Posted on 06/20/2005 7:38:05 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
The coming coup
Iranian blogger, Hoder.com:
Things are really getting nasty here. After Karrubi's unbelievably blunt letter to the Supreme Leader, everything is suddenly changing. All non-fundamentalists are rallying behind Rafsanjani. Many are talking about a possible coup by Sepah and Basij after Friday's second round results.Hoder is perhaps the most famous Iranian blogger. He is an Iranian journalist whose newspaper was shutdown by the regime. He moved to Canada, began blogging and has been a supporter of the reformist movement. He is currently in Iran to witness the vote. He provides a glimpse into the reformist mind in Iran.
It's also rumoured (now confirmed ) that Eqbal and Aftab, pro-reform newspapers, were seizes in the printing house last night after they published full text of the letter.
Karrubi for the first time has publically challenged the Supreme Leader and has accused his son of paving the way for an unexpectedly high vote for Ahmadinejad.
As for my own self, I've been advised to stay in Tehran for a couple of more days. But I have to attend a conference in London on Wednesday and if I can't get there by then, it'll be a huge risk staying in Iran.
Stay tuned.
He is also reported:According to ISNA , Saeed Mortazavi, chief prosecutor of Tehran, has released a warning for people who use SMS to spread news, views, and jokes for or against candidates, usually against the fundamentalist candidate, "Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad":Those who don't comply "will be prosecuted and their phones will be seized," the note reads.
- Iran Focus reported that members of Iran's hard-line paramilitary Bassij forces attacked campaigners for Rafsanjani.
- Iran Focus reported that some 1,000 copper workers staged a hunger strike.
- Iran va Jahan laments the fact that although the vote rigging allegations in the first round of the elections in Iran are the most blatant, the world media is silent.
- The Wall Street Journal said that the most astonishing aspect of Friday's presidential vote in Iran is that Tehran managed to convince so many in the West that this is a real demonstration of democracy.
- Michael Ledeen's sources inside Iran's Interior Ministry put the actual number of voters was roughly seven million people. This means 17 million votes were fraudulent.
- Adnkronos International reported that following charges of vote rigging Iran's powerful Guardian Council decided to recount part of the votes. Yahoo News also.
- The New York Times reported Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying, Throughout the Middle East the fear of free of choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty. It is time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy.
- Iran Focus reported that Iran’s former Parliament Speaker and presidential hopeful Mehdi Karroubi resignedhis membership of the powerful State Expediency Council and stepped down as an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in protest against rigging of the polls.
- ABC News reported Noble Prize winner Shirin Ebadi as saying stoning is still occurring in Iran and regarding the election, the result is not a true reflection of the will of the people.
- And finally, Kenneth R. Timmerman's publisher Crown Forum released an excerpt of his new book, Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran, Chapter 1: THE DEFECTOR. (Iran's involvement in 9/11). A must read.
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Let us all hope that the mullahs will be cast out of office1
Hmmm, very interesting...
Iran and zimbabwe are Jimmy Carters two major achievements in life.
You are correct. But he also was responsible for the Panama Canal fiasco.
When I came across this article it brought to mind a posting a saw on DU just a few minutes ago. One of their oh so superior (in their own mind) people had comment he said came from a FR posting regarding Iran. Of course, he did not provide a link. He just put down what he CLAIMED to have seen here. But the more interesting thing is the first response he got to it where a DUmmiesaid the following:
"I use to troll a little bit at FR. They have always been messed up, but they are much worse now. Here are the reasons (1) they kicked out anybody who was half intelligent, therefore had some sort of independent thought. (2) If anything is anti-Democrat, anti-progressive, it is right. (3) Most of these people live in bunkers and homeschool their kids, so they pollute them even more, and only read out of the King James. Very sad. In some cases I think they need child services to monitor these people. One time, and I wish I still had the evidenced one guy was advocating beating your wives. Only a few sane people denounced him. They have probably all since been banned." (ollie79)
The thing this guy does not realize is that with regards to #1 in his post, DU is worse than any other site on the web. Disagree with any standard dem position and you are banned in moments. Unlike here. I have disagreed with many people here on many issues. I have not been banned.
Unlike the DUmmie I WILL post a link so anyone who wishes can click and see how they are reagrded by these "progressive" people.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3907775
In my view there is no hope for these people. They are lost in their own hypocrisy.
When I came across this article it brought to mind a posting a saw on DU just a few minutes ago. One of their oh so superior (in their own mind) people had comment he said came from a FR posting regarding Iran. Of course, he did not provide a link. He just put down what he CLAIMED to have seen here. But the more interesting thing is the first response he got to it where a DUmmiesaid the following:
"I use to troll a little bit at FR. They have always been messed up, but they are much worse now. Here are the reasons (1) they kicked out anybody who was half intelligent, therefore had some sort of independent thought. (2) If anything is anti-Democrat, anti-progressive, it is right. (3) Most of these people live in bunkers and homeschool their kids, so they pollute them even more, and only read out of the King James. Very sad. In some cases I think they need child services to monitor these people. One time, and I wish I still had the evidenced one guy was advocating beating your wives. Only a few sane people denounced him. They have probably all since been banned." (ollie79)
The thing this guy does not realize is that with regards to #1 in his post, DU is worse than any other site on the web. Disagree with any standard dem position and you are banned in moments. Unlike here. I have disagreed with many people here on many issues. I have not been banned.
Unlike the DUmmie I WILL post a link so anyone who wishes can click and see how they are reagrded by these "progressive" people.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3907775
In my view there is no hope for these people. They are lost in their own hypocrisy.
sorry for the double posting....completely accidental. Coffee jitter finger
Most everything I have heard regarding the elections is that they were indeed fraudulent. I will admit I receive most of my news from the internet. Sec. of State Rice even made a statement to that effect today. Are the Iranians not receiving this news?
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/33742bde-e1ff-11d9-bf18-00000e2511c8.html
Tehran's mayor has Rafsanjani on defensive
By Gareth Smyth in Tehran
Published: June 21 2005 03:00 | Last updated: June 21 2005 03:00
Since he became mayor of Tehran two years ago, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has not taken a holiday. He drives an old Peugeot, prays regularly and lives a simple life.
On Friday Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, 49, takes on a leading figure of Iran's Islamic republic, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 71, in a run-off ballot to decide the next president.
Mr Rafsanjani's camp says the choice is between a pragmatist who believes in dialogue with the west and private enterprise, and a hard-line xenophobe who dislikes foreign investment.
Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's strategy is to portray himself as a "Man of the People" - a sharp contrast to the life style Mr Rafsanjani and his family are alleged to lead. Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's supporters say he is a "fundamentalist", a man true to the egalitarianism of Iran's the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Rafsanjani camp is taking no chances: for the election's second round, the campaign has jettisoned mixed parties and loud street music, which they used to attract younger voters but which alienated many in conservative Iran.
Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's supporters have rebutted the charge that their patron opposes the private sector, stressing Tehran council's contracts with Chinese companies for the new metro, its $200m (EUR243m, £133m) international loan to renovate old Tehran, and its talks with European companies on projects such as waste management.
They emphasise that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's sober attitude to running city hall is a model for running Iran. The atmosphere is focused - and clearly Islamic. There is calligraphy on the walls and women staff wear chadors, the head-to-toe covering.
Mehdi Chamran, the council's chairman, says the mayor's main achievements are "scientific management" of the city's first development plan for 37 years and his "links with the people".
With the revolution, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad joined the Basij, an Islamic militia, and worked as an engineer in the 1980-88 war with Iraq. His administrative talents led to posts in the west and north-west until, in the late 1990s he became governor-general of the northern province of Ardabil. Like many, he was frustrated at what he saw as weakening commitment to the revolution's ideals.
In the run-up to Tehran's 2003 municipal elections, a group of fundamentalists formed Abadgaran ('Developers'), a list to challenge a council paralysed by in-fighting and corruption allegations. The poll ended a run of reformist victories in Iran. In 2004 fundamentalists nationwide took a similar approach to Abadgaran and won control of parliament after the disqualification of many reformist candidates.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8852385&type=entertainmentNews
Rafsanjani has best jokes in Iran election text war
Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:19 AM ET
By Christian Oliver
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Beep Beep. "Vote for Ahmadinejad who supports the poor." Beep Beep. "Joining together and voting for Rafsanjani is better than handing the country over to a fool."
Text messaging, often brazen or rude, has become an integral part of Iran's presidential campaign and has sparked a formal complaint from the hardline candidate, who is bearing the brunt of the jokes.
In the build-up to Friday's run-off between pragmatic cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and hardline Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it is certainly Rafsanjani supporters who are circulating the better jokes.
Many of the text messages masquerade as directives from a newly elected President Ahmadinejad.
"Ahmadinejad announces his ministries: ministry of the veil, ministry of censorship, ministry of the Revolutionary Guard, ministry of religious paramilitaries."
Another text message refers to a Tehran traffic directive that allows cars with licence plates ending in odd numbers into the city centre on one day and those with even numbers the next day.
"The odd/even directive is being expanded to have one day when women can go out on the street, while men are allowed out the next day," it reads, mocking a conservative preference for segregation of the sexes in public.
The official IRNA news agency reported that Ahmadinejad's campaign team was furious with the insulting messages and that Tehran's conservative prosecutor's office would crack down on messages that offended candidates.
The text messages normally end with a note to send the quip on to 10 friends.
The messages are unlikely to penetrate deep into Ahmadinejad's support base among the pious poor as there are only about 5.6 million mobile phone users among Iran's population of 67 million.
In the first round, many texts from the reformist camp urged a boycott. These have disappeared as reformists, panicked by Ahmadinejad, marshal their forces behind Rafsanjani.
Earlier in the campaign, one popular text poked fun at cleric Mehdi Karroubi, a presidential candidate who promised to dole out $62 each month to every Iranian over the age of 18 by tapping Iran's oil earnings.
"Hey, lend me $62 and I'll pay you back when Karroubi becomes president," it read.
One view...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5089115,00.html
Anti-West Forces Unite in Iran Elections
Tuesday June 21, 2005 7:01 PM
By BRIAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The ultraconservative political newcomer seeking Iran's presidency is helped along by powerful patrons - including the military guardians of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the son of the nation's supreme leader.
Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inner circle suggests some of Iran's most radical and anti-Western factions have concentrated their influence ahead of this week's head-to-head vote against self-styled moderate Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Already, accusations of vote-rigging during last week's first-round election have arisen against some of Ahmadinejad's allies, particularly the elite Revolutionary Guards and hard-line civilian vigilantes that work alongside them.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, however, closed the door on any further complaints and cleared the way for Friday's run-off.
The far-reaching influence of Ahmadinejad's backers could be a crucial boost against Rafsanjani, who held the presidency from 1989-97 and is widely considered more receptive to greater contacts with the West and possible dialogue with the United States.
A victory by Ahmadinejad - a former Revolutionary Guard commander who has held only appointed posts - would consolidate hard-line control over the highest elected branches: the presidency and parliament. It would also give the non-elected ruling theocracy a freer hand to roll back social freedoms gained under outgoing President Mohammad Khatami since 1997.
Ahmadinejad's top allies are Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, and Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, leader of the powerful Guardian Council, according to a senior official within the theocracy. The official spoke on condition he not be named because of rules preventing members of the theocracy from commenting directly on election issues.
Iranian press reports also have placed Mojtaba Khamenei and Jannati at the heart of Ahmadinejad's surprise No. 2 finish in last Friday's first round. Neither responded to interview requests by The Associated Press. Campaign officials for Ahmadinejad (pronounced ``Aah-MA-dee-ni-JAHD'') refused to provide names of prominent supporters.
Khamenei's son normally stays far from the public eye, but he's been seen in recent days visiting Ahmadinejad's campaign headquarters in Tehran. He would offer Ahmadinejad a direct link to the supreme leader, whose hand-picked bloc of Islamic clerics holds near-absolute authority over every aspect of Iranian life.
Jannati, too, is close to the pinnacle of power.
As head of the 12-member Guardian Council, he holds the political reins of Iran. The council must clear all candidates for the presidency and parliament. For the presidential race, just eight men - and only one clear liberal - were permitted to run from more than 1,000 hopefuls. One hard-liner dropped out before the vote.
Jannati's influence is extended by his frequent appearances leading Friday prayers at Tehran University, which are broadcast nationwide. He has described the United States as ``bloodthirsty'' and said its Islamic allies committed acts of ``treason against all Muslims.''
And he has objected to any serious concessions over Iran's nuclear program. Washington claims Iran may be seeking to develop nuclear arms. Iran says its planned nuclear reactor is only for energy.
Another firebrand cleric, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, is considered a possible favorite for the key Culture Ministry post if Ahmadinejad is elected. The ministry control extends to the arts, publications and the cinema - which have been allowed significantly broader horizons under Khatami.
But the limits of the presidency also have been evident.
Khatami could do nothing as the ruling clerics closed dozens of pro-reform newspapers and journals since the late 1990s. On Monday, a judicial order shut down the daily Eqbal newspaper, which had supported reformists.
Yazdi - a regular pre-sermon speaker at Tehran University prayers - doesn't shy from calling on attacks to enforce an austere version of Islam.
In 2003, he said Islamic rules must be respected even if ``violence is needed to enforce it.'' He backed the 1989 decree by the founder of the Islamic Revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to kill British author Salman Rushdie for perceived insults to Islam. In 1998, the Iranian government declared it would not support the fatwa, or religious edict, but it still is considered in effect among some radical groups.
Yazdi also called international conventions on women's rights ``an insult'' to Islamic values and has accused the foreign media of being on the payroll of the CIA and other agencies.
Ayatollah Abolqasem Khazali - another cleric active in Ahmadinejad's campaign - once urged his followers to kill pro-reform writers and activists and told Muslims: ``If the enemy does not attack you, you should attack them.''
Ahmadinejad was picked in 2003 as Tehran's mayor by the conservative-led municipal council. Its head, Mahdi Chamran, has emerged as a close political adviser and brings a strong nationalist element to the campaign. His late brother, Mostafa, was a hero of the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
On Tuesday, Chamran tried to dismiss fears that Ahmadinejad would bring back the rigid Islamic codes that gripped Iran in the 1980s.
``Opponents ... issue statements that Taliban are on the way or that he will segregate men and women in elevators, universities and other places,'' Chamran said. ``It's not true.''
... and another
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2540
Iran Focus
London, Jun. 21 - A 49-year-old former commander in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards catapulted to super-politician status by the unexpected results of Friday's presidential elections in Iran found himself at the centre of a growing controversy over allegations of vote fraud, his own shadowy past, and speculations over a crafty scheme by the top leaders of the clerical regime to lure voters to the polling booths.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the mayor of Tehran, was almost ignored by the domestic and international media until the last few days of the presidential campaign, and was widely expected to be among the five candidates who would be eliminated in the first round.
But Ahmadinejad, who belongs to the ultra-conservative camp within the theocratic regime, had something which placed him ahead of the other candidates: the nationwide powerful machinery of the Revolutionary Guards and the paramilitary Bassij, as well as the active blessing and support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"In the last week of the campaign, the Supreme Leader decided that Ahmadinejad represented the best chance among his favoured candidates in the race, who also included [former police chief Mohammad-Baqer] Qalibaf and [former state broadcasting chief Ali] Larijani", an influential Tehran businessman with close ties to the ultra-conservative faction said.
"Khamenei instructed his son Mojtaba and his security chief Hojjatol-Islam Hejazi to devote all the resources of the Revolutionary Guards and other agencies controlled by the Supreme Leader's office to ensure that Ahmadinejad would reach the second round", he said.
Some observers remain sceptical as to whether Ahmadinejad is a genuine candidate who is being backed by Ayatollah Khamenei and his ultra-conservative faction to emerge as Iran's next president, or whether he is being used as a "monster" to scare people into voting for "the lesser evil", namely ex-President Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
"If you look at the way the Khamenei-Rafsanjani duo worked together throughout the 1990s, it wouldn't be beyond them to be using Ahmadinejad as a demonic candidate to rally people around Rafsanjani", said Simon Bailey of the London-based Gulf Intelligence Monitor.
"Here are two men who have been rivals since the early days of the Islamic revolution, yet each one knows that he needs the other one to keep the regime on its feet", Bailey added.
Hossein Shaheen, a Paris-based analyst, agreed. "Khamenei didn't want Rafsanjani to be the next President. But as the old saying goes, if you can't stop them, join them. Both men have a vested interest in raising voter turnout, which would be critical for the continuity of their regime under highly sensitive domestic and international circumstances. A high turnout would enable them to thumb their noses at [United States President George W.] Bush. They can always settle their own accounts later", he said.
What has strengthened speculation that Ahmadinejad is being used as a tool for scaring young people and women to rush to the polling stations in the runoff that will be held next Friday are a series of extremely unpopular statements by the former Tehran mayor and his close associates since his unexpected success in the first round.
Addressing a nationwide television audience, Ahmadinejad's chief spokesman said last night that the kafiya (a popular headdress worn by men in Arab countries) must become the national headdress in Iran. Ahmadinejad himself said in an interview on Sunday that one of his top priorities will be "to implement sexual segregation in public transport systems and educational institutes".
"These are suicidal statements for a presidential candidate in a country where the support of women and young people is essential to win," Bailey said. "Ahmadinejad is certainly a radical Islamists, but we saw him in the municipal elections two years ago. He is not as dumb as he is acting right now".
Rafsanjani's supporters have been using Ahmadinejad's image as a hot-headed Islamic radical who would install a Taliban-like government in Iran to portray their candidate as "the saviour".
"A vote for Rafsanjani is a vote against totalitarian dictatorship", said Mehdi Hashemi, his son and chief campaign manager. "To boycott the second round is a dagger at the heart of democracy", Mohammad Atrianfar, the campaign's spokesman, said.
Bailey pointed to reports in some Iranian newspapers that there were "intense consultations" between Khamenei and Rafsanjani immediately after the first round of the elections. He also noted that key figures in Khamenei's camp, such as Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and Ali Larijani, declared their support for Rafsanjani.
"It's clever and it's a typical mullah ruse", Shaheen said. "Next Friday, a lot of people are going to breathe a sigh of relief if Rafsanjani becomes President, happy that they didn't end up with a mad Taliban guy. The mullahs will have successfully avoided the central issue, which is Rafsanjani's own evil record".
and a long article by Bahukutumbi Raman:
The Dark Horse http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20050621&fname=raman&sid=1
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