Iran's Head of Assembly of "Experts" Speaks about Einstein!

The man shown in this video below, is Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani. He is the head of the Assembly of Experts in the Islamic Republic of Iran. A powerful body which will even decide the next 'head honcho' i.e. the next Supreme Leader of Iran.

Mahdavi Kani is also the head of Imam Sadeq university.

To understand what kind of people run the Islamic Republic and who these "experts" are, watch this video of Mahdavi Kani [English translation below]

"Einstein wrote something in which he said he had converted to Islam and had become a Shiite Muslim and that he was a disciple of Imam Ja'far Sadeq, says so in foreign books. Einstein says 'when I heard about the ascension of the prophet Mohamad' where he had ascended to heavens and come back and the house door was still shaking, a process which was faster than the speed of light. The prophet went quicker than the light that walks, I don't know how much is it? 300,000 km per second! The door knocker was still shaking and the prophet had come back and he had seen all the heavens too. This is the very same relativity movement that Einstein had understood. Similar to what Mullah Sadra had understood before him, a quintessential movement, not a positional movement like crossing the road taking ten minutes, a movement of light or rather a spiritual movement faster than the light moves, Einstein said 'when I heard about the narratives of the prophet Mohamad and that of the Ahle-Beit [prophet's household] I realised they had understood these things way before us"  

Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, who is 83 years old, has been kept alive in the past 25 years by British heart surgeons who have been treating him in St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London.

Seven Years Prison for Iranian Student, Maryam Shafiipour

Maryam Shafiipour

Iranian female student activist, Maryam Shafipour has become the first Iranian student to be sentenced to long term prison for political activism since Rouhani became the president of the Islamic Republic.

Maryam Shafipour was an active member of Karroubi's Women's Committee election campaign team. She received a suspended sentence in 2010 on usual charges of "spreading propaganda against the 'holy establishment' of the Islamic Republic" and was banned from continuing her higher education. 

In July, 2013, Maryam was detained again and spent 60 days in solitary confinement with no access to a lawyer. 

Yesterday she received a seven year sentence by the notorious judge Salavati after seven months of being interrogated in prison and refusing to repent for her peaceful activism. 

Amnesty international issued this statement on Maryam's plight in January this year:

DOCUMENT - IRAN: IRANIAN STUDENT HELD FOR PEACEFUL ACTIVISM: MARYAM SHAFI’ POUR

Jack Straw and Lord LeMont may have the impression that things have changed in Iran and "Tehran resembles any European city like Madrid", but the truth is despite the nice shop front window for the outside world, its business as usual inside the shop.

A Public Execution in Iran with a Slight Twist

Public executions in Iran have sadly become a normal event since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Astonishingly some of those who go to watch these medieval displays, take their young children with them too. Adults along with their children watch masked executioners put the rope around the condemned's neck while the condemned accepts his fate and submits passively to the executioner.

Last week there was a public execution in Iran that didn't quite go according to the plan. The stocky man that was about to be executed asked to see his mother for one last time, but his request was refused. The stocky man who looked strong, struggled with his executioners and broke his handcuffs. Another law enforcement officer tried to walk up to him and was toppled over as the condemned kicked the officer in the chest. The crowd cheered the condemned as the officer fell off the scaffolding, but finally he was subdued by seven officers and the rope was tied around his neck. The condemned man struggled as his neck dangled from the noose until his neck broke. The same crowd who had cheered him kick the law officer in the chest, cheered again when his neck broke and he became restless.

Its all good entertainment on a typical early morning in the lovely Islamic Republic that Jack Straw described as buzzing like Madrid:
http://youtu.be/P2k665GkAZM

The Pathetic Khatami and Iran's Reformists

I have said this before, the political faction in Iran, represented by the likes of former president Khatami, often referred to as "reformists" in the West are not in the business of bringing about any meaningful reforms in Iran by organising peaceful civil disobedience types of actions, they are not in the business of organising and mobilising the masses to bring about any change, as would be expected of a normal reformist movement, the "reformists" in Iran are in the business of organising "Total Obedience" to support the establishment.

What I claim above manifested itself again yesterday. The regime always keen on having large numbers turn out for its masquerades, once again resorted to Iran's reformists to call on Iranians to turn up and participate in the parades marking the 35th anniversary of the 1979 revolution.

Former president Khatami and others in the "reformist" faction urged Iranians to take part in the parade, saying it will be an occasion to show unity and to "resolve our contentions".

Huge posters which read "The People Demand the Leaders of the Sedition to be Tried" while pictures showed them being hanged and included Khatami himself, was how yesterday's parades helped to "resolve the contentions"!

A Gary Glitter look alike, straight from the loony bin in yesterday's parade to bolster the numbers:

The Man Who Announced the Victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979

It was a decisive moment in February, 1979, when the popular Iranian TV host,  Mirali Hosseini, who like many of his colleagues had decided to back the revolution against the Shah by going on strike, appeared on the national television, after it had been captured by the revolutionaries and announced "This is the voice of the revolution!".

Capturing the state television is a huge psychological milestone in an uprising. He who controls the state TV is the one who appears to be in charge of the country. After Hosseini's famous announcement, the momentum of the collapse of the Ancien Régime  accelerated.

Mirali Hosseini didn't last very long however. Contrary to his disillusions and that of many other Iranians, the revolution did not bring freedom, it did the reverse, it took away our personal freedoms and it brought about misery and a harsher despotism.

This is Mirali Hosseini speaking three decades after that momentous occasion, when he anounced "This is the voice of revolution!"

Watch Mirali Hosseini talking about his expectations in 1979

Commodity Basket Handouts

"This house became a ruin since the day,

     our thinking and reasoning became dark and grey"

It is still mind boggling how millions of Iranians, intellectuals, Western educated and the middle classes included, came out into the streets in 1979 to destroy their own freedoms, their own standard of living and the future of the next generations of Iranians.


Yesterday, was the anniversary of the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran after a 15 year exile.  A day which most Iranians today regret, but thirty five years ago, they were swept by a wave of frenzy and incredible stupidity to welcome him.
"when the demon flees, the angel will return" -they chanted, demon was supposed to be the Shah and their angel was Khomeini!

"Do not be content that we will only build you houses, make your water and electricity free, do not be content with just such things, we will provide you with spiritual greatness and dignity" Khomeini promised the zealous crowds after his return from exile.

Today, many Iranians had to queue up in the cold to receive their "commodity baskets".

Commodity baskets were promised by Rouhani as part of his election campaign to offset the decreasing purchasing power of cash for subsidy they started to receive when the subsidies were removed.


Each commodity basket consisted of :
- Four eggs
- 800 g of cheese
- Two bottles of cooking oil
- 10 Kilos of rice
- 4 frozen chickens

""This house became a ruin since that winter,

      When it's breadwinner became a foreign usurper"

Many who had queued for hours were told they were not entitled to receive commodity baskets.

Before 1979, average Iranian income was three times that of South Koreans and more than three times income of the Turkish people. Today, the Islamic Republic of clerics has turned Iranians into beggars and scroungers, despite having had the most oil revenue in the last eight years than the entire cumulative oil income of previous governments ever since oil was discovered in Iran.

Seeing these pictures makes my heart weep with sorrow. Thirty five years of a religious dictatorship by clerics from the dark ages over Iran has resulted in such misery and indignity. A minority of cunning priests who call themselves representatives of God on earth, have brought about so much tragedy for Iran, not just financial, not just in terms of human lives, not just for our freedoms, not just for the environment etc. but they have broken our spirit.

"How did we become so low and desperate?

  How did we dispose of our wit and wisdom?

By God if we had foresight and vision

 We would not have had this terrible fate and destiny"

  

Islamic Republic: Super Efficient in Death & Destruction, Piss Poor in Saving Lives

Gross incompetency in saving lives, super efficient
in dismantling satellite dishes

Back in 2004, after the earthquake in Bam, I was quoted by IPS News Agency, saying "Islamic authorities are only efficient when it comes to putting down protests and in their terror operations. Their efficiency is in death, destruction and suppression, not in saving lives"

Ten years later, the same is still true. Last week tragic scenes of two female workers in a factory jumping to their deaths while the building was engulfed in flames was captured on mobile phone cameras by passers by. The video footage has gone viral and reported widely in the Iranian media.

What has stirred the emotions of people in Iran about this tragedy, apart from the distressing pictures of two helpless women falling to their deaths, was the gross incompetency of the fire brigade in its rescue operation and the callous reactions shown by the Tehran municipality officials afterwards.

The first fire engine which arrived on the scene failed to operate its ladder to reach the women. The women held on desperately, hoping the fire brigade will have a jump cushion they could jump on to, but the firemen couldn't pump up the jump cushion either, or as some reports suggest,  they didn't even have one. Amazingly the firemen then started aiming their water jets at the two women instead of pointing them at the fire. This made the fixtures wet and slippery and impossible to hold on to and the women fell to their deaths.

Massumeh Abad, female member of the Tehran municipality who coincidentally was returning from a meeting with the Supreme Leader and witnessed the rescue operation, told the Iranian reporters "the technical fault which happened with the fire engine's ladder, can happen in any computer operated equipment, which is why sometimes even the giant aeroplanes fail to open their landing wheels". Massumeh Abad, also added that 5 people were finally rescued and "5 out of 7 wasn't so bad"

Other officials also reacted in a similar nonchalant manner and none have resigned or accepted any responsibility. Instead, two of the firemen involved in the rescue were arrested yesterday, one of them is the fireman in charge of operating the ladder.

People in Iran have compared the bungled rescue attempt with the ruthless efficiency the Islamic Republic displays in sending its balaclava wearing forces to abseil people's houses and dismantle their satellite dishes (see picture above). Just like I told the IPS reporter ten years ago, "Islamic authorities are only efficient when it comes to putting down protests and in their terror operations. Their efficiency is in death, destruction and suppression, not in saving lives"

Below is a captured footage of another incident. This time its the fire brigade in Zanjan, attempting to put out the fire. Thankfully, there was no one in the car to be rescued on this occasion: