Iranian Revolutionary Guards Perpetuate Terror Within and Without

Majid Sadeghpour, Ph.D. - 1/21/2008

"Cold blooded murders", a friend of mine cried out recently as she recalled gruesome memories from Iran while reflecting on the newly levied sanctions against Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Encouraged and emboldened, her voice was filled with anger, determination, and a newfound hope that echoed the braveness of dissident university students in Iran of today. All a reminder that the Presidential executive orders 13382 and 13224 carry a subtle but dual benefit affecting not only Iranian regime's activities abroad, but also its enemies within.Our knowledge of IRGC's past and present terrorist behavior within Iran is abstract, at best. The real example she provides would perhaps serve as a reminder of their brutality. Recalling a memory from a sleepy Caspian Sea town north of Tehran, she describes a mid-summer afternoon's horrifying memory. As it is a Muslim custom, a neighbor's family was washing their recently executed daughter's body, in preparation for burial. Fresh blood streamed out of the house and onto the neighborhood pavement, she recalls. "I stood there wondering; why so much blood". Little did she know at the time, as she evokes the memory today, that post-execution, a certain part of the young woman's body had been mutilated by IRGC members. For those who wonder, the medical term is Hepatectomy. Historical context of such brutality is beyond the scope of this article. For what crime, one might ask? She was 18 years old, and member of a dissident group called Fadayan Khald who opposed the mullah's undemocratic government.In the past 3 decades, IRGC's have been responsible for the execution of over 120,000 dissidents and students, including some of Iran's brightest minds.

From mullah's "cultural revolution" of 1980-89, to the current wave of executions, or the recent crackdown of protesters (at Allameh, Tehran, and Polytechnic universities), the revolutionary guard's main goal was and still is to safeguard the regime against internal social, political, and security threats. Apart from other intended reasoning, the blacklisting of IRGC and QODS Force is a breath of fresh air for the Iranian people amidst the murky environment of oppression. For the first time in 30 years, the United States, and perhaps the international community have edged themselves closer to recognizing the will of the Iranian people. With every decisive measure aimed at weakening the clerics and their apparatus of fear, more chants of "death to dictator" will be heard in the Iranian streets. Irrespective of the "moderate", "pragmatic", or "hard-line" faces the Foxes in Tehran put forth, Iranians have always known that the carnage in Iraq, the devastation in Lebanon, assassination of dissidents, bombing of embassies, nuclear weapons program, and countless other deeds are directed by the mullahs in Iran and their IRGC/QODS force.So, what to do next? Will Iran adapt to fiscal pressure from the West? Will Iranian people rise and overthrow the regime?However elusive the answers may appear, one thing is for certain: that Iranian people will weather the storm of sanctions in the near term, for it will hasten regime's demise.

Additionally, and as the cost of doing business with Iran increases, mullahs will eventually have to face the Iranian people. The key, therefore, is not only comprehensive and universal sanctions, but also reliance on the enormous democratic potential of the Iranian people. Admittedly, organization and mobilization of this great force in the present environment of absolute oppression is no easy task. No one should dream of a fantasy laden, soft or velvet revolution in Iran. Armed with the richness of Iranian natural resources, stone-age ideological prowess, and an immense self awarded righteousness, this regime is the most barbaric mankind has witnessed in the modern era. However distant it may seem today, Iranian people and not their government have the needed democratic capacity. In fact, resolving this enigma requires the full capability of the mostly Muslim, secular, and democratic minded people of Iran. They and their resistance are the true antithesis to the darkness of fundamentalism.Let us listen then to the wishes of the Iranian people. Let us attend their gatherings without, watch them protest within, and hear the organized voice of their democratic opposition. Such, and not the voice of the self appointed "Iran experts" who continue to advocate capitulation to the mullahs, remains the only way to avoid a calamitous war. They "experts" have never seen the IRGC-shed blood paint the pavements of Iran.

Dr. Majid Sadeghpour is a human rights activist. He works with the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates (www.ncpda.com).

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OPEN LETTER TO AJ (AHMADINEJAD)

Dear AJ...

Open Letter to AJ from A Nobody in Iran.

... He likes writing letters; or maybe he likes attention. Whatever the motive, now that "His Excellency" has declared his detestation of "darkness, deceit, lies, and distortion" and his admiration for "salvaion, elightenment, sincerity and honesty", I, yours truely, a nobody living in Iran, who is eternally grateful to the Almighty for having been blessed to be living under "His Excellency's" God-fearing, truth-loving, justice-seaking administration, would in turn like to write a letter to him.

Your Luminescence,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a nobody. One of the many million nobodies living in the country we call Iran, the same place Your Excellency would rather call "the Islamic Land", because afterall, this dear land does not belong to our fellow Iranian Christians, Iranian Jews, Iranian Bahaais, Iranian Zoroastrians, and yes Iranian agnostics and atheists. Yet, we God-fearing justice-seaking Shi'ites allow these infidels to live in our Islamic land in peace and harmony with us, out of the kindness of our heart, simply because we "deplore injustice and trampling of peoples' rights".

Your Excellency! A couple of weeks ago I read the news of your open letter to the American people while browsing through the headlines on a newspaper stand. The news of your thoughtful and timely action thrilled me so much, that I could not stop myself laughing so laudly, the other people thought I had lost my senses. Today, I finally had the chance to read your remarkable letter. It made me so proud to read those words, and so relieved that I, unlike those poor Americans, have a government that is so much concerned about the well-being of the people of the whole wide world.

How envious the Americans ought to be, to see that I live in a country, the president of which reminds other nations of the fact that "governments are there to server their own people." Too bad they cannot see for themselves the kind of service we receive from Your Excellency's administration. Just recently I found out our Internet connection speeds are being curbed and furthermore filtered on the orders of your infinitely wise administration. I cannot begin to describe the sense of security it gave me, to know that my government is so much concerned about my moral well-being, that in an era of Gigabit networks, my government cannot even tolerate a couple-of-hundred Kilobit per second connection for the morally vulnerable citizens like me.

Too bad the Americans are not here to see for themselves the extent of freemdom of speech in this country. Our press enjoy so much freedom that Your Excellency's government is now passing orders for websites and weblogs to apply for licenses, or else face "the consequences". It is true that the Americans invented the Internet, but they are so obtuse not to have asked the world to apply for a license, otherwise you and I could not now use it to "freely" accuse their Administration of supporting injustice and distortion of truth!

I wish you had elaborated more on the idea of "a better approach to governance." Mention of a few instances like spending the country's cash reserves on building Minarets for shrines in Iraq while our own fellow earthquake-striken Iranians are still living in tents, would have certainly been illuminating. How about promoting the eradication of family planning and birth control? How about sending the stock market down the hills by adopting an insance policy of "deprivatization" and scaring off private investors by establishing a climate of fear and a constant anticipation of war? I also wonder why "Your Excellency" did not give these Yankees a few lessons on your latest innovations in the electoral process. I can merely hope, having seen our last Friday's elections, the American government at least is inspired to resort to more elegant methods of rigging votes, and stop spending so much of their tax payers' money on designing "deceptive" ballot papers that only manage to confuse a bunch of retired people down in Florida. I wish you had told them this in a language they can understand, like: "If you want to rig the votes, you ought to stop being such wussies and rig'em like real men. Steal the whole goddamn ballot boxes and fill'em with whatever freakin' names you like!"I also do not think the Americans can grasp the depth of your remarks on putting "wealth and power in the service of peace, stability, prosperity and the happiness of all peoples". I wish you had brought forth some concrete examples, like giving money to terror-craving monsters in Lebanon and Iraq to bring war to their own country.

So good of you to remind the newly elected American congressmen and senators of the fact that they shall be held accountable by "the people" and "the history". There is a famous quote from the prophet that says: "Audit yourselves [and your deeds] before you get audited." I realize it is too much to ask of your Excellency, but for once, just once, please think! Think how "the people" and "the history", which you adamently insist on denying, will audit you and your company. Not "the people" whom you bring along in buses to "greet" you in different cities but nobodies like me. Believe me you do not want them to audit you! But I suppose you have already found that out when you visited the Polytechnic University.

Mr. President! I too detest "darkness, deceit, lies and distortion", but I also detest the people who are the embodiments of not only darkness, deceit, lying and distortion, but also symbols of cultural and intellectual anti-progression and degeneracy. And by that token please allow me to say this to you with utmost sincerity: I detest YOU!

Yours Very Frustrated,

A Nobody in Iran

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