Free Republic

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country's Islamic system, and to provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces. It has since become a major military, political and economic force in Iran, with close ties to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former member.

1. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pronounced mah-MOOD ah-mah-dih-nee-ZHAD) was born Oct. 28, 1956, three years after the CIA-sponsored coup that installed the pro-Western leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Iran's leader. A Shiite Muslim, he and his wife, a professor, have two sons and a daughter. 2. When he was an infant, Ahmadinejad's family moved from the village of Aradan to Tehran. It was at this point that the family changed its name from Saborjhian, which translates to "thread painter" (the lowliest job in Iran's traditional carpet-weaving industry), to the more religious Ahmadinejad ("race of Muhammad" or "virtuous race"). 3. Ahmadinejad is...

While Iran continues to deny that Israel has the right to exist, Iranian and Israeli representatives are holding clandestine talks in Europe to settle an old Israeli debt, Ha'aretz reported Wednesday. Iran is still owed hundreds of millions of dollars for oil it supplied to Israel in the years before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and representatives of the two countries, now sworn enemies, are holding contacts meant to settle the debt, according to the report in Haaretz. The report was attributed to anonymous Israeli and Swiss officials involved in the negotiations. Two mediation processes involving different parts of the...

Reza'i: Iranian Nation To Make 'Final Decision' in Confrontation With US IRNA (Internet Version-WWW) Bushehr, April 21, IRNA -- Secretary of the State Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei (Reza'i) said here late Thursday the Iranian nation will make the final decision in the challenge with the US. Addressing a gathering in this southern province, Rezai said the Iranian nation, as proved in 1979 Islamic Revolution, is decisive in defending their rights. He rejected the possibility of a US attack on Iran, saying under such crucial circumstances in which there is a possibility of economic sanctions, the Iranian nation will have the...

AMERICANS will certainly have 9/11 in mind when they vote today. But they should keep another date in mind, too — one almost exactly a quarter-century ago: Nov. 4, 1979. A clear path runs to 9/11 from the day of the raid on the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the seizure of American hostages. The 1979 embassy attack came at a time when the administration of President Jimmy Carter was trying to prop up the new Khomeinist regime in Tehran. Carter had decided to support Khomeini in the context of the so-called "Green Belt" strategy developed by National Security...

Iranian exiles turned up outside the Iranian embassy in London today, almost all dressed in black, to mark the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran as a black day in the country's history. British police who allowed Muslim fundamentalist protesters to carry placards enticing the faithful to murder the infidels, initially tried to stop the secular Iranian protesters from playing music, saying it may cause public disorder! Protest organisers however insisted that they should be allowed to play the Iranian national anthem and other patriotic songs and police eventually backed down. Protesters also carried posters of Mansour Osanlou, the...

Grandson of the founder of mullacracy in Iran, Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, criticized the battle between secularism and backwardness, saying the original religious movement in Iran has been endangered. He added that secularism is pursuing separation of religion from politics and some are promoting an emotional religion based on backwardness and superstitions to withstand secularism. Mullah Hassan further said both these movements would end in the separation of religion from society, warning that they regard religion as an individual issue. "Although they appear to be loggerheads, secularism and a superstitious religion give rise to the same result," he said, noting that...

Iran: Islam will conquer world President Ahmadinejad: 'Is there art more beautiful, more divine than ... martyrdom?' Islamic revolution will conquer the world,' says Ahmadinejad Photo: Reuters Iranian president praises suicide terror Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 'Is there art more beautiful, more divine than... martyrdom?' ; vows: 'Islamic revolution will conquer world' By Ynetnews MEMRI , the Middle East translation service, has translated a video from Iranian state television in which the Iranian president-elect glorifies suicide terrorism, and expresses his desire to see Islam “conquer” the world. “Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art...

OFFICIALLY, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incoming Iranian "elected" president, will assume his post next month, but his presence is already felt in the political circles and on the streets of Tehran. Since his election, under the banner of a renewed Islamic revolution, the clerical regime hanged six people and sentenced another to death in the space of seven days. The elections were a sham and the controversy about polling irregularities is far from settled. The outgoing president, Mohammad Khatami, announced the forthcoming release of a report documenting the extent of electoral violations and smear campaigns. A similar account, further exposing factional...

Iran's New President Glorifies Martyrdom The act of martyrdom is often celebrated by the Iranian theocracy. Most recently, Iranian President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, in his second TV appearance since his election victory, spoke July 25, 2005 on Iranian Channel 1 in praise of "the art of martyrdom." The day after Ahmadi-Nejad's TV appearance, the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published a report about his spiritual advisor, Ayatollah Mohammad Misbah Yazdi. The report advised Iranians on how to volunteer for the Iranian regime-sponsored volunteer martyrdom squad, and mentioned an Iranian women's volunteer group that is dedicated to carrying out martyrdom operations against...

Rafsanjani was the favourite going into the election Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has reacted angrily to his surprise loss to hardline opponent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.In his first public statement following the election result, the moderate cleric alleged that an illegal dirty tricks campaign had been mounted. The US meanwhile said Iran was out of step with current trends in the region. Mr Ahmadinejad won 62% of the vote in Friday's presidential run-off poll - nearly twice Mr Rafsanjani's backing. The conservative president-elect said his win was a blow to the country's enemies - an apparent reference to...

POTENTIAL HOT SPOTS: Thailand's Islamic Revolution Continues July 18, 2004: The Moslem separatist violence in Thailand continues, with two members of the ISOC (Internal Security Operations Command) were shot in the south while investigating Moslem separatists. There have been attacks against other government officials, especially teachers. As a result, 5,000 school teachers and other government officials in the Moslem areas of southern Thailand have demanded more protection, or transfers to other, safer, parts of the country. So far this year, over 300 have died from the violence in the Moslem south, most of them government officials or non-Moslem Thais. At...

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN Iranian-trained army in Iraq 40,000 ex-POW Shiites armed, prepared for Islamic revolution Posted: April 26, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years. © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Iran has armed and trained some 40,000 Shiite Iraqi fighters – most of whom are former prisoners of war captured during the Iran-Iraq war – and sent them to Iraq to foment an Islamic revolution, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin...