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’ve been hearing this same crap since 1979.
Isn’t “may you live in interesting times” a chinese curse?
If they rig the election, the govt becomes illegitimate and the citizen have the responsibility to take the law into their hands.My gut tells me that this is what’s coming in 2012, which is why there is no network coverage of what’s going on. The world is turned upside down when Persians have a better sense of Democracy than does Americans.
can we just call him BOOBama from now on?
Why the color green. Where does the significance arise from?
Green is the color associated with Islam.
That is some fine “robust debate” Harry.
Check out the flag of Libya for example. All green in honor of its Islamic roots. Muhammad is quoted as saying “water, nature and a pretty face are good things” or some such. Nature is green.
Thanks calex, re: info on Mousavi. IYO is there a leader for Iran. Is there much hope for the late Shah’s son?
http://www.break.com/usercontent/2009/6/iran-election-man-beat-to-death-do-not-remove-754223.html
I don’t think so. I think if they pull off their “revolution” they will still be stuck with the Mullahs, unfortunately.
Excerpt follows.
Per news.gooya.com, at least 15 students were severely wounded Sunday after clashes with police at a Tehran University dormitory. Shots were fired and the casualties could be much higher.
You cannot fight guns with books.
I don’t care for the writer’s use of the word ‘right’ in describing the current Administration in Tehran.
To compare the oppressive regime in Iran with the Right in the USA is appalling.
Oil at $100 in 4..3..2...
Charles Dickens.
A Tale Of Two Cities.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
Book 1, Ch. 1.
CA....
Thanks, CA. Doesn’t sound so different from today, does it?
That’s okay with me. He sure is one big one.
Ya got me...
Obama is the worst of the old criticism of US policy. He is merely for the status quo.
He retreated from President Bush’s policy about freedom for ALL. The old cynicism about the ME is deader than dead re: Iraq. Even with their issues, they are building a Republic.
And others in the region are asking, “If Iraq can, why not us?”
Thus the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, etc. But Obama sits by and will not “impose” our God given rights of freedom on others.
Loser!!!! Obama is a loser. And he sits by without a word of praise for Iranians dying for freedom. Nary a word on their behalf.
You think Reagan would sit by and say nothing about that?
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