This is Not Our War

Unpredictable things happen in war. What starts as localised conflicts can quickly spread and engulf whole nations for years. How lucky are those nations whose statesmen have their heads screwed on and act appropriately based on the national interests of their people.

While the Israel-Hamas conflict goes on, it worries me that Iran could be drawn into such military confrontation, not based on any national interest but purely for the adventurism of the Islamic Republic leaders to become the heroes of not the Iranian nation but of the Arab world.

The worrying signs are everywhere:

• Some baseejis have given ultimatums to Jordanian and Egyptian diplomats in Iran to either leave or defend Hamas.
• A similar mob have broken into the British embassy ground in Golhak gardens and occupied the grounds, lowered the Britsh flag and hoisted the Palestinian one.
• 'Martyrdom' forms have been handed out to send volunteers from Iran to defend Hamas.
• Brigadier General Baqerzadeh, Head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defence, asked for military intervention in Gaza.

THIS IS NOT OUR WAR! Iranians have no national interest in getting involved in this conflict.
Hamas is no friend of our nation, if you don't believe me just look at this picture of Palestinian delegation protest outside the UN building in Beirut. Hamas official, Osama Hamdan can be seen in front of the picture while another protester is holding up a picture of Saddam Hussein, the enemy of our nation and the dictator responsible for the death and maiming of hundreds of thousands of our people, in the back.

Ahmadinejad on Channel 4

I am so pissed off, I am so livid at the incompetency and lunacy of this Western media, I want to get hold of one of these snobby condescending fartbag journalists, editors and media bosses and pulp them to the wall. Channel 4 has invited President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not for a debate, not for an interview, but to give an "alternative" Christmas message!

Who will they invite next? Kim-il-Jong? Mugabe? This is rubbing salt on the wounds of all those jailed journalists in Iran, this is an insult to the family of murdered photo-journalist, Zahra Kazemi, this is giving platform to a regime which is persecuting Christian converts in Iran, to a regime which is persecuting religious minorities.

I am tired of all this complacency and deranged madness of the Western media. British people wake up before your media destroys all the privileges you take for granted.

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The Arab Shoe Thrower

What would have happened if the Arab so called journalist who threw his shoe at President Bush, as he claimed 'for all the mothers and orphans of Iraq?', had thrown his shoe at Saddam Hussein? For Saddam certainly made thousands of mothers mourn for their sons and thousands of Iraqis had become orphans as a result of Saddam's massacres.

If Muntazer al-Zaidi was critical of Bush's policies, as he had a legitimate right to, he could have posed them as questions during the press conference in a civilised manner, something he would have never dared under Saddam.

And it shows how twisted the values of some people are when as a result of throwing his shoe, Muntazer al-Zaidi becomes a hero and a poem on an Islamist website praises him as "a hero with a lion's heart".

After Syria, then led by Hafiz Assad, had invaded and occupied Lebanon, I remember a photograph which showed a Lebanese protester holding a placard which impressed me, it read 'Assad fi Lebanon, Far fi Jolan' - 'Lion in Lebanon - Mouse in the Golan Heights'. That's how I would sum up this new Arab hero, Lion in a press conference, mouse under Saddam.

Recession and Revolution

Nial Ferguson, in his brilliant book, the Ascent of Money, makes an analogy as to the similarity in behaviour of a grazing herd with the human psychology in the stock market. The happily content grazing herd suddenly feel something has changed, something alerts them to stop happily grazing and out of the blue a rush for the farmyard gate by a few becomes a stampede by all the herd. In the stock market, this sudden mood swing triggers a massive sell by the investors and share prices go into free fall. What sets off this sudden mood swing is a complex combination of many variables, some at random and totally unpredictable, not something that I have any expertise in but I can not help but sense the similarities with human psychology during a revolution.

I remember when I was at school in Iran, one of the pupils in my class had grassed another kid for drawing a beard and specs on the Shah's picture which was at the beginning of all our text books. I remember how the teacher was trembling with fear not knowing how to react. That same teacher, a couple of years later, became a major organiser during the revolution and had no fear of sharing her radical views with the class.

The class prefect, whom I remember vividly reading his stomach churning over flattering essay in front of the whole class about the Shah's love for the nation and vice versa became another revolutionary fanatic. When I bumped into him after the revolution and cheekily reminded him about his obsequious essay, first he denied it and when I persisted he admitted that at that time he had not been 'enlightened' by the teachings of Imam Khomeini.

Similarly other kids in the class who had no knowledge nor interest in politics, had overnight removed pictures of their famous football player and pop celebrity heroes on the cover of their text books and ring binders and replaced them with pictures of radical Shiite clerics or Marxist guerrilla fighters.

How does what seems to be a politically apathetic individual, suddenly become so politicised and risks taking part in a movement for change? In my view its confidence. It is the gradual gain in confidence by the masses that suddenly and unpredictably tips the balance.

Until an authoritarian regime is conceived strong and in control, a brave minority may engage in the struggle, but the mainstream masses shrewdly just look on at the impossible odds and decide to get on with their lives without getting involved until something alerts them that the odds have changed, that the regime is no longer as strong as it makes out. Something perceived as important to the psychology of that nation alerts them that an implosion is on the way, fear gives way to confidence, the brave minority exponentially grows in numbers and soon the whole masses get on the band wagon. A behaviour which is similar in its suddenness and unpredictably to a stock market crash because it involves people and numerous complex variables.

Even the absurd wrong predictions shortly before the events are similar. Four months before the Hungarian uprising, the CIA which relied on its information from embassy cocktail parties, concluded "There really is no underground movement in Hungary at all". Few months before the 1979 revolution in Iran, Jimmy Carter described Iran as an island of stability in the middle of a turbulent region. Four months before the collapse of the dot-com bubble, readers of Business Week were told that the stock prices will continue to advance towards higher targets over the next three to five years. Eight days before the Black Thursday which was the onset for the Great Depression, Yale university economics professor Irving Fisher declared the US stock prices will remain on a permanently high plateau.

So in case of Iran, right now what is important for this mass psychology that could tip the balance? What tells the masses that its time to get involved or remain a passive bystander? Well as explained earlier there are many complex variables, one very important one however for the Iranian psychology is 'does the world want to accommodate the regime or will they fully back a mass movement for change?' Right or wrong this is a very important factor for the Iranian man on the street's psychology and his accumulated historical experiences.

For that reason I am against all these suggestions of 'Incentives and engagement and dialogue with the Islamic Republic' currently proposed by many US think tanks and academics to the US President-Elect Obama.
What exactly is the goal of engagement? what levers do they have in negotiations with the Islamic Republic? what makes them think the Ayatollahs in Iran want to join the mainstream countries and change their behaviour? Who will they negotiate with? but apart from all this, any incentive, engagement or talk of accommodating the Iranian regime will send the wrong signal to the Iranian people that for now the regime is here to stay and the ordinary man will think he is better off remaining a passive bystander.

Another important factor for the ordinary man on the street is what is the alternative? You often hear people ask, 'OK this lot go but who will come instead of them?' Its a perfectly valid question for without an alternative there will be no focal point for change. Here I think the alternative will have to come from inside Iran, those outside Iran can only help and support for this alternative to come about. But until the regime remains efficient in its repression it is hard for an alternative to form inside Iran. For that reason the regime must be weakened before an alternative has even taken shape so that an alternative can take shape.

Satellite TV Activities are Good for the Regime - Revolutionary Guards Publication

Sobhe Sadegh, which is the official weekly publication of the Islamic Republic's revolutionary guards, printed an article in this week's publication which quoted the reasons given by the Political Bureau of the RG as to why Persian speaking broadcasting media outside Iran has been beneficial for the regime.

The reasons for their conclusion is as follows:

1) A large part of the allocated budgets for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic has been swallowed up by these media without being able to create a strong movement in Iran in support of US and the West's interests.

2) These media have increased the public's trust in the regime

The article then expands on the above by saying, 'Shallow and superficial programs with mild criticisms which really go no further than reader's comments in our internal publications here in Iran, have convinced the people that there is no viable alternative other than the Islamic Republic in Iran...'

And continues:
'The net result for the Islamic Republic from these media has been in our favour'

Iran's National Student Day

With all the repressive measures recently taken, I was convinced that the student movement in Iran would not be able to commemorate the National Student Day this year, but I was wrong. One day later than the anniversary date, the Iranian students showed that Iran's student movement is still alive:

On Youtube
AFP: Iran students protest amid heavy security
Radio Free: 'Pseudo-Students' And Shenanigans
CBS: Students Rally For Democracy In Iran

IHT: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/07/news/ML-Iran-University-Protest.php

But has anyone seen a coverage from Ayatollah BBC?

Confessions of a Ba'athist Henchman

I always wonder why some people in the West were so keen on finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? All the dead as a result of Saddam's wars, the mass graves, the victims of Halebja and much more, were they not mass destruction? wasn't all that enough for them? Did the masses who were destroyed have to be European or something?
Are not millions of Saddam's victims enough for these people?

Recent confessions by the senior Republican Guard interrogator and Ba'athist henchman, Major Abdulrashid Baten, just demonstrates what an evil regime was overthrown.

'An Iranian POW had lost one of his legs as a result of a land mine explosion, I started interrogating him but he kept resisting, so I started cutting his fingers one by one, after cutting each finger I would burn the severed area with my lighter for two minutes until I cut all his fingers, but he still resisted giving any information. He was very young and his resistance made me even more angry, I even sawed off his leg but he still never gave any information' Major Baten recants.

Abdulrashid confirmed that Saddam personally took part in the execution of at least 450 Iranian POWs and altogether six thousand Iranian POWs were murdered in cold blood.

Do I care if they found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Not really. Am I glad Saddam was overthrown? Absolutely.

The Darling of Iranian Left, Nasser Zarafshan

'As a journalist you seem to have a positive inclination towards Capitalism, are you aware that the 'importers of democracy and human rights' in Iraq have also organised a squadron of deviant American homosexuals whose mission is to rape Iraqi children between 10 and 16 years of age?'

Original text in Persian:
آیا شما به عنوان یک روزنامه نگار که پیدا است نظر مساعدی هم نسبت به نظام سرمایه داری دارید، خبر دارید که این واردکنندگان دموکراسی و حقوق بشر به عراق، اسکادرانی از هموسکسوئل های منحرف امریکایی سازماندهی کرده و آن را با ماموریت تجاوز به کودکان ۱۰ تا ۱۶ ساله عراقی به عراق فرستاده اند؟
Source Link:
http://asre-nou.net/php/view.php?objnr=1222

If you thought the person who made the above statement in an interview is one of Iran's eccentric reactionary mullahs or Ahmadinejad has been making a speech at Columbia university again, then you are mistaken. The statement above is made by Dr. Nasser Zarafshan, the darling of the few Iranian Left that are left! The statement was made in reply to the question 'Since you attribute so many actions by Neocons to Capitalism itself, can it also be said that much of Stalin's actions are attributed to Marxism?'

But Zarafshan has not just been the darling of the Iranian Left, his Leftist Iranian supporters have also managed to convince so many of the Western Leftists, like Laura Rozens and Motherjones type publications, that any Iranian dissident who Zarafshan scolds must be scolded by them too for the sake of the international struggle of the Proletariat!
In this article http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/11/fakhravar.html Laura Rozen refers to Zarafshan as 'one of Iran’s most prominent human rights attorneys' :))
'

Why is Jim Muir Back in Tehran?

I thought we had seen the back of the BBC correspondent, Jim Muir reporting from Tehran. Muir's shabby superficial reports and his constant bolstering of Khatami as a reform champion while ignoring the rest of the Iranian pro-democracy movement and the human rights abuses committed under Khatami was a disaster for the real Iranian pro-democracy and human rights campaigners as well as for the BBC's credibility.

Ayatollah BBC, the term used by Iranians to describe the British Broadcasting Corporation, was further enforced as a result of Muir's constant mild reports and over inflated adulation of Khatami.

Since Jim Muir's departure from Tehran, many were hopeful that there will be more realistic reporting and to some extent there was. Yet only the other day I came across this report on the BBC website: Women Taxi Drivers in Tehran, and as always with such reports, yes you guessed it, the inevitable comparison of Iranian women with Saudi women who are not allowed to drive and giving the Islamic Republic the credit for such acts of women emancipation. As always these silly comparisons are not like for like comparisons of course. Women in Saudi Arabia have never been allowed to drive, yet the women in Iran had many more rights and were far ahead of their counterparts in the region before the 1979 revolution, it is just that at the time such comparisons were never reported and appreciated by the likes of Jim Muir.

At a time when there is almost an undeclared martial law in Tehran, at a time when many student activists have been arrested or forced to go into hiding ahead of the regime's crack down in anticipation of the National Student Day on 7th December, at a time when there has been an unprecedented number of executions in just a few days, when the dissident secular Ayatollah Boroujerdi has been transferred to Yazd prison, when Ayatollah Montazeri's war veteran assistant, Mojtaba Lotfi has been sentenced to four years in prison, when the regime once again stopped the public commemoration of the Forouhars and so much more relevant news, Jim Muir writes about female taxis in Tehran, how pathetic!

Another Embarassing Iranian Millionaire, Farhad Hakimzadeh

I was so embarassed to read in the UK papers today about the Iranian millionaire and the chairman of the Iran Heritage Foundation, Farhad Hakimzadeh, who with the help of a scalpel has managed to cut out numerous pages from 150 books in the British Library. Books that have been part of the British people's collection and heritage for centuries. Damn these uncultured Iranian wealthy illiterate apes who are a constant source of embarrassment to our community. How low can they get?

What Hakimzadeh has done, embodies the worst of the bazaari mentality and the attitude of the very wealthy Iranian ex-pats. Their greed and desire for self interest only, their lack of interest in benefiting the wider community, their disregard for opportunities to share cultural treasures with others. No wonder these Iranian millionaire ex-pats never fund any political activity and no wonder they are always so keen on mingling with their Islamic Republic connections, for they are only ever interested in one thing, self interest and promoting themselves.

I read this article by Peyvand Khorsandi on Farhad Hakimzadeh, a while ago. Only now I understand how well Peyvand described Hakimzadeh and the Iran Heritage Foundation:
a self-appointed arbiter of Iranian culture with little distinction outside the circles of rich illiterates among whom he shines, a Tarzan among apes.

Very well put Peyvand.

Tenth Anniversary of Forouhars

Ten years ago, Iran's secular dissidents, husband and wife, Daryoush and Parvaneh Forouhar were murdered in their home by Islamic Republic intelligence ministry agents. Their daughter Parastoo has returned to Iran every year on the anniversary of their murder to hold commemoration ceremonies for her slained parents.

In the last few years the regime has banned all public commemoration ceremonies and has even tried to restrict the private family gatherings in their house.

Despite all the obstacles and restrictions, this year too, Parastoo has returned to Iran and as she told Deutsche Welle radio, she will continue to commemorate her parents until she is alive. The commemoration ceremony is due to be held this Friday in the Forouhars' home were they were repeatedly stabbed to death.

Baby P

Of course this blog is first and foremost to write about Iran related news and events but sometimes I really want to say something on some non-Iran related issue and I think what the heck, I have a platform, I might as well get it off my chest.

The horrific and cruel treatment of Baby P has outraged everyone in UK. What that poor kid must have suffered, I can not even think about. Once again my anger is focused on the so-called Child Support Agency. So many good fathers in UK are denied access to their children and if they are a soft target for the CSA they are driven to the point of despair and some sadly even suicide, because the CSA is just a debt collection agency, with no regards for the welfare of the child. It automatically assumes the child should be with the mother, it cares not how the money paid to the mother is spent and worse of all it cares not how the child is at all. It does not even recognise that the welfare of the child means plenty of contact with the father. It is a disgrace of an organisation, set up by out of touch politicians and the kind of ministers we see in the Labour government with no real life experience or job other than having been a university or college lecturer before becoming a minister and their warped PC values.

As If We Will Hand in the Presidency on a Plate

Cleric Mohammad Ali Abtahi points out an interesting point on his blog made by Ayatollah Jannati during last week's Friday Sermon. Abtahi quotes Ayatollah Jannati when he lashed at the newspapers who have been criticising President Ahmadinejad's government saying 'They think we are going to hand them the presidency on a plate'. Abtahi then humours the sermon speech saying, so it sounds like the Presidency is an appointed position. Sounds like it is!

Will Obama Stand up for Esha Momeni?

It was reported that Esha Momeni, Northridge graduate student who was arrested in Iran last month was released on $200,000 bail on Monday. Her ordeal is not over yet however, she faces charges on "acting against national security" and "propaganda against the system" and she is banned form leaving Iran. Her father, Reza Momeni is a devoted Muslim, Esha is named after the evening Muslim prayers, and he took an active part in the 1979 Islamic revolution, but like so many of his generation, the revolution they helped bring about is now jailing their own children.

Esha's father has already had to appear on State TV to condemn her daughter's "illegal" activities as part of the deal to release her on bail.

Esha has dual Iranian and US citizenship. It will be interesting to see if Obama will stand up for this US citizen who has done nothing wrong but interviewed some of the feminist activists in Iran and help them collect some signatures. Hardly "acting against national security"!

The Killers Suffered the Most

I was watching a documentary about the extent of co-operation between Hitler and Stalin during the Nazi-Soviet pact. Part of the documentary covered the mass murder of the Polish officers. More than 6000 Polish officers were murdered during this time at a rate of 250 a day.

What I particularly noted however was an interview with an NKVD Soviet officer, who was involved in the killings. He mentioned how those who took part in the massacre ended up suffering the most. Many of them went mad later in life suffering all sorts of mental and physical ailments and many ended up committing suicide.

This is a lesson for those who take part in torture and murder of others. It may be some sadistic fun at the time, but it will soon come to haunt them.

Ayatollah Khorasani: Sunnis are Kaffir!

One day after the interfaith dialogue between the Catholics and Muslims and Hussein Nasr doing his usual charm waffle to fool the non-Iranian delegations, Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, according to Sunni News website publicly quoted some dubious Hadith and concluded that the Sunnis are Kuffar!!

Hussein Nasr, get out of this one :))

Vatican's Interfaith Dialogue

The first session of Catholic-Muslim Forum ended in Vatican today. I tried to search and find out who the Sunni and Shi'ite religious leaders from the Muslim side who attended the forum were but I couldn't find any names. If there were any Islamic Republic affiliated Shiite clerics there, it would have been most hypocritical. Apparently a joint declaration has been signed at the end of the three days calling for religious minorities to be "entitled to their own places of worship, and they should not be subjected to any form of mockery or ridicule,"

I wonder how long it will take, if ever, for the Islamic Republic to respect dissident Shi'ite clerics who are calling for separation of religion and state, like Ayatollah Boroujerdi,let alone to respect followers of other religions. How can a Shiite state who imprisons and tortures a Shiite cleric ever respect other faiths and their followers?

Talking of Ayatollah Boroujerdi, I understand he has written many letters to the Pope and other prominent men of cloth, but when will these people ever respond to the plight of a man and his followers who have done nothing wrong other than wish for religion to be a private matter away from political manipulation and schemes??

Democracy Wins in US

As I have said before neither Obama nor McCain have impressed me with their knowledge of Iran or with their policies on how to handle the Islamic Republic.

What a joy it is however to live in a democracy, where you can change your leader with your vote, without fearing any consequences. A privilege worth fighting for.
The fact that a dark skinned man with a Muslim name and a broken home can become a US president proves democracy provides opportunities for all.

Kordan's Boasts of His Time at Oxford University

The Kordan saga refuses to go away, despite Ahmadinejad's interior minister's admittance that his PHD from Oxford was a fake and fraud, he managed to win the Majlis (Islamic Parliament) vote of confidence. It has now been revealed that 135 MPs were bribed to vote for Kordan to remain in Ahmadinejad's cabinet.

President Ahmadinejad once again supported his interior minister, saying 'So what if his PHD was a fake, he has served this regime for 30 years'.

Kordan's fake PHD has become the subject of the most popular jokes in Iran today. Kordan's former students have also lodged a complaint citing how on numerous occasions, Kordan boasted about his studies at Oxford, often saying 'You haven't been a student until you have been at Oxford' :))

Good luck to Obama or anyone else if they wish to negotiate with these lot.

Iranian Cleric: People Loath the Clerics

It is always better from the horse' s mouth:
'In the beginning of the revolution, the clergy had a lot of respect amongst the people, but some of the clergy haven't conducted themselves well and have abused their position and therefore are no longer looked up to by the people, I am worried that the Baseej [IR Militia] may end up the same.' ISNA reported Hojjat-ol-Islam Mahmood Doaii saying this during a seminar of Baseej and the Media held in Mashad.

Doaii added, 'Sadly I have to admit this, although there are some clergy who are pious and shy away from wealth and power, but the enemy's plots have resulted in the population loathing the clergy. Now the enemy is trying to do the same with Baseej'.