Speaking of the "Axis," Iran hasn't gotten much attention with all the developments going with Iraq and N Korea. So I am posting the following articles. It seems that both the Hardline Mullahs and the Reformers are growing increasingly desperate as the Iranian revolution continues to unravel and degenerate. The Mullahs are growing increasingly repressive by shutting down reformist papers, increasing public executions, and slamming down any proposals put forward by the reformers. Looks like Khatami is making his last gasp appeal to the hardliners to cobble together SOMETHING that will stave off bloody revolution. The reformers are getting so desperate they are making blatant overtures to the banned Ayatollah Montezeri. Last gasp time for the reformers folks - then the deluge.
The Iranian String Quartet
The mullahs get increasingly nervous
nationalreview.com
ack in the Cold War days, there was a popular riddle that went, "What's the definition of a Soviet String Quartet? Answer: The Moscow Symphony after a foreign tour." It can now be updated to feature Iranians touring the free world. Just last week, for example, seven of the thirteen members of the national rowing team jumped ship (so to speak) in Dusseldorf (perhaps not realizing that Germany had accepted the leadership of the forces of global appeasement), and have requested political asylum.
Like other recent émigrés and defectors, the Iranian rowers fled from a country in a headlong plunge into one of Dante's lowest levels of hell, where drug use has reached epidemic proportions, where prostitution is rampant, particularly among the young, where any publication that dares suggest the regime is rotten is immediately shut down and its editors dragged before Islamic tribunals, where the regime admits to one-seventh of the population hopelessly below the poverty line, and where, as a result, the people now show open contempt for all the leaders, from Supreme Leader Khamenei to President Khatami — the so-called president who is the darling of the regime's Western apologists.
The authority of the leaders has reached such a low point that Khamenei himself found it almost impossible to find a replacement for the Ayatollah Taheri, who shocked the country a few weeks ago when he resigned as Friday Prayer Leader in Isfahan. There are 70,000 mullahs in Iran, but the Supreme Leader had to go outside the country to recruit his personal representative in Syria, Mr. Tabatabai-Nejad. The mullahs' man in Damascus for several years, Tabatabai-Nejad was the paymaster for Iranian-sponsored terrorists in Syria and Lebanon, and got a warm sendoff from Hezbollah when he left the Syrian capital.
Even such publications as the British Guardian are now publishing articles with such catchy headlines as "No One Wants Mollahs in Iran," that begin with phrases like "'No one wants the mullahs, not even Khatami, who no longer seems to have any power,' said Farideh, a medical student at the university..."
The latest courageous man to describe the dreadful Iranian reality is one Akbar Ganji, perhaps the country's leading journalist, now serving a five-year sentence, took full advantage of a one-week parole by distributing a sixty-page pamphlet he had written in prison. "The Islamic Republic of Iran," he tells us, "not only is basically anti-democratic but also irreformable." He calls for a mass movement of civil disobedience to force the rulers to accept a national referendum on the proper form of government for the country.
This alone would be sufficient to confirm Ganji's status as an enemy of the regime, along with other lay and clerical critics. But Ganji went much further. He attacked the leader of the Iranian Revolution, the Ayatollah Khomeini, pointing out that Khomeini had promised democracy but, once in power, had instituted a clerical tyranny. "So long as this system...is in place, there is no way for Iranians to acquire democracy."
Strike two. But he went even further. Islam itself, he said, is "irreconcilable" with the idea of democracy, because Islam insists on different rules for different sexes, people of different faiths, and so forth, and therefore Islam is incompatible with the ideal of true equality for all citizens.
And then, for those who still hold out hope that the system can be reformed, Ganji proclaimed that not only are the reformers — from President Khatami on down — "dead," but their goals have by now been overtaken by the more radical goals of the Iranian people: a secular regime, equality among all, and full human rights.
No wonder that most Iranians believe that Ganji has signed his own death sentence, but the larger import of this amazing document is that it really does reflect the feelings of the Iranian people today. Like Ganji, they have concluded that the regime is so corrupt, and the society has become so degraded, that the people in authority are utterly unable to deal with the crisis. So it must go.
Indeed, the behavior of the leaders suggests that they know it themselves. Just this past week, Foreign Minister Kharrazi sneaked into New York and held quiet meetings with former American diplomats, and whispered that Iran would be willing to cooperate with the United States in the war against Iraq, provided that the Bush administration promised not to threaten the regime. This should fool no one (although the State Department wizards no doubt still hope for rapprochement), since the White House is well aware of the extensive Iranian operations against our troops in Afghanistan, not to mention efforts to murder President Karzai. And they also know that at 6:45 in the morning of September 21, nearly 60 top Iranian officials from Khamenei's office flew to Saudi Arabia (where they will stay until October 4), to try to coordinate joint efforts against us once the campaign against Iraq begins. Khamenei is convinced that once Saddam is brought down, he and his cronies are next on the American list, and he is telling the Saudis that they will follow in relatively short order.
From his lips to God's ears.
Meanwhile, as the Iranians feign peace, they prepare for war. They intend to test within a week or ten days a super-modern air-to-ground missile of far greater accuracy than anything they have shown us before. Components come from various Western countries, from South Africa and France to Australia and Canada, with critical technology courtesy of our Chinese and North Korean friends.
And, in keeping with its role as the mother of all terrorism, Iran continues to pour its resources into the terror network. Elahe Hicks, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who visited Tehran in July, felt compelled to put the lie to Foreign Minister Kharrazi in a letter to the New York Times on the 15th of September: "I met with several senior Iranian government officials...who assured me that Qaeda members were indeed being sheltered in Iran by hard-line clerical leaders..."
Faster, please. Much faster. These people will soon lunge for our throats.
Reformers' first official visit to detained cleric in 5 years
iranmania.com
TEHRAN, Oct 20 (AFP) - Representatives of Iran's reformist government have made the first official visit to the Islamic republic's disgraced former leader in waiting Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri since he was placed under house arrest five years ago, MPs said Sunday.
The delegation who spoke with Montazeri -- now a strong critic of the Islamic regime founded by Ayatollah Ali Khameini, whose designated heir he once was -- included reformist President Mohammad Khatami's younger brother, Mohammad-Reza, the MPs said.
"We were able to hold a brief dialogue with Ayatollah Montazeri" during Friday's visit to the holy city of Qom where he is detained, reformist MP Ali Shakouri-Rad told AFP.
"We went to the home of his son Ahmad, who lives next door to his father. We had to climb up to the second storey and from a balcony we were able to have a brief dialogue with Ayatollah Montazeri over a wall."
The MP stressed that the encounter had not been planned in advance and that it had only been by chance that Montazeri had been at home.
He declined to reveal what had been said. "It is for Ayatollah Montazeri and his entourage to decide whether or not they want to go public."
But he made clear that the reformers hoped the visit would lead to a relaxation of the house arrest order on the 80-year-old cleric, who is currently only allowed to receive family.
"We think this meeting could allow an easing of the sensitivities around Ayatollah Montazeri and help the regime to lift or at least relax the conditions of his house arrest."
Despite his long detention, the cleric still has many declared disciples within the regime, including around 40 members of the reformist parliament and several government ministers.
The reformers have repeatedly called for the release of Montazeri, who continues to make his views known through statements distributed by his family.
But several members of his family were arrested just over a year ago after being convicted of publishing abroad a secret report into a string of killings of dissidents in late 1998.
His son-in-law Hadi Hashemi was only released in February.
TEHRAN, Oct 20 (AFP) - Reformist President Mohammad Khatami made an impassioned plea Sunday for the rights of Iranians to be protected against a possible "dictatorial drift" by powerful non-elected bodies, which are largely dominated by religious conservatives.
©2001 IranMania & AFP
iranmania.com
Khatami launched into a defence of his reforms which have been stymied by conservatives in the Islamic republic since his first overwhelming victory in elections five years ago after presenting an economic report to parliament, which is mostly made up of reformers.
He strenuously defended two recently introduced bills which seek to cut the powers of conservative courts and constitutional watchdogs, saying they aimed to bring a measure of control over the appointed bodies.
He also rejected charges by hardliners he was trying to set up "a monopoly of power," saying his reforms were necessary for the "establishment of democracy" and the "rule of law."
"If one is to worry about the risk of a dictatorial drift -- and one must actually worry -- one must look to the institutions who have the power to violate the constitution, but who don't have to answer" to the people," an emotional Khatami said.
"With the help of God, I will not retreat in the face of threats and pressure from my decision to defend the rights and freedoms of the people."
The bills are seen by the president's supporters as a last-ditch attempt to revive his flagging reform effort, giving him the authority to take on the judiciary -- a major stumbling block for his promises of greater freedom.
They would also strip the powerful Guardians Council of its prerogative to vet candidates for public office. The conservative oversight body has blocked large numbers of reformists from standing.
Even if approved by MPs, the bills are expected to be shot down by the Guardians Council, which also screens proposed laws to ensure they are in accordance with the constitution and Islamic principles.
That would leave the bill's fate in the hands of the Expediency Council, an arbitration body also dominated by conservatives and chaired by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
"Only dictators and supporters worry about democracy," Khatami said in response to the charges by the conservatives he was seeking too much power.
"I am happy to see that those who generally reject democracy have criticized these two bills by invoking a rejection of dictatorship."
He said he himself was "responsible to the people, the parliament and the Guide," referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and noted he was the only one of the country's leaders elected directly by the people.
I have "the right and the duty to guarantee respect for the constitution" and "to act with all means ... against those who violate" it, he said.
However, the reform movement suffered a pair of new blows on Sunday.
A court charged the head of a polling institute with espionage after it published a survey commissioned by the parliament indicating popular support for normal relations with the United States.
Legal proceedings were also launched against a prominent reformist member of parliament, Ahmad Borghani, who as deputy culture minister played a role in setting up the polling institute.
©2002 IranMania & AFP
Ahmad Masjed-Jamei.
Culture Minister Ahmed Masjed Jamei expressed his concern at the court actions and said that his ministry had received no report from Iran's intelligence services. |
