 men and women, mostly aged between 15 and 30, have been arrested for "hooliganism" in Tehran alone. The largest number of arrests, totaling almost a million men and women according to Mr. Muqaddam, were related to the enforcement of the new Islamic Dress Code, passed by the Islamic Majlis (parliament) in May 2006.
Most of those arrested, he says, spent a few hours, or at most a few days, in custody as "a warning." By last week, 40,000 were still in prison. Of these, 20,363 men and women are held on charges related to violating the Islamic Dress Code. According to the Deputy Chief of Police Gen. Hussein Zulfiqari, an additional 6,204 men and women are in prison on charges of "sexual proximity" without being married.
The wave of arrests has increased pressure on the nation's inadequate prison facilities. At a recent press conference in Tehran, the head of the National Prisons Service, Ali-Akbar Yassaqi, appealed for a moratorium on arrests. He said Iran's official prisons could not house more than 50,000 prisoners simultaneously while the actual number of prisoners at any given time was above 150,000. Mr. Yassaqi also revealed that each year on average some 600,000 Iranians spend some time in one of the 130 official prisons.
Since Mr. Ahmadinejad ordered the crackdown, work on converting 41 official buildings to prisons has started, with contracts for 33 other prisons already signed. Nevertheless, Mr. Yassaqi believes that, with the annual prison population likely to top the million mark this year, even the new capacities created might prove insufficient.There are, however, an unknown number of unofficial prisons as well, often controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or militias working for various powerful mullahs. Last week, human rights activists in Iran published details of a new prison in Souleh, northwest of Tehran, staffed by militants from the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah. According to the revelations, the Souleh prison is under the control of the "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi, and used for holding the regime's most "dangerous" political foes.
The regime especially fears the growing free trade union movement. In the past four months, free trade unionists have organized 12 major strikes and 47 demonstrations in various parts of the country. They showed their muscle on International Labor Day on May 1 when tens of thousands of workers marched in Tehran and 18 provincial capitals. The regime retaliated by arresting scores of trade unionists and expelling many others.
According to Rajab-Ali Shahsavari, leader of the Union of Contractual Workers, 25,795 unionists have been fired since April. He estimates that now over 1,000 workers are losing their jobs each day, as the regime intensifies its crackdown.
Worse still, the number of suspicious deaths among workers has risen to an all-time high. According to Deputy Labor Minister Ibrahim Nazari-Jalali, 1,047 workers have died in "work-related accidents" since April. Labor sources, however, point out that none of the accidents have been investigated and, in at least 13 cases, the workers who died may have been killed by goons hired by the regime.
The biggest purge of universities since Khomeini launched his "Islamic Cultural Revolution" in 1980 is also under way. Scores of student leaders have been arrested and more than 3,000 others expelled. Labeling the crackdown the "corrective movement," Mr. Ahmadinejad wants university textbooks rewritten to "cleanse them of Infidel trash," and to include "a rebuttal of Zionist-Crusader claims" about the Holocaust. Dozens of lecturers and faculty deans have been fired.
The nationwide crackdown is accompanied with efforts to cut Iranians off from sources of information outside the Islamic Republic. More than 4,000 Internet sites have been blocked, and more are added each day. The Ministry of Islamic Orientation has established a new blacklist of authors and book titles twice longer than what it was a year ago. Since April, some 30 newspapers and magazines have been shut and their offices raided. At least 17 journalists are in prison, two already sentenced to death by hanging.

The regime is trying to mobilize its shrinking base by claiming that the Islamic Republic is under threat from internal and external foes. It was in that context that the four Iranian-American hostages held in Tehran were forced to make televised "confessions" last month about alleged plots to foment a "velvet revolution."

Read more!

Hunger Strike

Today is the 25th day that the student activist hero Majid Tavakolli is on hunger strike.
He was arrested 90 days ago when the ISA activist body at Tehran Amir Kabir University was trying to have elections.


More on Torturing the Students in Evin (ward 209) here.
link via cityboy

Read more!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Shameful perversion in the Islamic Republic, government of "god on earth", the most "benevolent", the most "merciful", the most "islamic".


http://www.rashedan.com/blog/?p=27#comment-164 ( in persian)

http://tinyurl.com/3b7l5n ( in persian)

Read more!

US Embassy Ignorance

Potkin: Majid Kavousifar, seen in these pictures before being hanged, left Iran for Abu Dhabi two days after the assassination of one of the most corrupt and most repressive judges in the Islamic Republic. (the corrupt judge was considered to be a butcher among the student population and had also tried and sentenced Ganji...)

Judge Moghaddas who was assassinated by Kavousifar and his nephew, was responsible for handing out long sentences to many political activists. Moghaddas sometimes even boasted that he sentenced the accused without even reading their files!

Kavoussifar had introduced himself as the killer of Moghaddas to the American Embassy in Abu Dhabi, where he had applied for asylum. The embassy guards handed him over to the Interpol, which informed Islamic Republic's authorities of the incident.I thought it was just the Homeland Security at the US airports who were the thickest officials in the world!

Here, Majid Kavousifar is seen smiling and saying his last goodbye. Why are so many victims smiling in these latest round of public executions? Perhaps if there is any after life, it will be better than living under the mullahs.
The film footage of the execution."--End

Many in the West might argue that if he was in the U.S., he would probably be executed too. However, there is a huge difference between the sharia laws in a theocracy and the democratic laws in a democracy. According to our laws many of these corrupt mullahs (Khatami, Rafsanjani, Khamenie, Ahmadinjad, Mesbah-Yazdi, etc.) and judges should have been executed or put in jail. In fact, unless you have your hands bloodied in some ways, you won't be able to move up the ladder in the Islamic Republic's hierarchical klepotacracy.

The Islamic Republic in no fashion represents, enforces, or reinforces the true will of the people, who are the true source of all sovereignty, and the only rightful and legitimating base for any state or government. The Islamic Republic is an oligarchal theocracy run by a bunch of criminals and brutal thugs who will kill anyone who will stand on their way; hence the *public* executions. A public display of hatred has only one purpose, to signal to the citizens of the state that their government is willing to kill anyone to stay in power. End this practice and you take away that power.

Read more!

Barbarians at the Gate

By now, you've probably heard of Mitt Romeny's recent speech on Hezbollah. At a town hall meeting in Iowa last Friday, Mitt Romney offered a controversial twist on his usual stump speech when he held up Hezbollah as a model for the effectiveness of using social services as a way to win hearts and minds. “Did you notice in Lebanon what Hezbollah did? Lebanon became a democracy some time ago. And while their government was getting underway, Hezbollah went into southern Lebanon and provided health clinics to some of the people there and schools. And they built their support by having done so,” Romney said. “That kind of diplomacy is something that would help America become stronger around the world and help people understand that our interest is an interest toward modernity and goodness and freedom for all people of the world.”

Though I'm fervently anti-Hezbolallh and anti- all those immoral southern Lebanese who are the biggest welfare kings and queens robbing Iranians of their national wealth, I think Romney gets it. The message (while very ill-worded) is actually a valid point: The “social services” (building schools and hospitals, etc.) approach is very important in winning the PR battle, and the hearts and minds of the locals.

But it needs to be done right.

The US actually does quite a bit in aid and help in Lebanon, Iraq, and other Arab countries. But a lot of that gets lost in the rhetoric and grandiose speeches.
Just yesterday I read a couple of stories on Naharnet about the US financing some water project in South Lebanon and the EU donating 5.5M dollars to the Nahr Al Bared refugees.
But no one ever talks about that. And what’s even more annoying is that often, the recipients of this aid act entitled and complain about the very people who are giving them aid (calling them great evil satans and what have you).
Mitt Romney does not want America to be more like Hezbollah, he wants America to be more like Iran which is pulling the strings for Hezbollah.

In principle I agree with Romney that the Hezbollah franchise --of which Hamas in Palestine and Mahdi Army in Iraq are examples--is insidiously a raging success as Karim Sadjapour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (director of Carnegie Iran Initiative), points out in a piece at IHT:

Karim Sadjadpour

Tehran has generously armed and funded militant groups ever since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. As opposed to the Soviet Union, however, today Iran's preferred vehicle of choice to spread its power and influence throughout the Middle East is, ironically, democratic elections. Though Iran's clerical rulers refuse to hold free and fair elections at home, the strong electoral showings of Hamas in Palestine, the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Shiite co-coreligionists in Iraq, has Tehran confident that their Islamist friends have won the battle for the region's hearts and minds, while Western-oriented liberals are in retreat. In the words of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, "Today, if a referendum is held in any Islamic country, the people will vote for individuals supporting Islam and opposing the United States."

In a twisted Machiavellian way it’s kind of brilliant and if U.S wants to make headway in Iraq or anywhere else it needs to learn to use the same tools that it's enemy is using, or at least learn to understand and counter them.

All USAID projects in the Middle east have a large sign that says “Offered by the people of the United States Of America”. Still, it does not t work because it gives the impression that the US is trying to bribe the people.

It’s a complex combination of trust and generosity that can pull loyalty off. And trust leaves a lot to be desired. How to build this trust again matters. It takes human and personal contact ; learning of other's struggles, aspirations and dreams ;teaching them who we are as Americans (instead of anti-Americanism propaganda they are taught by the extremists), sharing with them what we hope and aspire for and how our democracy works, and genuine willingness and interest in getting to know other cultures and sincere interface with people of other nations. We live in a globalized world where people and cultures are bound to collide. How we manage this collision, will make the difference between living in peace or constant conflagration of war and carnage. We cannot afford to want to be isolated or left alone anymore. What happens is Lebanon, Iran, Palestine, Iraq, or Afghanistan is going to effect all of our lives personally albeit indirectly in so many unimagined ways.

We must win the ideological and propaganda war if we are to save Western Civilization from the barbarians at the gate.

Read more!