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Posted on 06/15/2005 8:05:29 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
HUME: Now, in one recent such soccer match ... women were present. What's that all about? That's not permitted, correct?
LEDEEN: Well, it hasn't been permitted, but they're now pretending to have elections. And they will pretend to have elected some kind of reformer. And so in the midst of this great pretense of elections — it's not an election at all. It's a beauty contest and a charade.
HUME: Why is that so?
LEDEEN: Because they pick the candidates. The supreme leader — over 1,000 people wanted to run for president. They picked six.
HUME: And this is all done by the government?
LEDEEN: Yes, by the regime. So if anybody wants to run against the regime, they won't run at all. The only people who are permitted to run are people that the regime likes, obviously.
And then in the last case — I mean, there are still people who believe in reform, the possibility of reform in Iran, even though it's been obvious for 10 years they've had a reformist, so-called, president, Khatami, and the country is more repressive now than it was 10 years ago. So why anybody can believe in this is beyond me.
So they're pretending to hold elections. And while pretending to hold elections, they are pretending to be more reformist. So they are letting selected numbers of women in to restricted sections of the stands to watch soccer games.
But of course, the Iranians really do want to be free. And so even more women showed up at the stadium and demanded to go in. And they weren't let in during the game. But after the game, in the midst of the general confusion, demonstration, lots of them poured in, and then they got beaten up and arrested.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
pong
Learn something new everyday.
It's getting to the point where I seldem read a newspaper for news anymore. Particularly for foreign affairs.
Actually, I thought Farsi (Persian) was #3
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