Posted on 06/14/2009 3:23:54 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
(To get a feel for what is going on in the streets of Tehran, watch this linked BBC video clip.)
Last night in London after appearing on Keith Olbermann's show, I got an email from a well-connected Iranian who knows many of the power figures in the Tehran political order asking to meet me. I told him that the only place possible was Paddington on the way to Heathrow -- and there we met.
He conveyed to me things that were mostly obvious -- Iran is now a tinderbox. The right is tenaciously consolidating its control over the state and refuses to yield. There is a split among the mullahs and significant dismay with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. A gaping hole has been ripped open in Iranian society, exposing the contradictions of the regime and everyone now sees that the democracy that they believed that they had in Iranian form is a "charade."
But the scariest point he made to me that I had not heard anywhere else is that this "coup by the right wing" has created pressures that cannot be solved or patted down by the normal institutional arrangements Iran has constructed. The Guardian Council and other power nodes of government can't deal with the current crisis and can't deal with the fact that a civil war has now broken out among Iran's revolutionaries.
My contact predicted serious violence at the highest levels. He said that Ahmadinejad is now genuinely scared of Iranian society and of Mousavi and Rafsanjani. The level of tension between them has gone beyond civil limits -- and my contact said that Ahmadinejad will try to have them imprisoned and killed.
Likewise, he said, Rafsanjani, Khatami, and Mousavi know this -- and thus are using all of the instruments at their control within Iran's government apparatus to fight back -- but given Khamenei's embrace of Ahmadinejad's actions in the election and victory, there is no recourse but to try and remove Khamenei. Some suggest that Rafsanjani will count votes to see if there is a way to formally dislodge Khamenei -- but this source I met said that all of these political giants have resources at their disposal to "do away with" those that get in the way.
He predicted that the so-called reformist camp -- who are not exactly humanists in the Western liberal sense -- may try and animate efforts to decapitate the regime and "do away with" Ahmadinejad and even the Supreme Leader himself.
I am not convinced that this source "knows" these things will definitely happen but am convinced of his credentials and impressed with the seriousness of the discussion we had and his own concern that there may be political killing sprees ahead.
This is not a vision he advocates -- but one he fears.
-- Steve Clemons
I am watching the police go back and forth through the crowd, swing their clubs and running down Iranians. I will never forget the sound of the clubs hitting people on another video or the man beaten to death by the riot police.
Not only is Obama MIA, but Congress as well. We waterboared 3 terrorists and one would have thought we killed the Baby Jesus by their reactions.
Disgusting and deafening silence from the Hill and the WH machine.
Spirited debate, I think he called it.
So Imanutjob is the right?
LOL - Go, liberals, go!
interesting theory.
After I read John Bolton’s opinion of Mousavi I’ve been wondering why one guy over the other makes one whit of a difference.
I wonder what it is about Mousavi that appeals to the young iranians - the students.
I did see (and I forget what page I was on) that the world was to wear green tomorrow. I do not know if that is true, but I’m game. I will wear green tomorrow and find something green to put around my mailbox.
Agree. What irritates me is that yesterday Hillary said Bozo didn’t accept the election results, today he is waffling and saying he hasn’t decided. Typical Bozo reaction to anything, wait to see who wins before coming down on a side.
I was following the Twitter posts live, and that was posted about three hours ago.
Well I posted it more than an hour ago, I am not resonsible for the time in seconds of minutes it has at the bottom, lots of the messages are repeats. So your point is what? That it isn’t pitiful since it was twitted several hours ago?
Have a great evening.
Interesting and shocking accounts of modern day police state gladiators on motorcycles.
Is oppressing an angry mob going to do anything but fan the flames? This is going to escalate fast.
Note to self: Call these guys in the morning...
You know I have been following this stuff on Twitter and while they have a bad thing going there what is really pitiful are all of the Iranians who bad mouth Americans, many of them simply because some Americans are sympathetic of there plight, not a few of them have said how people the world over are in danger of being captured and tortured by American agents, and lump us in with their “militia” which many of them refer to as thugs(militia and thug being interchangable. So the brain washing of the left reaches into many places.
With green being the color of Islam, it’s more like “wear red on May Day”
Followed by Race Relations and then Multiculturalism Appreciation Training.
What’s scary is that the left in our own government DID the same to us.
Now would be a good time for the 12th Imam to show up, just to stir the pot a bit.
So here is a question I haven’t seen anywhere. Obama made the statement he was waiting until the Iranian election for his damn cue. Did he KNOW this was going to happen. I mean that Homodinejad and Khamieni were going to hijack the election?
Could it be this is what he wanted to happen? Because freedom is anathema to 0, and this gives the hardliners in Iran an excuse to stamp out their opposition.
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