Holi (pronounced ho-lee), also known as Phagwa, is marked at the transition from the Hindu months Phalguna to Chaitra. The Hindu calendar being lunisolar, this date changes every year. In 2010 it fell on March 1st. Besides India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, it is observed by the South Asian diaspora in all its regional varieties throughout Europe, America, Canada, Australia, in New Zealand, South Africa, and of course, Suriname, Trinidad, Mauritius and Fiji which are notable countries where South Asians were brought for labor and now constitute a significant proportion of the population.
Background.
Vaishnava
In a timeless past of the Satya Yuga, a ruler from a race of giants, known as Daityas, held power and riches unrivaled, except by his own attire. Thus, he was known as Hiranyakashipu, or, ‘Golden-robed’. After performing austerities (tapas) and being granted a boon by Brahma which had made him nearly invincible, the ‘Demon King’ attacked the Heavens, lorded over earth, demanded people worship him, and squandered his wealth on destruction and his own greatness, even challenging Lord Indra.
This all was at odds with his own son, Prahlada, a pious devotee of Lord Vishnu; a Vaishnava, whom sought to correct his father in the right virtues of a Maharaja and to guide him in Bhakti realization of the Supreme Soul by renouncing avarice and absorbing his thoughts on Him. This only made his father furious,
[T]he daitya ruler daunted upon seeing how the attempts ran futile, devised with determination for a variety of ways to kill him. Crushing him with an elephant, attacking with the king’s poisonous snakes, with spells of doom, throwing him from heights, conjuring tricks, imprisoning him, administering venom and subjecting him to starvation, cold, wind, fire and water and with piling rocks upon him, was the demon unable to put his son, the sinless one, to death… (Srimad Bhagavata Purana, 7.5.42-4)
And yet, the boy through his devotion to the Lord was protected from his father’s persecution time and time again. At long last his father’s wrath brought him before the court, and challenged to see this God who could challenge his own deific powers. He would try to kill his son himself this time, but before the boy’s head could be severed by his father who scoffed that no one could save him, God made his omnipresence known to all assembled from a pillar. The universe cracked open, and a cacophony of sounds and kaleidoscopic dimensions could be seen; the omnipresence of God within everything. Narasimha, the fourth avatara of Vishnu, a hybrid with man’s torso and lion’s head then appeared from this pillar and mauled the Demon King Hiranyakashipu to shreds. The king had used a boon from Brahma gained by devotion for evil; thus God had to manifest himself in earthly form to correct this terrorizing and subjection of earth and heavens alike.
Among the schemes Hiranyakashipu hatched against his son was when he asked his sister to have Prahlada to sit in her lap in a bonfire. Hiranyakashipu’s sister had received a special boon that gave her immunity to fire. However; she was burned to death and Prahlad saved. There are numerous accounts as to the reason for this, but suffice it to say, the sister of the king died and good triumphed.
Hiranyakashipu’s sister was named Holika, from which Holi is believed to derive. It is this event that Holi celebrates in Holika Dahan (the burning of Holika), in which bonfires are lit, primarily in North India, the day before Holi. Originally these included effigies of Holika, but in most parts this is now replaced by a simple pyre. Comparisons to their fellow Aryans’ (if only common traditional heritage; I have no intent of opening the Aryan Invasion Theory can of worms here) celebration of Cheharshanbe-Souri in Iran and indeed, bonfire spring festivals in Indo-European cultures throughout Europe, are readily seen. The triumph of light over darkness.
Shaivite
The main story as recounted and summarized above, can be considered by some to be a Vaishnava polemic, with Hiranyakashipu representing Lord Shiva. As such, given where you are, an alternate account is of Kama and Shiva.
As recounted in the Saura Purana, there was another daitya called Taraka whom had achieved a boon from Brahma after severe austerities. He asked for the boon of being invincible to the gods; and like Hiranyakashipu, effectively immortal. Of course, Brahma thought this too much so asked for an exception. The wily Taraka made the condition that only the child of Shiva could kill him. Shiva was doing penance and lost in himself after losing his first wife, Dakshayani (which is the subject of another famous myth which is the source of the practice of sati; Sati being another name for Dakshayani), therefore Taraka had reasoned that Shiva would be unable to produce a son.
Of course, Taraka does what demons granted boons of immense power by Brahma do, he terrorizes the universe of gods and men. He battles Vishnu for 30,000 years alone, but Vishnu has to retreat in confusion and hide. Beleaguered, the gods meet with Brahma, who tells them of Taraka’s weakness. They hatch a plan.
Parvati, who had realized she was the reincarnated Dakshayani from a young age, and had performed severe penances for Shiva’s hand in marriage, was put before Shiva. The only problem, is that Shiva was absorbed in yogic asceticism, having renounced the world after the loss of his first wife. So, Kama (yes, as in the Kama Sutra; and, counterpart to Greek Eros; Cupid) is enjoined to put lust into Shiva and wake him from his trance to produce the progeny that will defeat Taraka.
But, when Shiva awakens from his meditation after being immovable by either Parvati or Kama, he sees Parvati there, and then, sees Kama with his five flowered arrow drawn in its bow and aimed at him. Shiva’s third-eye shoots forth a fire accumulated in his tapas and incinerates Kama by its own power independent of Shiva’s will. Parvati is now distressed, and rebukes Shiva. It is now that she asks for her boon from him, having suffered as an example to all yoginis past and present. She asks that Kama be revived. Consenting, Shiva replies, “Let [Kama] be without a body in order to please you, lady with beautiful eyes. In that form he will be able to shake the world.”
Long story short, Shiva and Parvati beget Skanda (the Hindu ‘Ares’), who destroys Taraka. In South India, Holi is thus referred to as Kama Dahanam. But of course, the larger lesson was the victory of love, for now the disembodied Kama, with his wife Rati, could flit from one corner of the earth to another like the wind. In this context, Holi is like an Indian Valentine’s Day.
Radha Krishna
In this spirit, the Ras-Lila is celebrated (literally, ‘Passion Play’ and quite different from the Christian form, of course!); particularly in Mathura and Vrindavan, where Lord Krishna (the eighth avatara of Vishnu) was born and the place of the Ras-Lila, respectively. The Ras-Lila is the all-famous tale of the gopis’ (milk maidens) love and adoration of the perfect youth Krishna, who playfully teased them mercilessly in the 10th Book of the Srimad Bhagavata Purana (not to be confused with the Bhagavad Gita of the Mahabharata), and the tryst between him and Radha, whom is never actually named, in chapter 30, where she is only a mystery woman held in awed jealousy by the pining gopis who follow the couple’s footsteps into the forest. This story with elaborations is a staple of bhajans and Indian poetry, drama, and naturally, today’s transmitter of myth, Bollywood (here’s an example).
A word of warning. To suggest anything unchaste about Radha, or to reduce Krishna to a Casanova, to suggest anything sexual at all beyond romantic metaphor, is extremely offensive to devout Hindus; particularly Vaishnavas. It has an invective history with the Christian missionaries and continues to this day on Christianist supremacist websites. Having said this word of warning though, of Holi, the entry in A Dictionary of Hinduism says,
A spring festival dedicated to Krishna and the gopis. It took the place of an earlier kind of Saturnalia, ‘the survival of a primitive fertility ritual, combining erotic games, “comic operas” and folk dancing’. Some of the earlier elements remain, such as the singing of suggestive songs, the throwing of coloured water, and jumping over bonfires, the ashes of which are believed to possess magical powers.
Indeed, I tend to take this view, and see the other myths as later accretions or adaptations to an earlier Indo-European fertility festival, as do I see the Radha-Krishna relationship a sublimation of an earlier myth. During Holi, caste distinctions are suspended, and the sexes may mix freely; likely customs surviving from the ubiquitous “safety valve” many early cultures observed at least once a year -- just as modern ones do to this day.
Playing
In a 7th century play, Ratnavali, it was said,
Witness the beauty of the great cupid festival which excites curiosity as the townsfolk are dancing at the touch of brownish water thrown from squirt-guns.
They are seized by pretty women while all along the roads the air is filled with singing and drum-beating.
Everything is coloured yellowish red and rendered dusty by the heaps of scented powder blown all over.
This is the first recording of Dhulhendi, the day of Holi most recognizable today. Let me set the scene. You know nothing of Holi, you are a visitor in India. This delightful scenario is played in this scene from the 2006 film, “Outsourced”:
Instruments of Fun:
Abir and Gulal - colored powders
Originally made from natural dyes, some with Ayurvedic properties, there has been concern over toxic ingredients in recent years, and a move towards organic products. The symbolism with spring, of course, is self-evident.
Pichkari -- soaker type of syringe
While many of these still retain their traditional design, many more kids can be seen with super soakers and custom pichkaris with Bollywood actors and actresses, cartoon characters and other themes, even in shapes like elephants or one designed as a bow and arrow (like the ancient Hindu heroes).
Bhang
Bhang, made from grinding cannabis leaves and flowers into a paste is mixed into chilled drinks and munchie snacks alike. The signature drink of Holi is thandai, a milk based drink flavored with pistachios, almonds, and, of course, marijuana! But, a bhang lassi can also be whipped up, as seen above. Oh, and if you happen upon a sadhu in Varanasi, see if they will pass the chillum. This is one of a few times where social use of marijuana is acceptable, though generally not by women (patriarchal societies’ ‘designated drivers’). Watch this Bollywood song with the information and vocabulary you have just gained!
Hola Mohalla
Although not widely celebrated in Pakistan, in India Holi is now a secular holiday celebrated by all: Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Jew, Parsi, Sikh, atheist, etc. The day after Holi, as well, is the closely related Sikh holiday of Hola Mohalla, most visible in the Sikh homeland of Indian Punjab. In warrior-saint Guru Gobind Singh’s martial tradition, Sikhs will mock fights, sing, play music, recite poetry and kirtans, and eat communally, as is per Sikh practice.
So, alas, to explain my title. It is common to say “Holi hai!” which means “it’s Holi!” as a greeting. Unfortunately, due to timing, I fell off on writing this, and thus added the Hindi ‘was’, tha, to reflect the belated nature of this article.
To end with, I only chose one Bollywood Holi song among a plethora of possibilities, as this one clearly lays out several elements outlined herein and brings it to life! (plus my crush on Rani Mukerji didn’t hurt the selection process)
This morning as I was watching last night’s Craig Ferguson Show that we tape since we can’t stay up that late, his monologue struck a chord with me.
He stated that he’s been feeling rather depressed lately, and I have to admit that so have I, and I wonder if anyone else has been feeling the same.
I find it depressing to read the news every day and every day the news seems to be nothing but doom and gloom.
If it’s not articles about the Party of NO, it’s stories about Limbaugh’s and Beck’s latest bloviations, Sarah Palin’s Charismatic Apostolic Warriors taking over our government, the 244% increase in hate groups, unemployment, foreclosures, Americans suffering without health care, earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.
I’ve been thinking about the typical platitude of counting my blessings, and I do have innumerable blessings in my life, and focusing on the positives rather than negatives, and then I log onto the Internet and the depressing cycle starts again.
So, I started thinking of what I can do in my every day life to get around the blues and decided that I need an attitude adjustment.
Today is the day that I am starting my personal movement to cheer up, by finding at least one good news story every single day.
I have also decided to stop playing into the negativity by referring to Tea Party people as teabaggers, and instead calling them, well, Tea Party People or referring to the group as the Tea Party Movement.
I am going to try very hard to speak about Republicans, Palin, Limbaugh and Beck, et all, in a respectful manner, taking a cue from Van Jones and his graciousness in telling Beck that he loves him, even if it was tongue in cheek, but I think the man really meant it.
In other words, I’m going to try to play nice and not lower myself to the opposition’s level.
Have you ever gotten really angry with someone and blew up and told them off?
How did it make you feel afterward?
I’ve done that a few times in my life, and every single time I’ve regretted it afterward and I felt horrible and worse than I did about whatever offense occurred to bring on my anger or hurt feelings.
I’m taking the high road, or going to try my damnedest to do that, as it is healthier for my frame of mind.
February 1, 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s fourteen year exile was finally coming to an end. From Neauphle-le-Château where he had spent only a few months after being kicked out of Najaf by Saddam Hussein (accounts differ on the Shah’s role in this) he had chartered an Air France 747 and was finally entering Iranian airspace. On board were a cadre of Western journalists, including Newsweek’s Elaine Sciolino, who wrote of this exchange between ABC’s Peter Jennings and Ayatollah Khomeini in her book, Persian Mirrors:
“Ayatollah, would you be so kind as to tell us how you feel about being back in Iran?”
“Hichi,” the ayatollah replied. “Nothing.”
“Hichi?” Ghotbzadeh asked him. Even he seemed incredulous at the response.
“Hich ehsasi nadaram,” the ayatollah said for emphasis. “I don’t feel a thing.”
While stoicism is characteristic of a mojtahed of his rank, this laconic reply has nonetheless been the subject of debate and speculation to this day. (Unbeknownst to me at the drafting of this writing, someone thought of the same opening for their short piece. So, I’ll briefly add that Elaine Sciolino says Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, Khomeini’s aide and translator, innocently flirted with her).
A month earlier, after losing several close confidants and seeing the tide of history mounting against his crumbling regime’s edifice, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announced the decision to name long time opposition National Front politician, Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister and invited him to form a new government. It was a desperate concession of an autocratic monarch in failing health to salvage his dynasty.
Prime Minister Bakhtiar promised to disband SAVAK, relax martial law, and did lift restrictions on the press and free political prisoners and further promised to hold free elections and determine the future of the monarchy. On the 16th of January, Bakhtiar convinced the Shah to go on holiday. The Shah would never see Iran again; and with him, 2,500 years of royalty was banished. Yet all this was for naught. Too little, too late. And all was made moot by his most fateful mistake: relenting in allowing Khomeini’s plane to land at Mehrabad Airport. After arriving, Khomeini went to Behesht-e Zahra cemetery (sort of like a mix of Père-Lachaise and Arlington) to honor martyrs whom had lost their lives in confrontations with the Shah’s security forces. In a speech before a large crowd there, he vowed to “smash in the mouth of the Bakhtiar government.”
Four days later, Ayatollah Khomeini declared technocrat, Mehdi Bazargan, as the “true” Prime Minister of a provisional government. Of Bakhtiar, Khomeini said in a radio address, “Why do you talk of the Shah, Mossadegh, money? These have already passed. Islam is all that remains” (without any sense of irony that Bazargan was also an admirer and former public servant of Mossadegh). The demonstrators on the streets chanted to effect that Bakhtiar was a servant with no power. They were right. He had alienated both the most loyal military royalists and his erstwhile revolutionary comrades, whom had expelled him from the National Front as a traitor for dealing with the Shah.
To this day some in the Iranian diaspora bemoan President Carter for not supporting Bakhtiar more; but I have doubts there was anything to be done, and fear much of this is emotion (though understandable). On the 4th of January, General Robert “Dutch” Huyser had been dispatched to Tehran. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski had advocated a coup (I know, right?!). In the weeks he was there, General Huyser concluded and reported back that with troops peeling off at nearly a 1,ooo a day to desertion and defection and the officer corps divided, no such military reassertion of power was practicable.
The evening of February 9, Bakhtiar decided to air the Peter Jenning’s interview to discredit Khomeini. It backfired. At Doshan Tappeh Air Base, southeast of Tehran, Homafars (Air Force cadets and technicians) rebelled. Word reached the Feda’iyan and Mojahedin guerrillas, whom helped fend off the Imperial Guards. After this routing, Tehran became a war zone and the next two days were spent opening up armories and prisons, and overtaking police stations and military bases in Tehran and provinces. There were over two-hundred casualties. At two p.m. General Abbas Gharabaghi declared the Army’s neutrality and they pulled back to their barracks. Around four hours later the national radio station was seized and the victory of the Revolution declared, “in sedaye enghelab-e mardom-e Iran ast” (this is the voice of the Revolution). It was 22 Bahman 1357, the day which would be in symbolism the “4th of July” of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
22 Bahman 1388. Thirty-one years later, this celebration would also occur eight months after protests first erupted in the wake of the contested reëlection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since the Ashoura protests, the pressure and preparation had been mounting from the security forces and hardline politicians, with principlists issuing similar warnings to lesser and varying degrees; executions, rounding up and detaining opposition, etc. Much of this I outlined in my previous article and won’t go into much depth again here. Although Jason Shams did an excellent summation on the government’s gearing-up,
It tries to deny our existence in the provinces far from the cities, with oil dollars, Chinese tear gas, and Russian hackers helping make the point; telephones are tapped, activists imprisoned, a stroll down the street and we are faced with gangs of Basij and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranians can watch MTV and pornography on satellite television, but the BBC and Voice of America have been jammed. The Internet has been reduced to a trickle, newspapers shut down.
Many in the diaspora were hyping this up to be the last stand. Even Reza Aslan miscalculated. I demur that I may have not made this clear, but I had my skepticism and worry and generally agreed in tone with Geneive Abdo’s prediction. Of all days on the Iranian calendar, the government was not about to be humiliated on this day of all politically charged days. The Greens also risked being too easily branded counterrevolutionaries. In the weeks that have followed, it has been difficult for me to figure out just what transpired that day in confirmed protests in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Ahvaz (see videos). Ali Arouzi, reporting for NBC, says he was transported straight from his bureau to Azadi Square for Ahmadinejad’s speech, not allowed to talk to even pro-Government supporters, and driven straight back. Other journalists gave the same account.
So what really happened? I still don’t know. I would agree with Scott Lucas at Enduring America though, that “The Regime Won Ugly“,
There was nothing hopeful in the rows of security forces who, having been prepared after the humiliations of Ashura, were not going to countenance another retreat. There was nothing of glory or Islamic value in the confrontations with Mehdi Karroubi (wounded, his son missing), Zahra Rahnavard (beaten), Mohammad Khatami and Mir Hossein Mousavi (forced into retreat), let alone the thousands of encounters in which chains, batons, and flying-squad detentions trumped hope and determination.
Muhammad Sahimi from Tehran Bureau, added his own positive spin,
First, the very fact that on the thirty-first anniversary of the Revolution, the hardliners had to saturate Tehran and other large cities with security forces just to prevent peaceful demonstrations by the opposition represents a significant victory for Green supporters. This is the day when the people are supposed to come out freely and celebrate the establishment of the political system that the hardliners claim they support, and yet there was an unofficial state of emergency, with tens of thousands of security forces patrolling the streets.
While I wouldn’t call it a “victory” for the Greens (maybe a tactical retreat, at best), this all, of course, make the Leveretts jump for joy. I and other Green sympathizers are often chided to go and join those in Iran. I shoot back that the armchair Basiji fan club have no place telling us that. I’ve been to pro-Green demonstrations here in the states. Maybe for them to show solidarity they could come at us with tear gas and crack a few of our skulls; or take pictures, track us down, and intimidate our friends and family?
As Mir Hossein Mousavi recently said in his first comments since 22 Bahman on February 28th, “this year’s rally was engineered” and,
The green movement missed a historic chance because the regime eclipsed its presence,” he said. “However, it was much more harmful to the regime than the movement because covering up the reality will never result in [the movement’s] elimination. I’m sure that this massive crackdown will deepen and broaden the movement.
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mohammad Khatami were prevented from joining protests, or for only a brief time. Khatami’s brother, Mohammad Reza Khatami and his wife Zahra Eshraghi, the granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini, were detained then released after trying to join protests. Mehdi Karroubi’s car was again attacked and he is reported to have shed blood. Karroubi’s son, Ali, was allegedly beaten in a mosque after trying to protect his father, whose security detail never showed. His other son, Hossein Karroubi gave an interview expanding upon that here. Further, there was word of shots fired in Sadeghiyeh Square north of Azadi Square, where opposition was to meet, but whose numbers were disappointing.
IRIB, the official media organ of the Islamic Republic broadcast this helicopter footage. The original did not, of course, have that pro-government hip-hop, which struck me in similarity to this techno infused Mousavi campaign song. In any case, most rap is banned, especially under Ahmadinejad, so forgive me if I roll my eyes at that. State media also reported the day saw fifty million regime supporters demonstrate according to this live-blog. Iran’s population is approximately seventy million. If I were to define this day as celebrating the overthrow of the Shah or just enjoying a picnic with family and friends, well, that’s not hard to believe. I don’t think that was the expressed intent nor implication though.
From the Green sites now. A video with text commentary, from inside Azadi Square during Ahmadinejad’s speech. There are several significant things in it, including a man sitting on a picture of Supreme Leader Khamene’i and at the end, the Coat of Arms of the IRI, is cut out of a flag and on the ground. Most notably, this (zoom) satellite image went viral:
It was taken when Ahmadinejad was giving his speech, as seen on state television. Compare camera angle there with the picture above. Pro-government supporters contest that these are doctored (by the usual suspects: Hypocrites, Monarchists, Zionists and American Imperialists, of course). This rings hollow with me from those whom cite IRIB and post their own videos with Persian rap, though. A dose of skepticism is always healthy, on both sides. But having said that, IRIB and IRINN’s coverage was suspect most notably in one regard. No live sound. Instead, they played patriotic songs, and their “live” coverage was very canned. This was reported by more than one observer, but Pedestrian gives the most entertaining account (if I can even use the ‘e’ word regarding state propaganda).
Setting up loudspeakers to drown out anyeghteshahgar, “attention seekers creating disturbance”, doesn’t match up with a secure government who brushes off the opposition as marginal elements, with decreasing numbers due to “radicalization” (which is admittedly a worry to keeping broad support on the streets, and not confined behind proverbial Persian Walls). Numerous accounts abound of security forces searching people for any green contraband or cell phones and rounding them up into alleys and whisked away. Truth is, there is no telling how many opposition supporters actually made it in and around Azadi Square, and any guesses one way or the other is mere speculation.
There is also the possibility, that given the five day weekend this year, that many more affluent went to Dizin (a ski resort) or the Caspian coast. Of course, there are class undertones in these assertions, but they are not altogether untrue. On the other side, were pictures such as these:
These are the infamous buses the government uses to bring in pro-Ahmadinejad and otherwise conservative supporters to regime rallies and events in Tehran from outlying villages. These supporters are what are pejoratively referred to as sandis. The term comes from a fruit drink handed out to regime supporters by Pasdars and others. The condescending implication here is sometimes that they are poor and are bribed to come to these events with a lunch and drink. Aside from the appeal of a free meal, I would say that’s the wrong way to look at it. This hospitality is common to the Middle East, and Iran is no exception! Except for the fact that while the so-called sandis get refreshments, anyone with green gets a beating (or worse).
Ahmadinejad’s ramp up to this day was full of talking about sanctions, nuclear rights and a failed rocket launch into space. Some speculate that this focus on issues that unify all Iranians could have had an impact in softening opposition. His speech, replete with a rocket centerpiece (paging Dr. Freud), had little of substance. Blame Israel, blame America, blame MeK, and cartoonish gholov (braggadocio), yada yada. He also declared Iran a “nuclear state” boasting they’d reached capability to enrich uranium to medical isotope levels of 20%. Funny thing though, they appear to be having trouble with this. Even Robert Gibbs said that,
“The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a series of problems throughout the year. We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.”
For once, when not complicit in manufacturing cable news hysteria and pandering to AIPAC & Co. hawks, the White House had a moment of honesty which was in line with such differing experts as David Albright, Flynt Leverett and Reza Aslan on PBS Newshour, during which Reza Aslan said,
But we have to under — we have to recognize that the statement that Iran is going to start enriching uranium at 20 percent, that it’s going to build 10 more enrichment plants in the next year, are, frankly, laughable. I mean, it took Iran years to build its one site in Natanz. It can barely keep that up and running.
So, this is not just for domestic consumption, but, more importantly, it’s designed to get a response from the West, because, if there’s one thing that all people in Iran, despite their politics or piety, whether in the Green Movement or the pro-government movement, agree on is Iran’s inalienable right to enrich uranium.
Of course, the cable news networks seized upon the “nuclear state” headline like addicts to a crack pipe. Rudi Bakhtiar, former CNN and FOX News anchor now with the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (and niece of Shapour Bakhtiar) being interviewed on CNN called out their coverage and said what I have said so many times. In so many words, she basically accused CNN and other networks of collaborating with Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad counts on this response, and instead of keeping the focus on the Green Movement and human rights, they take the bait every time, and muddle the message. I almost stood up and clapped when I saw her do this.
The “Green defeat” analyses have been endless. Juan Cole is included in those that were blunt about it. The government seems to have finally caught up to the calendar battle, and the asset of online social networking and SMS communication has become a liability through monitoring and phone tapping (though this has been overblown, as word still spreads like fire the old fashioned way from alley to alley). This includes exiles like former regime insider Mohsen Sazegara publishing detailed protest routes; and, Karroubi calling to meet at Sadheghiyeh Square and march towards Azadi Square. Security forces just had to close off such routes and again prevent the opposition from forming any large group. From here on, broadcasting rallying points and plans has to be reëxamined and alternatives found.
On the eve of 22 Bahman, amid sporadic Allah-o Akbars (view World Press Photo of 2009), Hashemi Rafsanjani leaked a letter on his personal website which he had sent leader Khamene’i before the June ‘09 election day. In it he warned of Ahmadinejad’s lies (most likely referencing presidential debates, which hearken back to the 2005 presidential election), and against potential election fraud. Before moving forward, I’d like to take a brief excursion back to over a dozen years ago.
On May 16, 1997, a week before election day, delivering his sermon at Tehran University Friday Prayers, Rafsanjani warned, “treachery is an unforgivable act, and I do not consider any sin greater than someone giving himself the right to rig the votes of the people.” Goaded by Rafsanjani, Khamene’i assured a free and fair poll. The following needs to be quoted in full, from Geneive Abdo and Jonothan Lyon’s 2003 book, Answering Only to God,
But Khatami and his aides were well aware that pressure was mounting steadily on President Rafsanjani and the leader to prevent him from winning a clear majority in the first round. They worried that a second round would allow plenty of time for dirty tricks, sabotage, or even a coup by hard-liners in the Revolutionary Guards and their volunteer auxiliary, the basij. If the establishment were ever tempted to defraud the voters, then this was surely the moment; the threat from Khatami to the social, political, and theological order that had settled over the country since the revolution appeared simply too great.
These Khatami aides telephoned Rafsanjani to ensure the integrity of the count on election day. His daughter, Faezeh, arrived at the Interior Ministry with a retinue of armed security to ensure no shenanigans (though this could be interpreted as one in itself, she can handle herself. Watch this recent verbal confrontation with Basijis where she is cornered). In elections, while counts are taken locally, a second counting is undertaken when they are collected at the Interior Ministry (which does not have to match up with the first form’s tally). Before this year’s count, there were allegations from officials in the ministry warning of the possibility of tampering and pointing to a supposed fatwa from Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, Ahmadinejad’s spiritual advisor and member of the Assembly of Experts, that rigging the vote was okay for the greater good of preserving the Islamic system (this would correspond to rumors that he is part of the Hojjatieh, an anti-democratic “C Street”, it might be put).
The Interior Ministry’s count is then validated by the Guardian Council. The Guardian Council is notoriously conservative. It is made up of six clerics, appointed by the Supreme Leader, and six jurists, nominated by the Head of the Judiciary, who is himself appointed by the Supreme Leader. Notice a pattern here? (It is also the Guardian Council which selects candidates in the first place.) To claim that their recount was impartial begs incredulity; quis custodiet ipso custodes? And, finally, the Supreme Leader can nullify the results. Mohsen Reza’i, then still Chief Commander of the Pasdaran had hinted in 1997 he was prepared to crush an uprising should Khamene’i have asserted this power.
This past election, as a candidate himself, Reza’i expressed initial doubt over the election results. An additional irony to all this is that I am not one of those convinced Ahmadinejad necessarily couldn’t have actually won. The institutional power and stacking of provincial power and influence in the Interior Ministry involved in administering elections did nothing to engender confidence though. Nor did the clumsy handling of election announcements. Any ‘Zionist instigation and sowing of doubt’ would frankly be redundant, and those claiming this is part of the imperialist MSM demonizing the IRI need to do their homework to disabuse themselves of this adolescent reductionism. Correcting all these institutional inequities in the system constitutionally have been core planks of the Reform platform since its inception, as the name would imply.
What now though? Questioning the election results are now regarded as a “sin” by Khamene’i and hardliners. Even conservative foes like MP Ali Motahari, opposed to Ahmadinejad have suggested Mousavi drop this issue and stop protests altogether, additional overtures of allying against Ahmedinejad and addressing compromised solutions to the problems, blaming both sides of stubbornness. This, of course, would remove leverage which Mousavi gets from the streets. Also to be taken into account is the eternal pragmatist, Rafsanjani, who in his recent praises of the Supreme Leader and condemnation of “sedition” cast a little worry, though one must consider the art of Persian riddle talk that I’ve mentioned before. It may be triangulating, hedging and deal making behind-the-scenes to be read here. It is widely assumed that Rafsanjani still covets the title of Supreme Leader for himself. Ousting Khamene’i via the powers invested to the Assembly of Experts, which Rafsanjani chairs, is not happening. Rafsanjani is playing his own game, where the opposition serves not only his more moderate positions, but perhaps more importantly, his own ambition. Mousavi is still safe, and Rafsanjani’s fingerprint can be assumed in that circumstance.
My humble advice would be to sideline the election issue, as Mousavi has done, and focus on the human rights and constitutional violations of the past eight months. There is plenty of material to work off of here, as outlined in this lengthy Iran Human Rights Documentation Center Report, “Violent Aftermath: The 2009 Election and Suppression of Dissent in Iran” (PDF). Just recently, this video from June 15th, thought to be leaked, came out capturing a Tehran University dormitory raid (one can only wonder what may come out in months and years to come). Regime defenders are more comfortable debating numbers and math, rather than blood. Even the now ubiquitous, “I didn’t vote for Ahmadinejad, but…” posters on the internet (taking a cue from arch-apologist and Leverett BFF, Tehran University professor, Dr. Mohammad Marandi) try to compare riot control tactics of the West and Iran, or Iran under the Shah. The crackdown isn’t as brutal as under the Shah, and therefore this isn’t a real movement (only they use the straw man of “revolution”), goes the line of reasoning. How facile! You think veterans of the ‘79 Revolution don’t know what affect a public massacre like Black Friday has?! The riot comparisons can be interesting, though, and I take note of the valuable perspective. But stretched too far and ignoring the broader societal context can take it to levels ad absurdum. Kent State, Seattle 1999 and G20 crackdowns of free assembly are not to be celebrated, and the deflection employed by the IRI hardly lives up to their utopian boasting. What are they trying to say? That they’re Western-lite and still backwards in their repression? In addition, we’re not talking about sound cannons here, and the backdrop is of a much more authoritarian state apparatus. Patriot Act? eat your heart out. Freedom of Information Act? …Hold on, let me stop laughing. Sorry, but no, it’s not the same thing.
One of the more interesting articles on riot tactics compares 2009 Iran with 1960’s America. This suits me just fine, as my contention is not to think of this movement as about sore losers, but the election as a spark for a long simmering civil rights struggle and shifting demographics of the Children of the Revolution, as Hamid Dabashi contends in his series of webcasts, “This Week in Green,” and as was written in an article by Ian Morrison, “An Iranian Civil Rights Movement?” which pivots to economic policy,
Aside from comparisons to the Civil Rights Movement, one finds in the discourse on Iran a great deal of squabbling about the class character of the Green Movement protesters and what that means for its future. Early on, Ahmadinejad sympathizers heaped scorn on the Green Movement, claiming that protesters were all from the affluent neighborhoods of northern Tehran. This account is parochial at best; while nobody has contested that people from northern Tehran participated in various demonstrations, the Green Movement has an amorphous and complex makeup that belies easy classification along the lines of this or that political allegiance, especially given the suffocating repression of the Iranian state. Calling the demonstrations “middle class,” as though this alone amounts to a “political analysis,” circumvents any consideration of the potential for working class and labor issues to be taken up by the movement over time.
Indeed, when discussing where the movement goes from here, everyone looking back to the years of 1978-1979, look to the crucial aspect which organized labor played through strikes. Ian Morrison previously did a piece entitled “Iran’s New Labor?“, an interview with trade unionist, Homayoun Pourzad, who described Ahmadinejad as “profoundly anti-Left and anti-working class.” Four labor organizations listed ten minimal demands before 22 Bahman with the reminder that,
A nationwide strike lead by workers at the National Oil Company, the vanguard of the Iranian working class, shut down oil pipelines, ultimately tearing the despotic regime asunder. Masses of people chanted, “Our oil workers! Our resolute leader!” Power fell to the people.
This is a not so subtle reminder of the Left’s crucial role in overthrowing the Shah. On February 19th, 600 workers at Bandar-e Abbas went on strike for a common complain: unpaid back wages. Other strikes can be found in Hamid Farokhnia’s “Ahmadinejad’s import mania” which has this passage full of symbolism,
Today, even women’s traditional attire like chador comes from abroad, all government agencies have been instructed to use imported food staples for employees’ meals, and many Chinese goods are cheaper in Iran than anywhere in the world outside China itself. No wonder domestic producers can no longer effectively compete with the flood of foreign goods.
Ahmadinejad is importing to offset inflation and benefits from an artificially high exchange rate for the rial. As such, the article points out only 9% of tea is domestically produced (Iranians take great pride in their tea), and over the past four years sugar production has been halved. Such hard numbers are hard to come by, though, to substantiate this, and economics generally makes my eyes glaze over. The article’s title of “import mania” though, is a reference to the same phenomenon of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 60’s and 70’s. One should be aware of trying to draw too many conclusions in attempts to make comparisons for an agenda. It doesn’t make it untrue though. It would also explain what jumped off of my computer screen as a stretch when I read Reza Aslan’s review of 22 Bahman,
If the mullahs and the merchants begin joining forces with the protesters, even as the Revolutionary Guard becomes more entrenched in the political sphere, a civil war may be inescapable.
While I’d ask Reza to watch it with loaded talk of civil war (his track record is still pretty good though), he points to an article by Jamsheed K. Choksy about Ahmadinejad moving more from the clerics and doing triangulating of his own. Ahmadinejad is a maverick, and shrewd politician, whom has cultivated real appeal to a good segment of Iranians. From Choksy’s Newsweek article,
As a result, together with the IRGC and Basij (a volunteer paramilitary group that has attacked opposition protesters), Ahmadinejad and his ilk are turning to totalitarianism, rather than the fundamentalism of Shiite clerics, to suppress the steadily growing democratic aspirations of the Green Movement. Yet the mullahs have strong allies too, not only in the legislature, led by Ali Larijani (who hails from a family of well-known clerics), but even among the president’s own clan, whose members remain divided on abjuring theocracy.
I realize I’ll need to decode all this economic factionalism. Let me try to piece this together. As Nikki R. Keddie put it in Roots of Revolution,
Governmental favoring of nonbazaar trade and industry and various plans of “modernization” or dispersal of the bazaar … were partly designed to weaken the bazaar’s politico-economic cohesion.
That was during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign. Now consider the following from Robert Baer’s The Devil We Know in light of Ahmadinejad’s “import mania”,
[T]he Revolutionary Guards are, in a sense, a state within a state. They own more than a hundred companies and control as much as $12 billion, possibly more, in assets.
Reza Aslan contends that it was part of the Obama Administration’s strategy, in targeting the Pasdaran (which may control as much as a third of Iran’s economy) in sanctions, to send a message to bazaaris (traditional merchant class). The bazaari-ulema (merchant-clerical) relationship is deep, their networks complex, and go back centuries. Along with the intellectual-professional class and labor on the Left they formed the indispensable Right flank that brought down the Shah. Clerics often come from the bazaari class, and mosques are often situated in or near bazaars at the heart of a city.
The bazaari-ulema constituency is most often associated with the principlist conservatives like Speaker of the Majles Ali Larijani or commercial pragmatists like Rafsanjani. The first general bazaar strike since the Revolution occurred in 2008 in response to a proposed tax by Ahmadinejad. Taken all together, Aslan’s view is a good angle to take on deciphering the purpose of these new sanctions. Because, other than appeasing AIPAC and hawks in both the Republican and Democratic parties who want to “be tough” on Iran for domestic consumption (even if only with empty and counterproductive measures), the sanctions will likely have minimal effect on an organization which operates significantly like a mafia; on the black market. However; even if words of Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey (whom Press TV always subtly has a prominent picture of) to the effect of helping ordinary businessmen over a “select group of insiders” never makes it past the filter of Iranian state media (unlike Secretary of State Clinton’s “military dictatorship” comment and Iran’s response), at least Obama’s policy team is sophisticated enough to get the internal dynamics of Iran when they’re not concurrently pursuing the same old failed Washington-Tel Aviv-Riyadh line. As Shirin Ebadi suggested, sanctions on Siemens Nokia Networks would also be appropriate, even if sanctioning a Finno-Germanic venture is less palatable to US lawmakers.
Of course, Newt Gingrich compares the policy of the Obama Administration to the appeasement of Hitler. If anyone is Neville Chamberlain, it is George W. Bush, who created the political vacuum with which Iran could implement the Lebanon model of proxies and utilize long established Shi’a political allies (many who were exiled in Iran under Saddam). The upcoming Iraqi elections will be a good measure of the level of their success in effectively annexing the chunks of the country in all but name. In any case, Newt, take it up with Iranian-Americans, who in a PAAIA poll conducted by Zogby International, approve for the most part of Obama’s tact.
My cautionary take in regard to the bazaari-ulema class is to see it through the prism of parliamentary factional maneuvering and not to put too much hope in a general strike, and certainly not in them joining the ranks of the Green Movement (at least not any time soon). Such is reminiscent of speculation that the Artesh (regular army) might step in in the height of the summer protests. To their credit, they have remained professional and neutral, honoring Khomeini’s injunction on the armed forces (unlike the Pasdaran).
In any case, aside from fundamental sociological factors, looking back upon the ‘79 Revolution, which 22 Bahman commemorated, as a blueprint for another revolution is specious. What the Green Movement represents, officially, is a simple aspiration for there to be respect of a plurality of opinion and civil society within the framework of the Islamic Republic. This is expounded by Mousavi in his most recent interview published on his personal site, Kaleme. While pointing out that bussing in supporters was done by the Shah among other repressive tactics, the headline was when Mousavi stated that “[t]his is the rule of a cult that has hijacked the concept of Iranianism and nationalism.” I would highly recommend reading the full translation.
He also echoed Karroubi’s request that dueling rallies be allowed (I even recall the suggestion that they could be held outside the city) and a referendum on the Guardian Council’s role in future elections. The translation cites Art. 54, but I believe it is Art. 59. This would mean going through Art. 177 to change Art. 99, if I am not mistaken. That requires going through Khamene’i, Ahmadinejad and the Expediency Council after which, a Council for Revision will be formed (which is required to consist of members of the Guardian Council itself, among representatives from every other key institution and branch of government) to discuss the proposal. Then, the Supreme Leader approves of the referendum, to be put to the people to vote on (how many problems could you count in that formula?). This was only done once before in 1989, at the behest of Khomeini, who tailored it to his successor who had neither the charisma, following, nor religious credentials he had. Members of that council included Karroubi and Mousavi. They are posturing here. They know full-well the hurdles and equilibrium of power is decidedly set against them. But, so do those whom identify with the Green Movement. Maybe the task here, with this specific goal, is to unify the movement in pressuring the Supreme Leader to entertain it or implicitly highlight the faults in the current system to the most ardent and apathetic alike and mobilize them around a coherent message.
As to the Supreme Leader jettisoning Ahmadinejad, in what was from the start of his first election, an awkward alliance, I would ask this: can he afford to do this without further risking the legitimacy of his own position? It would be tantamount to a concession and desperation mirroring Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s scapegoating of Prime Minister Hoveyda in 1977. It would be possible, I suppose, to hold Ahmadinejad in breach of Art. 113, stating that the president must be held to uphold and protect the constitution, and under Art. 130 “voluntarily” issue his resignation. But, since elections are “divine tests” of Allah’s will, and the Supreme Leader is Allah’s proxy on earth who already validated the election, how could he pull this off? And, more importantly, is the Supreme Leader really in complete control anymore? It goes to the core of the inherent contradictions of a Theocratic Republic, which is critiqued at length by Islamic scholars such as Mohsen Kadivar, and bemoaned with sad regret by the writers of the original draft constitution from the liberal Freedom Movement like Nasser Katouzian, whom had their work mangled and the exaltation of the position of Vali-ye Faghih enshrined beyond symbolic mediator and into a turbaned shah. I have a pet theory on why since Banisadr, no president has ever lost reëlection, but it’s more of the musing category, and I don’t really feel comfortable sharing it in this piece. There are also other perfectly reasonable explanations regarding state media and elections being personality-driven.
But, if the opposition’s goals seem doomed, then what does that leave us with? On CNN Newsroom, Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment and Trita Parsi of the National Iranian-American Council were interviewed by Don Lemon (for a humorous look at this pairing read this!). Trita Parsi made this point,
And the mere fact the game continues is in and of itself a defeat for the government because eight months, nine months after the fraud in elections this is still going on. Sometimes demonstrations are bigger, sometimes they’re smaller. But any sense of normalcy the government is yet to be able to find.
With all the talk of disappointment, or squabbling over the true size of the movement, perspective is lost. Even by the most conservative estimates, this is the largest social upheaval and challenge to the institutional establishment of the IRI in certainly twenty years; the length of Khamene’i’s tenure. Larger than the original 18 Tir student protests in 1999 or their commemoration in 2003. Comparisons to anti-war demonstrations starting in the spring of 1985 which intermittently continued until 1988 (when Mousavi was Prime Minister, by the way) as the Iran-Iraq war needlessly dragged on before Khomeini drank the “poison chalice” would be more tenuous. But it would validate Mohsen Kadivar who said in 2000 that, “if more Iranians are willing to suffer, the establishment will have to give in.” Except, in that case the suffering was more immediate and affected everyone. As I said, tenuous comparison, and hardly an analogous circumstance. Although, it sapped the original revolutionary zeal in the public which Ahmadinejad and his coterie of mid-ranking Pasdar allies pledged to restore in 2005.
For additional perspective, one only need look at Mousavi’s history itself, such as in this article from The New Republic by respected scholar of Iran, Abbas Milani; or this one from Tehran Bureau’s Muhammad Sahimi. Who would have thought that Mousavi; a soft-spoken regime insider selected by the Guardian Council to run, would have stood up to his old rival Khamene’i this long? And can they afford to arrest him? Apparently their current line, from an Assembly of Experts’ statement is that the “sedition” is crushed and are more successfully changing the subject yet again with the capture and “confession” of Jundallah leader, Abdolmalek Rigi (this is actually newsworthy, unlike most manufactured distractions). Jundallah is a Sunni Baluchi terrorist group, which has had support from America in the past. Figure out the implied message here. And yet, Mousavi will not be cowed.
In Mousavi’s Kaleme interview on the path forward, he was asked about the floated idea of using Cheharshanbeh Souri, a secular sublimation of the Zoroastrian Jashn-e Sadeh (links of which I included at the bottom of my last article “Keeping the Fire Burning“). It is an evening celebration like Guy Fawkes Night mixed with Halloween. Bonfires are made, and jumped over saying “sorki-ye to az man, zardi-ye man az to” to the fire (your red color is mine, my sallowness is yours). Any reader of the Golden Bough or with any knowledge of similar Indo-European practices will instantly recognize parallels here. In present day Iran, it is one of the few times the sexes can freely interact socially and includes a Persian version of trick-or-treating. It also involves fireworks and has developed a reputation as a night of mischief and tragedy, reminding me of scenes of Devil’s Night in The Crow. Blogger Pedestrian thought it a horrible idea, and Mousavi concurred,
The ritual on this day reminds us of the defeat of darkness by light. But the supporters of the Green Movement, while respecting such national and religious occasions, do not want them to be used to harass and hurt the people, especially since those who oppose the Green Movement may have planned to use the occasion to bring the Movement into disrepute.
However; the grand Iranian holiday which it precludes offers hope. While 22 Bahman commemorated a Revolution which occurred before approximately 70% of the population was even born; Nowrouz, the Persian New Year, will provide a test of the Green Movement’s creativity and vigor, and is more ideal in its timeless ancient symbolism than any revolutionary anniversary.
[There's] the graffiti that is showing up on walls and fences and buildings that berates the regime or calls for a new public demonstration; posters that go up in the dead of night with pictures of political detainees demanding their freedom; and shouts at the subway stations [and] in soccer matches that erupt spontaneously, shouting, “Death to the dictator,” or “Down with Khamenei.” These things are playing out on a daily basis. There is a lot of energy behind this movement, not just on the days that people turn out on the street. It is arguably the most vibrant and imaginative civil disobedience campaign anywhere in the world today.
With more creativity to be seen, hopefully, as in the “wall dialogues” mentioned above (1), (2), or as in the fluidity of Persian Rap:
Ghogha ft. Shahin Najafi -- Enghelab-e Tafakor
As always, my disclaimer. I am not an expert. I do my best to interpret current events in Iran, that is all. Corrections are welcome. And nothing is more appreciated than questions on anything Iran-related (even if you don’t make it through the whole article). To prove I don’t take myself too seriously:
Posted by Khirad On February - 10 - 201036 COMMENTS
The last month in Iran has been full of little clues and a few intrigues. I will try to pare them down. This update has been long coming, and before I become even more overwhelmed, I’ll try to do my best.
The beginning of the Gregorian year, January 1st, 2010, following the Ashura demonstrations, the most violent since summer, Mir Hossein Mousavi issued this statement. This included five primary conditions, giving structure and form to the Green Movement.
Accountability for the current Ahmadinejad administration. Real application of the checks and balances of the judiciary and majles as outlined in the Constitution.
New election laws, passed by the majles, to ensure lack of interference at all levels of government.
Release of all political prisoners.
A free media. Letting foreign press report, reopening banned newspapers and ceasing internet censorship and signal jamming.
Upholding the peoples right to demonstrate without fear.
As was predictable, Kayhan, the Iranian Pravda, says in a headline (Farsi) that it was written by the CIA and Mossad. Five noted expatriate reform intellectuals issued their own ten demands. I would not put too much importance upon this, though, and offer it merely for your perusal.
On taking stock of the movement the day after the statement, Muhammad Sahimi stresses this “is a Marathon, not a sprint.” That the trio of Mousavi, former President Khatami, and two time Majles Speaker Karroubi, are no longer merely symbolic leaders. Sahimi continued:
Up until recently, the jury was still out on whether the trio truly led the Green Movement. It was particularly unclear whether Mousavi was truly interested in fundamental changes, or even had what it took to stand up for anything. Two important points about Mousavi must be considered. … by all indications, he is recognized by most of the supporters of the Green Movement inside Iran, as well as the hardliners, as the symbol and the leader of the opposition.
The fact that even the reticent Khatami has stepped more into the fray and that Karroubi says that even the shah would not have transgressed Ashura by creating such crimes demonstrates that they are taking their stand, and not backing down half a year into the movement.
The increased pressures, threats and attacks on the offices of heir apparent to Montazeri’s mantle, Grand Ayatollah Sane’i, and Karroubi; in addition to, increasingly empty promises to arrest the three and a full-on crackdown, give all the evidence I need that this is not the meaningless movement the hardliners and their Western apologists here claim. Indeed, this was an interesting article by Borzou Daragahi on the opposition movement in the heartland from the Los Angeles Times and the spread of DVD’s with footage of demonstrations. I, of course, caution against reading such sources with too much confidence in their representative nature. The one fact that we are certain of is that press access is extremely restricted, so wherever one’s sympathies lie, hard information is hard to come by. That is why Iran has become such a contested debate among policy experts and online bloggers alike (*ahem*), with the last line of refuge among apologists often coming down to these polls. My response? I wouldn’t care if they were a few dozen. Even if I were to accept the polls, it is irrelevant to the issue of human rights. That, too, is apparently controversial to the woo-woo. I’ve had more than one scoff at Amnesty International as an organization which is apparently part of the Zionist NWO conspiracy.
On that note, perhaps the highest profile apologists: the Leveretts. In a New York Times op-ed on January 5, they called on Obama to proceed on course, and ignore the Green Movement. In this they also went out of their way to simplify history, distort information, peddle conservative Iranian propaganda and construct straw man after straw man in what seemed like spite for inconvenient internal developments which complicated their pet cause: détente. While I do not entirely disagree with their call to proceed on a vigorous diplomatic track with Iran or their goals of rapprochement regardless of government (Nixon, China and the Cultural Revolution are often brought up to support this view, and indeed, Sen. John Kerry’s request to visit Iran got little notice), I thought that their blithe dismissal of those risking harm for human rights (click here for a recent roundup) was petty and unneeded to make that case. And their construct of arguing against this as an overthrow of the Islamic Republic by the secular elite was unbecoming to experts of their caliber. They often fall into the mire of Western foreign policy debate rather than addressing the situation in Iran directly - though in their follow up to criticisms, they doubled down on their rationalizations and ostensible objectivity. Juan Cole read my mind when he wrote:
Being someone who has spent his life studying Iran, I am of course frustrated by what I see as significant flaws in the debate as conducted by policy thinkers in the NYT. But I have long since concluded that the New York – Washington – Tel Aviv discourse about the Middle East is not about the Middle East but about New York and Washington and Tel Aviv, and that it is virtually impenetrable because it is driven by powerful interests rather than a dispassionate consideration of facts on the ground, a sense of proportionality, and a textured knowledge of the target country (and I do mean target).
Such policy debate is understandable, as this was the motivation that drove them to dispel such fanciful notions, often reverberating amongst the monarchist expat diaspora and neocons alike, that the régime is on its last legs. However; in this they misjudged and missed the mark. In the Jan. 1 demands of Mousavi, did they see a phantom call to annul the election? Since writing “Ahmadinejad Won. Get Over It” they themselves haven’t gotten over the fact that this moved beyond the election quite some time ago (though Karroubi did allude to “respecting the electorate”). And they shill fatalism of the Reformist’s eventual failure almost gleefully (which is in a sense okay, given the emotional connection Iranians have for Imam Hossein, or Rostam). The apologists online seem to be clinging to that argument desperately, as if it abridged the Constitutional rights of Iranian citizens to gather. Furthermore, they, along with the Leveretts, see it as a vast minority and dwindling, comparing those whom risk considerable violence to assemble with those whom are given the day off, fed, and handed banners. While many of these apologists try to deride the opposition as a “Tea Party Movement” for its inchoate message (as if anti-war marches during the Bush administration practiced message discipline) or as North Tehrani ‘Birthers’; a more apt comparison could be found in the upheavals of the Civil Rights Movement of 1960’s America. As Hooman Majd said in Foreign Policy:
What is evident is that if we consider Iran’s pro-democracy “green movement” not as a revolution but as a civil rights movement — as the leaders of the movement do — then a “win” must be measured over time. The movement’s aim is not for a sudden and complete overthrow of Iran’s political system. That may disappoint both extremes of the American and Iranian political spectrums, left and right, and especially U.S. neoconservatives hoping for regime change.
Their sin is that the Leveretts know better, and in their attempt at dispassionate analysis, they’ve overcompensated, downplaying the hardline response and Principlist maneuverings which is, in my mind, implicit evidence of a more than insignificant challenge to their political grip on power – though this is not imperiled so long as hardliners and conservatives hold all significant levers of power. I also take note of Flynt Leverett’s friend, Mohammad Marandi (video). Remind you of anything (video)? Other good responses were from Abbas Milani in The New Republic, Enduring America’s Scott Lucas and Tehran Bureau’s Muhammad Sahimi.
While articles like this from the Los Angeles Times with headlines hinting at a government threatened with collapse and the spin from pro-Reform sites such as Rah-e Sabz (Green Path) are to be kept in mind, as should individual first-hand accounts; the alternative is most often Iranian state propaganda – as papers and web sites contradicting the hardline position are methodically shut down and journalists thrown in jail. Last count, going up in past few days, is now 63 at this writing. So, forgive me if I have more faith in Western media (for all of its faults) and Reformist sites than even more reasonable Press TV (comparatively speaking in comparison with other state funded media) whom produced this “exposé” on Neda Agha-Soltan’s death being faked, and spawning a YouTube video or two reminiscent of Oliver Stone’s famous “back and to the left” scene and defended by the same Alex Jones types that believe the moon landing was a hoax. To fully nail home the link between Iranian hardliners and Western woo-woos, is this whopper of a headline: “Report: US weapon test aimed at Iran caused Haiti quake”.
Time and time again, what Hooman Majd describes as “schizophrenic” responses and one-trick pony attempts to control the message, later reports tend to contradict initial denial. This is true of the Kahrizak detention center affair. According to BBC:
Iranian MPs lifted a blanket of official denial on the country’s post-election upheaval today by blaming a senior regime insider for abuses that led to the deaths of at least three prisoners in a detention centre. …
Today’s report dismissed a claim from Mortazavi that the prisoners had died from meningitis and acknowledged that they had been assaulted.
But of course, the sacrificial lamb they pinned this on, Saeed Mortazavi, claimed he was on vacation when these abuses and deaths occurred. Was the “butcher of the press” also on vacation when Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian photojournalist, was raped and her skull fractured in 2003? As Human Rights Watch pointed out, he was already a serial offender. In fact, after he was found responsible for Kahrizak abuses, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Lawrence Cannon, called for her case to be revisited (since he, the accused, was put in charge of investigating the original case!) and her remains repatriated to Canada, per her family’s wishes.
By far the biggest source of intrigue this past month, was the bizarre assassination of particle physicist, Masoud Ali-Mohammadi on January 12th. State media immediately hailed him as a faithful supporter of the Revolution and institution of the velayat-e faghih, and reflexively pinned the blame on the US and Israel. Students of Ali-Mohammadi were then quick to point out that he had been a supporter of Mousavi. Am I saying that being true to the Islamic Republic and to Mousavi are mutually exclusive? No. That’s not what I’m saying.
Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour were hung on January 28th, having been sentenced in October for being members of the Anjoman Padeshahi-ye Iran (API, also known as Tondar, whom are a relatively obscure group with the aim of reestablishing the Pahlavi dynasty), for planning attacks on Ahmadinejad and apparently being connected with the 2008 Shiraz terrorist Mosque bombing (even though three others were already tried and executed for that). The AP’s Ali Akbar Dareini (in league with Zionists, mind you) reported:
The two men were arrested before the turmoil set off by claims that Ahmadinejad’s re-election was fraudulent. But Iran brought them to court in the same mass trial in an attempt to show that the political opposition is in league with violent armed groups in a foreign-backed plot to overthrow the Islamic system.
In addition; nine others have been sentenced to death for their role in the Ashura protests on December 27th. Five were confirmed by the MeK to be affiliated with them (though there’s debate whether they were part of a “militant wing” or not). The others were, predictably, tied to the API or unspecified monarchist groups in general. Along with these, seven Bahá’ís arrested (initially thought to be ten) on Ashura have been accused of spying for Israel. This probably has something to do with the seat of the Bahá’í faith being situated in Haifa. It also has a great deal to do with the century of persecution this “heretical” religion has faced in its home country of Iran. This past November, a conservative newspaper was even banned for featuring a photo of this famous temple in Delhi for an Indian tourism ad. Anyone familiar with India knows that this was nothing unusual.
So, the effort to contaminate Mousavi’s followers is indeed concerted, and this would appear to be one of those “schizophrenic” moves, as Hooman Majd has called them. Recently, the Iranian English daily, Tehran Times, claimed February 2nd, that VEVAK’s head, Heydar Moslehi, had found “clues”, but no one has been arrested. Given VEVAK’s track record with assassinations of intellectuals, this strikes me as ironic as placing Saeed Mortazavi in charge of the 2003 Zahra Kazemi inquiry. However; just because IRI propaganda is a one-trick pony, doesn’t mean it is always wrong. As Muhammad Sahimi pointed out in his own speculation (much recommended for a comprehensive overview of the case), Israel does have a self-declared program to assassinate nuclear scientists (might designate it with one of my favorite terms: ‘overt-covert’), as Mossad did in 2007, with Ardeshir Hassanpour. And, NCRI/MeK still has a presence within Iran, as evinced by their uncovering clandestine nuclear enrichment sites in the past few years. One problem: Ali-Mohammadi was not a nuclear scientist, as initially reported in Israeli and Western news. Former Mossad head, Shabtai Shavit, still active in the Israeli intelligence community, said he had no idea who Ali-Mohammadi was. That begs the question why I would believe an arch-spook; but the question remains: why? As Muhammad Sahimi crucially asked, “who benefits?” Given the hotbeds that universities are, it could have been a warning to intellectuals and students. It could have been botched intelligence (after all, why would one go to such lengths to carry out such an attack?). It could have been designed as a false-flag by either the IRI or Western interests. This type of event is the bread and butter of conspiracy theorists. And, of course, it elicits certitude from those who blame Israel for absolutely everything under the sun, as well as the bitterest (understandable as it can be) of the Iranian diaspora cursing the akhoond-ha (mollahs). I myself will admit to joining in with jokes on my theory that it was a yarmulke-wearing elven ET astride a flying unicorn which farts rainbows and can bend the time-space continuum with his magic shofar. Bottom line though – from all initial accounts this was a nice man. And if I were to interpret clues, it would be that while the modus operandi of a bomb was that of exile terrorist groups, the account of Ali Mohammadi’s funeral offers its own clues, as well. Try and rest in peace, doctor.
I would like to make one thing clear here. I do not support terrorism and assassination by anyone – especially of scientists and intellectuals. Whether it be the mojahedin, monarchists, Israel, or the IRI itself. Israeli “fatwas” upon scientists associated with the nuclear program should be held in moral contempt. If you guys really are responsible for any of these acts post-election, knock it the fuck off! You are not helping! If you believe violence is a legitimate tactic, read this essay and make your counter-argument.
And congratulations to you, Sarah Palin. Iranian state-media rejoiced at this:
Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decide to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel–which I would like him to do.
You just made yourself not only a hardline collaborator with that gem, but proved yourself to truly be ‘fucking retarded’. (don’t worry, I claim the same satire immunity granted to Rush).
But, back to the Iranian domestic front. January 16th saw this statement, from Police Chief Ahmadi Moghaddam (statements such as this were hardly isolated, and Ayatollah Jannati’s was characteristically more fiery, forgive me for only offering one):
“These people should know where they are sending the SMS and e-mail as these systems are under control. They should not think using proxies will prevent their identification,” Mr Ahmadi Moghaddam said.
He warned that those who incited others to protest or issued appeals: “have committed a worse crime than those who come to the streets”.
A worldwide movement that has relied heavily on Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook to express opposition to Iranian authorities has found they aren’t the only ones taking advantage of social networking and media coverage; Iranian government forces are apparently using those same tools to hold citizens accountable for their relatives’ actions outside the country.
Also beyond Iran’s boundaries (well, according to International Law, not technically), two diplomats have issued resignations of protest due to governmental violence (well, more like one and a half). Mohammad Reza Heydari, posted in Oslo, and former diplomat Abolfazl Eslami in Tokyo has gone public with some provocative statements on the mood of those in the Foreign Ministry, supposedly. This is why attacking embassies like the Swedish incident is shortsighted.
22 Bahman, anniversary of the Victory of the Islamic Revolution has been stepping up the last week or two. Opposition leaders are full of resolve and defying calls of conservatives and Supreme Leader not to continue their “sedition”. Following are some excerpts from the prime leaders.
Although today they have shut down newspapers, filtered websites, imprisoned many of our dear friends, closed down the office of [reformist] parties including the Etemade Melli office and even my personal office, although they fired shots at my car, although some are threatening everyday and are insulting Mir Hossein Mousavi, me and the great nation of Iran in every way possible and take our words out of content, but I am firmly announcing that I never compromise over people’s rights and one of the main rights of this nation is their votes that they casted in the ballot boxes while trusting the authorities; and I will be with the people till the very end and will try for holding free elections and eliminating current obstacles.
Khatami’s February 1st statement, while mentioning the elections, drives home the point I am making against those whom willfully ignore, downplay, or rationalize the events transpiring since:
The freedom that we are talking about is the freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, freedom of expressing that opinion, and freedom of employing that opinion and people being asked to give their inputs about that opinion.
The requirement for freedom in its true meaning, which in short is the power of the people over their own destiny, is the freedom of speech and assembly. How could it be possible that there are parties but they don’t have any platform to express their views and cannot hold gatherings?
In a calm and civil environment, people should get a chance to come and then it would be clear what poeple’s tendencies are. And more important than this is the elections that should be free, healthy, and trustworthy.
On February 2nd, Mousavi’s interview with Kalemeh came out. This included 14 points. The election was not mentioned (I realize my earlier claim is muddled, given Khatami’s and Karroubi’s continued skepticism). This is a classic Reformist platform, only explicit in its criticism. Instead of posting it all, I would really, really recommend reading it here. If not that, BBC gives an abstract. In addition; Khatami has a more recent 22 Bahman statement (Reformist plank, largely).
Of course, Ahmadinejad & Co. tried desperately to change the subject. Whether it was its nuclear offer to send LEU abroad or later tantrum to enrich itself (I, by the way thought the West totally misplayed this, and should have put the onus on Ahmadinejad to back up his bluff in a fractious Iranian political climate). Whether it was a failed rocket launch into space or proposed prisoner swap for the three American hikers (sorry, SPIES!). Whether it was again threatening to cut ties with the British Museum over the Cyrus Cylinder after threatening it for weeks (the irony of this is beyond words), or stoning the Italian embassy in Tehran amidst orchestrated cries of “Death to Italy” (WTF?!). And summoning Canada’s charge d’affaires for this? Sentencing Khatami’s former deputy foreign minister to six years and executing proxy Greens, check! Even censoring images and video of the ‘79 Revolution itself? why not! Indeed, it’s as if they were trying to exhaust their full bag of tricks…
I will give credit to the MSM for not being completely distracted by the shiny ball tactic from Tehran to leave the slated demonstration completely uncovered. They do appear to have improved their learning curve. They have hysterically exaggerated the nuclear announcement as usual (Ahmadinejad has the MSM and American public at large so trained. He says “fetch” and we froth at the mouth and wag our tails obediently). Juan Cole says “oh noes!” to medical isotope levels of enrichment. I cannot believe I honestly caught a FOX news model saying this was close to the weapons grade level required. Oh wait, yes I can. But, the MSM still fails pathetically in connecting the two stories and taking into consideration the internal dynamics and intended geopolitical misdirection.
Today, the talk was also of sanctions aimed at the Pasdaran. This has been coming for some time. In my own mini-Rashomon entry I’ll treat the issue of sanctions:
Another aspect every sympathetic observer is still monitoring are trade unions and strikes (just one example) and arrests. I hope to have more on this at some time.
Before ending this update in preparation for 22 Bahman, some fun.
Sexually suggestive logo made up of letters and how the show “24″ was part of the plot to elect Obama! (Pedestrian has some of the most original stuff – my tip o’ the hat)
Thousands of Iranians gathered at dusk against a snowy mountain backdrop to light giant bonfires in an ancient mid-winter festival dating back to Iran’s pre-Islamic past that is drawing new interest from Muslims.
Saturday’s celebration was the first in which the dwindling remnants of Iran’s once plentiful Zoroastrian religious minority were joined by thousands of Muslims, reflecting a growing interest in the strict Islamic society for the country’s ancient traditions.
Video slide show worth watching for any interested in world religions (you just might recognize someone’s avatar in it).
Some music. And yes, this would be an example of the secular “Westoxified” upper middle-class. No a-ha moment here. I’ve also posted noheh videos. And any criticism to how out of touch I am with the “common Iranian on the street” I would say, so what? It isn’t only the élite that consume such Western-style music. And, why is it that the fundamentalists respond not solely with their own music, or their own ideas, but like the schoolyard bully outwitted, resort to bannings, force and intimidation? All should be free to express themselves. That is my conviction.
Hypernova – Viva La Resistance
My apologies for being late with this update, as well as all mistakes herein. For the umpteenth time, I am very adamant pointing out I am not a professional, and I know it. I was getting a little burned out and slacked off the past month in following Iran. I hope to be more prompt with the Revolution Day demonstrations. But, as with demonstrations before, this will take a few days, as that is how long it takes for information, videos and analyses to come out.
I would like to preface this post by stating that I am not denying that global warming or climate change is occurring presently.
I have no opinion on whether or not climate change or global warming is man made or a natural phenomenon or both.
The point of this post is to question the accuracy of scientists’ predictions over the years.
In June 1974, Time Magazine ran an article predicting Global Cooling.
Sunspots were mentioned, as were detailed descriptions of the changing weather around the world and the effects on plants, trees, animals, and the marine populations in the cooling seas.
Man was blamed for the cooling trend and a study was released from the University of Wisconsin by climatologists stating that dust and other particles released into the atmosphere from farming and burning fuel that blocked the sunlight from reaching the earth.
Dire predictions were made by global scientists, warning that the earth’s climate would “flip-flop” whereby northern states, such as Michigan would become a desert, and western and southern states would become rain forests and frozen tundra.
With all the resources at hand for climatologists to predict the weather, what is their rate of accuracy?
According to the link below, the question is complicated.
In some areas, scientists claim an 80% accuracy rate, but even that figure isn’t accurate because it depends on the prediction and the atmospheric conditions.
Yet another site explains the accuracy that weather forecasters strive for, yet the chaotic atmospheric conditions that causes predictions to fluctuate at any given time, but the most accurate predictions occurring with ten hours.
If scientists cannot accurately predict the weather beyond a ten-hour-timeframe, and even that’s questionable, is it reasonable to trust scientists when they predict the condition of the planet in the next 10 years, to 20 years or 100 years?
Once again, God has been motivated to blog and has been kind enough to share it with us.
Makes me feel appreciated for being a Deity Virgin when we met and not having any Gods before him…though I was always concerned that he might prefer someone with more experience and that I wasn’t worshiping him right despite his constant reassurances.
In any case, here is God’s latest blog entry:
Hey all! God here…and everywhere of course, which really reduces my need to have to pay a Carbon Offset, like ever, which is so worth the hassle of omnipresence.
Don’t know what your Thursday was like but mine was totally wack. So, it’s just a lazy afternoon for me and my son, fixing a few things around the place and telling more Republicans to run for office and announce that we told them to (they’re so gullible!) when I hear Pat Robertson blaming the devastating earthquake in Haiti on me being PO’d at the Hatians for not wanting to remain slaves!
WTF?
I may have created human beings in my image but if you think I look anything like Pat Robertson, you’re totally high.
The truth is, he and Rush look more like a relative of mine, they have his round face, even his creepy smile, not to mention that both of them think they can beat anyone in a fiddle contest.
So many nutty things to address and only an eternity to address them which just never seems like enough time.
Let me begin by saying straight up, I do not talk to Pat Robertson and neither does my son, we don’t even send him Christmas cards. It really pisses me off that he lies about this, I’d strike him down with a bolt of lightning but since he is one enormous negatively charged particle, I don’t want to blow up a whole city block.
Our falling out with Pat goes back to a nasty argument my son got into with him. My son got fed up with all the BS Pat was saying about us down there and wanted to sue him for Defamation of Character, I told him it would be impossible finding an impartial jury when you’re an infallible deity so my son decided to instead pay Pat a visit to see what’s what.
He explained to Pat that this was his first and last conversation with him, that he needs to stop lying and blaming us every time something bad happens on Earth. Meanwhile Pat stole my son’s Milano cookie from beside his coffee cup and ate it in one bite. What a dick.
My son went on to explain that when natural or man-made disasters occur on the planet (not The Planet, of course), it’s not us being vindictive weenies, its the result of the dynamics of existence in the physical plane and/or human nature.
“Pat, there are many forces in play in the physical world, many of which are in constant interaction with each other, such as plate tectonics which is what causes earthquakes. Earthquakes are not cause by belligerent, vengeful, grudge-holding all-powerful gods with the emotional maturity of a televangelist.”
That’s when Pat let one go, at first pretending he didn’t notice anything then blaming my son for the foul odor. My son replied, “You know what the 11th Commandment would have been? ‘He who smelt it, dealt it’.”
In retrospect, I think that really does describe Pat fully and succinctly.
Pat keeps smelling the scent of sulfur all around him. The scent of evil (and nachos). And he keeps pointing at everyone else, especially the meek, the suffering and those who have the least power, he points at them as the cause of what evil and noxious scent he smells.
However, in his off-handed remark, my son so wisely summed up that human ball of gas.
Posted by Tiger99 On January - 14 - 201025 COMMENTS
“Throughout the history of the human race, even up till the present moment, one of the most potent forces which men use to rally oppressed peoples together, in their drive towards freedom and emancipation from their oppressors, is religion. Men who have successfully led their enslaved peoples from bondage and servitude to freedom; have at one point or the other, mobilized their people with a rallying cry and an appeal to a deity, which had its origins in the subconscious of their people; for deliverance from slavery, servitude and oppression.”
From: Dutty Boukman – Samba Boukman by Edrys Erisnor
“The god, who created the earth, who created the sun that gives us light. The god who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our god who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds; who watches us from where you are. You see all that the whites have made us suffer. The white man’s god asks him to commit crimes. But the god within us wants to do good. Our god, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It’s He who will direct our arms and bring us to victory. It’s He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white men’s god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that speaks in all our hearts.”
These are the famous words of the slave Dutty Buckman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves, during a religious ceremony at Bois Caiman on August 22,1791… This ceremony included an animal sacrifice of a pig… This was the beginnings of the Haitian Slave Revolt for Freedom…
After watching Pat Robertson’s “Pact With the Devil” video I decided to learn more about it… I was unaware of Dutty Buckman as in “school” I was taught about General Toussaint L’Ouverture when we studied the Haitian Slave Revolt… I don’t believe it would be a far stretch to say that there was no way a young man in Oklahoma going to school in the 60’s was ever going to be taught that an African Voodoo Priest conducted a Voodoo Ceremony to the God “Ojun“ and that was the spark the led to the only successful Slave Revolt in recorded history…
”Drums, Zombies and Dolls”
When most of us think about Voodoo we conjure up secretive Nocturnal Rituals of rhythmic dancers around flames of fire soon to become possessed with trances from the gods… We can picture the Drums fashioned from human skin calling out to the Zombies to do the evil bidding of the Priestess who when paid the right sum will gladly provide you with a love charm, mojo bag or the dreaded Voodoo Doll…(maybe even a monkey paw claw)
In fact Voodoo is an ancient religion that may have ties to Judaism… I am still learning all I can about Voodoo and am providing several informative links… To understand Voodoo is to understand Haiti…
Soon the world be taking on the task of re-building a nation that has historically been one of the poorest, if not the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere… A nation founded by Africans enslaved in a faraway land that once Freedom was realized once again became an enslaved population by a class system based on skin color and kept enslaved by lack of Education… Haiti is our neighbor, Haiti is our Sister, Haiti deserves our best efforts to allow the dreams of those longing to be free to see that the generations that followed them have Freedom…
Posted by FeedUp On January - 13 - 201053 COMMENTS
The 7.0 Earthquake in Haiti will be absolutely devastating to the people of this country.
The Haitian people have been living in filth, severe poverty, hunger, and political corruption. They have been eating mud pies for over a decade. The US government has been playing kick the can with Haiti for over 30 years. While… the Haitian people will somehow survive through this I urge all of us to donate and help the Haitian Nation to become a self standing government and help the people get through this horrific crisis.
Haiti needs to be Corruption Free.
I also urge all of us from the Planet Community to contact President Obama and your members of Congress to stand up and quit putting the political band-aid on Haiti and help them.
FeedUp I hope you don’t mind me editting this post but I just got this email from the White House.
Good Afternoon,
The reports and images from Haiti of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes, and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heart-wrenching. As we learn more about the extent of the devastation, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and Haitian Americans around our country who do not yet know the fate of their families and loved ones back home.
I have directed my Administration to respond with a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives. The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States Government in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble and to deliver the humanitarian relief — the food, water and medicine — that Haitians will need in the coming days.
This is also a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share, and Americans have always responded to these situations with generosity of spirit. If you would like to support the urgent humanitarian effort in Haiti, I encourage you to visit our website where you can learn more about how to contribute:
Posted by KarateKid On January - 9 - 20107 COMMENTS
As a veteran of one war, I can see similarities in how we are conducting this war. We’re really doing nothing different that what we did in Vietnam. We have developed and use the same formula in every major conflict since the end of World War II.
Here is the US formula for the cycle of war in 14 easy steps.
1. Begin by telling the American people a pretext for involvement. Mainly appeal to the themes that Americans can relate to. We want to assist a peoples’ plight from oppression, people who are dying to be free, to have democracy, to have human rights, to have equality, to live life in the pursuit of happiness. In this case, we were attacked.
2. Find a puppet we can install to put in charge so the world won’t think we’re the outright aggressors.
3. Begin to fight the insurgents by supplying arms to the puppet government. Funny, we call them the insurgents, but in reality we’re supporting the real insurgents, the puppet government only a few of the citizens support.
4. We send advisory personnel there to “train” the army of the puppet government and prop them up.
5. Things don’t go as planned, and begin to get out of hand, so we sent a few thousand troops over there to support the failing army.
6. Things continue to go against us, as the army we supposedly trained can’t tie their own shoelaces without us.
7. So, we escalate. We send tens of thousands of troops over there, since we want to protect the ones already there, stabilize the puppet government, so we can make a hero’s exit and leave behind a solid democracy. Overwhelm them with sheer numbers.
8. We bomb the bejesus out of the “enemy”, who in reality the population supports, killing thousands of innocent civilians in the process. Funny, it doesn’t seem to be doing any good, so we drop more bombs.
9. Finally, things begin to falter and we get war weary, the citizens back home are restless, more and more troops are coming home in bodybags.
10. We finally see the futility of our actions and begin to pull out, completing the task in a couple of years so as to evacuate our personnel safely.
11. The “enemy” then fills the vacuum we created by pulling out, and begins to disembowel the army we armed and trained, allegedly, and the country begins to disintegrate.
12. Out of guilt, we evacuate the puppet government and its leaders, since if they stay, they will face a firing squad. We fly them to Paris so they can live a life in exile in semi luxury, at least the puppet heads.
13. Thousands of our soldiers are not so lucky. Many come back in bodybags; others wounded, physically and mentally, and the government turns their backs on them, making them fend for themselves.
14. We lay low for 25-30 years, then begin to look around again. Hmmm, let’s see who’s getting oppressed…….
And all the while, we took the lives of thousands of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, giving them the very treatment we said the “enemy” was doing in the first place.
And the MIC makes huge profits while thousands of families cope with their loss.
That’s how it was and this is how this conflict will end. When will we ever learn, and stop waving our dicks?
I came across this story and considering Rahm Emanuel’s history with his support of Israel his criticism of Israel is certainly a hell freezes over moment for me.
In a recent meeting with Yaki Dayan, Israel’s Consul in Los Angeles, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly expressed his frustration with the situation, saying the U.S. is “fed up” with the Israelis who “adopt the right ideas too late“:
Emanuel’s complaint was made with regard to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s “belated recognition” of the principle of “two states for two peoples,” as well as the Jewish construction freeze in the communities of Judea and Samaria, which was only announced “many months” after the United States asked, or instructed, Israel to carry it out.
Emanuel also lashed out at the Palestinians, who he said “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” for peace. According to Dayan, Emanuel said “if there is no progress in the diplomatic process, we will reduce our involvement and effort in the conflict, because we have other matters to deal with.”
Of course his comments about the Palestinians are par for the course.
Posted by Tiger99 On January - 6 - 201073 COMMENTS
It would appear that the “Powers To Be” have just been waiting for the chance to implement the mandatory use of Full Body Scanners at every major Airport… Can’t you just picture Dick Cheney making this statement to all the “spooks in the bunker”, ” All we need is one lonely, impressionable and confused young man of the Islamic Faith who is willing to set his genitals on fire on a flight destined to the USA over the Christmas Holidays”…
Now the scanners are being put in place in very large #’s in many Airports… Of course all the various Security and Law Enforcement Agencies support the use of “Full Body Scanners” and I suspect it won’t be long before we are subjected to more Private Security evasiveness into our everyday lives and routines… Once we get used to the idea of them being at Airports then it will become harder to object to them being used just about anywhere a large group of people gather… I am sure Government Buildings and The Courts will be next, followed by “random selection use” on citizens at large Stadiums, Arena’s, Schools and any other area deemed at risk for a “Terror Attack”…
Personally I feel that the mandatory full body scanner is a violation of individual Liberties and is catamount to a “warrantless search” of my person… It isn’t as much that “I don’t have anything to hide”, but the issue of “Why should I allow you to see it”? Beyond that, there will be the issues of who is manning the scanners and will men be viewing women and vice versa, not to discount the issues “People Of Faith” will have with someone of the opposite sex manning the scanners…
The one issue/topic that I haven’t seen discussed concerning the scanners is the societal “Vanity of Western Culture”… This will soon become an obsession and when you are in the Checkout Lines you will be glancing over these articles:
Redbook - How To Lose 20 lbs In 14 Days Before Your Next Flight
Men”s Health – 30 Days to Your Best Body Scanner Body
Cosmopolitan – How To Look 10 lbs Thinner In Your Next Body Scan Without Diet & Exercise
Woman’s World – What Your Body Scanner Image Says About You
Imagine all the fun the Security personal will be having at our expense… “Let”s see how long we can make this guy hold his breath and keep that stomach sucked in”… ”Hey Rookie. you started your first day at a great time! Today is Point at the Image and Giggle Day”… I can envision myself being dragged off by security in a “George Costanza” moment after the female manning the scanner pointed and giggled… “That”s Not Me!!! It’s January For God’s Sake!!! This not Fair I Tell ya!!! It’s Shrinkage!!! I have a vacation coming up in July, You’ll See!!! I’ll be Back in July!!!
It’sSHRINKAGEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!”
Can you picture the lines of men the bathroom standing in front of the hand dyer blowing warm air down their trousers, or women in front of the mirror talking outloud to themselves in self affirmations ( You Are A Woman Not A Girl, Women Have Curves, You Are A Good Person, You Have Power Over Your Mind, You Influence Those Around You) then strutting out of the bathroom after bolstering up their ego’s to survive the Full Body Scanner…
I think I will stop here and get to work writing my soon to be NY Times #1 Bestseller
Posted by Khirad On December - 29 - 200935 COMMENTS
Ashura 1388 – December 27, 2009, begins over 1,300 years ago. During the three year reign of Yazid I (680-683 CE) of the Ummayad Caliphate, one man refused to swear allegiance to the caliph, he was Hossein, son of Ali, the father whom Shi’as believe the Prophet Mohammad designated to be his successor as spiritual leader and commander in chief of the faithful. (Ali was a son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Mohammad, Hossein was his grandson.) However; Ali lost out in the immediate aftermath and when he was finally made the fourth (and considered last of the “Rightly Guided”, or Rashidun, caliphs even by Sunnis) by the Ummah, he was assassinated five years into his rule in a Kufa Mosque (present day south-central Iraq) and later buried in Najaf, the third holiest site in Shi’a Islam (behind Mecca and Medina). Ali, like Mohammad (again, this is the Shi’i view) had in turn designated his eldest son Hassan (and older brother of Hossein) to be his successor; but a powerful military leader and Syrian governor by name of Mu’awiya, who had been appointed by the second of the Rashidun caliphs, Umar, swept down, forced Hassan to acquiesce on his claim, and founded the Ummayad Caliphate. His son was Yazid.
After the accession, Hossein’s rebellion against Yazid began in earnest, Yazid was to be regarded as a tyrant and usurper by the Shi’at ‘Ali (Partisans of Ali, meaning of Shi’a). Ironically enough, Hossein opposed the dynastic rule even though the Shi’a schism was founded on the basis that rule ought to be limited to the Prophet’s bloodline (they would contend that through Allah’s messenger they had divine mandate, or nass, unlike Yazid). The climax of this power struggle was at the Battle of Karbala, which took place on the tenth day of the first Islamic month of Moharram (as opposed to the Persian calendar, which overlaps with Dey, this year – here’s a handy calendar converter I use often).
Days before the battle, Hossein and his men, were en route to Kufa from Mecca and intercepted by a group of around a thousand mounted soldiers from Yazid’s army, then compelled to agree to be escorted away from reaching Kufa. The next day, a contingent of four-thousand more of Yazid’s men arrived with an order to have Hossein swear fealty; he refused, and soldiers blocked access to the nearby river. After a few days Yazid decided it was time to finish the recalcitrant challenger off. On the tenth day of Moharram, roughly ten thousand (though numbers are often inflated greatly) of Yazid’s army was assembled around a camp of Hossein’s seventy-two men. Hossein had pleaded with his men to try and escape, to leave him, and tried to reason with the soldiers amassed against them, but Yazid’s army was unyielding, and soon archers were shooting volleys of arrows down upon them. Trapped, dying like the tethered animals with them, Hossein’s men refused to abandon their leader and charged at the army one by one, each being cut down one after the other. At long last, Hossein, after all other able men had gone to their death, with his dead infant son whose throat had been pierced with an arrow in his hands, fought valiantly until at long last he too, parched with thirst and beleaguered as he was, succumbed. His death blow was delivered by Shemr (also known to Shi’as as the “Curse of Allah”), who decapitated Hossein, put his head on a pike, and proceeded to pillage the camp and refused him proper Muslim burial, leaving his body in the desert for three to four days. One might compare it to the Battle of Thermopylae (and I will, briefly, since it’s a fabulous excuse to link this Iranian rapper’s response to the movie “300″). But a better comparison would be with the Passion of Jesus Christ. In any case, his shrine supposedly stands near the spot where he died, similar to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. All analogies must end here though, too many are only a disservice.
The day of the battle is commemorated on the day of Ashura with the preceding days of the beginning of Moharram recounting all the events leading up to it. The outline I’ve written above is by no means complete, I’ve abridged it to the bare bones, and often it is exaggerated for greatest emotional appeal (like Imam Hossein single-handedly slaying over a thousand men before Shemr cut him down, like some sort of Shi’a Siegfried). Mourners, dressed in black and hanging black flags outside their homes, will attend ta’ziehs, or passion plays, where events are dramatically recreated theatrically, rosehs where a Roseh-khoon, mollahs who specializing in performing monologues retelling a story every Iranian knows by heart, but still reducing men to tears (as Hooman Majd says in his book, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, “[R]eal Shia men do cry”); and often following that, nohehs, or songs around those themes. This is one by two of the most famous noheh singers, Helali and Sibsorkhi. And most famously (not to mention infamously), during the matam, or mourning procession, where men ceremonially beat themselves with chains called zanjirs and chant “Ya Hossein!” and similar exhortations. Contrary to what some might assume, the shedding of blood we often see sensationalized from other parts of the Shi’a world, with knives and such (though usually shallow cuts anyway), are in fact ruled against in this by Grand Ayatollah Sistani (and some other guy), and actively discouraged in the Islamic Republic. Most of these processions are choreographed and form a sort of competition for different groups to see who can outperform one another. Often, young women will be hanging over the edges of the ramparts, cheering the young men on, whom beat themselves more furiously than the next to impress the ladies. Yes, sex finds its way into even this solemn rite. How could it not, with the frenzied fever it can produce? This year, as most, the ceremonies of Taft, in Yazd Province, were televised nationally. They seemed to be covering every little aspect of the story of Hossein, the rituals, the meaning; all the while completely “unaware” anything else was happening. I’m sure it was just a coincidence. Televised Ashura ceremonies from Taft is like the Midnight Mass (er, sorry, 10 p.m.) from the Vatican, or Barsana for Holi, it’s something they do best. Khamene’i also delivers his own roseh. Most years, green headbands and flags are also a signature feature. This year, even after one promise from police commander Azizollah Rajabzadeh, they reneged on it, descending on those with “suspicious” green, I suppose. One by one the regime’s symbols are being taken back from it by the people to whom they rightfully belong.
Former President, chairman of the Expediency Council, Assembly of Experts and long time de facto second most powerful man of the Islamic Republic, Hashemi Rafsanjani, is attributed as saying, “[I]f you want to understand Iran, you must become a Shi’a first.” I believe the second best thing anyone interested in Iran could do, is in understanding Shi’a basics. It is also helpful in decoding the layered meanings of some of the slogans. Even the chant to Obama of “are you with us, or against us?” can be traced back to something Imam Hossein said.
Shi’ism was made the state religion by Shah Esma’il I, founder of the Safavid Dynasty in the beginning of the 16th century CE. The decree and conversion of Sunni Iran to Twelver Shi’ism was draconian and completed fairly quickly. Many historians contend that it was also possibly a cynical move more than a personal conviction, given the protracted conflict with the Sunni Ottomans. The truth is, anyway, that it absorbed an already peculiarly Persian form of Sunni Islam, with elements of nationalist myth (best encapsulated by Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh), features of Zoroastrian doctrine and practice melded under the guise of Islam, and Sufi poetry from masters like Hafez and Sa’di. The continued observance of the new year, or Nowruz, is a prominent and enduring example of this tendency (even though the Islamic Republic initially wanted to ‘wipe’ it from the calendar), plus the old saying that “every Persian has written at least one line of poetry in their lifetime,” Shah Esma’il included. Shi’ism, in fact, tapped into the Iranian soul. It allowed greater freedom in interpretation, for one. The austere Sunni proscription against human images just was never gonna fly in the artsy “France of the Middle East”.
The contradictions of Iran can be highlighted among some more chauvinist attitudes held toward Arabs, like in the pejorative malakh-khor (‘locust eater’; interestingly enough, the name of the border crossing near where the three American hikers – sorry, “spies!” – were apprehended). And yet, they had to reconcile the fact that they were practicing the faith of their conquerors, with a holy book in the revealed language of Arabic, and whose culture they had always looked down upon for centuries and praying to a land considered but a backwards frontier to the Persian Empires. The bridging of this history is perhaps best exemplified in the dubious hagiographical belief that Hossein (whom, as Shi’ism developed greatly over the centuries, particularly after becoming a state religion, would be venerated as the Third Imam) married a Persian princess, daughter of the last Sassanid shah (the second and last great Persian Empire), Yazdegerd III, whom had been defeated by Caliph Umar’s forces (this is also slightly reminiscent of Alexander the Great marrying his officers to Persian noblewomen and adopting customs of the royal court after his conquest of the first great Persian Empire, the Achaemenids; and taken by Persians to this day as an acknowledgment of their superior culture). The Shi’i concepts of martyrdom, zolm (oppression, cruelty, tyranny), and ‘adl (justice), borne out of Imam Hossein’s martyrdom and the narrative built upon throughout years of persecution as a minority in the Muslim world (which, by the way, is the origin of taghiyeh, or dissimulation, often mentioned derisively among the Daniel Pipes crowd) instilled within it. It may have well struck a chord with a scarred Persian pride, grieved and shamed at being conquered by “inferior” Arabs, and seen as a way to give Islam their own unique touch. As such, though it is a significant population in Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq, Islamic scholars such as Reza Aslan suggest it is, in a very real way, “Persian Islam”. It is also a sect ideal for rebellion, fueled upon by the blood of martyrs (another interesting synthesis is the legend of the tulip growing from the ground where a martyr spilled his blood, dating to pre-Islamic times – next time you see a speech with pretty tulips everywhere – keep this in mind). As such, it provides special complications for a regime who used its themes, slogans and mourning cycles to overthrow a shah; i.e. “Yazid” – most notably in 1963 and 1978. Even more consternating is when they are officially tied to the state and Ashura is as much a governmental, as religious observance. After all, though the country had been Shi’a for a long time, it had held to the Shi’i belief in Quietism. (I seem to have misplaced my articles on this Najafi/Qomi; and Sadra/Majlesi debate which still shape seminary debates to this day. No matter, this can wait.) Clerics were not to rule, they were traditionally apportioned the role as the spiritual conscience for a nation, and would protest when a ruler trespassed their limits, when no other power bloc could dare out of risk of retribution. But, alas, the powers that be are always much easier to criticize, when you’re not the powers that be; especially not a shah and a cleric rolled into one. Ain’t that the darndest thing, Seyyid Yazid?
Rafsanjani puts forth Hossein’s opposition to the caliph as the most significant political movement in the last 1400 years, with its promotion of virtues and condemnation of injustice and evil. And, in an all-too-obvious parallel with the 21st century, he asserts that Hossein was accused of having revolted for power and collaborated with foreigners to which the Imam answered: “I’m not revolting to Govern; my revolt is to protect and correct the course of the disciples of my ancestor [the Prophet Mohammad].”
After a relatively quiet Thursday and Friday, on Saturday, or Tasu’a, the eve of Ashura, people came out at 11 a.m and continued in the streets until 9 p.m. At one such event former reformist president Mohammad Khatami and supporter of Mir-Hossein Mousavi was speaking at Jamaran Hosseiniyeh around 6:00 p.m. Tehran time (a Hosseiniyeh is often a special mosque built especially for the occasion of Moharram; Jamaran is an area of northern Tehran, famous for being Khomeini’s home during his lifetime). Busloads of Basijis had been dropped off, loudspeakers are alleged (via Tweet) to have said “if you do not disperse, we have orders to shoot” and the Basij videotaped faces chanting “Death to Khamene’i”, “Ya Hossein, Mir-Hossein” and “This is the month of blood, Yazid will fall”. At the point of Khatami’s speech when he said, “Imam Hossein’s rebellion arose from his willingness to die for the sake of freedom. He fought against those who wanted to govern society in the name of religion and abolish freedom,” Basijis stormed in [ video ] and eventually cut his microphone which summarily ended the gathering only half way through. Those who didn’t disperse were beaten as indiscriminately as the windows the Basijis smashed, the crowd protected Khatami though, so he could escape. Also in attendance were Rafsanjani’s two daughters, Fatemeh and Faezeh and Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandson, Yasser, high profile Reformist figures in their own right. Also on Tasu’a, in the city of Shiraz, Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastghaib’s house was laid siege to, as was Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri’s in Esfahan. I’ve gone on enough tangents as it is, I’ll just say that this guy is another name for you to try and file away.
And it wasn’t just people at gatherings, dissident clerics, or those on foot,
According to Jaras, police officers were seen striking the sides of cars with their batons, tearing off license plates, and in some cases dragging drivers out of cars and assaulting them.
After Ahmadinejad’s (ostensibly his, that is) firing of Mousavi Tuesday, in which he had to interrupt a meeting in Shiraz (southern Iran) to fly up and back down again, as head of the Academy of the Arts, and increased threats against opposition leaders, things are heating up and a breaking point with full, unhinged crackdown is feared. Among these threats was from the Supreme Leader’s representative to the Pasdaran (IRGC), Hojjat-ol-Eslam Mojtaba Z’ol-Nour, who said, according to The Washington Post:
“If we throw all three heads of the green sedition into prison, nothing will happen at all,” Zolnour said, warning the Basij forces not to act independently toward the two leaders, whose movement uses the color green. “But if we take any physical action against them, it is possible that the flames of these issues will spread.”
Z’ol-Nour, in hardline newspaper Resalat (via Juan Cole’s blog) also let this slip December 17th [emphasis mine]:
“Authorities should introduce traitors to the people as soon as possible.” He pointed to the supreme leader’s description of the recent sedition as ‘a deep sedition . . . ‘ ‘Hojat ol-eslam Mojtaba Zolnur said: One of the reasons for such a description is the scale of that sedition. He added: There were many seditions after the Islamic revolution, such as that of anti-revolutionary groups, Banisadr’s, Montazeri’s, imposed war, etc., but none of them spread the seeds of doubt and hesitation among various social layers as much as the recent one.”
Sort of spoils the “rich kiddies from North Tehran” argument, no? Also significant is reference to Montazeri and Banisadr. Banisadr was the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, whom following interim Prime Minister Bazargan were both French educated liberal-minded moderate leaders in the early years following the Revolution (probably ate arugula, too, with real moutarde de Dijon). During the Hostage Crisis, Khomeini and the IRP (the faction most associated with establishing the theocracy we see today) effectively purged them both. The way in which they did it, with the aid of Pasdaran and Hezbollahi thuggery, further adds to the emptiness and hypocrisy of their accusations against “hooligan” demonstrators today. To buttress Z’ol-Nour’s statement, The Christian Science Monitor reported that the Esfahan governor had called for a state of emergency during the Montazeri mourning ceremonies earlier last week. There were descriptions of martial law in Najafabad (Montazeri’s hometown, which the CSM article totally fudged up on) on his haftom (his seven day death anniversary, also coinciding with Ashura, covered below). And there was a stir of speculation over these photos of a national gathering of provincial police chiefs preparing for Ashura. -As if this billboard of Khamene’i didn’t send its own chilling message (translation: We await Moharam, when it will be a time for trial, it will be our blades and your throats if even one hair on Ali’s (Khamenei) head is lost.).
According to Rah-e Sabz, another interesting story of note
Caretakers at the Mausoleum issued a bulletin saying that owing to limited space due to renovations, only a few heyats (organized groups of mourners) would be hosted there this year.
It should be noted that this past Ramadan was the first time since the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran’s revolution, that his mausoleum did not host Ramadan ceremonies.
* * *
Day of Ashura – as you might have suspected, SMS and internet was down to a crawl (and had been for days), Rah-e Sabz site blocked sporadically but later back up, heavy security presence, city squares cordoned off, metro stations monitored, shots fired in the air – in short, the usual. Cities included Tehran (including south central and southeast), Shiraz, Esfahan, Najafabad, Mashhad, Arak, Babol, Orumieh and Tabriz. In Tehran it was the most violent clashes since June. [note: following are all video links] Protesters chipped up concrete, set fire to Basiji motorbikes, police vehicles and even a police outpost. There was also this (they harmed a hair on your head!) and this (street sign says “Khamene’i Dd.END”, in Perso-Arabic and Roman scripts) of “desecration” to the velayat-e faghih, poor thing. Here’s some of those young kiddies causin’ the trouble we hear about from the IRI and its Western apologists so much. [end of video links] Besides police being outnumbered in some cases and surrendering, a few videos show them taking off their helmets and leaving the scene voluntarily, as well. Of course, state-run media, after first trying to ignore them, described anti-government demonstrations as groups of dozens of troublemakers, accused one of setting a Qur’an on fire, and even tried to bring the Rajavi cult (MeK) into it [yes, three different links]. To be honest, considering the NCRI did uncover the Natanz enrichment program and that they would have known today was a big day, I’m not ruling it out. All I know, is that if I hear the government or IRIB (same thing, actually, and why protesters gathered at its building and set a fire) bring up the Anjoman-e Padeshahi-ye Iran yet again, I’ll definitely be rolling my eyes. Nevertheless, whether true or not, their goal is to smear them all as traitors (IRI-speak is “sowing disunity”, something they know a lot about) by bringing up the most reviled group in Iran, apart from the clerical and Basiji hardliners themselves, that is.
Jarasreported that police also refused orders to open fire on occasion. But apparently this wasn’t always the case. Without a doubt the biggest headline will be that Ali Mousavi, Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s nephew, was shot and killed. His body has disappeared (and the state-media and its apologists – out in force saying the same thing this morning on Iranian sites – claim it was MeK), as have others slain (for a body not to be buried the following day, is in most cases considered against Islamic injunctions on burial rites). The death toll is at ten, according to opposition sites, with four in Tabriz and one in Shiraz. 300 (I saw 1,000 on one site, I need to see it somewhere else first) have been arrested. Rumors of at least one occasion where a car escorted by motorbike-mounted Basijis pulled up, pulled several protesters off the street, and disappeared. This has been standard operating procedure for “disappearances” for many years, it is not out of the question. It would also make it a believable rumor. Another one was of a riot van running over a man. I really do resent the fact that apologists have the luxury to question my perceptions down to almost epistemological levels sometimes, due to the regime they defend banning all foreign media, and if it’s not that, it’s vain attempts to appeal to my natural progressive sense of anti-imperialism or my sympathy for Palestinians (as if the two were not harmonious causes, and I’m supposed to be one of those rabid “push Israel into the sea” types too, I’m sure). It is sick and twisted logic, and if the IRI wanted to clear up “misunderstandings”, why not let journalists in? If they don’t like speculation, they’re the ones inviting it, the rest of us do the best to guess. Do you really want me to believe, after denying reports, that some of the deaths were just car crashes and that one person, losing their balance I’m sure, just “fell” off a bridge? Then let us confirm it. We apologize for offending your pride by questioning your state-media, itself which has purged a few un-ideologically pure staff. An example of their dedication to a free and fair press is seen by their acknowledgment of arresting a Dubai-based Syrian reporter for attending the Ashura demonstrations and daring to (gasp!) observe and report. Also standard operating procedure (and forgive the pun this one takes), is the suspicious removal of those injured from general hospitals to Pasdaran-run hospitals.
“Ashura is a very symbolic day in our culture, and it revives the notion that the innocents were killed by a villain,” said Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former member of the Iranian Parliament who is a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. “Killing people on Ashura shows how far Khamenei is willing to go to suppress the protests.”
That same article goes on to say that they raided a Reformist clerical association in Qom (I’m left to guess that it’s probably the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom – I friggin’ get annoyed at unspecific Western articles which make me do their job). In at least one case in Iran considering the coordinated quarantining of clerics, the demonstrators got there first, in Mashhad, at Grand Ayatollah Sane’i’s house, and the Imam Reza shrine (I’m linking to the shrines’ Wikipedia pages this time, due to the religious nature of this article; that it is important to be familiar with the major ones; and that, well, they’re gorgeous).
For the regime to create a member of the Mousavi family as a martyr on Ashura was most unwise. Shiite Islam even more than traditional Catholicism thrives on the blood of martyrs.
Junior or middle-ranking Ayatollahs favorable to the ideas of Montazeri show up in a number of these reports about protests in provincial cities, suggesting a generational split in the clerical corps and trouble for Khamenei ahead.
Iran’s political crisis is far from over, even though the opposition has little hope of coming to power as long as the security forces remain firmly behind Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ahmad Bakhshayesh, of Allameh Tabatatabi University in Tehran (known for its liberalism) adds to this thought, “I believe we are moving toward a more militarized and repressive confrontation. Things are going to get worse.” Gary Sick would concur.
Mehdi Karroubi, whose car windows were smashed (and who has had his security detail removed by the government), like Mousavi’s attack last week, said that the kind of offenses seen on this Ashura wouldn’t have even been committed by the shah, “[T]he sins that you have committed today cannot be forgiven by God. If you don’t have a belief in God, at least be a human.”
It would appear with the arrest of ten reformist figures, like Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s top advisor, Ali Reza Beheshti, and his brother-in-law, Shapour Kazemi, that Mousavi’s nephew was targeted (whether or not it was an apprehension gone wrong is left to be seen). Expect more chants like this, “I will kill, I will kill, he who has killed my brother!” Also arrested were Ebrahim Yazdi, Foreign Minister under Bazargan, and whom has carried on Bazargan’s banned party, the Freedom Movement of Iran. This guy’s been in trouble before, and is about as close to a progressive as you can get for a political figure in the Islamic Republic. Another name to remember. He’s a bit of a character, as well, if I remember correctly. Another arrest is someone, ironically, who speaks out for prisoner’s rights and against the death penalty, a position for which he just completed a one year sentence last year. Perhaps most significantly for the West was the arrest of Shirin Ebadi’s sister, Noushin. Shirin concluded this was likely for a recent phone call, after Dr. Noushin Ebadi, a professor of medicine, was warned repeatedly not to call her (and yet they’ve also threatened her for years to pressure Shirin to drop her campaign, go figure). Methinks the Nobel medal wasn’t merely misplaced and miraculously found again, after all.
In response to the escalating crackdown President Barack Obama issued this statement, echoing those from Germany, France, Britain and other EU countries from Hawai’i:
The United States joins with the international community in strongly condemning the violent and unjust suppression of innocent Iranian citizens, which has apparently resulted in detentions, injuries and even death.
For months the Iranian people have sought nothing more than to exercise their universal rights. Each time they have done so they have been met with the iron fist of brutality, even on solemn occasions and holy days. And each time that has happened the world has watched with deep admiration for the courage and the conviction of the Iranian people, who are a part of Iran’s great and enduring civilization.
What’s taking place within Iran is not about the United States or any other country — it’s about the Iranian people and their aspirations for justice and a better life for themselves. And the decision of Iran’s leaders to govern through fear and tyranny will not succeed in making those aspirations go away. As I said in Oslo, it’s telling when governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation.
Along with all free nations the United States stands with those who seek their universal rights. We call upon the Iranian government to abide by the international obligations that it has to respect the rights of its own people. We call for the immediate release of all who have been unjustly detained within Iran. We will continue to bear witness to the extraordinary events that are taking place there. And I’m confident that history will be on the side of those who seek justice.
Now, I’m not saying there’s gonna be chants of “Ya Hossein, Barack Hossein”, but can you guys tell, like me, that he had some help from his Iran team on that? Notice all the subtleties, the choice of words. Notice how many times he used words like ‘justice’, which when translated, will have Shi’i connotations? I noticed the same with his Cairo speech regarding broader Islamic themes. No doubt, the GOP will still pretend he hasn’t issued any statements regarding the situation, or criticize him for being too late, or still being too soft. In a CNN interview with Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council, he remarks on Obama’s fine line with which he has to take – which isn’t appeasement, it is about not impeding the Green Movement and getting out of our own way. On the forcefulness of the Obama statement, I’m wondering what analysts are seeing, as well. I don’t want to follow this thought too much, as the US has had a habit of being dead wrong reading the internal situation of Iran time and time again; but I can’t help but wonder if they thought the situation was tipping enough one way or the other to merit it. No statement like that is just done on the fly. I’ll bet you they had a draft of that since at least Montazeri’s passing. Not nearly as long as Ahmadinejad’s mocking and – yawn – most recent – yawn – accusations of – yawn – foreign – yawn – meddling. The advantage of not having an embassy in Tehran is not having your afternoon tea disturbed every time Iran wants a distraction. This was said on state television by Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Majles, and did give me slight pause though, “[P]arliament wants the judiciary and intelligence bodies to arrest those who insult religion and impose the maximum punishment on them without reservation.” Whether this is serious or not, I’ll have to check out, Larijani isn’t a firebrand, but he does know to say what he’s told to say. Ever wonder what the practical internal motives are for hardline bluster, by the way? Oh, what, you still aren’t awake after the Zionist/American belabored biped of blame? (it’s the Iranian equivalent of ‘noun, verb, 9/11′ x 100) Don’t worry, this Ahmadi nugget will wake you up after that snoozefest of his earlier:
Sixty five years ago, seventy years ago Second World War commenced. In this war more than sixty million people were killed. Now you travel to Europe, see if there is any name of these dead at all. Is there any indication of these dead? Never!
* * *
As Ayatollah Khomeini used to say, appropriating an old Shi’a saying, “every day is Ashura, every land is Karbala.” Today the demonstrators say “Hossein, Hossein is our slogan; being a martyr is our pride” and call Khamene’i Yazid. It isn’t so much inversion, as it is the recognition of a grim reality for the Pasdaran and their allies. Ayatollah Vaez-Tabasi, member of the Assembly of Experts, Expediency Council, and with the plum position as head of the Imam Reza Shrine Foundation, I might add – someone who is clearly on good terms with the Supreme Leader – said that “seditious” leaders are moharebs (or, ‘those who wage war against Allah’, that fun nebulous charge which happens to carry the death penalty). And yet where does he stand when women are anally raped in prison by guards for reasons amounting to political terrorism? Every stale chant Basijis and their Shemr supporters direct at demonstrators, calling them “hypocrites”, rings hollow. Maybe they should practice in front of a mirror for more resonance.
It is said that a tear shed for Hossein can wash away all sins. May Allah be merciful to these men; history won’t be.
A Nigerian man on an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight allegedly tried to blow up the airliner, which landed safely. The suspect is badly hurt. Authorities consider it a terrorism attempt.
Reporting from New York – In what was described as an act of terrorism, a Nigerian passenger attempted to ignite an incendiary device aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Friday as the plane began its approach for landing, federal officials said. Other passengers overpowered the man and the plane landed safely.
The suspect, identified as Abdul Mutallab, 23, suffered severe burns as a result of the attempt, authorities said, and two of the other 277 passengers reported minor injuries.
It is the day after Christmas, and we are rudely shoved back into the realities of our modern world.
There are many angles to take on this story: security, the politics, the impact on our culture. What I’m wondering right now is if we will ever have a rational discussion about terrorism in this country. We seem to want to treat it as a kind of psychological disorder rather than a violent form of protest—which is what it is, in my view.
It’s such an emotional issue. People are afraid. There are real dangers. Our policies are a bad hangover from the punch drunk Bush Administration, which turned its back on Bin Laden to pursue war profiteering in Iraq. We need an intelligent terrorism policy, but we seem to be in the grips of political gamesmen who will not put our nation above their obsession with power, money, and the cynical joys of “winning.” I worry we will never get beyond politics so that we can address the problem more effectively.
Posted by Khirad On December - 22 - 200942 COMMENTS
30 Azar 1388 -- December 21, 2009. The epicenter of the clerical establishment of Iran, the city of Qom, about a hundred miles southwest of the capital, was shaken by demonstrators mourning for the recently deceased Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. In the words of Shirin Ebadi, “the father of human rights” in Iran.
Born in 1922, in the town of Najafabad, near Isfahan, Montazeri was jailed by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi numerous times, tortured by SAVAK and a confidant of exiled Ayatollah Khomeini. It was he who was prominent in devising the theory of guardianship of the jurist (or Velayat-e Faghih) and drawing it into the second draft of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was chosen as heir apparent by the “Imam” (Khomeini’s affectionate title) until a falling out between the two.
After harsh criticisms of the 1988 Massacres of political dissidents (real and imagined) and Khomeini’s fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, Montazeri sardonically chided Khomeini with, “people in the world are getting the idea that our business in Iran is just murdering people.” Statements such as this, in addition to machinations of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmad Khomeini (Ruhollah Khomeini’s son) in the background for succession, threw Montazeri out of favor and made him a pariah within the IRI oligarchy. However; it also proved an indelible break that he and many other originally radical ideologues were making with their original vision. Montazeri would later contend that Khomeini twisted his theory (which, believe me, isn’t far-fetched, Khomeini was great at borrowing and twisting ideas for his own gain, one only need compare Ali Shariati’s philosophy to his). In one of Montazeri’s last statements,
“The goal (of the revolution) was not simply to change the names and slogans but keep the same oppression and abuses practiced by the previous regime. Everyone knows I am a defender of theocratic government, although not in the current form. The difference lies in the fact that I intended for the people to choose the jurist and supervise his work… I now feel ashamed of the tyranny conducted under this banner. What we see now is the government of a military guardianship, not the guardian of Islamic scholars.”
He said that his theory was for the clerics to perform more as guides, and that he never meant for a hierarchy, but for them to issue opinions by consensus (the difference between limited and absolute clerical rule). To demonstrate what an influential force Montazeri was, this has been the backbone of the Reformist plank, i.e., amending the Constitution per Article 177 to redefine the position of Faghih. This was last done prior to Khomeini’s death from cancer. Knowing his new replacement lacked the genuine following, charisma and religious credentials, Khomeini had revisions drawn up and put to a referendum. Today, the demands are of the Supreme Leader and the Guardian Council’s powers to be curtailed, if not the latter being outright abolished, along the with the corrupt, vestigial and impotent Expediency Council. Positions on all these modifications to the system vary, but there is general agreement (based on simple logic and bitter experience throughout the Khatami presidency) that for there ever to be actual reform within the Islamic Republic, those undemocratic institutions that repeatedly block progress need to first be done away with.
Faced with disillusionment brought on by a battered nation from Khomeini’s prolonged crisis of the Iran-Iraq War, men and women like Montazeri were finally given time to reflect upon the realities which the warped path of the Revolution had actually wrought. They realized that they had seriously fallen short of their aspirations for a more humane, and just nation when their pre-Revolutionary ideals met with the actual task of governing. (This was one of the deficits of the broader revolution, according to scholar Nikki R. Keddie. Many were so wrapped up in overthrowing the shah, not many had any idea what to do after Mohammad Reza Pahlavi finally abdicated the Peacock Throne — not many — except for Khomeini who had been developing his theory for decades and was more than happy to return from France and bear that ‘burden’). This pause at long last, after ten years of continued crisis after crisis, along with the death of Khomeini would allow for a reevaluation of the direction the Islamic Republic would take. It would first lead to a new Pragmatist faction, led by Rafsanjani under the mantle of his presidency in the early 1990’s, and in turn blossom in the the Reform movement under Khatami’s presidency in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Montazeri was a spiritual guide in the background, giving these more liberal attitudes and moderation added weight and legitimacy. You could see his imprimatur stamped all over it. Since his death the core elite of the IRI have been dealing with the Legacy of Khomeini and interpreting his words across the political spectrum to fit their respective agendas (compare with the American Founding Fathers in this regard). But there have in fact been two competing legacies.
During the latter part of this time of maturation, from 1997-2003, Montazeri was put under house arrest (freed finally under Khatami’s plea to Supreme Leader Khamene’i) and has endured continued monitoring, threats, attacks, and a concerted campaign from the hardline media dismissing him as a “simple minded cleric” and instigating a political move to strip him of his robe. But, the fact remained, that among the collegiate fraternity of clerics; even those whom disagree vehemently (as is Shi’i tradition -- with its emphasis on ijtihad), politicians and extremist firebrand clerics had no authority to do this (though the clergy was greatly purged of “turbaned deceivers”, as Khomeini called them, in the early 1980’s). Until his death this weekend he remained the highest ranking marja’ in Iran, with only Grand Ayatollah Seyyid Ali Hosseini Sistani of Najaf, Iraq, outranking him in the Shi’i world.
His death, announced by his son Ahmad, of course spurred a few conspiracy theories. However; I don’t buy into them for reasons which will become clear later. It also appeared to be more of an initial reaction which has subsided. Despite being a thorn in the side of the leadership for decades, he was still set to be buried at the Fatemah shrine in Qom, the second holiest Shi’i shrine in Iran and thus a major pilgrimage site (charter pilgrimage bus tours often go from the Imam Reza shrine to this one). On Sunday, security forces were locking down Qom, shutting down communications, forbidding foreign media (those familiar with my past articles should be familiar with this drill by now), in preparation for the intensified throngs, which already begin to burgeon during Moharram.
Mehdi Karoubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi called for people to observe a public day of mourning, and come they did, as if they had to be directed, from major cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz and elsewhere. Anywhere from numbers in the tens of thousands (even corroborated by Ayandeh, which is associated with Mohsen Reza’i) to hundreds of thousands showed up and clashed with government loyalists who also came. Tear gas, shots fired (again, you know the drill). Of course, Kayhan (the IRI “Pravda”) reported that only 5,000 showed, and all newspapers in the country were forbidden from showing Montazeri’s picture on the front page. When mention was made of him, or his funeral, his titles were omitted and demonstrations were not mentioned. In contrast, BBC Persian’s wall-to-wall coverage of Montazeri got through IRI jamming attempts periodically, which were stepped up Sunday and particularly during the airing of Montazeri segments by IRI government monitors Monday (The New York Times reports; however, that they had to suspend broadcasts). Not only this, but even the sanctity of bast in Imam Hassan mosque was violated by security forces to prevent protesters from congregating there, another one of the ironies of the Islamic Republic, considering it was the sophisticated network of mosques in which Khomeini’s revolution was kept alive. It was the one place even the shah dared not transgress.
In Najafabad, hundreds of hamshahris (a Farsi term for fellow townsmen) proud of their hometown cleric, went out to the streets. Two buses were reported burned (I have yet to figure out the significance, if any, in this recurrent act, as bus drivers are historically Reform and have been active risking stiff reprisals for periodic strikes. It is probably more emotionally driven and I wish they’d knock it off, if it isn’t merely propaganda to smear them).
After protests, upon returning to Tehran, Mousavi’s car was repeatedly harrased and cut off by Basijis on motorbikes who even smashed the rear windows. If this is true, it would clarify and reverse any suspicions I had of his containment at his office the past two demonstrations being cynically choreographed. Similarly, the Montazeri’s home was put under heavy security (which for the Montazeri family, has pretty much been the status quo situation for a long time anyhow) and Basiji’s shouting pro-government slogans, and though they had a public funeral service, it was cut short by a couple hundred Basijis disrupting it and tearing up funeral banners (ironically, it is the conservative camp complaining of his death being “politicized” and calling pro-reformists “hypocrites” -- a politically charged word akin to ‘traitor’, if they did indeed use monafeqin). They decided to cancel the ceremony planned in the Fatemah mosque that evening, because the city of Qom had turned to “martial law” after mourners dispersed.
However; it is generally thought to have gone without major incident. The usual arrests and injuries here and there (I don’t mean to sound so jaded and callous; I hope they are alright and it is only a brief detainment) but the police also helped protect the crowd from the Basijis, again, according to Ayandeh. When Khamene’i was set to speak though, boos rang out (video) along with the ever familiar “Death to Dictator”. Other chants, apart from the usual, included, but were not limited to: “Dictator, this is your last message: The people of Iran are rising!”, “Oppressed Montazeri, you are with God now”, “Dictator, dictator, Montazeri is alive”, “Montazeri, you who spoke the truth! Your path will be followed”, “Innocent Montazeri, your path will be continued even if the dictator should rain bullets on our heads” and “Innocent Montazeri, Congratulations on your freedom!” (For more on the use of the movement’s clever use of Revolutionary slogans, here’s a BBC piece) I might also explain here that the shrine is named after Fatemah Ma’soumeh (sister of Imam Reza), the latter cognomen meaning ‘innocent’. In contrast Khamene’i would issue this passive-aggressive swipe, as reported by AFP,
“He was an accomplished theologian and a prominent teacher who spent a large part of his life for Imam’s (Khomeini’s) cause,” Khamenei said in a statement carried by state television’s website. He also asked divine forgiveness for Montazeri over a “difficult ordeal” that the late cleric had undergone, alluding to his fallout with Khomeini.
The White House issued its condolences through National Security Council spokesman Michael Hammer, “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who seek to exercise the universal rights and freedoms that he so consistently advocated.”
Montazeri’s other son Saeed said Sunday that, “I think one of the main reasons [for his death] was his grief for the post-election events which troubled my father a lot”. Indeed, these came even in the form of a fatwa, denouncing Ahmadinejad’s election as illegitimate and the violent crackdown, saying in late August that the the government was neither Islamic nor a republic, and at the end of November saying the Basij were “in the path of Satan”. In reference to students tearing up Khomeini’s picture during Student Day on December 4th, he remarked,
“The late Ayatollah Imam Khomeini was a very important man. But, he was not ma’soom [sinless] and had erred many times. He himself never claimed to be ma’soom. Therefore, there is no need to make an issue of this [tearing and burning his poster].”
For his part, Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini said that “[he] spent many years of his honorable life on the path of advancing the high goals of Islam and the Islamic revolution”. The Khomeini progeny are a prime example of Montazeri’s call to return to the original promise and opportunity provided by the Revolution of their namesake. Just as their grandfather was the figurehead for one popular uprising, so has Montazeri been the patron of another.
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (though the hardware went ‘missing’ for a bit) had this moving reflection,
“I call you father because I learned from you how to defend the oppressed without using violence against the oppressor. I learned from you that being silent is helping the oppressor. Father, I learned much from you, although I never [got the chance to] show my appreciation for being your child and student. Father, forgive us.”
Grand Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri’s legacy will be that he gave up the chance for power out of conscience, was not afraid to speak against power, no matter what threats came his way. It is true, he was not liberal by Western standards, and although he spoke out for the rights of religious minorities, even the unrecognized Bahá’ís, he still adhered to the fundamentalist Shi’i view of najas (non-Muslims being ritually impure); but said they may make themselves “pure through chaste, Muslim-like, behavior.” This, compared to Khomeini and hard-line clerics today, makes him downright progressive in comparison. For more on religious discrimination in Iran, this is an excellent article (though I will warn you it’s National Review). If we are to be concerned about political dissidents and the plight of women, we should show the same for religious minorities. (Here’s an essay on the same subject by Marina Nemat [PDF], while I’m on the topic). His courage has inspired those like another dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Kazememeyni Boroujerdi, who is still imprisoned after three years for advocating the separation of mosque and state, Grand Ayatollah Sane’i (who is the closest a Reformist cleric can come to filling the spiritual aspect of the giant vacuum Montazeri will leave, in my view), men like Mehdi Karoubi, and most importantly the Green Movement itself. From earlier this month in one of his last statements, this is what he had this to say of it,
This movement is the accurate reflection and representation of the justified demands of the majority that have surfaced over many years. While it has faced a violent reaction and vehement hostility from the hardliner faction of the state, its domestic and foreign achievements are undeniable. Inside Iran, this movement has succeeded in institutionalizing a tolerant culture for demanding the rights of a large number of people, which were ignored during the election [process] and the events that followed. In addition, this movement has also prevailed in exposing the violent nature of the radical and the oppressive. Of course, to achieve this, it has paid a high price, which shows that the people will not be swayed until they attain the rights they are entitled to. Death, intimidation, threats, detainments, arrests, illegal and non-religious trials, heavy and unjust convictions for political activists and freedom seekers, as well as false and misleading propaganda – none of this has influenced the people’s will and determination. Outside Iran, the movement has succeeded in drawing international attention – especially that of developed societies and human rights organizations – to the oppression it faces as well as its rightful demands. From a political [perspective], [the movement] has presented the real power of nationhood to the world.
The continuance of the calendar demonstrations were already set for Ashura, before his passing. And this comes on the heels of the Revolutionary Court announcing it will try 12 prison officials for the deaths of three protesters (I can’t help but wonder if this will be like the post 18 Tir trials when all but one security officers were acquitted, the one left, sentenced for disobeying orders to beat protesters -- not 100% on the details here though, I’m woefully behind on transferring a stack of book notes to my computer). I had been planning on an article for that. So, this will by far be one of my worst articles to date, rushed as I was by this unforeseeable event. Needless to say, I shall be getting into more into what happens with the vacuum he’s left, the powerful symbolism of Moharram, remark more on the status of the Green Movement (which, by the way, have been guaranteed they won’t be reprimanded for carrying the green banners by Police commander Azizollah Rajabzadeh, according to Farda -- I will get into this later!), and hopefully have a more coherently crafted piece. I will but mention this: Montazeri’s death, happened to fall the week before Ashura. As some may recall, the Shi’i mourning cycle occurs on the third, seventh, and the big one (arba’een) on the fortieth days after passing. As Shirin Sadeghi notes,
In a bizarre twist of fate, Montazeri’s death coincides with the most important date on the Shiite calendar: Ashura. His haftom (literally: seventh day of passing — a significant date of mourning for Shiites) will fall exactly on the holy day of Ashura when Iranians are encouraged by the government to parade into the streets to recognize their fallen martyrs.
The symbolism just got a whole lot deeper. This is why I don’t buy the conspiracy theory. The intelligence services have been sloppy at times, but I could not think of worse premeditated timing (I promised I’d get back to it!) to assassinate him. I think they also hearkened back to the conspiracy theories surrounding Ayatollah Taleghani’s death in 1979 (part of reading Iran is being aware of its culturally historical references). Remarking more soberly on the implications of Montazeri’s death whilst noting that he may be more powerful in death as a martyr to galvanizing the movement, Juan Cole made this brilliant analogy to the other effect,
The regime will breathe a sigh of relief, since Montazeri helped craft the doctrine of the guardianship of the Jurisprudent, which the current government interprets as clerical dictatorship. But Montazeri maintains that that outcome was never Khomeini’s intent. It is sort of as though there was a living disciple of Jesus around who insisted that he never intended the pope to be infallible. Montazeri was a powerful living witness to an alternative form of Shiite government, one with a human face. The hardliners such as Khamenei and Ahmadinejad will be delighted to have that voice silenced.
Other Iran News Updates
These are what I had been planning to get out of the way the week before Ashura. So, instead of remarking much on them, I’ll sort of just knock ‘em off one-by-one.
A study abstract which claims Ahmadinejad losing support in rural areas.
The government tried to shame a male student by dressing him in a maghna’eh and chador. In response, men from around the country dressed up in hejab and posted their pictures in the comments sections of pro-government news sites.
A recommended interview with Karim Sadjadpour, from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on the efficacy of sanctions.
Amnesty International calls for probe into human rights abuses [heartwrenching video of a raped young woman who escaped to Turkey]. Here’s a release from the Amnesty International site on the abuses.
On the whole Iraqi well hooplah, heralded by Huffy as an impending war, see Juan Cole, and for some (much needed) historical perspective, go here. Bloomberg also had some relevant insights. Also, I was trying to say this during the hikers thing (who are promised a “speedy trial” in most recent news). GPS doesn’t help a damn bit when both countries have different ideas where the border is.
While I’m on the subject of IRI mischief, Houthi rebels in Yemen (Exporting the Revolution redux and screwing with the Saudis again). No wonder they got disinvited from the GCC -- that, and Bahrain and the UAE weren’t too amused by the yacht incident, I imagine. Oh wait, no, I’m pretty certain. It really doesn’t take an analyst at a thinktank to figure these things out sometimes.
Awesome op-ed by Richard Cohen on why Obama is doing the right thing with Iran. Mehdi Karoubi, in an interview published this morning, bolsters this. Admiral Mullen’s recent comments slightly complicate this, but it was still far more measured than we might have seen under the Bush administration. If this is part of the concerted case being built to invade Iran à la Iraq, I still fail to see it. But that’s another topic altogether for me to thoughtfully dismantle.
Well, that’s it. My bookmarks get pretty full after a short while, and I only selected a few. The above section was to be among my content in my preview of the upcoming Ashura demonstrations. So, until next week, to get everyone in the Shi’i holiday mood --
A final mention of thanks. Some of these links would not be possible but for my fellow IRI apologist slayers at HP. If you happen to cross upon this, you know who you are.
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“Independence is being free of foreign intervention and freedom is giving people the freedom to express their opinions. Not being put in prison for every protest one utters.”
- Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (1922-2009)
Vaishnava
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K, maybe we need to soundproof our house soon. This Big Change Almost Sneaked By
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