Posted on 06/16/2007 12:58:10 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The mullahcracy in Iran has apparently unleashed its latent paranoia, resulting in a crackdown on dissent not seen since the 1979 Revolution. The Iranian government has moved to quell academic debate, silence citizen groups, purge their internal security systems, and generally tighten the screws on the Iranian people:
Iran is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranians and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution.
The recent detentions of Iranian American dual nationals are only a small part of a campaign that includes arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands of Iranians as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for the media. Hundreds of Iranians have been detained and interrogated, including a top Iranian official, according to Iranian and international human rights groups. ...
The widespread purges and arrests are expected to have an impact on parliamentary elections next year and the presidential contest in 2009, either discouraging or preventing reformers from running against the current crop of hard-liners who dominate all branches of government, Iranian and U.S. analysts say. The elections are one of several motives behind the crackdowns, they add.
Public signs of discontent -- such as students booing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a campus last December, teacher protests in March over low wages and workers demonstrating on May Day -- are also behind the detentions, according to Iranian sources.
"The current crackdown is a way to instill fear in the population in order to discourage them from future political agitation as the economic situation begins to deteriorate," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
(Excerpt) Read more at captainsquartersblog.com ...
****************************
The Iranians have accused the US of fomenting revolution, and the US has not exactly denied it. In fact, an ABC report unveiled a purported presidential directive to the CIA demanding that the agency take action to undermine the mullahcracy -- which undoubtedly hastened the paranoid reaction we see now. It may have been a calculated bluff to push the Iranians to a tipping point -- and it may have worked even more quickly than the Bush administration hoped.
.
Now is the time for the Iranian People to rise up and crush the Mullah theocratic dictatorship and eliminate “Iminamoodtojihad”.
This is Iran’s moment to shine and stop the insanity of their “leaders”. If they do not, or cannot, Iran will be destroyed by its paranoid, genocidal dictators, but not until after the Mullahs and Ackmenahjad cause the deaths of untold millions in Europe, Israel, and the Middle East (Fallout moves with the wind after all).
It would be good if the Islamic Republic were in the process of being overthrown, but suspect that it fits into the 'China scenario.'
So, we finally have a new version of “it’s Bush’s fault.”
I like it!
We need a revolution in the USA too. No Amnesty!!
You are seeing it....for the first time in my life the average "Joe" aka "We the People" have raised our voices in unison on an issue that affects us each day.
Therefore it's not at all surprising that the congress critters can't figure out what is going on...they have never experienced such outrage before. The President's approach is frankly very disappointing...I have stood by him through thick and thin and frankly IMHO he has done a helluva good job....save one issue....this immigration stance he has taken.
Why he won't listen to the people "what brought him to the dance" puzzles me. Me and the "Ole Boy" need to visit and he needs things "splained" to him...from a fellow pilot and Texan!!
Enough Iranians must through the grape vine and other sources start getting a better picture of just how screwed up their leadership is, and how far it is ready to go that will make their lives more miserable whether from only continued pressures by cutting off money sources and or the willingness of their government that could lead to them getting their tootsies bombed into oblivion.
Did Iran jump the shark? If they blockade the Strait of Hormuz a new day will dawn. Regardless of local time.
A massive air drop of pre-loaded ipods and Go Phones over Tehran should do the trick.
USA at the tipping point, the Senate plays on....
Signs of dissent and repression are easily overinterpreted. We have heard about hopeful signs of ‘dissent’ in Communist China for 40 years now, and before that hopeful readings of tea leaves in the USSR since the early fifties. Totalitarian regimes can live with dissent and crackdowns longer than democracies can keep their focus. The “tipping point” usually ends up more like the Texas panhandle...two lane blacktop as far as the eye can see.
The late Shah followed the Islamic code in Iran and commuted the court imposed death sentence of an Ayatollah. Actually of a mid-level cleric artificially elevated to that rank for this purpose alone.
Happened to be his biggest mistake. The “ayatollah” was Khomeini, who returned about a decade and a half later, with Jimmy Carter’s help, from exile to trigger the “flesh eating bacteria” syndrome of his personal version of Islam.
Something jihadists of Salafist, Wahabbi and Hojatien Shia persuasions have turned into a reverse crusade against Christianity, Judaism and the West as a whole.
Ayatollah Boroujerdi, son of prominent Ayatollah of the same name under the late Shah was arrested (and 80 followers) last October, tortured mercilessly and now faces execution for charges that suit his accusers not him.
Charges levelled by the inheritors of clerics who insisted it was illegal to execute an Ayatollah. Do as I say not as I do.
Fearing opposition by women as promoted by AntiMullah and aired over a Zorostrian TV (audio only), they arrested 150,000 women in a matter of three days to terrify them into submission before they got going.
The Islamic regime’s ability to handle this huge number of prisoners in such a short time speaks volumes.
This followed an arrest of 10,000 protesting teachers (mostly women) for better pay, not anything politicial.
While the least generous estimate puts dissatisfaction in Iran at about 85% of the population, probably over 90% today, open dissent by a citizenry cowed by unimaginable. immediate, merciless brutality by mostly Arab origin mercenaries - imported to do just this - prevents overt anti-regime activity.
In addition to the fear, deeply imbedded into the populace’s psyche over a full generation, with about 65% of the population under the age of 30 or 35 at most, they do not know for what to fight. Whom to follow when even an Ayatollah is arrested and soon to hang.
They were barely born or under ten years old when the Khomeini disaster happened, have no first hand knowledge of life other than under the clerics - certainly only fearful rumors from fuddy-duddy parents/family of life under the monarchy - and have been spoonfed disinformation from as far back as they can remember.
Nor is there any leader younger than about 65 or 70-years-old from “before” who has a clue how to manage any part of the country or who has the energy or desire to lead an overthrow.
So, for whom should they rise up? Replace what’s there with what? Endure torture for immediate flimsy Western freedoms to listen to music or wear less restricitive clothing?
They doubt the wishy-washy “West” they see as willing to appease the clerics for money (oil, road, rail, nuclear, business projects) will not sell them out. Will not replace one harsh horror with another based on inabiility and corruption instead of repression.
In American efforts to try to have a dog in the hunt, we have turned to accepting, grooming and advocating pro-Mullah infiltrators like Abbas Fakhravar and Akbar Ganji and listening to pro-Mullah advocates like Trita Parsi and a host of others, who ponrificate - inevitably in a misleading fashion.
All young enough for future duty but street level rabble rousers - not future leaders of a country or even any major administrative office. And none with real pro-Western interests and philosophies beyond a temporary comfortable life away from Iran.
Our intelligence capabilities fail repeatedly to penetrate the bullet proof cover stories the clerics have prepared for such persons and we dream of “turning” them. Preparing them to be our “dogs” in the hunt.
Why should they turn?
The jihadists, the Iranian Hojatieh and other terrorist movements are winning the public relations war, the influence war, the threat leverage war, the use of Western liberties to defeat efforts to stop them. And the forced change by contamination of Western cultures in countries where they demand obeissance to Moslem sharia laws, codes and customs.
And the inevitable result (in their eyes) of an Islamic Caliphate ruling the world.
Why do we expect them to abandon the winning side and join our weakness?
They may tag along with us for a “more comfortable life” in the West as they play us for fools but why expect them to turn away from what and whom they see as the winners?
Remember, they respect strength, not “weak” western liberty and justice, when our concepts may often cost them their family’s life and freedom (held loosely hostage) in the short run and not becoming part of the power structure in Iran in a decade or two.
Thanks for the ping!
Wow....bookmarking this!
The widespread purges and arrests are expected to have an impact on parliamentary elections next year and the presidential contest in 2009, either discouraging or preventing reformers from running against the current crop of hard-liners who dominate all branches of government, Iranian and U.S. analysts say.Last time around, Iranian voters were so disappointed in the performance of the reformers, didn't show up to vote. Word.
wow...truly excellant post...wow...a pithy and terrifying analysis...and you are sooo right.
fyi
Perhaps the Iranians having democracies forming on their borders is stirring the pot?? Time to send in a couple of Armored Divs to speed things along.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.