Canada might add IRGC to Terror List

Canada could add Iran's Guard to terror list

...Canada is "very concerned" about Tehran's intervention outside its borders and has not ruled out banning the Iranian Revolutionary Guard under the Anti-Terrorism Act, says Stockwell Day, the Minister of Public Safety.

"We are very concerned about Iranian intervention in jurisdictions outside of their own, either if that's affecting our allies or if it's affecting us," Mr. Day said in an interview.

"We've got some pretty serious concerns on that."

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U.S. detains Iranian in Iraq

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - An Iranian officer accused of smuggling powerful roadside bombs into Iraq was arrested Thursday in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

The arrest could add to tensions between Washington and Tehran already strained by the detention of each other's citizens as well as U.S. accusations of Iranian involvement in Iraq's violence and Iran's disputed nuclear program.
The military said the suspect was a member of the Quds force — an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards — and was seized from a hotel in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.
Two other Iranians were detained in the raid but later released, a Kurdish official said.

The Iranian officer was allegedly involved in transporting roadside bombs, including armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, into Iraq, according to a military statement. It said intelligence reports also indicated he was involved in the infiltration and training of foreign fighters in Iraq.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said the arrest was consistent with U.S. policy and that the Iranian posed a serious threat. "It's a further reflection that they've not ceased those activities that we find troublesome," Whitman said.

Officials have said the Bush administration is expected to soon blacklist the Quds force as a terrorist organization, subjecting part of Iran's vast military operation to financial sanctions. The move would be in response to Iranian actions in Iraq and elsewhere.
Iran has denied allegations that it is stoking the violence in Iraq.

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IRGC Commander:"Chaos in Iraq Is Good For Iran"

A few days ago, Iran's state-run newspaper, Jam-e-Jam published the newly-appointed IRGC commander's speech where in a remarkable display of unbridled honesty he said, “If the enemy succeeded in securing Iraq, they would definitely attack Iran. Fortunately, and thanks to Muslims of the region, they failed in this conspiracy.” He added “If they are not sure about their plans, that’s because of their failure in Iraq”. “The Islamic Iran has turned into a great regional power…and all world powers are anxious about the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, he concluded [Persian].

This provoctive admission was not reported anywhere in the MSM. If anyone knows of this news being reported anywhere in English, please let notify me. Is this not news to our wonderful MSM?

Link via kamangir

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“I PRAY to God that I will never know about economics,”~ President Ahmadinejad

Islamic of Republic of Iran is, purely and simply, the theft of billions and billions of oil revenues, aided and abetted by the criminal IRGC/basij forces of the velayate-faghih government at nearly every level of the state-dominated economy.

The redirection of a huge portion of Iranian treasury to the pockets of fat, smelly mullahs, conservatives, reformers, and their corporate army (IRGC, basiji) is conducted with the active support and full power of the supreme leader and almost completely unfettered by supervision, accountability or direction of any kind whatsoever.

The corporate/religious IRGC (IR's Halliburton), the basiji and the clergies have merged into a fascistic religious military industrial complex.

The most notable characteristic of a fascist country is the separation and persecution or denial of equality to a specific segment of the population based upon superficial qualities or belief systems. Simply stated, a fascist government always has one class of citizens that is considered superior (good) to another (bad) based upon race, creed or origin. It is possible to be both a republic and a fascist state.

The preferred class lives in a republic while the oppressed class lives in a fascist state. Fascism promotes legal segregation in housing, national resource, education, health care, other resource allocation and employment. It provides legal justification for persecuting a specific segment of the population and operates behind a two tiered legal system.

These two tiers can be overt as it was within Nazi Germany where Jews, Homosexuals, Catholics, Communists, Clergy and the handicap were held to one set of rules and courts, while the rest of Germany enjoyed different laws.

In Fascism, one segment of society is always considered less desirable, sub-human (women, homosexuals, Bahai, sunnis, kurds, baluchis) or second class.

The IRI is also Reactionary wherein it makes policy based upon current circumstances rather than creating policies to prevent problems; piles lies and misnomers on top of more lies until the truth becomes indistinguishable, revised or forgotten.

In short, Iran is a huge profit center for Khamanei et al and his corporate Army, IRGC. Inc.

The Economist has a special report on the state of economy in Iran (Full- text here)

“I PRAY to God that I will never know about economics,” President Ahmadinejad once said when questioned about apparent contradictions in his economic policy. The Lord appears to have answered his prayer. On his watch, the world oil price has soared from $62 a barrel when he was elected in June 2005 to $72 a barrel in recent weeks. Iran, which has a young, well-educated workforce, along with the world's second-largest reserves of both oil and gas, should be on a roll. Instead the economy is struggling. Is this a weakness the world can use to dissuade Iran from its nuclear ambitions?

Since almost all official economic statistics are suspect, measuring the performance of the economy is hard. But Afshin Molavi, an Iran-watcher at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC, calls slow economic decline “the untold story of the Iranian revolution”. The economy is showing respectable growth of about 5%. But it is recording high and rising unemployment and inflation. The government puts unemployment at around 10% but private economists think it is twice as high—and that many of those with jobs have to take second ones to make ends meet. Mr Ahmadinejad's government claims to have reduced the rate of inflation. In fact it has almost certainly gone up: guesstimates by foreign embassies in Tehran put it as high as 25%. Meanwhile, foreign investment is puny—and falling (see chart 2).

[...]

But there are two bigger reasons for Iran's underperformance. One is the lopsided structure of an oil-based economy in which a corruption-riddled public sector dwarfs private business. The other is incompetent economic management, especially by Mr Ahmadinejad.

Oil revenues bring in some 80% of export earnings, but even with a high world oil price the government finds it hard to pay its bills. Tough buy-back terms have deterred foreign investment in the oilfields and hampered production: a quarter of a century after the revolution, Iran is pumping only two-thirds as much oil as before. Meanwhile the government operates a vast, price-distorting system of subsidies for food, energy, housing, bank credit and much else. According to the IMF, energy subsidies alone reached 17.5% of GDP in 2005-06, and total subsidies amounted to 25% of GDP. A Consumer and Producer Protection Organisation keeps price controls on cereals, sugar, baby milk, fertilisers and pharmaceuticals, paper and agricultural machinery. This edifice of subsidies places huge demands on public spending and would collapse if it were not for the oil revenues (see chart 3).
Among the maddest of the subsidies is that on petrol. Even after a recent 25% price hike it is still the cheapest in the world, at 11 American cents a litre. That has encouraged an annual 10% increase in consumption, plus impossible traffic and choking pollution in all of Iran's cities.

Selling petrol so cheaply is hardly an incentive for domestic refiners to raise production, so Iran has to import more than 40% of its petrol and other refined products. Much of this is smuggled back out (allegedly by the Revolutionary Guards) to be sold at a higher price. In short, Iran spends a fortune subsidising cheap petrol not only at home but also for consumers in neighbouring countries, wasting money it could otherwise have spent on increasing its flagging oil production. The government's decision last month to introduce rationing provoked violent disturbances. Since many Iranians use private cars to top up meagre incomes by becoming unofficial taxi-drivers, the consequences of this measure will be widely felt.

The IMF calls Iran's economy “state-dominated”. And how. Revolution and eight years of war have made for vast government. In most sectors state-owned companies or the opaque quasi-state foundations known as bonyads crowd out private businesses. Agriculture, internal trade and distribution are mostly in private hands. Even so, estimates of how much of the economy the government controls range between 65% and 80%...more

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IRGC: "We will 'Punch' U.S.

APNEWS:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said they would not bow to pressure and threatened to "punch" the U.S., in their first response to Washington's plan to list them as a terrorist organization, newspapers reported Saturday.
Local press in the Iranian capital of Tehran quoted Revolutionary Guards leader Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi saying that he could understand Washington's ire toward the group because of their "leverage" against the U.S.
"America will receive a heavier punch from the guards in the future," he was quoted as saying in the conservative daily Kayhan. "We will never remain silent in the face of U.S. pressure and we will use our leverage against them."

There was no elaboration on what Safavi meant by the punch or the organization's "leverage."

Update: Supreme Leader of Iran says the US is stuck "in a Whirlpool":

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sunday launched a new attack on the United States, saying Iran's arch-enemy was "stuck in a whirlpool," and would sink deeper in the future. "America is weaker compared to 20 years ago, and it does not have its previous power and grandeur," Khamenei said in a speech to participants in a religious conference, state television said. "America and its followers are stuck in a whirlpool, and they sink deeper as time passes. A dangerous future is predicted for them," he added.

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IRGC: "We love our U.S. Designation and consider it a Golden Page in our history"

IRGC Celebrated 'IRGC Day' in a soccer stadium with great pomp and kitsch fanfare (bordering macabre) while Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami in his Friday Prayer added that the U.S. designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group adds a "golden page "to the history of IRGC and it's a proud moment for all. The guests included the mayor of Tehran and families from Lebanon Hizballah who were celebrating the anniversary of the end of the Israel-Lebanon war last year.

More photos here.

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Expect IR's retaliation against the U.S.

Given the IR's track record, the Islamic Republic will likely take retaliatory measures to even the score against the U.S. if it brands the IRGC as a terrorist group. Those measures could encompass intensifying proxy terrorist attacks in Iraq against U.S. forces or provoking another war with Israel via syria or Hizballah, or perhaps, more international hostage taking per usual since it has worked like a charm for the past 28 years. Here is IRGC's reaction to naming the guards as the foreign terrorist group:

Iran's Revolutionary Guards will grow in strength despite U.S. efforts to isolate the force, a Guards official said in remarks published on Thursday after Washington's threat to brand it a "terrorist" group.

Not only would the Revolutionary Guards not be isolated but rather it would actively continue its trend of growth with strength," the head of the political office of the Guards, named only as Javani, was quoted by the daily Jam-e Jam as saying.

"Americans have been fighting the Islamic system for 27 years and create plots against it. But the Revolutionary Guards have made defending the Islamic system its duty and will increase its capabilities in this regard day by day," he added.

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IRGC's Vast Business Empire

Listen to the Interview by clicking here.

NPR:

Tess Vigeland: Reports out today say the Bush Administration is taking steps to list Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. If that happens, it would be the first time the U.S. put a foreign country's military on the list.

The move would allow U.S. officials to further tighten the screws on Iran, because the Revolutionary Guards have substantial business operations. And it would also put further pressure on other countries still doing business with Iran.

Marketplace's Stephen Beard joins us to talk about these developments. Hi, Stephen.

Stephen Beard: Hello, Tess.

Vigeland: So my first question for you: The Revolutionary Guard in Iran has time for business interests?

Beard: Haha, plenty of time. It has a vast business empire. I mean, this may be a military organization, but we're talking about a very wide swathe of businesses — oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications . . . carpet manufacturing . . .

Vigeland: Carpet manufacturing?

Beard: Absolutely, carpet manufacturing and exporting. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard are heavily into that. It's virtually anything that you can think of, The Iranian Revolutionary Guard have got either a share of that business or they run it directly.

Vigeland: All right, then what effect could this potential action by the administration have on the Guard?

Beard: Well, the U.S. is hoping that it's going to essentially just pile the economic and political pressure onto the government. It'll be one more thing in addition to the U.N. and the U.S. sanctions. The U.N. sanctions are aimed specifically at members of the regime and individuals involved in the nuclear program.

The U.S. sanctions are far more wide-ranging and punitive, and they've been pretty effective, actually, in persuading European banks in particular to pull out of Iran to stop financing Iranian trade. This new measure, it's hoped, may make foreign companies even more reluctant to trade with Iran, because they might be dealing with the Revolutionary Guard, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

Vigeland: So who is still trading with Iran anyway? There've been these sanctions for years. And how could this move affect those trading partners?

Beard: Well, first of all, who's trading with Iran, China is the country's biggest trading partner. Germany and Italy are still relatively big suppliers of industrial equipment and other goods. Britain, the U.S.'s closest ally, still does about $2 billion worth of business a year with Iran. Now, some of this business will undoubtedly decline as a result of this measure. How much, difficult to say — depends really on how effective the U.S. is in identifying companies that deal with the Iranian Guard and how punitive the Americans are in punishing them.

Vigeland: All right. Marketplace's Stephen Beard with us from London. Thanks, Stephen.

Beard: OK, Tess.

Listen to the interview by clicking here.

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IRGC Officially a Terrorist Group

The Arabic Part of the IRGC's logo (the picture on the right) is a verse from quoran (koran). It means "Be prepard to fight with the enemy in everyway you can" (financially, militarily, economically).

Iranian Unit to Be Labeled 'Terrorist'


WaPo :

The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said.

[...]

It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said -- a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.

The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists."
The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard's vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard's financial operations.

"Anyone doing business with these people will have to reevaluate their actions immediately," said a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. "It increases the risks of people who have until now ignored the growing list of sanctions against the Iranians. It makes clear to everyone who the IRGC and their related businesses really are. It removes the excuses for doing business with these people." Read Further

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Finally, a stick and Realists's unreality

Michael Rubin seems to be the only one in the whole wide world to have figured out the mullahs.

Unlike other so-called Iran experts, he is not driven by extreme ideologies on either side. The problem with many Think Tanks and those who work for them are that the people doing the thinking are rationalists. A rationalist begins with his axiom and deduces his conclusions. Proper reason begins with the facts of reality, and continually refers back to reality to make sure that the focus remains on what is. This is why the inaptly named “realists” never were. The consequences of their trumped-up reality have been deadly–literally(see: Carter and the democrat's appeasement policies for the last 27 years).

Here is what he had to say in an interveiw with Hugh Hewitt about the recent talks between Al-Amirkee and the Al-Tazis (Islamic Republic):

...HH: What is the strength of the Iranian regime, Michael Rubin, in your estimate? Can it be toppled easily? Or is that a battle to the death if it’s joined? "

" MR: It can be toppled, not easily by any means. What’s the cement that holds it together? The Revolutionary Guard. We know from a variety of means, both on quantitative and qualitative, that the Iranian regime only has about only 20% of the Iranian population really support the idea of theocracy. That doesn’t mean that 80% of the others are revolutionaries by any means. Most of them are quite apathetic.

However, the Revolutionary Guard, hand-appointed by the supreme leader, has the arms, and they’re willing to enforce the revolutionary precepts. What people often forget when they’re hoping for some muddle through reform, is that it doesn’t matter what 80% of the people think, because in Iran, sovereignty derives not from the people, but from *Ayatollah Khamenei’s conception of God, and therefore, he doesn’t care what the people think, and he has the Revolutionary Guard in place to make sure that they don’t get out of line. " .

But Stanley Weiss of IHT thinks there is still hope to kick the mullahs where it hurts their wallets. Tibits:

So even as American and Iranian officials meet again in Baghdad to address their deepening proxy war in Iraq, Tehran refuses to halt its controversial nuclear activities and Washington refuses any direct nuclear talks until it does. "There's really nothing the Iranians want from us," explained Secretary of Defense Robert Gates earlier this year. "We need some leverage, it seems to me, before we engage the Iranians." Recent months, however, reveal that the West does have an economic stick that could yet change Tehran's calculations.

Despite widespread portrayals of Iran Rising - its historic rivals the Taliban and Saddam Hussein ousted, Tehran bolstered by record oil prices and Iranian allies ascendant from Iraq to Lebanon to Gaza - today's Islamic Republic is actually Iran Slipping. Unemployment and inflation are soaring, and oil production, which generates more than 80 percent of export revenues, is steadily dropping due to decades of neglected infrastructure. Recent riots that followed gasoline rationing may be a sign of bigger troubles to come.

But while average Iranians suffer, nearly three decades of unilateral U.S. trade sanctions have ironically perpetuated the mullah's grip on power by helping prop up the business monopolies of key pillars of the regime - the conservative bazaari merchant class and the brutal Revolutionary Guards. Through bonyads, corrupt Islamic "charities," Tehran's klepto-clerics control the vast majority of the Iranian economy. Now, the U.S. may have found a way to exploit Iran's economic Achilles heel by hitting the regime where it hurts - the wallet.

Alongside recent UN resolutions freezing the assets of Iranian organizations and individuals involved in the country's nuclear and missile programs, Washington has launched a full-scale financial assault on the mullahs. Since last year, the Bush administration has blacklisted two major state-owned Iranian banks and warned foreign governments and financial institutions against doing business with Tehran. As a result, the Iranians are beginning to feel that pinch, according to Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. Fearing a third round of UN sanctions, the regime is reportedly withdrawing millions of dollars from European banks. France, Germany, Italy and Japan have reduced export credits and lending to Tehran. Dozens of financial institutions, many in Europe and Asia, have either halted or curbed their business with Iran.

Companies like British Gas, Japan's Inpex Holdings and South Africa's Sasol have abandoned billions of dollars in energy projects. A growing movement in the U.S. aims to tighten the financial screws on Tehran even further. Modeled after the 1980s anti-apartheid divestment campaign against South Africa, the effort aims to force the $1 trillion pension-fund industry to divest from multinational corporations with business in Iran.

In particular, divestment advocates hope to deprive Tehran of the nearly $100 billion it needs to modernize its oil and gas infrastructure and keep its petrodollars flowing. Some public employee pension funds are already divesting from hundreds of foreign firms, including energy giants with Iranian operations such as Royal Dutch-Shell, France's Total, Russia's Gazprom and Malaysia's Petronas.

More than a dozen other states are likely to follow suit. It's not certain that divestment will persuade these firms to end lucrative deals with oil-rich Iran. Moreover, divestment is opposed by the Bush administration, which argues that targeting foreign firms risks undermining the fragile international coalition against Iran. Still, after years of fruitless diplomatic engagement with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear ambitions, targeted financial sanctions and divestment offer a road not yet traveled. Until now, Tehran's theocrats have thumbed their nose at the world, knowing their petrodollars have been beyond reach. Depriving the mullahs of their money could change that old assumption and maybe, just maybe, force them to rethink their nuclear calculations. Stanley A. Weiss is founding chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington.

* See Economist's article, "Men of Principle"
h/t to Winston

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On Basij Force and Democracy in Iran

Best description of Basiji, Iranian Paramilitary force, by Katayoun, an Iranian-Candian blogger in Canada:

Khomeni was a worried man, because he thought that “a country with 20 million youth must have 20 million riflemen or a military with 20 million soldiers”, to protect the Imam’s creation with a mighty sword! A megalomaniac, he thought that the large army of devotees can guarantee the preservation of his Islamic Republic, till the arrival of “Mehdi”, Islamic messiah. Perhaps he did not know that Napoleon had a “Majestic army”, Hitler had a “Great army”, even Saddam thought that he had an “Extensive army”, but in spite of all the “greatness, and grandeur of the presence of their mighty armies” they all destroyed themselves before they could destroy others.

One of the many “miracles” of the Islamic Republic of Iran was the creation of the Basij, Niruyeh Moghavemat Basij—Mobilisation Resistance Force, in 1980. This paramilitary “National Mobilisation of the Oppressed (Baseej-e Mostazafan)” came to existence not only to take commands from the Sepah, but also to protect the Leader of the Revolution—Vali-e Faquih-- when it is required of them.

No body knows exactly how many of these ideological-bombs are awaiting the “arrival of the messiah—Mehdi”. Rumor has it that “the force” can provide from 12 to 20 million militia men, who can kill in the name of their religious beliefs, and protect the dignity of the Islamic System, whenever the Spiritual Leader commands them. The Basij or Baseej paramilitary “volunteer forces” are under the control of the Revolutionary guard, but when they are “protecting the Nezam” (the Islamic system) they stand shoulder to shoulder with the Pasdaran and together they make sure that the “indecent activities” of citizens are dealt with, that the women wear their “hejab” in most Islamic way, and respect Islamic-dress-code, and act and react to what might befall them in the most Islamic manner.

The Basij also is responsible for removing satellite dish antennae from citizens’ roofs.The Basij members are “full time uniformed personnel” who are “joined up to 300,000 reservists”. The Middle-school-aged members of the “student Basij are called seekers (Puyandegan), and high-school members are called the Vanguard (Pishgam), whom are being brainwashed in accordance to the system’s needs. The faithful brethren, when finishing high-school “with high marks”, are privileged to enter the University in Iran, without a slightest regulatory-complication, get different jobs at different levels of government, without the usual-state-caused-hindrance. *(security clearance and background check to make sure you are from a loyal Islamic republic linage)

During the infamous Iran-Iraq war (Needlessly prolonged by the mass murderer Khomeini by 6 years for his vision of ultimate Islamic utopian ummah) the Basij was heavily involved in sending believers (the members) to heaven by the way of martyrdom. But, those brethren who remained at home were engaged in cleansing the society from all its impurities, especially “the culprits of the previous regime,” and all those who did not agree (and still do not agree) with the imposed rules of law”. In conclusion: the Basijis, alongside their superiors, the Sepah Pasdaran, are trained to preserve and protect the Islamic regime in Iran. And here is the rest of it.

How the IRI and IR's apologists in the EU, UN, and US got away with calling this totalitarian system a democracy I will never comprehend. Religions that believe that the state should be a tool for the enforcement of religious law, and which deplore the very idea that the governed should give their consent to be governed are antithesis to definition of democracy. In view of the required “approval” of all candidates by the Guardian Council [at least since Khatami surrendered his 50% appointments to Khameini to get his second government sworn in], elections are an empty exercise in futility in Iran and one wonders why Iranians even bother with elections? It has become impossible to elect anyone who will represent anyone but the extreme loonies (Basij) and the Rev. Guard.

A religion that seeks to govern ("Iran's government of God") cannot have spiritual content and government that needs religious justification can have no element of justice in its doctrine.

*my comments

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Interview: Revolutionary Guards Have Financial Interest in Keeping Iran Isolated

NY Times Interview with Karim Sadjadpour, associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

[...]

Well, I don’t know if we can say there’s one precise reason behind the crackdown. I think it certainly was in the realm of possibility that the government in Tehran is trying to send a very stern signal to the Bush administration to cease any democracy promotion effort in Iran. At the same time, the government in Tehran is trying to send a very clear signal to Iranian-Americans and all those who work on issues of civil society or internal politics in Iran that they should tread very carefully. But I’m also increasingly coming to the conclusion that there’s a small but very powerful clique within Iran, among the political elite, who actually have entrenched political and financial interests in retaining Iran’s isolation. And whenever there is the prospect of a U.S.-Iran dialogue or improved Iranian relations with the West, they do their very best to torpedo such efforts.

You say they have a “financial interest” as well. Could you elaborate?
You have hardline elements within the Revolutionary Guard, who right now have enormous financial assets, and they maintain a kind of a private mafia. And the last thing they want is Iran to open up to the rest of the world, to join the WTO. I think their logic is that right now Iran is a closed society, and the less open the merrier.

Explain a little bit about the Revolutionary Guards. Is this a very large organization?
The Revolutionary Guards comprise about 150,000 in number. They’re not a monolithic group. There’s a common perception right now that the Revolutionary Guards are very closely aligned with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But I would say it’s the opposite. President Ahmadinejad has to pander to the Revolutionary Guards to project his own power, because he doesn’t have a very strong popular base. And it’s difficult to describe them as a group of 150,000 hardliners because in 2001 three-quarters of them voted for the liberal Mohammed Khatami’s re-election as president. In some ways, the Revolutionary Guards are more reflective of the Iranian society than we think. They also want change and reform to take place. But again, when I talked about this powerful clique with entrenched political and financial interest, I don’t think that they’re large in number. I think they represent a minority, a small minority of Iran’s political elite. But they do an outstanding job of consistently playing the spoiler.

And are they involved in the ministry of intelligence which has been responsible for the arrests?
I would say about those who want to retain Iran’s isolationist status—it is not just for financial interests, but it also fits their political worldview. They’re very xenophobic, and many of them still adhere to the old adage from Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution in 1978-79, that the relationship between the United States and Iran is like that between a wolf and a sheep. They’re extremely mistrustful of U.S. intentions and they don’t believe that having a more open Iran is in their own political interests.

Do some of these Revolutionary Guards own businesses? Are they in the oil business?
Yes, they’re getting billion dollar contracts right now, and they essentially operate as contractors. They don’t have the technical know-how whether it’s in the oil industry, or in major infrastructure projects, but they get non-competitive bids, and then they outsource the project. They also have a lot of jetties, or “free-trade ports” where the average Iranian businessman who wants to import or export items is subject to heavy tariffs. The Revolutionary Guards, in turn, operate their own free-trade port, so they’re not subject to tariffs.

I didn’t realize that. And how do the Revolutionary Guards relate to the Iranian army. Revolutionary Guards suggests sort of a militant group. You’re indicating they’re not just a military outfit.

At the onset of the Revolution, there was a lot of concern that the Shah’s army couldn’t be counted on to be loyal to the newly established Islamic republic. So the Khomeinists started the Revolutionary Guards to be the protectors of the revolution. That was the original idea for their existence. But over time they’ve grown in number and they’ve grown in stature, and now there’s a lot of concern that as their economic interests have grown over the years, so have their political ambitions.

Let’s move on to another subject. There’s been a crackdown in Iran, not only on those interested in the United States and the West, but on women’s rights groups. Can you elaborate?

I think Iranian women are among the most progressive women in the Middle East. They’re very capable. We have Shrin Ebadi, the Nobel Prize winner. We have great artists, painters, and doctors and professionals. I would say that despite, not because of the Islamic Republic, Iranian women have still managed to assert themselves in a very important way in Iranian society. And I think their defiance is fairly subtle and fairly apolitical, meaning they’re not so much marching in the streets protesting, but it’s just daily acts of defiance. They are increasingly entering the workforce and going to university. Sixty percent of the universities are women, many not adhering to the strict dress code that was imposed upon them in the early days of the revolution. I would say that those who are political and out marching in the streets for women’s rights are not large in number as a percentage of the population, but they’re not negligible either. And the fact that the regime is choosing to crack down on them, shows that it is concerned about this women’s rights movement.

Talk about the university students. Now if I read the political reporting correctly, there was a major effort by young intellectuals or reformers to boycott the last presidential election in 2005. Do they now regret this? There seems to be a lot of opposition to President Ahmadinejad among the university students these days.
At the time, their rationale for not wanting to participate in the elections was this: “We went out to the polls en masse in 1997 to overwhelmingly elect Mohammed Khatami, but he wasn’t able to effect change the way we wanted him to. So over the course of the next five years, we elected a very reform-minded parliament, and when that wasn’t able to deliver change, we even went and reelected Khatami in 2001. We renewed his mandate and we turned out in Scandinavian turnout levels, 70-80 percent of the population voting, and we gave Khatami mandates of maybe 80 percent.”

But after some eight years of not being able to effect changes via the ballot box, I think it’s very natural that many people decided that voting in Iran is an exercise in futility. As one secular intellectual once put it to me, “It’s like going to the gym every day for six years and not losing one pound. Pretty soon you’re going to stop exercising.” I think the rationale for not participating in the election was at the time sound, but I think now, in retrospect, those people who used to say, “Why should we vote, it doesn’t make any difference,” now realize that actually voting does make a difference, because you can go from kind of an unpleasant situation to a very negative situation. And you can go from someone like Khatami to someone like Ahmadinejad.

U.S. policy toward Iran seems to have two aspects. One is this rather modest program, the equivalent of the Cold War cultural program funding broadcasts and money to help out in exchanges. And the other is this cover activity that keeps going on. A lot of the commentators have sort of blamed the U.S. for the arrests in Iran. What do you say about that?
Well, I don’t think we can blame the United States for the cruelty of the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic has been behaving in cruel fashion since 1979. For example, the punishment of stoning women to death for adultery existed before the neocons came to power in Washington. But that being said, I think the perception in Tehran, especially the perception of Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader, is that the U.S. problems with Iran are not about Iran’s external behavior, but about the very character of the Iranian government. Khamenei believes deep down that Iran’s patch of real estate bordering the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, a strategic location with natural resources, is so important that he believes that the United States really wants to go back to a relationship with Iran which they had in the time of the Shah. This was essentially a patron-client relationship. So when the U.S. appropriated $75 million for civil society and democracy promotion in Iran, this simply reinforced the world view of those in Tehran who believe that the United States is out to change the character of the Iranian government.
And of course, the major foreign policy confrontation continues to be the nuclear enrichment program that Iranians continuing in the face of two series of sanctions in the Security Council, and probably another set will be coming up shortly if the Chinese and Russians agree. Is there any discomfort in the leadership over this sort of international isolation they’re getting themselves into?
There are plenty of people like Ali Larijani, the nuclear negotiator, who doesn’t appreciate Ahmadinejad’s approach. I think they appreciate the need for Iran to retain good ties, for example, with the Europeans and not solely rely on Chinese and Russian support. But I think right now the leadership in Iran is banking on the fact that China and Russia won’t sign up to any substantial sanctions. And without China and Russia on board, European resolve is going to waver. The regime believes that if Iran continues to be persistent, this entire coalition is going to unravel. So I think they’re banking on the fact that if they hold strong, eventually, they’re going to be able to win out. At the same time, many Iranians feel, especially those like Ayatollah Khamenei, that they’re still in a difficult position because they think that if they compromise as a result of the pressure, it’s not going to get them out of trouble, but it’s going to invite even more pressure, it’s going to validate this hard-line approach against them. Someone like Ayatollah Khamenei doesn’t want confrontation—and certainly doesn’t want to have military confrontation—but he’s also averse to accommodation.
I would think he’s making a mistake. I would think any sign of a compromise by Iran would be very welcome in the West.
Well, again, we go back to his worldview. He really believes that it’s not about Iran’s external behavior, that it’s about the character of the Iranian government, which the United States has a problem with, and I think he believes that if he compromises as a result of the pressure, it’s not going to strengthen the argument of those in the State Department who argue for a conciliatory approach to Iran. It’s going to strengthen the argument of people like [Vice President] Dick Cheney who say, “See, the pressure’s working, let’s turn up the heat even more.”
I would think the next presidential election in the United States would be very important for Iran. I don’t see any sign of any of the Democratic candidates wanting to have a softer view on Iran, do you?
I think if you’re a U.S. politician, you don’t win any points by saying, let’s engage Iran, especially when you have a president in Iran who has called for wiping Israel off the map and questioned that the Holocaust happened. I think in the context of domestic U.S. politics it doesn’t win you any points by saying, let’s engage with Ahmadinejad.

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Condemnation of Amir Kabir University arrests by CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): The CPJ condemns the recent arrests of four Iranian student editors of Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran following the publication of newsletters carrying articles deemed insulting to Islam. The students say they had no involvement in the publications, calling them a fraud designed to disrupt student elections. All of the university’s student publications were nonetheless banned by the school administration, according to online reports... The four arrested editors issued a statement May 3 saying that the newsletters fraudulently used the names and logos of their publications, according to AUTNews. The editors claimed that student members of the Basij—a militia affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, an elite unit under the supreme leader’s control—reproduced the names and logos in an attempt to disrupt the elections to the Islamic Student Association, AUTNews said. Immediately following distribution of the newsletters, the Basij attacked the publications and their activist leaders, according to online sources.

Cityboy has the translation of interview with Bijan Pouryousefi, a committee member of the student activist body ISA, who has been banned from attending any classes for two months which comes at a crucial point in his degree and delays his graduation by a year.

Europe has much more on the situation at Amir Kabir University.

For what it's worth... Amnesty International recommends this action:

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, Arabic, English or your own language:- expressing concern for the safety of the six students (please name them);- asking to be informed of the reasons for their arrest, including any charges against them, which should be made public and communicated to the students and their lawyers without delay;- calling for their immediate release if they are not to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence; - calling for them to be granted immediate and unconditional access to their lawyers, family members, and any medical treatment they may require;- seeking assurances that they not being tortured or ill-treated in detention. For more info. click here.

Amnesty International: Fear of torture and ill-treatment IRAN

Bejaz Ahmad Qasabian (m) ]

Moqdad Khalilpour (m) ]

Pooya Mahmoudian (m) ] students at Amir Kabir Polytechnic

Majid Tavakkoli (m) ] in Tehran

Majid Sheikhpour (m) ]

Babak Zamanian (m) ]

Pro-Ahmadinejad Thugs Stab & Beat Student Protesters!

Regime Beats Students With Chains- Arrests Student Leaders

Crackdown & Arrests At Tehran's Amir Kabir University

Crackdown Continues... Student Arrests at Amir-Kabir University

Source

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Ahmadinejad: "Today , When You Mention DEMOCRACY, People Want to Puke".

Ahmadinjead, "the scariest man on earth" is at it again...Ardeshird keenly observes the following:

This is according to the regime's newspaper Etemaad reported by IranPressNews: Ahmadinejad on his 27th provincial trip to the Central Province of Fars attending a gathering of that Province's Mullahs stated a lot of his usual crap, but the most significant parts were when he stated: "Today when you mention democracy people want to throw up" and when he gave the news about governmental budget for religious centres. He said: "In the early days after the [1979] revolution there were many prevalent wrong ideas and one of them was the idea that government should not support [financially] religious centres because they become governmental institutions.

This is in my opinion wrong. How could an Islamic government separate itself from religious centres? of course, it is not a good idea for the shiite religious centres to be controlled by the government" [funny he actually said that! I don't think he meant to say it! because he actually refutes his own statement that How could an Islamic government separate itself from religious centres?!] he then continued: "Previously, this [financial support] had not been mentioned in the governmental budgets but since last year this has been included in the budget and all the provinces have been notified." --

To give a little background, in the early days of the revolution, democracy was the top agenda for the Iranian people. They believed that their revolution was a democratic one even though it was Islamic. For that reason many democratic principles had to be incorporated into the Islamic Republic regime. Khomeini had no choice on that front. The original constitution was compiled with many democratic principles as its main articles.

Khomeini gradually violated these principles and eventually the rule of people was too democratic for the Mullahs and he and Khamenei introduced the Valieh Faghih Article in the Constitution in 1989 so that the spiritual leader Khamenei had the absolute power. they also introduced other institutions such as the Guardian Council, members of which are appointed by the spiritual leader (Khamenei) to ensure that only those faithful to the spiritual leader would be nominated for the elections be it for the parliament or the presidency or any other posts.

As you can see, the regime has been in the process of un-democratisation and the early days' ideas that "religious centres should not be controlled by the government" which is a democratic principle is now being reversed and it is another step to gradually bringing all the remaining institutions under the control of the government and the leader. Now when you put the two together, i.e. the "when you mention democracy people want to throw up" and the "allocation of governmental budget to the religious centres" you see what Ahmadinejad is surreptitiously doing!

This is perhaps insignificant to the opposition that wants to see the whole regime fall. It is just another brick in the wall but as far as the other factions of the regime are concerned and in particular the reformists, this is significant because Ahmadinejad who has the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Basijis, and the Omat-e (Nation of) Hezbullah's support is now trying to buy the support of the religious centres around the country, amongst whom there are many reformists. He is ensuring his second term in the office. And the way he is going, I would not be surprised (if the regime is not toppled by then) to see elections (the only remaining democratic act, even though it is only a show and the candidates are all pre-selected and appointed by the Guardian Council) not bothered with as such behavior is unislamic! (per Ahmadinejad's spiritual Leader, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi ;[a Heideggerian disciple]

The above sober assessment is in fact, Ahamdinejad's preparation for a second coup against the capitalist mullahs, the first coup ascending him to power via mainly rigged Presidential election by IRGC and the paramilitary subsidized Basij volunteers. Ahmadinejad is cunningly steering Iran toward a puritanical Islamic military dictatorship --as opposed to the capitalist mullahs whom he hates--with the World's only legitimate leader of the only monotheist religion, Imam Mahdi, conveniently located in his command post, headquartered in the bottom of a well in Jamkaran, Quom.

Ahmadinejad's agenda doesn't end with turning Iran into military/jihadist dictatorship, he is determined to unify the Islamic world and the left-leaning world against the "arrogant powers" for he longs for "A world without America and Israel".

He is perilously honest when it comes to his conviction and lofty ambitions for the "alternative world order". He sees himself as a savior of humanity and the oppressed. Ahmadinejad is trying to revive the purest definition of the faith. He asserts that "Islam is an alternative to the current global system, not a candidate for becoming a small part of it. "

He is convinced that Islam's domination of the world is not only possible but it's already here. He invites leaders of the world even pope to the monotheist path of salvation because he doesn't not view Christianity and Judaism as monotheist religions (Muslims consider the concept of trinity as polytheism). I'm a bit digressing here. Getting back to what I was saying, I predict that getting rid of pseudo-elections (since, they are not Islamic anyways and there are no elections in Islam) and the capitalist mullahs are on top of Ahmadinejad's agenda.

The rule of several bad men does not last long and easily decays to the rule of a single tyrant. The coming years will give us a single tyrant in form of Islamic military/Jihadists in Iran. Iran is moving toward a military/jihadist dictatorship. Once they get there, then, maybe people will rise up as the oppressed people did in Indonesia or any place else where tyranny, evil, coercion, and oppression is the law of the land. Such protracted reign of terror and unchecked power cannot last long anywhere. Then perhaps from a ruins of military/jihadist dictatorship and much suffering, Iran will rise from the ashes like a phoenix and emerges as a nation it deserves to be.

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The Pasdaran (IRGC) as a Mafia Organization

Francis Fukuyama, a former neo-con, finally gets it. Important segments excerpted:

While commentators charged that Britain capitulated to Iran and handed them a humiliating victory in obtaining the release of the 15 British Marines last week, it would appear something more like the opposite is the case.
...
Our Iranian problem is actually a problem with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, or in Persian Pasdaran) and allied institutions like the Basij militia. These are the "power" agencies that serve as the political base for the conservatives inside Iran. In return for its support, political leaders like ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have allowed the IRGC to grow into a semi-autonomous state-within-a-state.

Today it is a large and sprawling enterprise much like the Russian FSB or the Chinese military.
Since coming to power, the current Ahmedinejad regime has awarded IRGC-affiliated companies billions in no-bid contracts, increasing the already great perception among the Iranian public of its corruption.

It is widely believed that Supreme Leader Khamenei put the current nutcase president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad into office as a means of counterbalancing former president Rafsanjani, and has been regretting this decision ever since as Ahmedinejad spouted off about the Holocaust and pushed Iran deeper into isolation. The current president comes out of the IRGC
(specifically, the Ramazan Unit of the Quds Force), and has used that organisation and the Basij to help consolidate his power by moving against more liberal opponents.

No one knows exactly why the naval wing of the IRGC took the 15 British Marines captive at the end of March. Some speculate it was a matter of freelancing by the IRGC's command, or the navy, reacting to a local target of opportunity. The IRGC may have wanted bargaining chips to help spring its members captured in Iraq...

It is important to remember: those who were responsible for taking the British Marines captive wanted an escalation of the confrontation, both to improve their domestic standing, and to punch back for sanctions that were beginning to bite.

This suggests that what the Bush administration has been doing - slowly ratcheting up the pressure through the use of diplomacy to create an international coalition that now includes the Russians - is the proper course to be on.

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God Wears Boots!

Brian Ross at ABC News reports that “Iran has more than tripled its ability to produce enriched uranium in the last three months, adding some 1,000 centrifuges …” and adds that “Iran could have enough material for a nuclear bomb by 2009.”

The US intelligence community, on the other hand, disagrees. CBS News reports that “neither the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, nor the Director of National Intelligence have changed their estimates of when Iran could have a nuclear weapon. The time frame most often mentioned is 2012-2015.”

Who's right?

Is it a forgone conclusion that the power that be have decided that we have to learn to live with a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic while Tehran warns of further kidnappings and the power structure of the Islamic Republic is shifting toward military fascism?

All signs indicate that the IRGC , reminiscent of the early 1930's slow accumulation of the reigns of power in Italy and Germany has set undeniable strategic, organizational, and tactical policies and proecedures into motion for an ultimate showdown and total power grab from the hands of mullahcracy.

The vista of Iranian-Jihadist nuclear-armed military Junta, which is duty-bound by its Constitution to "bestow Islam upon all the world's oppressed", ordained by Allah himself should send chills down all of the delusional so-called realists' spines.

Do We still have time to avert this disatrous outcome? For a technical discussion of this issue click here.

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Iran: Co-architect of IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp) Speaks

Mohsen Sazegara co-founded the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1979, and served the Islamic Republic until 1989 in a number of senior government positions, including deputy prime minister for political affairs and managing director of the National Radio of Iran. He went into exile after being imprisoned in 2003, and is currently a visiting researcher at Harvard University.

He warns in this piece that what Was Once a Revolutionary Guard is now Just a Mafia, "Today the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution — known in Farsi as the Sepah-e Pasdaran and in English as the Revolutionary Guard — is a mafia-like organization with a corrupting influence on Iran’s army, police, media, industries, judiciary and government. It is imperative that every effort now be made to contain the Revolutionary Guard’s powers, because its political and economic adventurism will ultimately lead to a serious crisis, not just in Iran but also across the Middle East."

As a co-architect of the IRGC, he also takes us through a series of tactical and strategic decisions that was taken in Paris by Khomeini et al and his ilk that gave rise to IRGC . It's a long read but well worth it....click here.

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New wave of human rights violations by the Satanic Republic

Medieval and Misogynist Republic clamping down on women and minorities . And as Ahmadinejad comes under fire, Iran vows crackdown on 'inappropriately ressed women. The solution for thugs like delusional Ahmadinejad and his gang of Basiji is always to just get more control. As once was pointed out to Darth Vader in a similar context, "The more you tighten your grip, the more people will slip through your fingers."

A small caste of very rich and demonic mullahs and their cronies are reducing most of the Iranian people to abject poverty and hoplessness in a country that is immensely wealthy and a culture that loves life, poetry and art. To cover up for all this greed and corruption, religious fundamentalism is a very effective tool of ideological domination. The more Iran sinks into inequality and social injustice, the more fiery the pseudo revolutionary rhetoric of its theocratic ruling elite, and the more dogmatic and intolerant their version of Islam.

Religious fundamentalism is a wonderful tool for diverting attention from all real issues afflicting the society. But it has a limit, and that limit is set by the emergence of people's conscience and desire to get rid of all those blood-sucking parasites passing for "men of spirit".

The mullahs have callously played with old sectarian grievances in order to draw some benefit for their own shallow cause in Iraq and Lebanon. What do the Iranian Ayatollahs really stand for? At this moment for nothing more than staying in power and continuing to line their bulging pockets with the money of the Iranian people. Social inequality and poverty rates in Iran are appalling. And if you visit the wealthy neighborhoods of Northern Teheran, you will see conspicuous signs of obscene wealth in the hands of the nouveaux rich that have emerged after the demise of the late Shah.And if you move to the huge slums in Southern Teheran, you will see abject poverty and destitution. Most Iranians have benefited very little from the new theocratic dictatorship.

While a significant number of Iranians realize they have been conned, and many are wanting to leave, the Kleptocracy's core constituency, which is found among the large underclass of what by all criteria should have been a rich country, will take a very long time, if ever, to wake up to reality.Why? The short answer is: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”— upton sinclair

To elaborate on that I have to explain that first of all, they (underclass) see the IRI as their patron who will subsidize their lives forever with money, status, jobs, and many other fringe benefits. Those who belong to this group are as brutal and ruthless as their masters and they go as high within the corrupt ranks of the mullahcracy as they possibly can....the more ruthless, the higher up the ladder they move. The core constituency are the IRGC, the paramilitary basiji, and the intelligence officers in VEVAK (SAVAMA) who have a lot of power (military, financial, and organizational) and also a great deal at stake (economically and socially) if the regime is overthrown. They make up about 10 to 11% of the population of 70 millions. The rest of the population is held hostge by this brutal gang of jihadist, opportunists, criminals, torturers, and their vast network of spies in every neighborhood. These people are not going to give up or wake up anytime soon. As this Mazandarani (Caspian sea northern province) saying goes: When a Mullah gets on a donkey he will not come off it until either he dies or the donkey. The mullahs continue to miscalculate the American resolve as the former president Rafsanjani warns the hardliners of the US 'wounded tiger'.

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