Sunday, June 19, 2011

The General Madhi Fiasco

Jahanchahi showing off with his Russian bodyguard at a
Press Conference in London
For the self-centred ego-maniac Iranian billionaire Amir Jahanchahi, the defected revolutionary guard, General Madhi was his biggest star prize. For Jahanchahi, General Madhi was the living proof that he was buying the regime officials and causing them to defect. Yet General Madhi recently appeared on a state TV program, the Diamond Deception and claimed he had been a regime operative on a mission to infiltrate the Iranian opposition in exile. The egg on Jahanchahi's face that made him look even more foolish was laughable but the seriousness of the farce was the ammunition it has unjustly provided against the incarcerated leaders of the Green Movement, Moussavi and Karroubi.

So what was it all about? Some of the information I have below is solid and where there are question marks, I will point them out. It seems Madhi was a senior revolutionary guards figure who was injured in the Iran-Iraq war as a result of exposure to Saddam's chemical warfare on Iran, as a result of which Madhi was in need of costly treatment. A rift develops between Madhi and his superiors, although we don't know exactly why, it may have been financial or it may have been a gripe over the lack of adequate treatment he was receiving or another reason. In any case Madhi manages to leave Iran for Bangkok with some money, but the cost of his treatment continues to mount. With the start of the protests across Iran, Madhi decides to back the protests against the regime and switch sides. Like most Iranians inside Iran, he considers the Iranian opposition, the usual familiar faces that are constantly paraded on BBC Persian and VOA and thus he contacts Jahanchahi, whose two man outfit, the so-called Green Wave Campaign, is more than jubilant to hold press conferences and arrange interviews with him and announce their alliance with Madhi's claims of heading a group of dissident revolutionary guards, "Association of Fellows". In return Madhi may have expected his medical costs to have been paid, or at least his immigration issues to be sorted, yet as we know Jahanchahi is all mouth and no trousers. The Iranian diplomats who defected had also denounced Jahanchahi's lies in this statement.

As I have seen on so many previous occasions, Madhi must have been disappointed with what he learned about the familiar faces of the Iranian opposition in exile and simply had enough. Whether he did a deal with the regime to go back or he was put under pressure, we don't know, but once again the familiar faces of the Iranian opposition in exile have inflicted a huge damage on Iran's pro-democracy movement. It is not the first time we see an Iranian expat millionaire whose narcissism prompts him to also have a dabble in politics and gloat in the resultant media publicity. Expat millionaires who think because they have made money they can also "save" Iran and be the next leader. Credulous egomaniacs who do not realise the importance of tedious grass root work but think they will become the next leader of Iran simply by holding press conferences and achieving media publicity with their outrageous  aggrandizements or as we say in Persian "Gondeh Goozi" - whopper farts!

Far from starting a mass defection from the body of the Iranian regime, Jahanchahi's two man team, if anything, have put off any other Iranian officials who may have contemplated defecting and the regime's propaganda machines have been hard at work trying to parade zeros like Jahanchahi & co. as the Iranian opposition.

4 comments:

Waybec said...

Hi Potkin. (NOT FOR PUBLICATION) I'm surprised you haven't wrote a blog concerning the current battle to have Press Tv removed from British screens. A good argument against Press tv being that it only ever publishes comments in it's favour on it's website! Again I'm all for freedom of the Press. Objectivity and everyone getting a voice. I hate any sort of Witch hunt or vendetta! However I also can't stand any Police State theocratic tyranny channel that is completely one sided to paint it's own cheating, murderous and corrupt government in a favourable propaganda light! And on that, I think we most definitely agree!

Azarmehr said...

Hi Waybec

In answer to your question:
I have written a post about it but I have been pursuing the matter by other means.

Winston said...

you were right about him :-)

Anonymous said...

your very wrong about the 'russian' and if you got this simple fact wrong what else have you got wrong? you really need to get hrd fact beofre spouting off otherwise it just turns to sour grapes.