The Islamic Republic created its own version of the Commisars, of which Khamenei is one of the originals.
Like we said a day or two ago, they took the 'islamic' out of the 'Islamic Republic'. Just as the ardor of the members of the CCCP faded, leaving the leaders, the apparatchiks and the ChekaNKVDKGB RSF, you now have the leaders, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basiji.
The merger of the military/security man and the clergy was intensified when clerics were dispatched to the war fronts, and became ideological commissars of the new regime. They spied on officers and tried to convert them to the new politicized Islam. What happened, in reality, was the conversion of the clergy to a military-security ethos, not the other way around.
Clerics such as Khamenei, Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Hassan Lahooti were among the first cadres put in charge of military personnel and commissioned by Ayatollah Khomeini to create the IRGC, a security apparatus designed to run parallel to the state's army, navy and air force. Khamenei quickly learned where the center of the state's gravity rests, and consequently, never left the security forces. Today Khamenei knows more about military and security issues than about traditional Figh and Shi'ite narratives. After the election ...
Ahmadinejad addressed a meeting with the employees of the Judiciary with these words: "Communism, liberalism and democracy are all dead; it is high time for [the rise of an] Islamic State." What he did not spell out was this: The Islamic State wears boots and parades in military fatigue.
Large segments of the clerical establishment came out against the election results. They are all rightfully anxious about what seems to be the end of clerical hegemony as they know it. The clerical rupture that followed the June events is quite telling. The entire body of the moderate clerics militated against what they felt was a mortal blow to Islamic republicanism.
Sensing the death knell of the clerical state, even hardline Ayatollahs such as Nasser Makarem-Shirazi distanced themselves from the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad-IRGC coalition. This article does not mention that officers of the IRGC are frequently antagonistic to the Mullahs. In the last 4 years the IRGC has been muscling on the Mullahs' financial turf. Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/07/2009 15:14 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Western countries on Monday against interfering in Iranian affairs as the United Kingdom confirmed that the Islamic Republic had released an eighth British embassy staff member, leaving one still in detention.
Khameini admitted there are "differences" among Iranians following last month's disputed presidential election but told the West it would be met with a "firm fist" if it tried to exploit the unrest sparked by the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"We strongly warn leaders of some Western countries not to interfere in Iran's internal matters, beware! The Iranian nation will react," Khameini said in a televised speech in Tehran. "The leaders of arrogant countries, the nosy meddlers in the affairs of the Islamic republic, must know that no matter if the Iranian people have their own differences, when you enemies get involved, the people... will become a firm fist against you."
Khamenei, who praised President Ahmadinejad's victory even before an official review endorsed the result, said the vote was an internal Iranian issue.
" We strongly warn leaders of some Western countries not to interfere in Iran's internal matters, beware! The Iranian nation will react "
Ayatollah Khameini
"The election was a major move ... The enemies want to create dispute among Iranians. What does it have to do with the enemies?" he asked.
Last month's election, which defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi accuses the government of rigging, led to the most widespread street protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Authorities say more than 1,000 people were arrested during the demonstrations, although most have been released. But human rights activists say 2,000 people, including opposition leaders, academics, journalists and students, may be still held.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"You - obey the fist!!"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/07/2009 6:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If he Firm Fist and the Foreign Hand had a fight, who would win?
[Al Arabiya Latest] A senior Iranian official slammed Monday statements by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Israel has a sovereign right to decide what is in its best interest in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions and said Tehran would respond "in a very full-scale and very decisive way" if attacked.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled his agreement with U.S. President Barack Obama's end-of-the-year deadline for progress in efforts to engage Iran diplomatically to resolve dispute over its nuclear program.
" We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened "
VP Joe Biden
In an interview on ABC's "This Week" Sunday interview program, Biden said Israel can determine for itself how best to deal with the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
"We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened," Biden said.
Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, said neither the U.S. nor Israel could allow Iran to gain a nuclear weapon.
"The U.S., like Israel ... has determined unequivocally that Iran must not have nuclear military capability," Ayalon told Israel's Army Radio.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > AS ISRAEL GEARS UP FOR WAR, US DIVIDE APPEARS [ e.g. ADM Mullen comments versus VPOTUS Biden's]; + RUSSIA: ISRAEL STILL MULLS IRAN PREEMPTIVE STRIKE.
Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun on Monday expressed regret that the formation of a national unity government has shifted from and internal to an external role. "The general scene is negative. There is no role for the Lebanese people in the formation of their government," Aoun said in an interview on Al-Manar TV. "Where are those who claimed to be keen on sovereignty and independence?" he asked.
"We tell the Arabs that it's fine if they had a role in (efforts) to create a government," Aoun said. "But having a government set up by the Arabs is not desirable."
"We are the axis of evil as they claim. We demand Lebanon's soverienty and independence," he added. "We demand that (Cabinet) formation be made in Lebanon. No one can marginalize us."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
""We tell the Arabs that it's fine if they had a role in (efforts) to create a government," Aoun said. "But having a government set up by the Arabs is not desirable.""
IOW
"tell em Saudi and egyptian types to stop meddling in Lebanon. Only my Syrian and Iranian pals should get to meddle in Lebanon"
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/07/2009 11:59 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The French Foreign Ministry says it has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the arrest of a French academic on espionage charges.
The ministry did not disclose the woman's name but said that it had called for the Iranian envoy on Monday to demand her release, AP reported. Paris claims that the woman was arrested last week as she was about to leave Iran after spending five months in the country studying. The ministry claimed that the French envoy in Tehran had also objected to the woman's detention and the charges brought against her.
In a Monday evening interview with France Info radio, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, also commented on the issue, claiming that the charges were "absurd".
"The spying charges put forward by the Iranian authorities do not pass the test," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday, AFP reported. The ministry says it is in close contact with the family of the detained woman.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Does the lady have dual citizenship? That so often seems to be the situation in these cases.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian police announced Sunday the release of an Iranian employee of the British embassy even as the judiciary head called for the prosecution of people working for anti-government satellite TV channels and websites.
The comment followed a statement by a pro-reform clerical group Saturday protesting the disputed presidential June 12 election and the new government as "illegitimate" and blasting the official electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council.
" Most of the detainees have been or are being either released on bail or simply freed "
Esmail Moghaddam, Iranian policeman
Iran's chief of police said on Sunday authorities have released most of the people detained in the post-election violence that rocked Tehran after official results gave hardliner incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second four-year term.
Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said of the 1,032 people arrested, "two-thirds have been freed," the official IRNA news agency reported. "Most of the detainees have been or are being either released on bail or simply freed," he said, although the information could not be independently verified because foreign media are largely banned from reporting in Iran.
They were arrested during weeks of violent street protests in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in which at least 20 people were killed in the worst crisis to hit the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.
British embassy staff to be released
Iran is also set to release Sunday the eighth of nine British embassy staff arrested on accusations stirring trouble and interfering in Iranian internal affairs. "There have been developments overnight in respect of the eighth person who had been arrested," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Sunday adding that "the good news is that...the eighth person would indeed be released today [and] that the papers have been signed and that there would not be a court process or charges."
Unofficial TV channels
Meanwhile, the head of Iran's judiciary called for the prosecution of people working for increasingly influential anti-establishment satellite TV channels and websites. "The daily growth of anti-regime satellite channels and ... websites needs serious measures to confront this phenomenon," state television quoted a circular issued by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi as saying.
For the first time in Iran, foreign-based satellite TV channels and blogs played a significant role in providing news and commentary about the election, especially following a ban on foreign media. Iran has said this amounts to interference in its internal affairs.
Mousavi and reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi said the government wants to force Iranians to rely on state-run media, which they say favor Ahmadinejad.
Both men issued statements on their websites saying Ahmadinejad's new government would be "illegitimate" -- even though Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's ultimate arbiter, has upheld the result and thrown his weight behind the president.
Split in the ranks
" How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of the infringements is a legitimate one "
Assembly of Qom statement
In a controversial development, the pro-reform Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers blasted Saturday the Guardians Council, which formally endorsed Ahmadinejad's re-election.
The independent assembly said the unelected electoral watchdog no longer had the "right to judge in this case as some of its members have lost their impartial image in the eyes of the public," its first public stance on the disputed elections. "How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of the infringements is a legitimate one," it said, adding that it had not paid adequate attention to the complaints filed by the defeated candidates.
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, met with the families of detainees arrested in the aftermath of post-election protests and admitted that the unrest in the country has caused "bitterness," but denied there was a split at the top of Iran's establishment. "The election scene was a competition within the system and should not be considered by some as a power struggle or crack in the system," he was quoted as saying in ISNA news agency.
Rafsanjani added that the current crises will be wisely solved and that the regime has to be kept intact on the long run. He also met with the families of the detained.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The French Foreign Ministry says it has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the arrest of a French academic on espionage charges. 
